enclose a generator and still give it sufficent air ?

[shock_guy]

Thinking of mounting my EU6500 Honda generator to outside of truck or trailer. Anyone have any ideas on how to enclose it from weather and still give it all the air it needs?

[shock_guy]

Just spoke with the Honda tech department. He was able to give me some information. The eu6500 draws the air from the front of the generator. As far as the distance from the walls of an enclosure,3 feet on all sides. He also said that people mount the generator on a slide on race trailers and slide it in and out when they are at an event.
I told him my two mounting ideas and he said that Honda doesn't recommend these generators being permanently mounted. I questioned him about the generators being bolted to the slides idea and he said that is what Honda recommends.
My issue with having it on a slide system is that it will still take up floor space in my rv garage area.
I guess one needs to move forward with their own prowess because Honda wont budge to give you information outside of the box. pun intended.
The tech from Honda is a nice guy and all but I think their legal dept has a pretty tight muzzle on them.

[nevadanick]

Find out where your 6500 draws the air from. The EU3000 draws air from the bottom.

[Old___Slow]

shock guy wrote:
Thinking of mounting my EU6500 Honda generator to outside of truck or trailer. Anyone have any ideas on how to enclose it from weather and still give it all the air it needs?

The best material I've found so far (6 years trying)to use for the construction was mentioned by one of the old RV.Net posters, billh.
It's a celotex product. I use what is sold at most HD and Lowe's. The name is 'sound board'. 1/2" 4'X8' sheets. It's the black stuff. Tar on the outside. Another coat of spray tar can be added to help with wet weather. Maybe in about a month I'll post my box built for my Champion C46540. For many reason it works to handle the frek' of a gen. I've cut the dBA at least by 10.

O&S

[SaltiDawg]

There are long discussions and actual measurements of performance of enclosures in this very long thread:

VERY Long Thread

[Almot]

No personal experience - don't have a genny and don't plan to, just observations what other people did. The heaviest is the best, ideally it should be concrete, but you can only have this on a seasonal site. Metal or plywood - doesn't matter, whatever is easier. Glue acoustic foam inside (a.k.a. egg crate foam), the thicker the better, it's not too expensive on Amazon and other places. Leave one side open - away from you, just make sure it is not facing your neighbor. Don't know about vents - but I would think 2 vents on the opposite sides will work same well as one side open, without fans.

[shock_guy]

I was thinking of constructing a box that was as large as possible and putting rv fridge wall vents in. I'm amazed at how they work. As you can see from the picture put up here for me I had to install two of those vents and the wood inside is never wet from the rain. Do u think that if I had 3 of those vents installed on a box I would still need fans?

[mlts22]

You need lots of air moving past the generator. Not just for its air intake, but to keep the thing cool.

I have seen setups using a foam filter and multiple box fans that are plugged into a 120VAC port into the generator. This does a good job at prefiltering sand and other stuff, as well as keeping a good airflow across the unit constantly.

[tvman44]

Plenty of vents and a fan to remove heat. 🙂

[the_bear_II]

I've seen boxes built from diamond plate with vents and even computer fans to provide air circulation. The fans are wired to come on anytime the generator is running. The inside of the boxes were insulated to dampen the sound.

MountainMasters truck equipment builds a pickup truck auxillary fuel tank/generator compartment to fit in the bed of the truck.