plus say a sleeping bag, stuffsack for clothes and a tent and bedroll......... maybe a front rack for bedroll and tent?
how long did you say you were going away for?????????? roflmao!

here are some pics of Lois Pryces XT225 Serow kitted out for trans america trip. looks like she was keen on ammo boxes too. the front rack was a smart idea too.

For what it's worth here are my thoughts (and I cheated and bought some Metal Mules - so what do I know? )

If you go down the aluminium box route I'd suggest a thickness of around 2mm which is what the pro manufacturers seem to use.

There are pro's and con's with rivets vs welding. Rivets would be easier to make and will give your box a 'failsafe' in the event of an off. On the downside you will end up with more bits sticking out on the inside of the box, unless you have access to a blind riveting machine.

Welding aluminium is not easy to do. You need to get it right if you want the boxes to be waterproof - but it would give you an uncluttered box inner (depending on how you plan to mount them).

You might want to consider something like an Ortlieb bag as a waterproof liner - I've used these for years to keep dirty and clean clothes separate and they work very well.

The metal boxes would have the advantage of being whatever shape/size you decide you need but the downside of being more time consuming to make and probably quite a bit more expensive.

The ammo boxes look like a quicker and cheaper option with the disadvantage of being the size that they are and, from the sounds of it, wasting valuable space with a double lining you don't really need.

But I think you already knew all of that...

If you re going for 1 week or 2 months you still have to take a tent and sleeping bag and all..
we were thinking of thicker aluminium sheets at first but the thicker it is the more expensive and the more wieght you put on the bike.
We were going to rivet the walls together, apart from the lid which will probably has to be welded to a shape like that of a shoe box lid. ?? I do not mind having the rivets poking from the inside, i ll use a liner or something. have been looking up ideas on the net and found some other threads as well which are interesting i found one in particular but in unfortunately it is in German.

Now we ditched the ammo boxes idea... we re going for the allu boxes to have more storage space... today going for some quotes for alluminium sheets casue on our side of the world aluminium sheets come with a price of around 100Euros per bloody sheet!!! so we re still trying to find the cheapest quote !!!

probably going for 2mm sheets, kept together with angle iron, rivets and sikaflex. Most of our ideas came from the site below which is very helpfull:

rtw.xtz660 - Home made aluminium boxes

will keep you guys posted on our progress.. if we we have progress that is !

If you look at the Metal Mule/Touratech/etc boxes you'll find the corners are all bevelled rather than right angled. Apparently this is to stop them digging in when you fall off, reducing the risk off bending the pannier or ripping them off the mounts.

If you do go for angle iron with flat sheet attatched you probably don't need the sheet to be anwhere near as strong as the strength is all in the angle iron frame in you build it properly, though this will be heavier than the angle aluminum and rivets approach in your link. In fact if you mounted the sheeting on the inside of the frame you might even get away without needing rivets, just silicon seal it in to the frame. would make it a lot easier to repair as you're more likely to find someone who can weld steel than aluminum, and the sheets would just need beating flat.

Hi Ozzee,
I have uploaded some more pictures on the Home Made Aluminium Boxes webpage, I will try to complete the page soon, if you are still interested in making yourself some boxes we can exchange info if you like.
Feel free to contact me.

Of course, anybody interested in making their own alu boxes can get in touch.

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... and Nelly The Elephant packed the trunk and said goodbye to the circus...

Ozzee
I'm interested in what you're doing as I have the very similar Mastiff - although I've uprated the engine to 690 cc and approx 70 bhp - and hope one day to do some lengthy rough-road touring with it. Are you planning to retain the wheels and tyres - or go for a trailie set-up?

Neil.

Hi ozzie ,
Making your own panniers is the best way to get what you want .
Alexpazzi has shown a great way to make panniers by the rivet method and with great attention to detail .
But [and I speak as a welder here ] .
If your friend has the facilities and can weld aluminium then that would be the best way to go .You can find aluminium at scrap yards , road signs are a great source of material to make panniers, --- improvise ,scrounge !
Try to get rid of sharp edges by bevelling the corners , study Jesse , Happy Trails and Metal Mule .Pick out the features that you like about their panniers and build them into yours .
When you've made them ,lay them down and jump on them , they should be strong enough to hold your weight ,or the weight of a bike . If not then they are too weak and you might as well have soft bags .
These are some that I made out of 1/8" aluminium .I've modified them slightly and powder coated them since the photo was taken .

__________________
Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

Lovely work! Love the front rack, what a great idea... I may have to steal that!