Building a rear bumper extension for generator

[firehart2]

Sent: 8/6/2007

I am thinking that I will probably have to make a rear bumper extension put the after market generator on. Does anybody have photos and/or suggestions on how to build one thats heavy enough to hold a 400 lb genderator?

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Sent: 07/08/2007

I had lashed one of the lighter weight contractor style generators to the spare tire carrier for a while.  Vibration was the main issue but I lived with it for several months.  Standard RV generators are mounted to springs and/or vibration dampers which my low budget mounting didn't have.  I later mounted it in the generator compartment on springs which worked better as far as vibration was concerned.  Even though I had installed a radiator fan for ventalation, I think heat became an issue though.  The low budget generator (from china) eventually seized.  Haven't tried to redo it though.  If you have a tow hitch, many RV campers have mounted low budget generators to those hitch platforms that are now available.  You can find many threads about those at other RV forums.

Good luck,
Dave Bailey

[LJ-TJ]

Sent: 07/08/2007

I have several pictures of bumper storage add-ons.  Sob put them in a photo album in the gallery.

[firehart2]

Sent: 14/08/2007

I went and looked at the ones that Harbor Freight sells that slide into the trailer hitch. The trailer hitch on my Winnie is weled onto the frame and does not have the square adapter. I would still need to have a hitch to pull a trailer.

[killme10]

Sent: 15/08/2007

Hi, I welded up a pretty nice bumper for my D21. It is about 24" deep and as wide as the wino, I think it was about 92" wide. it will hold an extra 30 gallon water tank and coolers with ease.  I will try to get some pics and measurements for you and email them to you. Talk later, Marty

[denisondc]

Sent: 19/08/2007 7:18 AM

I made an 'extendable' new bumper when we got our 72 Winnie in 91, which totally replaced the original (heavy) Winnebago rear bumper & spare tire support. I started with two 4' lengths of stock channel iron, a size smaller than the channel the Winnebago frame extension was made of. I think it was 3.5" x 1" channel, to fit on the inner side of the 5" x 2" channels on the Winnie. I drilled a row of six 7/16th holes along the center-line of each of the 5" x 2" channel irons on the Winnie, & spaced carefully 6 " apart. They matched a similar set of 1/2" holes I drilled in my 3.5" x 1" channel irons. This allowed me to bolt my own 'extension rails' to the inside of the Winnebago frame extension rails - in 4 different positions forward-to-rearward. (Using 3 bolts on each side.)

I bolted right-angle brackets to the rear ends of the 3.5 x 1s, then welded my homemade bumper across the ends. When bolted in the forward-most position the bumper was 3" away from the body of the coach; or it could be 9", 15" and 21" away, in the most rearward. My bumper was a piece of the thinwall 4" square tubing from an RV supply store. It was 8 ft long. The Winnie body was about 7' 7" wide, so I shortened the bumper 'tube' to 7' 5" wide. I didnt want the ends to stick out and catch on things when maneuvering in old Mexican towns with narrow streets. The tube came with square plastic inserts to close the ends - which I later had to screw-on so they wouldnt fall off. These square tubes are a handy place to store a long sewer hose too.

Most of the time I had the bumper bolted so it left 15" between the body and the bumper. I cut a piece of 5/8ths plywood to fit in this space (15" by 7'5"), and bolted it to the channel iron. This gave me a flat platform for supporting bicycles, etc. I also did a lot of small repair jobs while perched on that plywood. Even though I varnished it, I had to replace it each 4 or 5 years due to weathering.

I had already relocated the 'spare' to hang below the frame aft the rear axle. The hard part of that job was making up a small 'winch' to haul the heavy (100lb) wheel/tire up & onto the studs of my homemade spare-support. Later I made up another support to carry a 2nd spare; but currently I just carry a 2nd tire/boot/innertube behind my spare, and held up with a wrap of medium weight chain. With my split-rims, I can change a tire if I need to. I carry the tools to do this inside the Winnie. Being out of direct sunlight seems to keep the tires from deteriorating. Having the spare out of the way makes the space behind that rear 'hatch' more useful.

So far the bumper hasnt gotton smashed or bent, other than nicks and scratches. I got a tow hitch from ebay.com and made up matching brackets. One pair of brackets is welded to the tow hitch, the other brackets were welded to my 3.5" x 1" channels. This lets me bolt up the tow hitch when I want to tow something via a tow-bar or tow-dolly, and unbolt it when I want maximum ground clearance at the tail end. Both aspects have been useful.

I once made up a 2" square hitch receiver that could also bolt-on, in case I wanted to tow a trailer: It was meant to be a Class-III design. But I decided I didnt want that much tongue weight hanging off my frame extension to the rusty-welded-on Winnebago frame extension.

[RV Mech Tech]

firehart2 -  Onan has a similar trailer portable mount that goes into the receiver-hitch but it is basically a generator stand that had fold up legs and wheels and you would roll it to the  hitch on a TT or 5th wheel and mount it in and then fold up the wheels - they used to have a picture on the 'recreational vehicle' link home page but I do not see a picture any more just a diagram in their RV Accessory link (Onan keeps changing their website every month!!) - its halfway down the page and it had a portable gas tank (same as a marine application with quick disconnect fittings for the fuel line) and the tank is still available but the picture of the stand is only a stationary stand shown in the diagram but you could make something up and you could also fabricate a setup to fit your receiver-hitch - the diagrams are on pages 41 & 73 and it was called "Campower 2800" - they used the Microlite 2800 genset for this application - hope this helps!   Hm?

[LJ-TJ]

Got a link?   D:oH!

[RV Mech Tech]

TJ - if you were asking about a link for the Onan Campower KVD, Onan used to have separate links and as I said an actual picture of it installed on a travel trailer- they have changed their website around (again!!) and the only reference I could find is in their RV accessories list and even then it's just a diagram of a stationary stand - the original one had fold up legs with wheels - I searched the entire site and that's the only reference on their site www.cumminsonan.com - maybe someone who sells Onan RV generators may have some reference material. - did some searching and here is two websites you can see the hitch stand - it' called  'The Juice Box ' and you can see it on  www.coloradostandby.com  and  www.dhgeneratorservice.com - dh actually has the original Onan pdf file to view with pictures -click on the picture of the 'Juice Box'