Vertical shaft engine generator set for a recreational vehicle or the like

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG.
1 illustrates a recreational vehicle 10 which is depicted as a self-propelled motor home although it should be understood that the engine-generator set of the present invention (described hereinafter) may be utilized in other types of recreational vehicles such as travel trailers or the like.
Motor home 10 is conventional in its construction and as illustrated on FIG.
5 includes a frame or chassis 11 having spaced apart cross members 12.
Referring back to FIG.
1 the vehicle chassis supports a vehicle shell 14 whose interior is generally divided into living quarters and a driver compartment.
The overall construction of recreational vehicle 10 is not important to the understanding of the present invention.
It is sufficient to understand however, that vehicle 10 includes a floor 16 which, as illustrated in FIG.
4, is supported by the cross members 12 of the vehicle chassis.
To power the various appliances within the vehicle (not shown) such as a refrigerator, water pump, lights, a television set and the like, there is provided an improved vertical shaft engine generator set 20 (best illustrated in FIGS.
2, 3, 4 and 5) which, as will be better understood hereinafter, is mounted through the floor 16 of the recreational vehicle 10 so as to reduce the amount of floor space occupied in comparison with conventional horizontal shaft recreational vehicle generators.
The details of the engine generator set 20 of the present invention are illustrated in FIG.
4.
Basically, the engine generator set 20 of the present invention includes a mounting tray 22 which supports an engine 32 above the tray and a generator 33 which is disposed below the tray 22 so that the tray 22 serves to separate the engine and generator.
Referring to FIG.
4, the generator set 20 is typically mounted to the vehicle chassis and to this end, the mounting tray 22 of the generator set 20 is provided with a depending skirt 24.
The dimensions of the mounting tray are slightly less than an opening in the vehicle floor 16 which is bounded by the cross members 12 and vehicle chassis 11 to allow the mounting tray 22 to be received in the opening and be secured to the cross members 12 of the frame by bolts 26 which extend through the skirt 24 and the cross members 12