Bartered Generator

This post is a little story about how I bartered my mechanics skills for a generator. You might remember the 2005 Jeep Liberty I worked on a few weeks ago for my neighbor who was moving. I helped with trailer wiring and brake work so he could safely move him and his son to their new home.

 

So he gave me a Predator 4,000 generator from Harbor Freight that had only been used once but it was missing some hardware, bolts for its wheels, the bolts for its handles and he thought he

gave them to me in a little box but he gave me the wrong box and they weren’t in there.

   

 

So I had improvised because the beast weighs 128 pounds including fuel. So I found me a pair of bolts to a Chevy 350 engine; which are long enough but not the right diameter. So I had to think up something else. I went with going to my local Home Depot and found me a threaded rod measuring 24 x 1/2 inch which was plenty long enough to go from wheel to wheel and all I had to do is get the nuts to fit this threading and a couple of washers. One washer to go on the inside before installing each wheel. Then a washer for the outside of each wheel, then before installing the nuts, I’ll be cutting off just a little extra bit of the threaded rod as pictured because my rod is just a little too long and I did this with masking tape. I will be cutting it with a hacksaw.

      

Once this is done then I’ll reinstall the nuts and I will drill a hole in its threaded rod then but be careful not to tighten down to hard because it may make the wheels not run freely, then install a cotter pin in each side so to be sure the nuts won’t unthread at any time while I’m lugging it to where ever I will be using it.

 

I must say I love how this looks.