Punching out baffles
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Road Warrior
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 1,277
Likes: 1
From: Haney, British Columbia
Punching out baffles
I took a ribbing the other day over my quiet stock pipes on my Deluxe. A friend of a friend "pipes" up that I should punch out the baffles.
Has anyone done this and what are the results?
Has anyone done this and what are the results?
Elite HDF Member
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 4,598
Likes: 14
From: navarre ohio
softails sound pretty good with the baffles cut out..touring bikes sound like crap but that is a whole different setup.. your best bet would be to get a take off set cheap and mod them..keep your originals around,the noise ***** are getting real close. punched stock mufflers and high$$ performance pipes are mechanically identical
Advanced
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 67
Likes: 0
From: NH
I wouldn't punch out the baffles in your stock pipes. I did with mine and it made them louder but not enough to compete with a decent set of aftermarket pipes and now I'd have to buy a new set of mufflers to return it to stock. Keep the stock mufflers stock so if you ever have to sell or trade it in you can throw them back on.
My advice is to save up and get some slip-ons or new exhaust setup. If you get slip-ons you shouldn't need to tune/re-jet or anything. Vance and Hines as well as Rush make excellent sounding slip-ons.
My advice is to save up and get some slip-ons or new exhaust setup. If you get slip-ons you shouldn't need to tune/re-jet or anything. Vance and Hines as well as Rush make excellent sounding slip-ons.
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 3,164
Likes: 6
From: Greenfield, Massachusetts
My new Heritage is getting to me, as far as the sound goes. I swore i wasn't going to do anything to it, but sip-ons are probabaly in the future. I have had two bikes - a Nightster and a Street Bob, both on which I ran Rush Sip ons, and did not do anything else to the bike. The Nightster gave me some problems but I was told it was probably because I had too big a baffle (I had 2.00 or 2.25 to start, then went down to 1.75, which were better as far as popping etc, but still not great). The STreet Bob, however, I had 1.75" baffles and nothing else done to the bike and it ran GREAT. No problems whatsoever. So maybe that is the answer for you, rather than punch out your baffles. Then, like people here already said, if for whatever reason you need to go back to truly stock, you can. The Slipons are relatively easy to install (well, I can say that - my hubby did them for me, lol!)
Cruiser
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 224
Likes: 6
From: Eastern Kansas
My Heritage sounded like an air compressor running with stock mufflers. So I tried the mid-range baffled stock muffler, altered & sent back by American Custom, sounds pretty nice. I took them out for an afternoon, but it was too loud for me, just a three or four minute job with one screw each to remove or relace the baffles. I went with them, because I like the looks of the stock muffler on the Heritage, just needed a little more rumble. I thnk American Custom was or still is a sponsor here.
Cruiser
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 249
Likes: 3
From: Central Texas
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Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 5,294
Likes: 149
From: FL
Get yourself a nice set of aftermarket pipes and leave the baffles in. My bike has the V&H short shots put on by the previous owner and had no baffles in it when I got it. It sounded and ran like crap. I put them back in and it sounds and runs much better. It's just about as loud but it has a deeper tone to it.
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Elite HDF Member
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 4,598
Likes: 14
From: navarre ohio
touring bikes have a chambered muffler like a car.. when you try to gut them they sound horrible..
the rest of harleys have glasspack muffflers,they weld a plug in them to make them quiet.exhaust is forced to go thru the glass matting instead past it.if you knock the plugs out it runs rite and still sounds ok,little louder.if you cut the cone out of the back of the muff and pull everyting out it gets even louder,sounds good from a distance but is just loud up close..
the rest of harleys have glasspack muffflers,they weld a plug in them to make them quiet.exhaust is forced to go thru the glass matting instead past it.if you knock the plugs out it runs rite and still sounds ok,little louder.if you cut the cone out of the back of the muff and pull everyting out it gets even louder,sounds good from a distance but is just loud up close..