westerbeke genset UHMW mounting plate ?

good day all,
Ive got a westerbeke 8kw genset that was mounted either originally or by a PO.
the genset was mounted on a painted particle board and it is starting to deteriorate. It still seems firmly mounted through the board to the stringers but as the board is starting to fall apart I am worried it will shake itself loose.

my question is this: has any one had an experience with replacing the entire board with 2 planks of UHMW plastic? any thought on issues, viability or practicality.
i've not seen any question similar to this on the forum and am wondering. it seems, at least in my mind, to be easier to install since I can lift the generator one side at a time rather than the whole thing. And the oil, moisture and abrasion resistance seems superior than wood alone. also the vibration reduction of UHMW would help keep the generator from shaking in the future

Any help is appreciated.

If particle board held it fine until it deteriorated, then an equivalent thickness of UHMW board should do the same. Plus it will never deteriorate.

David

I was cruising and had limited ability to replace my westie 8kW foundation. I used a piece of resin covered plywood. The prior piece of untreated plywood had lasted 27 years and would have gone more but I had the genny apart and was replacing the isolation mounts.

Had I had the luxury of time and convenience... I would have mounted a base with isolation mounts supporting another base on which the genny would sit with isolation mounts.

I have seen these double vibration mount setups that have excellent reports of reduced noise and vibration.

Using any strong, non-wood platforms/supports would be good.

Plastic being more dense may add unwanted vibration or noise that the wood base absorbed. Or change the vibration frequency. You might need to research that.

Therefore are speciality sound absorbing plywood available from several sources that absorbs vibration.

And the isolation mounts Psneeld mentioned is an excellent way to mitigate generator vibration and noise.

We run our generator a lot at anchor so eliminating generator vibration and noise is very important to us. Sandpipers generator is mounted to a platform made of 2 layers of 3/4" vibration reducing plywood epoxied together and mounted to the stringers with isolating mounts plus a GenSep.

uhmw is a great wear surface, where you have sliding loads, but for what you're doing, there are better choices.

In the for what it's worth column my gen installed in 83 when the boat was built is mounted on marine plywood that is still going strong at 39 yrs. If I had to replace the mounting I'd use high quality marine ply again, I very much doubt the boat has another 39 yrs of life in her. Your boat is about the same vintage. There are some oil stains and marks from tools. Doing better actually than the gen itself.

In the theme of mounting, is there any reason i cant mount the gen platform bolted down to the top of the stringers? (Vs a saddle and thru bolt from the sides)

SIBERNUT said:

In the theme of mounting, is there any reason i cant mount the gen platform bolted down to the top of the stringers? (Vs a saddle and thru bolt from the sides)

Click to expand...

It was the way mine was, just many are wary of water intrusion into the stringers (done well either works for a long time) and those that think their trawler will survive a rollover and bolted through the stringers may be more secure.

Well, its an 84 & im resurrecting it (her?) From an on-land sinking. I think this situation calls for the simple solution with maybe epoxy in the holes.

Tks!

Bolting from the top should be fine if it's done well. It's been good enough to hold my engines for 37 years. My stringers are hollow fiberglass boxes, so the factory glassed a piece of wood into the top of each one where the engine mounts go, then lag bolted through the wood and fiberglass.

I'd rather see a beefy saddle mount and would expect mine to fail if upside-down, but they've proven adequate in real-world use. And that's 8 big lag bolts holding almost 1200 lbs of engine and transmission. A generator mounted with similar hardware and less weight would certainly be fine.