Community Forums

superduty · 07-21-2006, 08:45 AM

What do you guys use to hold your generator on the TT. I was going to put it in the bed of the truck, but I picked up one of those 2 place ATV racks and it is a little short to put the generator under it, unless I pull the wheel kit off the gen.

I was thinking of having the RV dealer install a 2" class III hitch on the rear (frame) of the TT then put a hitch cargo rack back there and make that the home for the generator.

My other thought was to get a flat piece of plate steel and some square ubolts and bolt it to the bumper of the trailer, the attach the generator to the "cargo deck", but since I don't have a welder it would all be a bolt on application and might look and perform kind of ghetto.

What do you think?

superduty · 07-21-2006, 08:45 AM

What do you guys use to hold your generator on the TT. I was going to put it in the bed of the truck, but I picked up one of those 2 place ATV racks and it is a little short to put the generator under it, unless I pull the wheel kit off the gen.

I was thinking of having the RV dealer install a 2" class III hitch on the rear (frame) of the TT then put a hitch cargo rack back there and make that the home for the generator.

My other thought was to get a flat piece of plate steel and some square ubolts and bolt it to the bumper of the trailer, the attach the generator to the "cargo deck", but since I don't have a welder it would all be a bolt on application and might look and perform kind of ghetto.

What do you think?

E Z Livin · 07-21-2006, 09:43 AM

I did something like you are thinking of on a 5th wheel I had. Had the receiver tube (bought from Agri South) welded to rear frame. Attached the cargo carrier and even had it cut down so it would not interfere with my spare tire.
Mounted a Honda 300i using four motorcycle tie downs and also added a lock and a cover.

This traveled pretty good. Really enjoyed being able to have air when we stopped on the road for lunch. It had a little vibration that I did not like but all in all was OK. My electrial plug was on the rear so this part was great. I think I would have liked it in the bed of the truck in some ways but then you would not be able to ride off in the truck and leave the air running. Lots to think about.

Ray,IN · 07-23-2006, 03:30 AM

Trailer bumpers are not designed to support weight. Sure a bicycle rack is OK, but you're talking about near 100lbs. Frame mounting is the best option on the rear of trailers, you still need to be concerned about transferring weight away from the tongue and causing poor handling. Pull type trailers require at least 10% tongue weight for proper handling.

superduty · 07-23-2006, 02:08 PM

Ray, IN: Good point. I'm not sure how much of the weight would be transferred(I'm not that good at physics). The trailer brochure advertises 7460# dry, 6530# on the axles and 940# on the tounge. If those numbers are correct, which may or may not be the case, that gives me about 12.5% tounge weight. I know the generator is 200#. What are your thoughts on that type of weight distribution?

Ray,IN · 07-25-2006, 05:47 PM

Someone that has retained math skills will need to jump in and figure this out exactly. The distance from the front axle to the TT front and rear must be determined first. I think most are 60/40 but yours must be used. Then you use the ratio to calculate how much weight added to the rear bumper will subtract from the hitch weight. You can use your published weights in reverse to find the front to rear ratio too.

Greenie · 07-27-2006, 03:23 PM

Weight mounted that far back tends to whipsaw up and down on rough roads. I first lost two bikes off the back, to remedy that I bungeed the bikes to the rack - 120 miles later the entire bumper dropped off. These were just two bicycles - not that heavy, maybe 40 pounds each.

superduty · 07-28-2006, 07:59 AM

Greenie- I figured that the bumper would't be that good of a spot. I am currently leaning toward a frame mount receiver. Other than the possible loss of tounge weight, which I'm not too worried about I don't see any problems. I could be wrong though.

Rick007 · 09-07-2006, 10:21 AM

Hi
I built a rack on the rear of my Fifth to hold a gen. I ran two pieces of steel under the frame for about 2' I had that tack welded to the tubular frame and also built two "U" brackets to catch this right in front of the rear bumper hose tube. This way the weight is carried by the trailer frame. On the front hitch plate I had a reciever hitch welded on. To this I made a plate to hold my toolbox which puts all the extra weight in the truck bed. Works great.

Rick

superduty · 09-08-2006, 07:49 AM

As it turns out I ended up not needing one. The TT I ended up buying has a slide out rear bumper that will hold the genny. However, when I run the genny on the bumper I get a vibration and the heat on the back wall of the trailer makes me nervous, so I will just carry it in the bed of the truck under my ATV rack.

allendp · 09-15-2006, 04:43 PM

This was posted a few months ago in another thread but here is a slide show on how I solved my genset carring problem. I have since replaced the Genereac with a new Kipor 3500 and run a connection to my breacker inside the trailer from the generator.

Homemade genset carrier slide show

BlauMax · 09-16-2006, 07:22 AM

Allen, wonderful solution.

Another good one I've seen is to weld or bolt a carrier to the pin box. There are +/-'s about this.. but, depending on the weight of the genny.. it may be a good idea. It's totally out of the way and really doesn't add much to the pin weight.