On a recent trip of 800 miles I found out that I needed to do something to my Kodiak.
I carry my Kodiak up on the bed rails of my truck and load it sideways, I'll get a picture of that the next time that I load it up. However about 200 miles into the trip I noticed something fly out of the back of my truck and land on the freeway. I hit the brakes and backed up to find my battery cover laying in the middle of the freeway with vehicles going past it at 80mph, it is a good thing that none of them actually ran over it.
I picked it up and reinstalled it and then used a bungee cord to hold it in place the next 600 miles. When I got to my riding location I inspected the hold down grommets and everything else and found that they were just fine. It appeared that some wind got under the cover and lifted it off and off it went. I decided then that I needed to do something to prevent this from happening again since this is the way that I transport my Kodiak 99% of the time and if it would of happened in the dark I would of been out the cover and money to purchase the replacement.
So here is what I did:
I already had a couple of 1/4x20 thumb screw bolts or what ever they are called that I could use.
I purchased 2 1/4x20 jack nuts. These look like molly bolts but they don't have the prongs that will stick into the wood or drywall that you place them in. They are used quite often on sheet metal parts where you can not get to the backside to place a nut on them.
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I then had to decide on just where to place them. I looked at a few areas on the cover where I could get a good flat surface to place them into and a area where they would be out of the way. I found this location just under the handle bars on the top of the cover
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I started out by drilling a 1/8" hole with the cover in place through both the cover and the panel under it.
I then followed that up with a 1/4" hole through both.
I then removed the cover and drilled a 3/8" hole to place the jack nut into.
Then I installed the jack nut. If you have never used one there is a little bit of detail on how to get it expanded. You'll need a 1/4x20" bolt with long threads. Place a nut onto the bolt and then place the bolt into the threads of the jack nut. Then while holding the head of the bolt with a wrench tighten the nut which will pull threaded end of the nut up and into contact with the panel. Then once it is tight you can remove the bolt.
Here are a couple of pictures with the thumb bolts installed to hold the cover in place.
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I still need to get to a hardware store to pick up a couple of plastic washers to place between the bold and cover but this will work for now.
I carry my Kodiak up on the bed rails of my truck and load it sideways, I'll get a picture of that the next time that I load it up. However about 200 miles into the trip I noticed something fly out of the back of my truck and land on the freeway. I hit the brakes and backed up to find my battery cover laying in the middle of the freeway with vehicles going past it at 80mph, it is a good thing that none of them actually ran over it.
I picked it up and reinstalled it and then used a bungee cord to hold it in place the next 600 miles. When I got to my riding location I inspected the hold down grommets and everything else and found that they were just fine. It appeared that some wind got under the cover and lifted it off and off it went. I decided then that I needed to do something to prevent this from happening again since this is the way that I transport my Kodiak 99% of the time and if it would of happened in the dark I would of been out the cover and money to purchase the replacement.
So here is what I did:
I already had a couple of 1/4x20 thumb screw bolts or what ever they are called that I could use.
I purchased 2 1/4x20 jack nuts. These look like molly bolts but they don't have the prongs that will stick into the wood or drywall that you place them in. They are used quite often on sheet metal parts where you can not get to the backside to place a nut on them.
I then had to decide on just where to place them. I looked at a few areas on the cover where I could get a good flat surface to place them into and a area where they would be out of the way. I found this location just under the handle bars on the top of the cover
I started out by drilling a 1/8" hole with the cover in place through both the cover and the panel under it.
I then followed that up with a 1/4" hole through both.
I then removed the cover and drilled a 3/8" hole to place the jack nut into.
Then I installed the jack nut. If you have never used one there is a little bit of detail on how to get it expanded. You'll need a 1/4x20" bolt with long threads. Place a nut onto the bolt and then place the bolt into the threads of the jack nut. Then while holding the head of the bolt with a wrench tighten the nut which will pull threaded end of the nut up and into contact with the panel. Then once it is tight you can remove the bolt.
Here are a couple of pictures with the thumb bolts installed to hold the cover in place.
I still need to get to a hardware store to pick up a couple of plastic washers to place between the bold and cover but this will work for now.
