The support bracket under the plastic is a piece of stamped sheet metal. I know of two that I have personally seen that have been broken from overloading the aftermarket top case.

I made my own bracket out of 3/16" plate steel and also replaced the side brackets with 3/16" steel. Any thicker and you start forcing the plastic parts in the back together.

I'm not a pro metal worker, but a hobbyist fabricator that has the skills and equipment to do it. It just took some time and imagination to build it. A lot of trial and error. But I have the welder and vice, grinder, 4" metal cutting tool. It was a lot of fun to figure out.

Here it is when I started a whole 2 miles on it. You can see my welders in the background.

Top view - this is for me to mount an alum plate on top for my aux fuel cell and other stuff

Here it is assembled for the 2024 LDX rally ( 9 days) this will give you an idea of why I went to the extremes.

After this rally I made some changes that refined the cases mounted and reduced the weight by 50 lbs.

Here is a sketch of how the case above relate to where to stock trunk was that I took off.

Here is the same bike this year with the cases combined. The stock top case actually weighs 39 lbs. The case I made weight 42 lbs. What is not shown in the sketch is the Pelican case that went on top. It weighs 20 lbs empty. The change was about a 50lb reduction to case set up below. And the set up below is a lot more functional for us.

If the bike tipped over you could use the case to pick it up. It is that strong and structural. The suspension has been replaced with Traxxion Dynamics shocks suspending the bike properly for the weight we are carrying when all loaded for rally mode. The bike has 30,000 miles on it this year including doing eh Iron Butt Rally (11 days, 11,000 miles) in June this year.

The height of the top case is to ergonomically support her head when she sleeps on the bike. It is about 1/2 full of stuff for cleaning, heated gear, spare gloves, headsets, flashlights, and stuff needed for rallying. The lower parts of the case has a section in the bottom with our camp gear, 2 tarps, 2 air pads, 2 down blankets so we can camp next to the bike and stay dry while blocking the wind. The middle part is 12" x12" that is for our go packs that we grab when staying in a hotel. I can also charge the spare headsets, flashlights and anything else the uses USB while going down the road. The two silver jugs are 1 gallon Yeti water jugs - 1 for each of us.

Because we ride 2up, it presents a lot of opportunity for out of the box thinking to figure out what to carry and how to carry it. What you see here is the 5th or 6th revision. It works perfectly for us.

 

I like that plate you made.
I think I will make one too and cost under $100 not like TD charge you $700.
That guy is out of control or just too greedy.

 

I just carry a laptop and lunchbox, not really set up for long-range touring. It also stores my full face helmet no problem. Shad SH39.

 

Thank you for sharing Auburn. Making a bracket out of plate steel and all the gear you load on your Wing is amazing. I just posted my 2024 non tour bagger issue, the same as Zorro's. I wish I had found this posting 1st. Now I know what the hurdles are if I want to move forward with some sort of passenger backrest for my wife. You will see in my post that I'm considering purchasing just a replacement pad, that would normally attach to a box, and attaching it directly to the tiny backrest already on my Wing.
Any thoughts?
BTW I did a trip around the USA from NH to the Bad Lands, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Zion, Grand Canyon, Tombstone AZ, NM, TX to the Smokies, did the Tail of the Dragon, Cherohala Skwy, etc and then back north. Approximately 30 days and just over 7500 miles, on a 2006 Kawasaki Classic 1500.
The most miles I covered in a day was 700+ and I managed to do so only twice.
Cyril Aures NH