Is the Kawasaki rear box recommended over other brands because it is made especially for the 650? I've noticed other similar boxes in Cabela's and other places, but didn't know if the Kawasaki brand was better.

 

92Lt, I have had two of the front boxes on the back. The first one suffered some trauma from an over the front roll. It still worked, but had some ty-wrap stitching. I checked out other possibilities and replaced it with the same thing. It holds enough stuff but allows you to bail out when necessary. Some of the boxes at Cabelas look like copy-cats, but the price difference is negligible. Plus, the Kawi boxes have "Kawasaki" in big letters on the box easily visible from the rear, which is the view most fellow riders have anyway! I mounted it centered and with the box slid back against the rear rack plastic cover. I used the slotted rectangular rack bars and drilled two more holes in the rear bars, and then used some good stainless steel hardware instead of the plated stuff. If you use the hardware that comes with the box, you end up with these very large wingnuts on the inside. Buy the foam and mat for the box, it is well worth the money. I use a couple of plastic storage containers from Wal-mart, placed in between the foam for small items. About the seat: Trim off the center tab on the bottom of the seat to enable it's removal with the box mounted. I had to flex my seat alot just to get the center tab of the seat to catch properly, so I had cut mine off already. The seat is still secured by the catch up front and the two rear hooks. Most people ride with this center catch on top of it's hook-point and don't know it. You can tell by the wear marks on the plastic catch.

 

I lucked out and got both for $70. A friend of mine works for the company that makes them (Premier Plastics, North branch, MN) and he actualy designed the kawi ones. About five years ago when they first made them for polaris they gave some to the employee's to test. Lets just say we got or use out of them and had one ran over by a 4000# mud truck that stood up better then we thought it would.
I have had mine bounce off of plenty of trees with no problems. The only complant I have about the big box on the back is if you are going over some very rough terrain and are standing and leaning to one side, the box can give you a nice hip pointer if the wheeler kicks back the other way.

 

Going tomorrow to pick up the front box at the dealer. FYI, buykawasaki.com has the foam pieces and rubber pad on sale pretty cheap. I ordered those and got them in pretty quick.