Generator Mobility Kit

Generator Mobility Kit

The year 2004 delivered a series of hurricanes that hit Florida pretty hard. Although we experienced some damage from the storms, some of the most memorable aspects of the aftermath was the lack of power. It took almost a full week to have power restored after one of the worse hurricanes.

We got lucky after each storm last year. Our neighbor generously allowed us to connect a power cord to their generator to keep our food refrigerated and to run a fan to help cool the house during the hot nights until power in the area was restored.

After each storm, we debated if a generator would be a good investment. Having our own generator would mean we could power a few more items without draining power away from our neighbor. It also means that we can tap into a source of electricity at will without hoping our neighbors are at home or willing to share their generator.

But generators are not cheap. Brand name generators can easily cost between $650 to $1,000 for models that can generate 5,000 watts or more. Making the decision to actually buy one is difficult when its need is not urgent, yet generators are very hard to find when a bad storm rolls into the area and everyone wants one.

Hurricane Katrina was a sober reminder that we might be better off to be prepared rather than simply wait for a bad storm then wish we had one. When Pep Boys ran an ad offering a 5,500 watt generator for just $429, we decided it was time to make an investment.

We had a hard time finding a Pep Boys store that had the model 5500 13 HP Generator in stock. One salesman told us over the phone they had sold out before the ad hit, but when we went to the store to see if a recent truck had delivered the product they readily offered a rain check and promised to call us. (Hmm, they have not called yet.)

While waiting to hear from the Pep Boys on South Semoran to call us, we finally found a Pep Boys on Eat Colonial that had a supply. We asked them to hold one for us and when we arrived, they promptly rang it up (it came up as only $399 on the register, so we saved another $30). A couple of sharp guys helped us load the very heavy generator into the back seat of our car.

Generators sold by The Home Depot, Lowe's and other retailers are often equipped with a wheel kit enabling the user to easily push or pull the generator to where it is needed. Wheel Kits, also known as Mobility or Dolly Kits, are also available as options for many brands of generators. We Power is the company that manufactures The Power Pro generator that we purchased from Pep Boys is manufactured by Wen Power. We contacted them in email and they reported that they do not offer a wheel kit made specifically for their generators.

Harbor Freight is one of our favorite retailer of tools and equipment. While shopping a local Harbor Freight location for wheels and other hardware, we discovered a perfect solution.

The 37320 Flatbed Wagon had all the components that we needed to custom build a Mobility Kit; wheels, axels, platform and handle. There were only two problems. It was longer than we needed and it cost more than we wanted to spend.

Instead of paying the $89.99 shelf price, we went home to do additional research. After checking eBay and a catalog of favorite discount Web sites, we admittedly found that $89.99 was a good price. But as luck would have it, Harbor Freight's Web Site offers the 37320 Flatbed Wagon for a sale price of $69.99. We knew that Harbor Freight retail stores honor all Web Site sale prices if we simply show them a printed copy of the offer.

We are also on Harbor Freight's email list. Lately, Harbor Freight has been sending coupons for 20% off any one item; even if it's on sale. Armed with a copy of the sale price and with the 20% off coupon, we purchased our Flatbed Wagon for only $55.99. Now our only problem was the fact that the wagon was quite a bit longer than we needed.

We knew that the width of the Flatbed Wagon was suitable for our needs, but it was much too long.

When opening the box, we found that much of the Flatbed Wagon is already assembled. We removed the hardware and put them in safe places.

Around the parameter of the plywood bed is a protective plastic bumper. It was glued on and stapled at the seam. We removed the staple and found that it peeled away without too much trouble.

We wanted to center the generator on the platform with about the same amount of space on all four sides. Once we determined the length we cut the platform down to the new size with our Craftsman Table Saw.

With the platform cut down in length, it no longer had the pre-drilled holes for the rear wheel assembly. We clamped the cut off portion of the platform over the new position for the wheels and used it as a template to mark the holes. We used a tire to make sure that it would not extend beyond the rear of the platform after the wheel assembly was installed in its new position.

We lowered the saw into the base of the table saw and used the surface to work on the project. We installed the wheel assemblies and made certain that the nuts were all tightened.

We then turned the shortened wagon over and reattached the plastic bumper using Liquid Nails as adhesive. It was now longer, so we had to reshape the back corners and cut the excess.

At right is the finished result. We used 8 (eight) 1.5-inch long 5/16 hex bolts plus washers and lock nuts from The Home Depot to firmly hold the generator in place. The bottom braces of the generator already had these holes drilled out, so we used them as templates on the wagon. Now the generator is easy to move from storage to anyplace we may need it.

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