Dry box luggage setup

Thought I'd post up my recent solution to my luggage dilemma. I used plastic dry boxes, similar to ammo cans, from Northern Tool.

I had to replace the chintzy foam gaskets with some rubber ones I cut out myself, but the price is right, and it probably saves the weight of a small child over using steel military boxes. My rear springs are gonna be stressed enough with all the crap I'm carrying.














Mounting points are the upper shock stud, the passenger peg mounting hold and the grab handle rear mounting bracket. Rubber washers will be sandwiched on each side of the box to keep it waterproof and dampen vibration, and generous use of lockwashers and loctite will take care of holding it all together. It feels plenty solid. I wouldn't load the boxes with rocks, but for some camping gear and whatnot it'll be peachy. I'm glad I didn't need to relocate my blinkers.

These will be used starting week and a half from now on a ~2,600 mile trip to Nova Scotia and back. My wife will be riding her 1970 CB350 which is actually in much better shape and probably more dependable than my bike. I'm a bit apprehensive, but we've put a lot of work into prepping the bikes and it should be a blast.

 

Looks nice. I have one small suggestion. Get a roll of aluminum tape (you'll find it near the HVAC ducting at any decent hardware store), and use it to make a heat shield for the underside of the boxes. Polystyrene likes to melt.

 

you can reinforce the holes by melting them thru rather than drilling them.
it leaves a little ring of plastic around the hole so it's harder for a crack to start.
get the shank of a cheap drill bit real hot with a torch and push it thru, then pull it back fast, should leave a nice thick lip around the hole. use vice grips to hold the drill and be careful

 

K-Moe, I really like the heat tape idea. I tried to leave a decent gap above the exhaust, but sitting still it may get a little toasty under there.

Polock, I wish I'd thought to make the holes that way, but it's too late. I'm counting on the rubber washers to take up some of the stress and prevent cracking. Thanks for the tip though.

 

Having done something similar on a mountain bike for commuting, here's my advice. Put the bolts into a piece of plywood (same size as one side of the drybox) with T-nuts in it, then slap the side of the dry box up against the plywood (lip rests on the top) and run pan head screws from the inside of the box, through a washer, through the wall of the box, and into the wood. You'll need a right angle head drill-driver to make and easy job of this.

Maybe your plastic is more sturdy than the light pistol cases I used, maybe your holes are bigger than the ones I used, but mine didn't hold up for shit until I did that.

 

You will want to add some kind of support under the bottom of those boxes. Any weight added inside will stress those mounting points easily. A length of flat stock down, and under from the top mounitng points should work well.

The supports could also be used to hold a heat shield as suggested.

Ghost

 

I think I'll work on adding support to the bottom as MiGhost suggested. The plywood idea is also "solid", but actually cradling the bottom is something I was already considering. I'd hate to have them start coming apart on the road.

As for the heat shield, I've gone some rides with this setup in the past few days and have frequently checked the heat under the boxes both while out and after parking the bike. They barely get lukewarm so I'm dismissing that worry for the time being.

 

Looks good I like it!!!

I had a similar idea.
I finally loaded pictures.