I have two .50 cal ammo boxes (11” long, 7.5” high and 5.5” wide) and am thinking about constructing saddle bags from them that are easily and quickly removed.

It seems I could use aluminum stock and make 2 L shaped brackets for each side, use rubber mounts and bolt them to the side rails. I have a 2007 with 13.5” shocks. Would have to relocate tail-lights.  

Anyone done anything like this before?

i have a .30 cal, i thought the .50 was a little too big, and i was goin to put both but then i didn't like the "mini roadking" look it had LOL!

i just drilled holes through the box and fender, couple of o rings for water sealing, i could just unscrew it if i want to take it off(i had a can of dew explode in it SO being watertight it didn't go anywhere lol, took it off to clean out)

looking back, i didn't even measure where the holes were going, i kinda just eyeballed them on the box, then the fender lol lucky it worked!



this is an old pic btw, almost everything is flat black now, including the handlebars as of yesterday lol

Thanks Rocco. I hadn't thought about mounting directly without a bracket, but that makes sense. Keeps the profile more narrow and much simplier.

my thought about aluminum was it would absorb road vibration better than steel. However, aluminum also reaches fatigue quicker than steel and the S40 is not exactly a smooth enough ride to split dimonds on. I might just look at Rocco's method and not use a bracket.

Weight is not an issue.