Fitting the 9.5 KVA Generator
Posted by Pierre and Claire Mangion on Sunday, February 20, 2011
Under: Einstein's brainstrain! - Pierre
So this week we completed the work on modifying the generator to fit in a compartment under the double bed at the back of the motorhome. Originally we were going to fit it so that it was rigid in the back, with the exhaust running outside of the generator......however we made 3 fundamental mistakes....
1) We made the generator compartment too narrow to accomodate the exhaust comfortably....would result in too much heat.
2) We only had 0.5m overhang above the generator which would then make it difficult for maintenance.
3) Too small a space would cause not enough air circulation to allow for cooling of the generator.
Well if you look at those 3 problems, there was only one mistake....the compartment was too small!!! And it's too late to do anything about that....so of course...."we had to make a plan"!
To overcome the heat problem we removed the existing panels on the generator and remade exterior ones, out of aluminium, and consolidated most of the safety guard. At the outer end a 12 volt fan was fitted to form a wind tunnel.
In terms of space we decided that the generator needed to be on runners for easy maintenance...but to find a simple, stable, lightweight yet strong runner system is not that easy! As we have 0.5m overhang above the generator it seemed the easier to put the runners above the generator. We used heavy duty garage sliding door runners above it to slide it in and out! So that's sorted out the maintenance problem!
Then we had to figure out what to do with the exhaust system, so that we didn't shorten our trip dramatically!! We have actually run the exhaust over the top of the generator...however it took Joshua (14) to point out to Dad that he was running it the wrong direction! Having corrected that we then managed to drop a nut through the engine cover.....3 hours later it was retrieved and the engine reassembled! So we finished the week with insulating the exhaust to transfer heat out of the centre!
1) We made the generator compartment too narrow to accomodate the exhaust comfortably....would result in too much heat.
2) We only had 0.5m overhang above the generator which would then make it difficult for maintenance.
3) Too small a space would cause not enough air circulation to allow for cooling of the generator.
Well if you look at those 3 problems, there was only one mistake....the compartment was too small!!! And it's too late to do anything about that....so of course...."we had to make a plan"!
To overcome the heat problem we removed the existing panels on the generator and remade exterior ones, out of aluminium, and consolidated most of the safety guard. At the outer end a 12 volt fan was fitted to form a wind tunnel.
In terms of space we decided that the generator needed to be on runners for easy maintenance...but to find a simple, stable, lightweight yet strong runner system is not that easy! As we have 0.5m overhang above the generator it seemed the easier to put the runners above the generator. We used heavy duty garage sliding door runners above it to slide it in and out! So that's sorted out the maintenance problem!
Then we had to figure out what to do with the exhaust system, so that we didn't shorten our trip dramatically!! We have actually run the exhaust over the top of the generator...however it took Joshua (14) to point out to Dad that he was running it the wrong direction! Having corrected that we then managed to drop a nut through the engine cover.....3 hours later it was retrieved and the engine reassembled! So we finished the week with insulating the exhaust to transfer heat out of the centre!
In : Einstein's brainstrain! - Pierre
