Unpleasant Surprise - Sheared Tour Pak Mounting Bracket Bolts - Not Good

[hydraglide]

Thank goodness I happened to find this today after a 300 mile ride...

My bike... a 2021 Tri-Glide approaching 10k. I keep my full face helmet in my trunk, and after todays ride I went to put away my helmet back in the trunk, and after opening the trunk I found two sheared off mounting studs (of 6 total, three on each side) that attaches the tour pak mounting bracket to the trunk.

They are sheared below the nut (see attached pics). The bolts/studs are integral to the bracket per the parts diagram (not separate bolts). IMO, to break where they did indicates the studs were "stretched" (over torqued) when attaching the bracket to the trunk.

Scary. I had a tour pak mount fracture on my 99' ultra that would have could have led to a loss of control situation had the tour pak come completely unattached. Same goes here... the tour pak could have "let loose" from the trunk and resulted in a loss of control situation.

I feel fortunate to have caught this. These two studs sheared today. The nuts/studs were not inside the trunk this morning.

I'm not sure if the dealer had any reason to remove the tour pak mounting bracket when adding some accessories to the back end (lighting mostly). Remove the tour pak FROM the bracket, yes. No reason I can see why the bracket itself would ever need to be removed, however.

Factory assembly issue? Perhaps. Warranty issue? For sure. These nuts are to be torqued to 60-72 INCH pounds. Not cranked down (if they were). Perhaps defective metallurgy related to the studs themselves. The Motor Company need to become aware of this issue IMO. No way they fracture where they did while riding. There is no lateral shearing at those points... no lateral stresses. Seems that vibration was the culprit (geez, imagine that). But the studs themselves had to be compromised (stretched, defective) to have just "vibrated off". And to loose TWO same day? Weird.

Has anyone in our forum experience this before? If not, consider this a heads up to check your trunk occasionally. Had I not had a reason to open it today, I shiver at the thought of shearing off a few more studs then potentially jettisoning the tour pak at speed with loss of control consequences quite a possibility.

I'll keep you all posted to see what if anything my dealer says, but this may end my riding season sooner than I had hoped if I can't get the mounting bracket replaced asap.

I consider myself lucky.

[Rogue1]

Thank goodness I happened to find this today after a 300 mile ride...

My bike... a 2021 Tri-Glide approaching 10k. I keep my full face helmet in my trunk, and after todays ride I went to put away my helmet back in the trunk, and after opening the trunk I found two sheared off mounting studs (of 6 total, three on each side) that attaches the tour pak mounting bracket to the trunk.

They are sheared below the nut (see attached pics). The bolts/studs are integral to the bracket per the parts diagram (not separate bolts). IMO, to break where they did indicates the studs were "stretched" (over torqued) when attaching the bracket to the trunk.

Scary. I had a tour pak mount fracture on my 99' ultra that would have could have led to a loss of control situation had the tour pak come completely unattached. Same goes here... the tour pak could have "let loose" from the trunk and resulted in a loss of control situation.

I feel fortunate to have caught this. These two studs sheared today. The nuts/studs were not inside the trunk this morning.

I'm not sure if the dealer had any reason to remove the tour pak mounting bracket when adding some accessories to the back end (lighting mostly). Remove the tour pak FROM the bracket, yes. No reason I can see why the bracket itself would ever need to be removed, however.

Factory assembly issue? Perhaps. Warranty issue? For sure. These nuts are to be torqued to 60-72 INCH pounds. Not cranked down (if they were). Perhaps defective metallurgy related to the studs themselves. The Motor Company need to become aware of this issue IMO. No way they fracture where they did while riding. There is no lateral shearing at those points... no lateral stresses. Seems that vibration was the culprit (geez, imagine that). But the studs themselves had to be compromised (stretched, defective) to have just "vibrated off". And to loose TWO same day? Weird.

Has anyone in our forum experience this before? If not, consider this a heads up to check your trunk occasionally. Had I not had a reason to open it today, I shiver at the thought of shearing off a few more studs then potentially jettisoning the tour pak at speed with loss of control consequences quite a possibility.

I'll keep you all posted to see what if anything my dealer says, but this may end my riding season sooner than I had hoped if I can't get the mounting bracket replaced asap.

I consider myself lucky.

Boy that sure sucks. I never heard of anything like that. Any chance you could drill through the bracket and just add regular bolts? On second thought after looking at the diagram I see that would be difficult.

[Peter A.]

Very interesting, I believe Harley has used this same set-up for years now…….. I use a similiar system on my FLHXXX with regular bolts and tend to TORQUE them down every time I change/remove my T/P (never use a torque wrench LOL).

Please keep us in the loop with dealers response. TKS.

Pete

[cycle7447]

WOW - indeed a surprise. Let the dealer fix this

[ROAD DOG]

If it was my trike I would go to the local hardware store buy 6 new grade 8 bolts lock nut & washers, remove the old ones put in the new ones and be done with it. Rather than go back & forth to the dealer & have them F It More, May cost you $15.00 a half hours work