in good shape - brunnhilde part 21

I was tired of procrastinating on the decision to move forward with the generator enclosure. As the Delta Pro 24" x 18" x 18" box looks to has the largest opening based on the single lousy photo these vendors all offer.

stir fry of gulf shrimps with zucchini

i went ahead and order one from Zoro saving $17 over Amazon

In recent months I have notice often the prices on Amazon have generally been trending up. I have opt to purchase from independent online vendors with good percentage of saving over Amazon. Only last week, Amazon increased the eligibility for free shipping of the "Prime" qualify merchandise from $35 to $49 if you are not a Prime member like me. I see it as a sign the company begin to want to show Wall Street it can turn profit when it wants to. 

A few days later I received an email from Zoro that the box is on back order and the supplier has no estimate shipping date. Sensing something is wrong I did a bit of research. I found another vendor listing the exact Delta Pro 1-004002, but with a different looking box. According to this vendor, the Delta Pro is now owned by Jobox.

From the photo I can clearly see the much smaller door opening as well as the folded door lips which the Delta Pro I order does not have. Playing it safe I cancelled the order with Zoro. I order it from Amazon. I was hoping I would receive the old Delta Pro instead of the new Jobox box. Ordering from Amazon (sold and shipped by Amazon) give me the insurance of easy return if the good does not match the product representation.

pan seared mahi mahi on a bed of potato and shallot onion - this is the first time i serve it this way

In only a few days the box arrived. While I knew what I was ordering (a steel box) it is still a shock to feel the weight of the container that is about 70 pounds. To my greatest fear the box is indeed the new Jobox.

definitely very different from the Delta Pro production depiction

you can see the much wider door opening lips significantly reducing the opening width and height

the width is 14 inch and height is 15 inch

the Honda's dimensions are about H 16 3/4", L 20", D 12" (46 lbs)

another meal of delicious pan seared mahi mahi on a bed of potato and shallot onion; trader joes has excellent mahi mahi and each package has 2 servings

Do not be despair. I had anticipated this possibility long before I commit to a selection of the box. I was hoping that if the door opening is too small, there may still the possibility to till the generator in an angle to pass the opening. The more than I like 18-inch depth of the box offers this extra insurance. I was planning to modify the box to reduce the excess depth by trimming off  some depth and re-welding it.

Sure enough if I till the generator about 40-degree passing the feet first into the box it barely clear the inadequate 15-inch height of the opening.

As in my research the Delta Pro box construction is 14-gauge on the main part of the body, and 16-gauge on the door. It is a good compromise to devote heaver material for the door for ply resistance. Checking the thickness of the sheet metal with a caliper confirmed it is indeed 14-gauge door and 16-gauge body. According to the spec it weight 70 lbs. I would not want a box constructed entirely of 14-gauge steel.

A sanity check is in order - the laden weight of the enclosure with the generator. The math tells me it would be about 125 lb with the generator wet, and taking into account the fasteners. It is a lot of weight but not huge compared to the Sprinter spare wheel.

There is only about 1 inch of head room inside but plenty of space (about 8 inches total) on two ends  of the generator. To facility refueling an access hole can be bored into the top of the enclosure. However a solution is required to prevent rain water from pouring in.

seeing this photo got me excite about the though of installing a semi-flexible 100W solar panel inside Isolde's roof luggage rack

Inspecting the photo closely one can see the owner use one of this 100w 4x8 flexible panel and trimmed the perimeter to fit into the luggage rack. My concern with this approach is the weakening of the plastic lamination that protect the PV cells from water and moisture. The amount that requires to be trimmed off from the PV cells is too close for comfort.

Doing a bit of research on the web and I found this excellent paper on the testing of many solar panels from China. The paper is written by a very well respected German green energy consultant. My conclusion is the only solar panel that I would entertain purchase are the traditional rigid construction with glass panels. This pretty rules out the installation of solar panel on Brunnhilde or Isolde in the foreseeable future.