Spare Wheels/ Genny

Bill, Before you remove anything what is your ballweight ? Do you have heavy stuff already on drawbar ....? I only ask these questions because BT's have a lowish ballweight delivered. I still struggle to get 220kg when ready to leave and my genny box will get me around 250kg which I will be happy with at 2950kg and 18fter. Are you saving weight to keep ballweight down or are you at the ATM ....? As for the vibrations in the chassis try placing a piece of solid ply or similar across the A-frame and sit genny on ...start up and have a feel ? Make sure the ply is G-clamped so it transmits as though it is bolted. I'm probably going to use some industrial rubber mounts/feet as a safe guard. My brother (mech engineer for CR seals) has shown me a selection of these in the past. They look like a cylinder of rubber with a thread coming out each end. I think the air-con would send a hum through the van that would drown out the genny hum ..... with the fan on 3 you nearly need earmuffs !!! [smile] As for the enclosure ....when I get the sump temp data you are welcome to it. I'm trying to get away with the 12" thermo fan but might use the 14 " if the louvres offer to much resistance to air flow. Also ...the outlet louvres get very hot (because of exhaust heat) this might help make a decision which side to face it .... Regards Anthony Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ...Tow a Bushtracker

Anthony, Thanks for responding so quickly. No I don't have any heavy stuff on the bar already it is as it came from BT, 2 wheels and 2 gas cylinders. Not wanting to create any problems the plan was to simply replace items of a certain weight with different items so as not to alter the status quo. The van has a stamped tare of 2260kg and the last time I checked the ball weight was in the vicinity of 220kg with no water in any of the 4 tanks. The intent is more directed at not overloading the draw bar than either a ball weight or ATM issue as I know we are well within both. From all the discussions that have been going on about tare weights etc and the accuracy of same I think I will have to make a trip to a weighbridge to authenticate the plate figures. The genny box will be a bit of a challenge to get right but it gives us something to think about eh. Cheers, Bill

Bill, Personally if you want to have the genny on draw bar, I would have it in a box with the spare fuel so that there are no petrol fumes inside van, and then because you hardly ever require to use it anyway, take it out of the box to use it. They only weight about 23 kg so it would be easy to move and when in a sealed box, it would always stay clean. Boxes with fans to keep genny cool, seems like a bit of an overkill to me, when you take into account the amount of time that you actually use it. Not sure where Turist, Bob, stores his but he just chains it to the side of the van when it was in use at Gympie Muster. My genny is carried in rear of F250, so we don't get fumes in cab. PS. Could you send me an e-mail with your vehicle and van details for the lists. Brian

As for using spare wheels, I have only had 1 flat tyre on Bushtracker in 55,000km and that was a bolt that got flicked up on a bitumen road. About 5 years ago though, I had 2 flat tyres on Toyota at Dalhousie Springs, then a blow out on tent trailer near Kings Canyon before I had the Toyota ones fixed. I had run out of spares (one one on car & one on trailer) so dumped trailer in bush, drove 300km to Alice and got tyres fixed and while returning for trailer had another blow out on Toyota. (they were all good tyres too). So from this you can see that I will always have 2 spares on Van and 1 on F250. Brian

Most of the time we operate our Honda EU20i in the back of the F250 with the canopy window open.
The genny sits on a piece of 25mm very high density foam rubber and this absorbs all transmitted vibrations.
Sound levels are very low, we even had a national parks ranger walk past about 25 mtr away and did not notice geny operating.
No smells in back of truck.
Regards
Turist

Brian, Turist and Dave, Thanks for your responses and advice and the photo you sent Dave. All good information as I expected. Regards, Bill

Bill, I am glad you started this thread (in relation to others' experience with flat tyres), as I was also thinking of ditching one of the spares on my next BT. In my case, I would have 2 spares on the tow vehicle, plus wheels interchangeable between van and car, so 4 spares all up seems to me like an overkill. I am looking at having just one jerry can in position of the ditched spare, and then leaving the rest of the A-frame uncluttered. [I would still have an extended A-frame though as you can do really tight turns without worrying about the stone guard catching the rear of the car.] As for my own expereince, with 25,000km of touring I have just this week had to replace one tyre on the tow vehicle (as the sidewall was cut/cracked), but it wasn't flat and I was within 50km of a tyre dealer anyway. Phil PS: I am running BF Goodrich A/T - if anyone else happens to have had a BAD experience with flats, please confirm what kind of tyres you are running thanks.

G'Day Brian, I have sent a couple of times the details you have requested on our vehicle and van, have you received it or are we having e-mail problems. Regards, Bill

Bill, the only thing that I haven't got is the Suburb that you live in. I will send out the latest up date shortly, if any of the others who haven't yet forwarded their details would like to send me theirs to be added to the list. Brian

Brian, Here is some updated info ... On my BT ... from day one 4 solar panels, 3 batteries and 4 watertanks. FtroopCafe's BT now sports a new 120w panel making the total 4 ....still has 3 batteries. Anthony Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ...Tow a Bushtracker

Brian, I am just a dreamer but my research has suggested that Cooper Sure Trac 10 plies are the best Hope I have helped. Macka