azrving wrote:
ScottyP5947 wrote:
Well you guys have certainly given me a lot to think about I again certainly appreciate all of the input.
I began to look around see what use champion generators sell for and generally speaking they don't seem to draw a lot of money.
I think the route that I might take seeing that I have already spent the money on this generator is to find a way for me to run it little bit more quietly. I keep it in the bed of my pickup truck I am interested in possibly building a box around it, what sort of ventilation requirements do I need? I would not want to overheat the generator.
The gen I have starts and runs my air conditioner without any issue. I'd hate to upgrade and then possibly have trouble.
Thanks -
Scott
You need to determine where it sucks in air and where the exhaust and hot air exit. The metal insulated and ventilated cabinet that I built was a lot of work and as mentioned a good axial fan was pricey. Depending on where and how you use it maybe you could try some sort of shielding or baffles. Maybe foam panels with carpet or foam sound dampener glued on and velcro to connect them. Maybe have carpet or rubber pad or something under it. In some ways having it in the truck bed and depending on how it's positioned may not help with noise control because of all the sheet metal in the truck bed. I'd experiment a little before doing anything . . .
Back when we were doing some comparison testing of the Honda EU2000i (paralleled), EU3000iS, and Champion 3100 inverter generator, one of my buddies built a large enclosure very similar to yours, with the angled vent on the exhaust side (including a large, high CFM exhaust fan) to see if we could reduce sound levels on these generators further.
The entire exterior, to include the chassis pan, on the Champion 3100 is made out of plastic. The Honda EU3000iS uses significantly more metal.
Long story short, after running the Champion 3100 inside the enclosure a few hours, we noticed the plastic chassis pan was beginning to distort. Since everything on the generator is attached to the chassis pan, needless to say it wasn't a pretty sight.
If you're going to put the Champion 3100 inside an enclosure, going to have to take extra measures to not allow any of the heat from the engine exhaust (and the exhaust from the engine cooling fan) to collect inside the the enclosure.
