Venture trunk

[farm1810]

I managed to score a Venture trunk for my RSTD recently. It is the same blue / black paint and the paint isn't bad. Has the rack, etc. I noticed that it is cracked slightly on both sides just in front of the front mounting locations. Is this a common weak point? I am going to reinforce this area prior to installing - I have a matching Venture mount. Anyone experience cracks in this same location? Besides repairing the crack, did you do something to spread the load more broadly across the mount? Thanks.

[jilldwr]

I had posted this link a few years ago:

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=65701&highlight=jilldwr

 

Since then (last spring), I found several major cracks on the floor of my 1999 RSV trunk - a known weak spot. I followed the advice in this video and welded the bottom back together with zip ties and copper wire for support. It has worked very well for me. No signs of weakening and the paint has no cracks either. I bought a soldering iron used for stained glass making, about 35 watts I believe , and it did quick work of the welding. I placed copper wire on the weak spots and pressed the soldering iron on the wire and watched it dissappear into the plastic. Upon reassembly, I used some aluminum plates sandwiching the trunk mounting points supporting them.

In November of 2011, I had a large split crack in my lower left fairing. I applied the same process of imbedding a copper wire and building up with melted zip ties. I them sanded and repainted with base coat, clear coat. It looks brand new and has not cracked in the same place again.

Hope this helps...

[farm1810]

Thanks so much. I followed this instruction and it worked out GREAT! I used copper wire & black cable ties. It just took my time and got great results. The cracks were on the bottom of the trunk, so no repaint necessary. They were just in front of the front mounting pads on both sides. I believe my fix is stronger now than it was originally, now with the wire reinforcement. Thanks again. R.