| Author | Message | ||
     Nillaice |
i scored some aluminum angle iron from a friend, and have had it on the shelf for ever. i've found a surplus store that sells large ammo boxes and have drawn up a way to mount the boxes to the racks ...so i'm gonna give it a 'go' and try to not make it look like poop. i've found a copy of the OEM rack mounting instructions and plan to use as many mounting points as possible to spread out the load. does any body have any advice/tips/pointers/experince with the luggage racks? any weaknesses/stregnths in the OEM racks that i should change/copy? | ||
| Garrcano |
A friend lent me a pair of OEM racks a few years ago. I maid a complete wooden template for soldering the stainless steel square tubing so the fixing point were exactly as their were supposed to be. If you aren't accurate the chassis has to work with the forces or bend, especially the foot pegs. | ||
| Sharkguy |
The only thing about ammo boxes is they are heavy. That is, if you are using the steel ones. I made some panniers for my klr out of pilot night vision boxes but they are a bit small. I would suggest cruising ebay or ADV web sites for aluminum boxes that are already made up, then you could just mount them yourself on your homemade racks. I fabbed some mounts from trex plastic lumber for mine, and they have worked great.I know some of the klr guys have used mermite cans as well. These are large military aluminum food storage containers. You can usually find them at military surplus places.Anyway good luck with your project. | ||
| Teeps |
Best advice I ever got was from my former boss: "never build, what you can buy." Unless you just want a project... | ||
| Nillaice |
i don't want to spend the thousand + $ on oem/hepco-becker/happy trails luggage. AND YEAH, I KINDA LIKE TO TINKER my buddy gave me the aluminum angle iron for free, and i haven't used it for anything in a year. i know the steel ammo cans will be heavy, but so will the stuff i put in them. i can get ammo cans relatively cheap, and they are strong enough to survive a tip-over and are easily lockable | ||
| Preybird1 |
I used some surplus military hard cases for night vision goggles. They were a hardened plastic and very light compared to the metal ammo cases. They were easy to rig up also and they are air tight and have decompression buttons for flight. So if you go down in a stream then no water gets in. You could go to Klrworld.com and look at the ones the members there have built on there bikes. That is where i got the idea and drawings to rig mine up. | ||
| Sharkguy |
Kind of like these?   | ||
| Nillaice |
almost done with them. i'll post pics, and i can provide measurements and a materials list if someone wants to spend the time and $ | ||
| Nillaice |
   still a little fit and finish left to do before actually mounting the ammo boxes | ||
| Tdiddy |
Don't ride with that on your bike! When your rear suspension bottoms out, your tire WILL contact the foward cross brace and you'll damage your belt or fall. (Message edited by Tdiddy on February 22, 2012) | ||
| Rwcfrank |
Tdiddy is right, my tire looks like it actually touches the black inner fender on occasion. | ||
| Djohnk |
+1 on what Tdiddy and Rwcfrank said. I have bottomed out my suspension many times going over dips full loaded.... it will hit the tire, and be bad news. | ||
| Nillaice |
i turned the pre-load all the way down and tried to bottom out the suspension with a ratchet strap from the axle to the triple tail. i didn't notice any interference, and i've allready ridden about 200 miles .... i'll have to check that again | ||
| Nillaice |
i checked for interference again. again all the preload removed, and i kept ratcheting until the ratchet teeth 'POPPED' i was afraid of breaking the damnned thing, so i stopped while i still had my fingers and face attatched    it is still to be 'field tested'; 2-up, fully loaded, and then jump a set of railroad tracks and see how we do!  | ||
| Nillaice |
here's some finished pics. they should hold up just fine.  i felt obligated to post a pic of it next to a cammo truck. it just seemed fitting   i still have yet to put a more secure system to lock the boxes to the racks. ... maybe they won't look past the master lock padlocks. putting up a big front sometimes does the trick and people simply look elsewhere | ||
| Xdigitalx |
Throw a couple pillows in there and your kids will be fine!! Weeeee... wee, wee, weeeeeee! | ||
| Nillaice |
what color should i paint these? the OD green is wearing thin, and i don't want these cans to rust thru. anybody know of an orange spray paint that matches the barricade orange? | ||
| Pkman |
Testors model paint in Ford "Hugger Orange" is close | ||
| Djohnk |
Those are nice, I like how they are top-loading as opposed to the stock clam shells. You can also use them as chairs when camping or what not. I think that would be too much yellow, go for black. Two more suggestions: 1)Put some bars or hooks on the covers for strapping down bed rolls, tents, gas cans, etc. 2)Add some reflector tape on the back. |
