Aux Tank Mount Greg Rice - Home Page
	When I bought my new 2012 Gold Wing I new I wanted to buy / make a new AUX tank mount because what I had been using for the last 6 years or so was not really a good way to mount the tank. I also have tried many locations for my Aux tank including in the trunk, in a bag mounted on the luggage rack and the passenger seat. I have decided the best location for the aux tank is the passenger seat. In the past I had quickly made a couple funky mounts when I was in a hurry and just never got around to making a good one. One of the reasons was I always felt I needed to weld the pieces together and I do not have a welding machine or know anyone close by who does have one.
	So with the new wing I was inspired to do it better this time and doing it cheap was an issue. Either I needed a good friend with a welding machine or I would need to find a way to make a mount that I could bolt together. I have some friends who could help but no one is near by so I started drawing up some ideas and started buying aluminum at the local hardware store. It took many trips to find thick enough pieces that would support the tank. I finally found some 1/4" pieces at a local old style hardware store. I can tell you even for scrap pieces aluminum is expensive. I spent about $60 just on the aluminum. I had my ideas for how the tank base would be but not sure how I was going to mount the base to the wing's passenger grab handles. So I started laying out the design and started cutting. When I was pretty much done with the base I decided to paint that part. I am not sure why but I did. Now I had to come up with a way to mount it to the wing. I was thinking I could get someone to cut a pipe in half and weld a stainless hinge in and then add some bolt tabs and that would be great. The problem with that was no welding machine. So back to the drawing board. I finally went to the hardware store and just started looking around for parts and ideas. I finally saw the scrap 1/4" aluminum and got my idea.
	I finally had my design on how I was going to mount to the passenger grab handles and needed to cut this aluminum. First I need to tell you I have very few tools and no work bench. My work bench is a metal folding chair and my tools are a hacksaw, file, sandpaper, drill, hammer and jigsaw. Many of the pieces you see were cut with a hacksaw and filed by hand. I did cut a few pieces with the jigsaw but it just did not work well with out a work bench with a vise to clamp down the pieces. I broke 2 5/16" drill bits trying to drill holes while standing up hold the aluminum in my hand.
	Below are photos of the mount. You will see it is bolted together with 5/16" or 1/4" bolts. The mount sits about one inch off the seat and is so strong that I can stand on it. UPDATE: I have added photos at the bottom of the webpage with the tank installed. I have a second backrest that has the foam removed that I still need to swap out. Then I can open the trunk.
	Parts I used to make the aux tank mount.
	Making final cuts.
	From another angle.
	Overhead photo.
	Finished, needs one more coat of paint. I used black engine enamel.
	Another angle.
	One more angle of the finished mount.
	Mounted on the wing.
	Another angle.
	Close up view.
	Wider view.