AMMO BOX PANNIERS

Despite the fact that everyone thinks I am crazy for wanting to use ammunition boxes as panniers on my newly rebuilt Schwinn touring bike, I have gone ahead with my insanity. I had to spend a few hours of trial and error in order to perfect the design, but I think what I came up with is pretty cool. Here's a step by step-ish breakdown of what I did.

1. I bought a Bontrager rear rack (50 lb max load) and installed it. About then I realized that in order to install the boxes, there needed to be some sort of shim to hold the box out from the rack at least 1/4" or so (this is because when the box lid is closed it overlaps the outside of the box.) I solved the problem by cutting up an old inner-tube, wrapping it tight around the stays of the rack in 3 places and securing it with electrical tape.

Next, I went down to the hardware store and bought some cable clamp U-bolts. These mounted easily to the rack stays; once they were secure I held the box where I wanted it to go, marked the position of the bolts, and drilled my holes. I used 2 U-bolts to secure the upper portion of the box- this turned out to be really strong, so I just drilled a couple of smaller holes toward the bottom and attached that section to the rack using heavy-duty zip ties.
I ran out of time to finish the other side, but I should be able to get it done today. The boxes are a bit smaller than I had envisioned (since I was originally going to use the more rectangular .50 cal boxes) but I really like how flat they lie to the bike. Plus I got them for $2.50 each at the army surplus store- saving myself a whole lot of money any way you look at it.
I will probably still buy a nice Trek bag to sit on the top of the rack, and I will need to somehow strap on my sleeping bag and bivvy sack, but if I need to I can always install a front rack too. For short trips, however, this is fast becoming a beautiful machine.