Heavy duty cart for the Kubota GL7000 generator.

[mcmxi]

I bought a GL7000 generator recently and want to put it on a heavy duty cart so that it's easy to move around the garage and to/from the house when needed. I also want to have the option to use the cart to move other heavy items if necessary. The generator weighs around 600lb.

I have some 1"x2"x.125" tubing in the form of a frame that someone gave me so I cut it up to get the steel needed. I bought four pneumatic 300lb casters a couple of years ago for another project and purchased a piece of 3/16" decking plate this past week so should be able to get everything wrapped up this weekend.

I need to cut four mounting plates for the casters, drill and tap bolt holes, add one more piece of tubing lengthwise, complete the welding and drill four holes to bolt the generator to the deck. My only big decision is whether to paint the cart Kubota gray or Kubota orange.

 

[JimmyJazz]

I would use grey as to add contrast to your "work of art". Plus you may end up using the cart for non-Kubota purposes down the road and a more neutral color might be more agreeable. I started college as an art major and soon learned everyone else was much better than me. I switched to economics. I find it just as interesting. I recommend the Malcolm Gladwell books often. Outliers, Tipping Point.......

 

[Dave_eng]

I have experience with generators on 4 wheel carts. They tend to move around and shake more than ones which have two rigid legs on the ground.

These were generators running at 3,600 rpm. I think your GL7000 operates at this speed too.

Dave

 

[mcmxi]

I would use grey as to add contrast to your "work of art". Plus you may end up using the cart for non-Kubota purposes down the road and a more neutral color might be more agreeable. I started college as an art major and soon learned everyone else was much better than me. I switched to economics. I find it just as interesting. I recommend the Malcolm Gladwell books often. Outliers, Tipping Point.......

I appreciate the suggestion and reasoning. At this stage I'm leaning towards orange and if I don't like it I can change the color.

 

[mcmxi]

I have experience with generators on 4 wheel carts. They tend to move around and shake more than ones which have two rigid legs on the ground.

These were generators running at 3,600 rpm. I think your GL7000 operates at this speed too.

Dave

The generator will be bolted to the cart. The factory skids have holes in them for bolts and I figure it'll only take a couple of minutes at most to remove the bolts if I need to transport the generator and don't want to keep it on the cart.

Also, I'm using pneumatic tires for vibration damping. The generator is very smooth so I think it'll be fine bolted to the cart with the air filled tires isolating it from the ground. I'll post a video of it running.

I got a bit behind yesterday making a shelf for my welding table so that I can store scrap metal off the floor. You can see that I had started it in the photo above but made some significant changes. Now I'm happy with it. I hope to get the cart completed this afternoon.

 

[mcmxi]

I was able to make a fair amount of progress on the cart yesterday despite some welder issues (20+ year old Millermatic 185) and completing a couple of other small projects. I cut four 3/8" plates from a piece of scrap for the casters, drilled and tapped 16 holes for the 3/8"-16 bolts, added a couple more sections of tubing, tacked the deck on and trimmed it to length, installed the casters and wrestled the cart off the welding table for a test run. All four casters swivel so this cart turns on a dime which is very useful when moving the generator into the spot I have for it next to the JohnDow fuel tank.

The cart is HEAVY, probably around 200lb. The deck is 44" long, 23-1/2" wide and sits 14-1/2" high. I tested the stability by bouncing up and down on the long edges. My center of gravity is much higher than that of the generator or most anything I would put on the cart but if tipping becomes an issue I can either find a set of casters that lowers the deck height, use solid casters, or move the casters outward to increase stability.

In addition to finishing up welding the outer edge of the deck and drilling four holes for the generator, I want to make up a multi function T handle that I can use to pull/push the cart around. I want it to store securely in the vertical position but be free to rotate through approximately 45 degrees when deployed. Any ideas?

So here's a picture summary of where I started and where I'm currently at.

 

[NetMagi]

Very well done. I'd say the tires/wheels are your weakest link, but more than enough for the weight of that genny. As well as you made that, if you swapped to solid metal wheels, that cart is probably good for 2k+ lbs.

 

[NCL4701]

Very nice! I have a 16kW generator I run off the PTO once in a while. To get the PTO shaft level it needed to be raised about 3.5” so all I did was U bolt 4 steel casters to the existing frame. Nowhere near as nice as your setup but being able to push it around the shop to store it when not in use is very nice. Having the wheels mounted to level the shaft while it’s sitting on the ground mounted to the tractor rather than relying on the 3 point to remain rock solid for hours unattended is a good bonus. Could be silly but I preferred to have some connection directly from the generator to ground rather than having it suspended in the air and depending on the 3 point to tractor to loader to bucket on the ground to provide the grounding. Still have a simple length of chain mounted from a bare bolt on the generator case that I always leave on the ground when running. I really don’t care to have any potential for the generator to be electrically isolated under any circumstance where the PTO is turning.

 

[mcmxi]

Very well done. I'd say the tires/wheels are your weakest link, but more than enough for the weight of that genny. As well as you made that, if you swapped to solid metal wheels, that cart is probably good for 2k+ lbs.

Thanks and I think you nailed it re the wheels. I made a template this morning to transfer the hole locations from the generator to the cart, drilled four 9/16" holes and then proceeded to pick up the generator and sit it on the cart as a test. Of course after marking the cart "front" I forgot to rotate it to face the right way since the skids are not centered left to right so couldn't check the holes to make sure they line up.

The other thing I quickly discovered is that the casters SUCK! It's not the caster's fault, just the idiot that's trying to use them. The generator is around 600lb and even at the recommended pressure of 30 psi there's so much friction from the tires that it's really hard to get the cart moving, particularly when the tires are oriented in different directions. Having four high friction swiveling casters is not a good idea! I'll swap out the casters for some heavy duty solid ones that are currently on an old military box that used to hold hundreds of pounds of bullets for reloading. I recently moved the bullets into the house so now the box is empty. Those casters are very smooth and very strong. Two are fixed and two are the swivel type and all four have greasable bearings, and they're considerably shorter in height. I haven't checked the bolt pattern but if I need to drill and tap more holes or make up adapter plates that's what I'll do.

On the bright side I can now get my Jeep back in the garage since the generator is no longer in the way.

 

[mcmxi]

Very nice! I have a 16kW generator I run off the PTO once in a while. To get the PTO shaft level it needed to be raised about 3.5” so all I did was U bolt 4 steel casters to the existing frame. Nowhere near as nice as your setup but being able to push it around the shop to store it when not in use is very nice. Having the wheels mounted to level the shaft while it’s sitting on the ground mounted to the tractor rather than relying on the 3 point to remain rock solid for hours unattended is a good bonus. Could be silly but I preferred to have some connection directly from the generator to ground rather than having it suspended in the air and depending on the 3 point to tractor to loader to bucket on the ground to provide the grounding. Still have a simple length of chain mounted from a bare bolt on the generator case that I always leave on the ground when running. I really don’t care to have any potential for the generator to be electrically isolated under any circumstance where the PTO is turning.

16kW is awesome! I would have liked to buy a bigger Kubota generator but 7kW was all the dealer had with little hope of getting anything else. As it is I can manage with 7kW for now.

That's interesting that you added casters to the generator because I bought the four pneumatic casters a few years ago for a similar reason. I bought a Herd seeder/spreader from a coworker after my first winter here with the idea that I'd use it to spread sand on my 400 yard long driveway when it was icy. The problem was that the Herd full of sand was quite a heavy load for the back of the BX and it sat high enough that it wouldn't sit on the ground with the 3-point lowered all the way. My plan was to build a small trailer for the Herd that could articulate like a grooming mower and the pneumatic casters would support the trailer. This would be far less stressful for the BX. I might still do this although the MX could easily handle the Herd when it's full of sand. I only recently bought the MX so it does make a lot more sense to run the Herd on the MX 3-point with the hydraulic snow blade up front and leave it in that configuration over the winter.

 

[NCL4701]

16kW is awesome! I would have liked to buy a bigger Kubota generator but 7kW was all the dealer had with little hope of getting anything else. As it is I can manage with 7kW for now.

That's interesting that you added casters to the generator because I bought the four pneumatic casters a few years ago for a similar reason. I bought a Herd seeder/spreader from a coworker after my first winter here with the idea that I'd use it to spread sand on my 400 yard long driveway when it was icy. The problem was that the Herd full of sand was quite a heavy load for the back of the BX and it sat high enough that it wouldn't sit on the ground with the 3-point lowered all the way. My plan was to build a small trailer for the Herd that could articulate like a grooming mower and the pneumatic casters would support the trailer. This would be far less stressful for the BX. I might still do this although the MX could easily handle the Herd when it's full of sand. I only recently bought the MX so it does make a lot more sense to run the Herd on the MX 3-point with the hydraulic snow blade up front and leave it in that configuration over the winter.

I had a 7500W stand-alone gas generator but no way to wire it into the house and not enough to crank our well pump that’s sitting 500’ underground. Plenty of water but it’s a long way down so big pump with lots of head pressure. Had an electrician set up a manual transfer switch and got the 16kW continuous 30kW surge which is the difference in my OCD wife living in the house v camper during power outages. In the winter, when power outages threatened I was pulling out the camper, filling with water, and running the heat in anticipation of outages, then putting it back up and draining the water even if the power never went out. To make it worse, in my business when we have damage, I get really busy. Now all I have to do is hook up the generator unless the tractor is broken down for some reason. Saves me tons of time and aggravation.

 

[mcmxi]

I had a 7500W stand-alone gas generator but no way to wire it into the house and not enough to crank our well pump that’s sitting 500’ underground. Plenty of water but it’s a long way down so big pump with lots of head pressure. Had an electrician set up a manual transfer switch and got the 16kW continuous 30kW surge which is the difference in my OCD wife living in the house v camper during power outages. In the winter, when power outages threatened I was pulling out the camper, filling with water, and running the heat in anticipation of outages, then putting it back up and draining the water even if the power never went out. To make it worse, in my business when we have damage, I get really busy. Now all I have to do is hook up the generator unless the tractor is broken down for some reason. Saves me tons of time and aggravation.

I never underestimate the importance of convenience. It makes a huge difference to how or if we use things.

Speaking of wells and power, I have a 550' deep well that according to the previous owner had dried up. Last summer I dropped a small pebble into the well and heard a splash. I timed the next one and calculated that the water is at about 250'. One of my plans with the generator is to wire a switch and plug onto the wiring from the well and see if the pump works. If it does, I might build a small pump house and run 220V to it so that I can use the water for irrigation and for back up. I'm on a communal well system at the moment that costs $42.50/month with "unlimited" use.

 

[mcmxi]

How does that saying go ... "I'd rather be lucky than good!" ? Well, I got lucky with the casters in that the solid casters have the same bolt pattern as the Iron Ton pneumatic ones so swapping them out was easy. I used the BX to pick up and lower the generator and got lucky again with the four bolt holes lining up fairly well. The generator and cart are so much easier to move and steer now with the solid casters and two fixed on one end. I think the generator will be on the cart 99.9% of the time.

I still need to finish up some welds, add a handle and paint the cart but overall I'm pleased with it and will get on some other pressing projects for the time being. I'll provide an update once it's done ... could be weeks or months.

I did run the generator for the first time yesterday afternoon and this morning and it runs well. Now that I can wheel it over to the JohnDow fuel tank I was able to fill it up with Standadyne treated red diesel. For fun I put a half-full wine glass on top of the generator to get a better idea of vibration and I was impressed by this 2 cylinder engine. I'll post a link to a short video of the generator running. It's not as quiet as I thought it would be but it's not offensive by any means. I need to get going on the hookup for the house so that I'm prepared for the next power failure.

I also need to make a similar cart for the JohnDow fuel tank that weighs close to 1,000 lb when full so that I don't need to drive the MX or BX into the garage each time I need to refuel them, or need to take the tank to the local fuel supplier.

 

[mcmxi]

Here's a link to a video showing the generator running.

 

[JimmyJazz]

Instead of building another cart mount your casters to the existing what looks like forklift accepting bottom apparatus. Use that cart for your fuel tank. A "win-win" as they say. Kinda. Thats what I would do.

 

[mcmxi]

Instead of building another cart mount your casters to the existing what looks like forklift accepting bottom apparatus. Use that cart for your fuel tank. A "win-win" as they say. Kinda. Thats what I would do.

That's an interesting suggestion and one I hadn't thought of. The cart is too small for the tank though, and I don't like the fact that the skids or whatever they're called underneath the generator are so close together.

 

[JimmyJazz]

That's an interesting suggestion and one I hadn't thought of. The cart is too small for the tank though, and I don't like the fact that the skids or whatever they're called underneath the generator are so close together.

Well you did a fine job. The second one will go faster.

 

[mcmxi]

Well you did a fine job. The second one will go faster.

Thanks ... and hopefully . I'll have to buy some rectangular .120" wall or heavier tubing but won't need decking plate. I have a fair amount of 1/2" plate so will make up six "pads" for the tank feet to sit on and use flat bar or angle at the corners as guides or limiters to position the tank. I'll probably buy some solid casters too based on the terrible performance of the pneumatic casters with only 700lb of load. It'll go a lot faster with clean tubing that I don't have to fix or hobble together.

 

[JimmyJazz]

Thanks ... and hopefully . I'll have to buy some rectangular .120" wall or heavier tubing but won't need decking plate. I have a fair amount of 1/2" plate so will make up six "pads" for the tank feet to sit on and use flat bar or angle at the corners as guides or limiters to position the tank. I'll probably buy some solid casters too based on the terrible performance of the pneumatic casters with only 700lb of load. It'll go a lot faster with clean tubing that I don't have to fix or hobble together.

Harbor Freight carries very reasonably priced casters in my opinion. To my inexperienced eye they seem well made. There is a large steel distributer near me that was kind enough to let me dumpster dive in their massive scrap pile. Channels ,pipe, angle ,plate...I loaded up about 300 pound of steel for $20. I practice welding and try not to hurt myself. I refurbished a Lincoln SAM 400 last year. I wish my welds looked half as good as yours!

 

[dlsmith]

The cart looks great and is well built.
Now you just need to get it painted Kubota orange or ROPS gray.