After seeing Boykin Spaniel's reply to the post “mounting Honda2000 on camper bumper” a while back, I started thinking about his generator box he has mounted on his front mounted cargo carrier. I thought “What a great idea – I already have a cargo carrier and a front receiver.” I've also been following the Honda 2000 Storage post and really liked Mainer1's trailer tongue box. I thought it would be great to have a box big enough to hold a eu2000i and my auxiliary gas tank. Hayes Power Equipment wanted $900 for their box. Quite a bit pricey for my tastes plus it wouldn’t hold the extra gas tank. I also thought that it would be nice if all the openings had doors on them that could be closed (Hayes’s box has a permanently open exhaust portal). My local metal shop was willing to sell a 4x8 sheet of diamond plate aluminum for $100 and they said they would even cut out the panels for me on the laser machine for an extra $20. Sounded like an offer I couldn’t pass up. So here’s what I came up with.
The cut panels:
I was amazed at how small of a cut the laser made (the lower scale is in 64ths)! I actually had to trim all the doors so they would have enough gap to be able to open and close. They metal shop said after the program was set up it took the laser less than two minutes to cut out all the "doors".:
Adding a 1/2 inch aluminum angle lip to the lid:
To prevent any vibrations from coming into the camper I mounted the generator on a hanging “platform”. It’s mounted using rubber hangers. The rubber isolates the genny from the rigid box preventing the vibrations from transferring to the cargo carrier and then into the truck/camper. This is the same concept I used on our garage door opener (have to give credit for that idea to my old neighbor). Our master bedroom is right above our garage. It used to make quite a ruckus when the opener was operated – now I can sleep right through it.
Garage door opener vibration isolators:
Generator tray:
Generator tray installed (the generator is suspended 1/2 inch up from the bottom of the box):
Videos showing the different levels of vibration (CAUTION – THEY ARE BOTH 7MB):
I use a couple of foam blocks to stop it from moving around while underway:
Inner tube rubber wrapped around the hinges to prevent rain from entering through the gaps along the length of the piano hinge:
Double catch latch mechanism:
1/4 turn latches are used to hold the vent/exhaust doors open when the genny is running:
Misc photos:
Fuel line feed through:
Divider vent hole:
Heading to AMS for the race!
During the SNOW squall (well...at least it was a squall by southern standards) Saturday morning at the race!
We ran the generator for 37.5 hours straight this past weekend and it did GREAT! I wasn't able to take any temperature measurements because it was cold. I'll have to wait for summer for that.
Sorry the post was so long, I got a little carried away. Dave.
10-06-2008 I decided that I didn't like the plastic gas can feed through. Just wasn't strong enough. Here's the metal gas can revision. Later, Dave.
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That is a hella nice box. I too would be concerned about heat buildup in 80-100+ degrees. How many doors on the box are open while running? Nice work and well thought out.
WOW, great fabrication and engineering. I love the great photos that show all the details. I'm sure there will be someone to reply to this thread, "This is Dangerous". I wanted to reply prematurely with this is dangerous of someone getting it patented.
Awesome job,
Myrtle
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Dave.
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