I'm lookin to do some ATV camping this year. After putting together a list of the bare essentials, it was painfully obvious to me that I'd need a better way to carry it all.
First on my list was to purchase some of those flat pack gas cans. After the initial sticker shock of $80-90 each sunk in, I was able to find a good deal on eBay for a set of 4 new ones. Got 'em all for $300 shipped.
Next on my list of things to buy was a pair of those extension racks. I did a TON of research on these. There was always something that I didn't care for about them. I was almost sold on one that I saw on eBay, but they wanted $320+80 shipping for the pair. Ridiculous.
So I sent a few pix of what I was lookin for to a buddy of mine who is an awesome fabricator. Metal/aluminum/stainless steel - he does it all. He has built trailers, gold dredges, ATM surrounds, and countless other things "as needed." He looked at some of the pix I sent and said that it shouldn't be too hard to build something up. Music to my ears! I headed up to his place w/ the ATV in back of my truck the next day. We grabbed some square stock and started cuttin', bendin' and weldin'.
The first box we built was perfect for what I needed. Simple and functional. As we were test fitting it on back of my bike, I had my flat packs sitting in it - and we both had a revelation at the same time - let's mount the packs under the rack! Unfortunately the first rack was too small by about 1" - so we had to build a new one
Anyhow, after we were done, I have a front rack and a very custom rear rack for my bike, and my buddy has a rear rack for his bike.
Now onto the pix:
This is a pic of the first rack we built. It was just what I wanted, but.....
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...we stumbled onto this idea! Let's build a mount to hold a couple of flat packs underneath!
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This is a pic of the new rack under construction. Each 90° bend is bent by hand, then welded.
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Fast forward to a pic of the completed rack, yet to be painted.
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If you look closely, you can see what looks like a rusty square piece of iron. This is the door that holds the gas packs in place when riding.
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Finally squirted some Rustoleum on it. Looks better already
Notice all of the tiedown spots on there!
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Here's a shot of my scooter w/ both the front and rear racks mounted.
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Rear rack w/ the flat packs safely tucked away. These things do NOT move once they're loaded up. No movement = no wear!
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More of the rear rack.
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Here's the front rack - nothin but a simple basket. I used different tie-downs on the front.
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What I'll see when riding.
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Here's another shot of the rear rack.
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Notice that even with the drop on the rack, there is plenty of clearance for the exhaust.
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So these are the prototype units. After doing some riding/camping this spring, I'll know what I like and what I don't like.
Oh, I forgot to mention that there are no bolts holding these on. There are 2 pieces of "C" channel that slid it onto the rack, and 2 clip-pins that hold it in place. No rattles (other than the moveable tiedowns). I sat on the very back of it, and can't bottom out the bike unless I bounce on it. Not bad for a lowly Prairie 360! The next one we build will be made from aluminum with stainless expanded metal (that mesh stuff) - should decrease the weight by more than half!
Total build time on this project was about 24-30 man hours. But you really learn shortcuts by just doing it. The first rack took us a full day - but we were able to build both of the other racks in less than a day!
You must be doing some far camping if you need that much gas with that size engine. I can go all day revving high with my 800 on 1 tank of gas... so I'd need ~4gallons per-day of the trip so do you get bad gas mileage or plan on doing some expedition style camping ?
Make it out of AL., i'd do the expanded metal AL too (do thy make that in AL?)
