Saddlemen Jumbo Drifter Slant Saddlebags

I searched out all the bags I could find in an effort to locate something I liked, that was big enough, and that didn't cost more than 3 months worth of bike payments. I was set on Willy and Max Fleetside slants until I came across these. I immediatly fell in love with these. My local Indy shop ordered them for about $120 or so, so they met all my requirements. The only problem was that I didn't like throwover bags. I looked into ghost brackets and some other's out there and they were a good idea. But not a $300 idea in my opinion.

So after looking at what several others on the forum had done, I decided to let my imigination run wild and this is what I came up with.

1/4" X 1" Aluminum stock
2 M10X ??? (fine thread) bolts, as long as you can find them
2 M8X??? (Standard thread) bolts, again, get them long
Nuts and washers for the above bolts
Dremel with cutoff wheels

To start, measure the piece as wide as the bags. Make sure it's wider than the bolt holes too!
Next, make sure it's covered up by the bags and doesn't hit anything on the bike.
Remove one of the bolts from the fender. I started with the 10MM near the shock. But some of the nuts on the new bolt, as well as a washer so it doesn't scratch up the chrome fender rail. Run it in until the bolt bottoms out or until it has enough to grab hold. Run one nut up to cinch the fender rail back down. Now do the same to the back bolt.

Grab the dremmel or a hacksaw an cut the heads off the bolts. Now run the extra nut off to chase the thread. Now drill the holes in your crossbar and make it where it goes on and comes off easily. Now make 3 more. Make sure the inside ones fit and line up.

Hold the bags up and have somebody make sure they are straight and mark where the bolt holes are hitting the bags. Drill holes in the brackets and bags so that everything lines up nicely.
I also drilled holes in the middle of the brackets to help hold everything together when putting it on, and to attach the vertical bracket. I originally didn't put the second bracket in, but I found that if you put anything heavy in the bag, they would dive towards the wheel. With the second bracket in, it seems to hold up even when the bags are full of crap.

To make the vertical bracket fit nicely, simply lay the back bracket on the ground, have your friend stand on it, put the smaller bracket on top of it, and beat the hell out of it with a hammer.

Now just bolt the brackets to the bags, and bolts the bags to the bike. It's easy and only took about 2 hours, minus a couple of trips to the store and a couple of broken hacksaw blades.