C
ChiTown
Guest
I've been wanting a Pelican tank box to add to my bike, and I finally put together all the components.
I had some special requirements for the box, and here's what I came up with.
Since I already had a SW-Motech tank bag, with a tank-ring and quick release mount, I had that covered. I finally decided on a Pelican 1200, not too big, not too small. Lockable, removable, waterproof and indestructible.
I took the mount off of the SW-Motech bag, lined it up, drilled 4 holes and was good to go. That's the easy part.
Notice the wires coming out? Well that's where things started to get a little more complex. I wanted the box to have a multi-pin, waterproof connector wired into it so I could remove it very easily, either to bring it with me or to just lose it all together. I managed to find a suitable 9 pin connector at one of the audio companies I work with.
One twist and it's gone.
I wired in 2 power cables for my GPS, and for the dual accessory outlet, each individually fused and grounded. Then I wired in a stereo audio cable to get sound out of my iPhone, iPod, or XM from the Garmin. That leaves me 2 empty pins for future use.
I also shortened the iPhone/iPod charger's cable to keep it neat.
Since I had most of this stuff hard wired into my soft bag, I could move it out of the way to fuel, but could not remove it all together. Not any more!
Now, on to my last hurdle. Since I used a GPS mount that connected to the tank bag, I had to figure out how to mount the Streetpilot and XM antenna to the box. It had to be self contained with no wires coming out of it to a handlebar mount, etc...
I ended up modifying a SW-Motech/Garmin handlebar mount, drilling a hole through one of the halves of the bar mount. 1 screw and nut for the GPS ( It's very solid), and 2 small factory screws to hold the antenna. It takes less that 5 minutes to install or remove the GPS system to the box. Thats good enough for me, since I only use the GPS for out of town trips anyway for the most part.
Flood Warning! Good thing I don't have to worry about rain covers any longer
I'm hoping to shorten up the USB cable, but I'm going to talk to Garmin before I get to cutting.
A little e-tape on the inside keeps the rain out when the GPS is off
Here's where the Audio comes out.
Pelican Cases Rock!
I had some special requirements for the box, and here's what I came up with.
Since I already had a SW-Motech tank bag, with a tank-ring and quick release mount, I had that covered. I finally decided on a Pelican 1200, not too big, not too small. Lockable, removable, waterproof and indestructible.
I took the mount off of the SW-Motech bag, lined it up, drilled 4 holes and was good to go. That's the easy part.
Notice the wires coming out? Well that's where things started to get a little more complex. I wanted the box to have a multi-pin, waterproof connector wired into it so I could remove it very easily, either to bring it with me or to just lose it all together. I managed to find a suitable 9 pin connector at one of the audio companies I work with.
One twist and it's gone.
I wired in 2 power cables for my GPS, and for the dual accessory outlet, each individually fused and grounded. Then I wired in a stereo audio cable to get sound out of my iPhone, iPod, or XM from the Garmin. That leaves me 2 empty pins for future use.
I also shortened the iPhone/iPod charger's cable to keep it neat.
Since I had most of this stuff hard wired into my soft bag, I could move it out of the way to fuel, but could not remove it all together. Not any more!
Now, on to my last hurdle. Since I used a GPS mount that connected to the tank bag, I had to figure out how to mount the Streetpilot and XM antenna to the box. It had to be self contained with no wires coming out of it to a handlebar mount, etc...
I ended up modifying a SW-Motech/Garmin handlebar mount, drilling a hole through one of the halves of the bar mount. 1 screw and nut for the GPS ( It's very solid), and 2 small factory screws to hold the antenna. It takes less that 5 minutes to install or remove the GPS system to the box. Thats good enough for me, since I only use the GPS for out of town trips anyway for the most part.
Flood Warning! Good thing I don't have to worry about rain covers any longer
I'm hoping to shorten up the USB cable, but I'm going to talk to Garmin before I get to cutting.
A little e-tape on the inside keeps the rain out when the GPS is off
Here's where the Audio comes out.
Pelican Cases Rock!
