Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How do you carry a genny with a PU/camper and a boat? Aluminum Fab.

We bought this truck last winter and a 8.5 foot lance camper. But I needed a way to carry the genny while pulling the jetboat. Actually two Generac GP 2500 inverter units with a parallel kit to run the AC and microwave together.

I sat around the house thinking about it for a couple weeks and then ordered some Aluminum from Online Metals.com.

This is what I came up with. It's not quite done. I still need to round off the sharp corners at the top insides so someone does not get injured by falling on them. And I have to drill some hole for security cables to pass through.

1/4 inch diamond plate. 1 x 3 x 1/8 under the rear to stiffen it. 2.5 x 2.5 x 1/4 for the vertical to lock it onto the stinger. 3/4 x 1.5 x 1/8 for reinforcement. 12 x 48 x 1/8 for the fence pieces. and 3/8 plate for the retention Ds and for the hinge plates.

The entire deck rotates up to 45 degrees and mounts onto the tailgate hinges, just like placing or removing the tailgate. It weighs less than half of what the original tailgate weighs.

Why not in the boat?

Better make sure you got them secured real good because some folks would like to walk away with your stuff.

Looks good and handy.

+2

Because I absolutely do not want a couple of 60 lb generators bouncing around on the floorboards for 40 miles of washboard road in a $30 K boat.

Nor do I want to lift those same 60 lb generators five feet over the side in and out of the boat at the camp ground, or leave them unattended at the campground while we are launching or retrieving the boat.

As for security, I have 6 foot long 3/8 inch locking security cables on the way.

I guess, if someone cuts the cables, we will find out how good our homeowners, vehicle, and RV comprehensive/theft insurance is.

Yeah, rounding the corners off seems like a good idea, I like it!

Build a rack for them and hang them off the front bumper?

i hung a hitch hauler off the front end once and put the genny in the front,

Too much interference with air flow to the radiator. BTDT with the spare tire on a 65 GMC 4X4. Made the old girl overheat climbing mountain grades at 5000 ft and +105 degree temps. That one had an 11.5 foot camper and pulled a horse trailer or wood trailer on nearly every summer weekend.

Nor do I wish to have to figure out how to mount new headlights on a front rack.

Put a knee brace on each side, of the upright! Maybe 45 the corners to save bruises. Try preheating your weld areas, it will clean up the weld starts. With good material penetration. Especially on thicker material. Holes for ratchet straps, and bungee cords.

Why do you need to run the AC and microwave at the same time?

Personally I might have just put then inside the camper while traveling. Your going to have to move then once you set up camp anyway, unless you want to hear them all night long and run the risk of CO2 poisoning.

Nice aluminum work, and good use of the existing trailer hitch design.

Ok I know all trucks are different so yeah air flow and lights are a consideration I have hauled all sorts of fishing gear, huge coolers, tackle boxes ect , some with no problem and some with problems like you mentioned

If you decide not to put the generator's on the rack you can always put something else on it.

Okay, one 2500 watt genny will not start the AC. That takes 3500 to 4000 watts.

I have no place to carry a big genny with this rig. And I absolutely do not want to be lifting a 4000 watt genny when I get to be 75 years old. So that mandates the two 2500 watt units. That Momma does not have to worry about turning off the AC before starting the microwave is a happy side benefit.

I can lift these little guys easily off of the deck. I can not say the same thing about getting them into and out of the camper.

This way there is no gas or oil leaking inside the camper and stinking it up. And I can easily strap two five gallon gas cans between the gennys.

I have lots of material left. I can add the knee braces later if it seems they are warranted. The outside corners are mitered. You can see one of them in the third pic. With 90 degree corners, Momma's thighs would be a bruised mess after a couple days of camping.

My 200 lb son got up there and jumped on the outside corner. We could see no flex. That 1/4 inch diamond plate is really strong (and expensive).

I have always had a serious habit of over engineering any project I design. It's the farmer in me. Hell, Dad would have figured out how to do the job with baling wire and duct tape.

Thanks for the welding advice.

The rack, as is, comes just to the bottom of the turn signals. The generators will obscure the turn signals. I will mount some trailer tail/brake/turn lamps to the back of the rack and plug them into the four prong auxiliary light plug on the pickup.

Then I will still have the seven prong to plug in the boat trailer.

Looks like the license plate is also obstructed. Not an issue when pulling the boat trailer, but neither are the truck lights.

When I install my carrier into my motorhome receiver and load it up, my plate is blocked. For long out of state trips, I remove the plate and put it on the back of the carrier. To be legal, I also installed an illumination light. Runs off my 4 prong plug.

You might consider the same since you are going through all
the effort with the tail lights anyway.

A soft start capacitor kit for your A/C might allow you to use just one generator

Strap it on the front.

I have a camper for my Ram.

It's a real PITA (mostly to remember) to transfer the back plate back and forth when the camper goes on/off.

There should be a third plate option for this.

I agree. 2500W should be enough for a pretty large window unit. An 8000 btu unit should only use around 750W. My microwave only uses 1100W.