Hey any help/suggestions would be helpful.

Wife got me the HD brand touring pack organizer this past weekend. SURPRISE! We saw one at a ride a few weeks back in a riders bike and she must have eye-balled it. Should really help keep the sunglasses and extra gloves and "stuff" from just laying in the touring pack.

Anyway, the tape on the back I don't want to use. I've got the HD rack on the lid of the touring pack so I can use those 4 bolts as mounting.

Did you guys do this easily and did you add anything to the organizer to keep the bolts from pulling thru? Any pics or thoughts would be helpful. I've not even removed it from the plastic wrap yet but I'd like to get it installed tonight if nothing else is needed/recommended.

THANKS!

 

The double sided tape that comes with the organizer will let go sooner or later. Everyone I know that has mounted it with the tape has had to do something else eventually, including me.

When I marked my holes for drilling, I removed the luggage rack and had my wife hold the organizer in place while I marked the hole locations with a pencil. Then verified that I could actually tighten bolts if I drilled at the marks. When I was satisfied with the marked locations, I drilled them out for the bolts. You will need to get slightly longer bolts for the luggage rack if you use it to mount your organizer. Others have used industrial grade Velcro with good success. I had mine all drilled for the luggage rack bolts and found that I had some of the industrial Velcro on hand before I got the chance to get longer bolts. I decided to give the Velcro a try and its been working fine so far.

 

Pull the rack off, use a small drill bit thru the holes from the rack. I used 2 small chunks of the two faced tape to hold it in place temporarily while I worked on the holes. I also used a small chunk of 1/2 plywood inside the organizer so you don't drill thru the thick plastic material and into the bags. I used the same bolts and just put a larger washer, or fender washer on them. Almost forgot after ya get the small holes drilled and are sure they are in a good location (flashlight on one side makes easy to figure if they are lined up correctly too) then pull the bag out and make the holes a few sizes bigger. With the lid on one side and the fender washers on the other side, the hole can't be too big and the larger hole is MUCH easier to find. A little silicone, a LITTLE, will give you good water tight holes too. Good luck and post up what ya did when you are done so others can learn from what you did. Hope this helps.
Kris

 

+1 for using the holes from the luggage rack...I've done it on my 2005 Ultra & currently usede the same method on my 2010 SG

 

Yep, forget that useless adhesive backed Velcro that comes with that pathetic kit.

Use the tour pak bolts, put big washers behind the heads. Problem solved.

 

Thanks for the great tips. Install went very well. I used the 4 rack mount screw locations. But I did have to use longer screws. And I did remove the tour pack lid by removing the hinge pins. It made it little easier to lay out the work and keep from pressing the lid against the stopper cord and hinges. For some reason no matter how long I fussed; messed; pressed the 4 OEM screws would not work. Mine didn’t allow me to get them all started in and I was worried about striping out the lead threads on the rack. Guess it was the HUMP and rise in the upper deck lid that kept the organizer from sitting flat as it seemed to keep pulling the holes abit away if I had 2 in place. I did oversize the holes in the organizer too but it was not enough to give me enough movement to allow me to get more than 2 screw installed. My rack was already installed so maybe the former owner didn’t have the right length screws as it was. I was pressing as hard as I could to get the screw to protrude past the painted side of the lid and I could just barely get any threads to show IF I had at least 2 screws in place. The organizer would flex and go flat but still not enough. So I just hit the old parts bin at home and found 4 screws that were about ¼” longer than the ones holding my rack in place. These are approx. 1” long less the head dimension. This let me use the lock washer, and a beauty washer and the rubber/plastic washer as well and gave me enough threads past the painted surface to get all 4 started and they tightened up fine. The lower 2 were a beast since they are hidden more than the top 2 under the mesh compartment.

The tips worked great so thanks! Putting a small piece of wood in the organizer to drill helped as did the dab of silicone on the bolts. I used the stock tape at the top and the bottom to hold the organizer in place while I drilled slowly from the paint surface of the tour pack lid thru the organizer.

AND the wife immediately filled the compartments up. LOL And now our tour pack base is just about empty except for jackets and the occasional snacks.

It does look super nice and it is super solid! THANKS for all the help!

 

The HD adhesive is crap and will come off over time.

I have tried industrial velcro and that worked a little better, but the adhesive still came off.

So the third time I did the following:
- drilled 4 holes through the organizer to line up with the touring mount bolt locations. I used a washer between the touring pack lid and another on the bolt head.

- I also used some automotive weather stripping adhesive (recommended by an auto guy). I tried looking for the tube and can't find it. I think it was by 3M. This stuff really works, but it is pretty permanent.

between these two things, the organizer has stayed secure.

I also used this adhesive on the saddlebag organizers as well. Works very well.

 

Glad it went well for ya, I NEVER even thought of taking the lid off, that's a great idea.. I put a little thought into my bolts and I bought my bike a year old and it already had the rack on it, so maybe previous owner did the same as you and put the 1 inchers in there. And the best part is our wives are happy with it. Happy wife, happy life!!
Kris

 

AMEN BROTHER!

Thanks again...