Definitely NOT Happy Jan !!!

Finally the enclosure is all covered with two layers of the same aluminised insulation I used in the walls (seeing I had most of a roll of that left too) and all the joints etc. covered with a layer of aluminised joining tape.
Hoist the generator in place and all looks good for a test.
Close the door and press the remote start button. . .
Nothing !!
W.T.F. ???


















Then I had a thought . . . maybe I had been too clever and with all that foil I may have inadvertently created what is known as a "Faraday Cage". I had to build one of these once for a customer to keep out all stray electromagnetic radiation. He wanted half a factory done in this way as he made radio controlled electronic equipment and needed to test it in a "clean" environment to be able to certify the amount of radio emission he was creating.
Anyway it occurred to me that the remote control signal may not have been able to get through.
Turned out that stupid (that's me) just wasn't holding down the button long enough.
A friend of mine was around at the time and he kept up with
"Is it running?"
"I can't hear it! Is it still going?" etc.
It was nice in regard to the amount of noise it was making but a bit silly all the same :)
.
I left it running for about 15-20mins which seemed to be completely OK until I opened up the hatch. You could easily fry an egg on the insulation near the outlet. The rest of the compartment was warm but not too hot. I didn't have a pyrometer handy but a guess based on experience suggested the fan was about 60-70 degrees. This is hot enough to burn you if you touch it. I'm not sure how long it would last under those conditions. Where I could get at the other sides (from inside the house) it appeared that most of the heat had been stopped but it was only 15-20 mins on a day that was 15 deg. to begin with. I need to run it for the air conditioning on days that may well be 45 deg shade temperature when I am out in the middle of Australia in desert conditions and for up to 12 hours at a time.
This is not looking good !

As a first step I built a temporary duct out of insulated foam to guide the exhaust air more directly to the fan BUT away from the motor and box sides/roof. As you can see it's very rough but I wanted to see if it made a difference. Another test suggested that it now took about 30mins. to get everything up to the same sort of temperature.
Better but no where near good enough!


















This is the trouble when you can't get proper information . . . too much guess work.

So I thought I would try Honda again. I guess when I say "Honda" everyone realises that it really is just a dealer organisation whose main focus is on "How many did you sell today?"
Still you have to try.

"I would like to talk to your service technical department please?"
"Yair? What's up mate?"
"I would like to know how much air is required to cool your model 30EUi generator in a closed environment please?"
"Whaddya mean 'closed environment' mate? It's got a fan. You just park it on the ground and start it up. You aren't supposed to use it inside you know!"
"I understand. But I wan't to have it in a box while it is running and of course I need to keep it cool."
"Jeez. Mate. Whaddya want to do that for?"
"Well it's part of my motorhome settup and I would like to run it in the box I carry it in as it's very convenient and it's a bit quieter that way too. "
"But it's the 30EUi which is the quietest model we make. Whaddya need it quieter for?"
"Well in most caravan parks even the quiet ones are considered too noisy and ... and ... and ...
Oh. Forget it!"

You know what it's like . . . .

On the big one I had before the exhaust and the cooling air were separate and in my "mate" Sich's bus he had the same for which I made an adaptor for the exhaust pipe to run it out separately. He has the same setup I am now using and he can run his all day without overheating. Very frustrating.

I guess there is nothing for it but to see if I can separate the exhaust and pipe it outside directly. It will probably mean the end of my brand new 4 year warranty but I can't think of anything else at the moment.

So this is the exhaust end. You can see the grill over the air outlet.
Let's have the plastic end cover off first.























Underneath there is a moulded fibreglass enclosure with a better fit to help with heat and noise.























Opening this reveals only about a 10mm thick fibreglass mat. I know it's fibreglass because I have spent all day itching!























With that out of the way you can see the muffler right up the top.
I'm amazed that this is separated from the fuel tank by only another 10mm of fibreglass mat!
From the right side of the muffler you can see the little exhaust pipe which dumps the gas into the cooling air flow. Just to the left of what looks like a completely useless yellow dot on the exhaust you can see a 20mm diameter hole which is the outlet.























This pipe is joined to the muffler with an oval flange at what happens to be a quite convenient angle. If a new flange and straight pipe are made the pipe would come out straight through the grille. I can either cut a hole in the existing grill or make a new one which better directs the air flow.
I think you can guess what happens next . . .
I am going to make a duct with a new grill and cover them with fibreglass lagging similar to that inside the generator and direct the cooling air straight outside ignoring the extra fan. There is already a fan inside the generator to move this air.
I am then going to make a new exhaust pipe connected by flexible pipe and covered with more lagging and direct the exhaust straight outside. This doesn't need any fan.
Then I am going to leave the extra fan and it's inlets and outlets which will just be used to circulate extra air through the box to keep the enclosure cool.

And if all that doesn't work I will be more than NOT HAPPY !!!!

Two In One Day !!

In the course of the previous jobs I kept tripping over my new generator so it seemed a good time to get on with fitting it properly. The combined exhaust cooling air needs to exit through this area but the 25mm x 25mm brace in the middle gets in the way. There is plenty of other support around this area so it has to go. Out with the angle grinder . . .























Once that's done a "plenum chamber" is created to allow for the different shapes of external and internal openings and to mount an additional fan to help with getting the air out.























This is all a bit of guesswork as nowhere can I find a figure for the amount of air required to keep the generator cool. So I have started with the area of the exhaust outlet and tried to make sure it didn't get restricted on the way. Unfortunately the final vent is the largest I can find to still fit in this area and the actual open area of the vent is about 50% of the generator outlet. This is why I have added the fan. It's an industrial version moving 600 cubic metres / hour. It will be plugged into the second outlet on the generator so will always run when the generator is running.
Next some more of the dreaded "hacking holes in the hull". Start with a small hole in each corner























Tape around the area to be cut out to prevent the jigsaw scratching the fibreglass and "jig-saw away"....























Next seal up all the inside of the box as the vent while looking nice will not be particularly weatherproof and one of the sort I made for the other vents would be a bit restrictive . . there is already one on the input side. This way any water getting inside will dry out without damaging the timber areas. If it proves ineffective in practice I will just have to provide a drain outlet.























From here on a plain box can be created with a hole into the plenum chamber for the fan


















which is then fitted so that the generator exhaust is directed into it.


















The idea is that it will push air out faster than the generator requires and will help pull air through the generator keeping it cool. The box will be sealed by the door which has the inlet vent at the other end to the exhaust outlet and is directly opposite the generator input. A little more work is required to get that to seal properly.
In the mean time I have quite a lot of foam panel lying around from other parts of the project which in the normal course of events would probably end up in the bin. The interior will be lined with this to reduce noise inside and outside the house but in the mean time I have some extra as well so that can go on the outside of the ceiling panel before it's screwed in place.


















This entire construction has been put together without glue as it covers all the bed lifting mechanism which if it ever goes wrong will need to be accessed.
Fingers crossed that never happens . . .
Finally around the outside to silicone the vent panel in place.
It's a very attractive anodised aluminium piece but as you can see wont do much about the weather.























While putting all this in place I also happened to notice that I had not put the final "nyloc" nut on the bike carrier support arms. Nylocs are (in the aircraft industry at least) only used once! They become rapidly ineffective at being a "lock nut" the more they are taken on and off so I had been using plain nuts until I was ready to leave them there. As this generator enclosure also covers the nut it needed to be finally fitted which meant that I had to grab hold of the bar with a stillson wrench in order to stop everything slipping.
They work well but make an ugly mess of anything they get hold of . . .


















Looks like there is a bit of extra cleaning up required around the seal area . . . .

Fiddly Bits . . .

I decided I needed to try and finish at least one thing at a time for a while so the attack on the bike rack was continued. There are a couple of little brackets on the frame which could be useful for supporting the back end of the rack but unfortunately they are under the mudguard and in fact one is the taillight attachment point. To get at them I have to do one of my least favourite activities, drill or cut holes in a perfectly functioning piece of equipment. Nothing else for it I guess .....























Well that wasn't so bad :(

In order to have a certain amount of design integrity I needed to make some support pillars of the right height. Those which sit on flat surfaces on the bottom are just left but a couple of the others which have a nut underneath them (as opposed to the nut normally sitting on top) which is required to attach the taillight have a washer underneath to spread the load on the soft aluminium.









Finished - so take it all apart and fit the mudguard back in . . .














and it doesn't look too bad.


















So now I can fit a couple of easily adjustable straps to find out the balance point before I make the lifting/stabilising bracket.


















As there wasn't much left of the day I decided to do a little inside job. A shower curtain is mandatory to stop the water going all over the floor. The floor is of course 3mm melamine so it's not going to hurt it but inevitably it will flow out the door and into an unsealed area - so best to stop it before it gets away. The curtain rod is held in place by a couple of rubber backed fittings designed to be squeezed between two walls. The fixed version is fine
















but the other end, while it works quite well, is an extremely ugly piece of work. I have put it behind the door in the hope that I will soon forget about it if I don't see it as much and won't be tempted to make a new one in stainless steel.

















I have enough other things to do . . .

A Short Break . . .

Oops. Left this picture out from the last post.
You have to look very carefully but then you can see the retaining device which prevents the assembly rolling right off the end. I could have just drilled a hole in the end and put a pin through but that would have required it to be longer (and it's already long enough) and would have allowed water entry into the tube where it would of course start rust. The end is capped and then a strap welded around the end which can then hold a flat bar with a rod welded along the top, which prevents it falling through and helps to act as a stop. Seems to work quite well.























So with the wheel lifter now working very satisfactorily it was time to move onto the bike carrier. The bars which act as supports were trimmed back to the correct length, as the original hinges from "idea #1" were no longer needed the bars were now too long.
They also needed a mechanism for stopping the carrier from slipping off the end.
For some reason or other I had an idea which incorporated black acetal (which is why it appears in the photo) but for the life of me I can't remember what it was) so what I ended up with was a large stainless steel disk drilled to take a countersunk bolt which I thought would look good with a reflector covering the end. I suspect the transport authorities may even have insisted on that last detail.








When it's bolted to the end of the bar it looks like this.



















Then it was just a matter of taping everything up (as is my normal wont) and applying liberal amounts of silicone adhesive and taping them together until set. Peel off the tape and it's all cleaned up beautifully, and the hole in the reflector allows me to get to the allen screw if it ever needs to come off.























Next I decided I needed a better way of hooking onto the bike. The front is OK . . . a nylon covered steel hook fits between the handlebar supports and is easy to slip on and off but the rear end I just slung a strap under the rear mudguard and frame. Not very elegant and not very convenient. On the top of the guard just behind the seat were a couple of 8mm screws holding on the guard. Maybe I could do something there . . .
I found a block of aluminium the right size and 30 mins work on the mill resulted in a convenient bracket to match the bolt holes.
The relieved ends go through the guard, which has had the holes opened out a bit, and bolt down hard on the frame to make it more rigid.














And the top looks like this
















There is a reason for the top looking like this and I'll tell you if it works after I get back from a short break . . . .

Yep. It worked.
One of the places I wanted to have a look at for an overnight stay can be approached by driving down the boring bitumen highway but some time ago I had driven there in a 4WD I had at the time and it was a really pleasant track to drive along. The only trouble was at the time I had not been thinking about clearance for a truck. So I thought I would ride my dirt bike through first just to check it out. The trouble is it's a 300km round trip with no fuel stops and the bike will only go 200km. There is no way of carrying extra fuel and I didn't like the idea of strapping a jerrycan to my back - but I did have a piece of 6mm thick aluminium plate about 350 mm square which if I machined a few holes in could be bolted through on top of the lifting bracket and would make a carrier of one sort or another. The two big holes allow the hook to be fitted through and under the bracket.


















I was so enthusiastic I couldn't even wait to make a second support bracket at the back (which will be necessary eventually) but packed some of the high density foam I have lying around under the plate on top of the guard and strapped on a 10 litre container and off I went.

That's 300km of accumulated mud under there - which just proves it works great!!

But now I've been I don't think the campground is worth a 3rd trip before going somewhere more serious. . .

Not Happy Jan . . .

Well I finished and bolted up the hoisting beam and with a few rollers made from my favourite material acetal























it looked like this at the hoisting end


















and like this at the cantilever end.









Another of these, by now tedious, plates was made up to provide a mounting to bolt to the rim


















and to which a square tube was welded to provide a mount for the winch and up we go . . .























Mounting the winch this way serves three purposes:
1) with the winch on the wheel and facing up the cable can be run over the pulleys and back down to the wheel which halves the amount of pull required compared to mounting the winch on the chassis and looping over the pulley or mounting the winch on the top tube and pulling up directly,
2) the winch is easier to mount on the wheel, especially when it is on the ground, rather than on the top beam, and
3) when turned over it provides a direct pull up for the motorbike.

Then the problems started . . .
First the top beam bent. The winch is quite fast and stops and starts suddenly with a brake to prevent unwinding when turned off. This jerky start means that the load can easily double with a bounce and thus overload the beam.
Next I had a look at the cantilever end - I couldn't believe how far the roof was deflecting upward - close to 20 mm - especially with the bouncing.
Then of course it was quite easy to swing the wheel out to clear the bolts while it is down near the ground. As it gets closer to the lifting beam, due to the lack of clearance above it, there is only about 50mm free cable. No way to swing in the 100m required to get the rim over the bolts.























Nothing for it but . . . to start a new lifting beam.
This one has a couple of spacers to lift it a bit higher.
Also the wall thickness is double!!
Whenever you weld something across a beam like this the welding contraction causes the beam to bend toward the weld ending up looking like a banana. Not a good look so under the piece to be welded is a packing strip and each end is clamped down bending it backwards before the welding starts. There is no real way to calculate the amount it will bend when welded because of the different heat and metal mass involved in each weld but after a while you get a feel for it, and this felt about right.









At the cantilever end it was extended to the next roof cross beam to decrease leverage and to give two more fixing points. If you look really carefully you can see fancy milled "feet" of 10mm thick bar to spread the load and the end of the tube chamfered closed as before.


















At the other end, again with more acetal rollers, a very simple roller system was made to allow the whole top end to roll backward and forward the required 100mm to get the rim over the mounting bolts. The plates for the rollers are just roughly cut at this point to make sure it works. Later I will round the ends and trim it all up. The plates come apart easily and pack into a very small space. It is not intended to leave this part up there. Hopefully I will seldom (read "never" please!!) have to do this too often "in the bush".
The clamp is also a temporary item to prevent it all coming down on my head. It will have a "proper" retaining system now that I know it all works. Because of the increased strength of materials and more rigid mountings there also seems to be no bounce when stopping and starting.




















It worked so well I put the wheel up and down a couple of times in about 10 mins and with no more real strain than holding down the control button.
The only real tedious part now will be disassembling it all and priming and painting to prevent rust and then reassembling.

Still, all in all, "Much happier now Jan."

Win Win . . .

With the decision to do it right the second time around and make use of the winch I had originally bought for the purpose (and I'm still not sure how I got sidetracked the first time) the pivoting framework was not really necessary. I could have just hooked the winch to that I suppose and although it would work (in theory) it still had it's disadvantages in that the geometry meant that it required very high pulling forces at the bottom and the top ends of the arc. It's main advantage was that it positioned the wheel exactly over the studs as it swung into position - time will tell how valuable that attribute is.
So take it off and remodel it to it's new purpose.
I never liked the two plates just welded onto it so that it could be bolted into position. But as we all know you can't just bolt through a piece of tube and not have it collapse as you do up the bolt. There are a number of other reasons why this approach is not good but just let's say there is a better way.
The end of the tube is rounded (more in a minute), two large holes bored through the tube at a distance to match the bolt holes


















and steel plugs turned up the same diam. as the holes


















and of a length so that they fit flush when the plugs are inserted in the holes


















Some flat bar the same width as the tube is then rolled around some bar


















so that when a piece of the right size is cut off it fits neatly around the end of the tube. The whole lot is then welded up. This is a messy business as it is welding through the zinc plating on the tube (which vapourises and is toxic and also deposits on the welding nozzle but is quicker than grinding all of the zinc off first - you never quite get it all anyway . . .) but if you turn the welder up you get a nice burn through with plenty of penetration - which is what you want as


















the next step is to grind off all the weld metal off the surface


















give it all a quick polish ready for priming and painting


















and a trial fit back on the truck to make sure I got it all right.


















I think that looks much better and I can do up the bolts to the correct tightness without fear off the tube collapsing.
Now on to the actual hoisting beam . . .
Similar principles are used to close up the end of piece of square tube. Thanks to good old Pythagoras if you leave the tab on the top of the tube 1.414 times the width of the tube it will be enough to close off the end without having to cut another piece to fit. Just bend it over


















and weld along the edges. I find it better to finish each section as I go rather than try to bend it all the way round before welding.























Bend the next step























Weld that up too and grind off all the rubbish




















Then weld on some side plates which carry the bolt through the middle of the pulley


















At the other end add an upright support bar to extend down to the wheel support bracket and some more side plates for another pulley.


















Next my least favourite bit (not the least because I hate heights) is to get up on the top and drill holes for mounting the hoist beam. Again these have "rivnuts"into the roof support tubes
















and stainless steel "T" washers with liberal amounts of silicone. I am paranoid about water penetration!














Next I need to make a bracket to mount the winch . . .

Meanwhile . . . after the last excursion . . . I was pleased with the way the electrical system worked. Using the microwave for some defrosting, lights and the air conditioner for an hour or so (reverse cycle) pulled the batteries down to 94%. I am hoping to keep them above 90% to avoid shortening their life. As they are mil-spec batteries they are not cheap (at about $7000) so you don't want to abuse them! A few hours of sunshine between rain showers and they were back up to 100%! Of course driving anywhere will charge them up in no time at 100amp input. All of this is good as I have not been happy with my generator situation. The generator is of course a new Honda and works perfectly - it's just that I was too enthusiastic about generator capacity and it is really just too big to go into the space I provided for it. If fits all right but there is no room for the extra sound and heat insulation I wanted to fit. Also the first trip proved that a smaller generator would suffice. In fact I never even took it with me! So - I hate buying and selling things second hand. I know some people revel in it but I can never even seem to break even. I decided to take a trip to "The Honda Shop" to see what was available in a slightly smaller version. Lo and Behold they now make a 3Kva which is smaller, lighter, quieter, runs longer on a single tank, cooler and of course . . . costs the same amount of money as the 6Kva that I had bought 18 months ago. They were quite intrigued with the fact that mine had done only 3 hours running (mainly to keep the battery charged) and was in perfect condition. Given that mine now cost new another $2000 more than I paid for it there seemed to be some maneuvering room. They could give me a brand new smaller unit (at their cost to them as a dealer) and sell my old one as a "demo"unit "$1000 off" and make a double margin. They only had one unit in stock but that was fitted with a remote start option and as I really wanted one anyway I said I would pay them for the remote start if I could take it then and there. I didn't want them to change their mind while waiting for another unit to come into stock.


















And there is the added benefit that I get a new warranty all over again . . .

Win - Win!