I just changed my saddlebags dzus fastener to the newer screw on ones from HD. After turning them in and snugging down, I tried to lift the saddlebag, and to my surprise, it moved quite a bit. So I tightened it another click, and it kept moving and I kept tightening until it didn't move anymore. But dang it sure took a lot to lock it in place. So for those who have the screw in type, how tight do you make them?

 

I tighten just till snug. Don't worry about lifting, still better than the old style fasteners

 

I am heading out on my summer trip fully loaded. I don't think the old dzus fasteners allowed vertical movement. I did not use the old washer because the new one has a washer on it.

I just don"t like it.

 

there should not be any vertical movement. do you have the rubber cushions installed under the bags? the fasteners themselves only need to be tightened snug. you don't have to gorilla torque them.

 

I replaced my dzus fasteners with some threaded clips and **** handles with matching threads. You can get these through McMaster-Carr, which is a huge industrial supply house. Find them on line. I used them a lot when I was a buyer for an aerospace company. I simply turn the ***** until snug. I always check them on trips whenever i get into the bags. Never had a problem or an issue. Plus if I remember, these parts cost less than $20.

 

That's my thought also, so I just now pulled one of the new ones out and measured the diameter of the pin. The dzus was. 0.305" and the new screw in shaft is 0.272", a difference of 0.033" slop in the rubber grommet. The nut plate also moves around within the hole a little bit, i didn't measure how much, but I may just reinstall one side with the old dzus fasteners and see if I have any vertical movement with the old system.

The rubber cushions are installed on the bottom of the bags.

 

You may need the new grommets to eliminate the slop. I had some rubber plugs that I fit in grommet holes to keep water out when I removed the old bags for washing. The plugs wouldn't fit the new (18) grommets, smaller hole.

 

I use one of these with a U clip, one per bag is all you need. Use the Dzus on the other hole. Less than three bucks at my local hardware store. Of course, I learned the hard way.

 

I don't need new hardware, I bought the HD hardware, it just doesn't snug up w/o gorilla tighrtening.

 

You may be right. I have almost 48K on those bags, two long trips X country with lots of stuff in them. They may need to be replaced. I wonder whether the dealer carries this