Mounting a generator is a common thing and there are production made mounts and trays and slide outs all over to be purchased. But wouldn't you know it, there were not any available made for or, even of the near to correct size, for where we wanted to mount ours in our 2008 ambulance. I guess there aren't too many people needing to install aftermarket generators onto ambulances... Here is a shot of the rig, nicknamed the OCU (Orange Crash Unit - check out it's FB page here- https://www.facebook.com/OrangeCrashUnit ):
The ambulance is our tailgating rig, and the generator will help power all those necessary tailgating items, such as crock pots, refrigerators, televisions, stereos, lights, sirens, PA, etc. But since we don't use the rig all the time, it would be nice to be able to keep the generator easily removable for use elsewhere. We also don't want to cut up some perfectly good dry storage, so we will need to make the generator slide out away from the rig for when it's parked. Figured we would usually need between 2500-3000 running watts during normal tailgating conditions. So we went for a Champion 4000 watt starting\ 3500 continuous running unit.
And picked out the storage compartment we wanted to use on the driver's side:
In order to make the generator slide out away from the ambulance enough, we will have to use a double slide, or an over extension slide. This means you will be able to extend the slides past the overall compressed length. We could order in just roller bearing slides that would handle the weight and extend far enough, but their cost and lead times were to great. So we ordered in some steel rollers, some sealed roller bearings, and planned to use some scrap metal out of our bin to complete the slides and the actual mount. Here are some of the steel rollers:
The sealed roller bearings: