DIY: Lock and Ride Tie-Downs

It wasn't long after bringing our new 2016 Polaris RZR XP Turbo home that we decided that we needed a way to secure things in the bed. Of course, there are fancy mounts and such in our future, but for now, we needed a simple solution for gas can, cooler, etc. Luckily, Polaris has built a very simple but effective solution into their machines - the Lock & Ride system. 

We jumped into the Polaris catalogue and when we found the anchors offered by Polaris, our eyes widened a bit at the price of $25/ea. Maybe it's my DIY nature, or perhaps it's because I just spent $25k on a machine and even an additional $100 stings a bit, but I knew I needed an alternative. I hit rzrforums.org and found just what I was hoping for! Full credit for the solution goes to member guy48065, but I thought that since it's been a few years and I was doing it anyway, that I'd document it with fresh photos.

Materials: A quick stop at my local hardware store yielded the three necessary pieces.

• 1" Auto/Marine Plug
• 5/16" x 3-1/4" Eye Bolt w/ nut
• 5/16" Pronged Tee Nut

Procedure: Just takes a minute!

1. Begin by unpackaging each of the pieces and disassembling the auto/marine plug. You'll need to reuse the larger washer and the rubber bushing, but the other three pieces can be set aside.

2. Thread the nut onto the eye bolt as far as it will go. Next, put the large washer up to the nut. Push the Tee Nut into either end of the rubber bushing. It wouldn't go all the way in by hand, but will sink in nicely once the eye bolt is threaded into it. No, thread the eye bolt into it.

3. Push the bushing into the lock and ride port on your machine and then tighten the eye bolt further. This will cause the bushing to expand and tighten within the hole.

4. For additional security, you may choose to use a smaller top washer that will let the bushing sink further into the hole. You may also choose to add a washer to the bottom of the assembly once installed. This will make them more difficult to reconfigure quickly, but is the most secure option.

We'll explore these more secure options after testing what we've shown here and report back!