Garage heater mounting

[Kevin54]

I just bought a new Hamilton garage heater and now need an idea on how to mount it. It can be hung up by all thread, mounted from brackets, or mounted on a shelf. My dilemma.....Mine is going into a corner and I have scissor trusses. I'm leaning towards mounting it on a shelf, but just like with any garage, a flat surface is a huge dust collection area unless it is wire shelving. The heater is 18" tall x 27" wide x 17" deep and it weighs 80 lbs. I want to mount it in the corner at a 45 degree angle.

Any idea as to the best way to mount it, or any pics of similar mounted heaters on scissor trusses? I'm leaning towards mounting it on a shelf at the moment unless I can come up with a cleaner mounting idea from one of the members.

TIA,
Kevin

 

[ratdoggy]

How about that track stuff electricians use? Forget the name of it but you can span a couple of trusses with it

 

[ratdoggy]

Unistrut...For the win?

 

[Thumper68]

I would go with uni-strut and threaded rod.

 

[Kevin54]

If I go with Unistrut though, how can I mount the heater on an angle with scissor trusses, or am I missing something in my thinking?

 

[Thumper68]

Mount 2 pieces of unistrut to the ceiling and then use threaded rod to hang the heater.

Something like this. But with the uni strut lagged or bolted to the bottom of the truss. then use different lengths of rod to hang.

 

[hh76]

Different lengths of rod?

I'd build two brackets that mount to the wall and bolt to the heater

 

[csp]

Assuming you're going to drywall the ceiling, mount the unistrut on the top of the bottom chord of the trusses. Add some framing for what would be the lower mount so that it is the same height as the upper part.

Once the unistrut is in place you just have two (or four) holes through the drywall for the all thread to go through to connect with the top of the heater.. This way the unistrut is hidden.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Not familiar with the heater you have, but I mounted my modine level. It has louvers on it that adequately divert the air downward. I mounted it with all thread that goes through some drilled angle iron that spans my trusses. Even if you want to angle yours, I would think you could modify the mounting points or add some brackets that would allow the use of longer all thread in the front and shorter in the rear - perhaps some U-shaped brackets to bolt to the heater with a larger diameter hole that would allow the rod to be at an angle.

 

[Kevin54]

Not familiar with the heater you have, but I mounted my modine level. It has louvers on it that adequately divert the air downward. I mounted it with all thread that goes through some drilled angle iron that spans my trusses. Even if you want to angle yours, I would think you could modify the mounting points or add some brackets that would allow the use of longer all thread in the front and shorter in the rear - perhaps some U-shaped brackets to bolt to the heater with a larger diameter hole that would allow the rod to be at an angle.

The bad thing about mounting it on scissor trusses is that the all thread will be four different sizes. And the ceiling will be drywalled. Where the heater is going to go, I can't squeeze my big *** down into that small of area to mount things after the drywall is up

 

[csp]

Temporarily mount it before the drywall goes up and the locations of the allthread can be cut into the drywall and fished through it.

 

[bottom feeder]

Don't hang it from the trusses. Build or buy one or more "L" shaped brackets and mount it on the wall. Something like the first two diagrams in this picture:

 

[Kevin54]

Bottom.......your pics just sparked an idea in my head......they make air conditioning brackets that mount on the side of a house to keep the air conditioner up off of the ground. I may look into one of those.

 

[laser3kw]

Don't hang it from the trusses.

I am getting ready to hang a heater also.
can you explain why I shouldn't hang from the truss (I wish to learn something here)?
My location for the heater, I have attic trusses that are finished top side with 3/4 t&g, insulated, and sheet rock on the bottom (ceiling), glued and screwed.
Most mounting directions I have read have never posed the issue of truss mounting.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

The bad thing about mounting it on scissor trusses is that the all thread will be four different sizes. And the ceiling will be drywalled. Where the heater is going to go, I can't squeeze my big *** down into that small of area to mount things after the drywall is up

Hey, if you haven't dry-walled the ceiling yet, that makes it easy! Just make a template for your furnace mounting holes, install angle iron above the trusses and drop a short piece of all thread (6 inches or so below eventual ceiling) from each of the 4 desired locations. After you install your ceiling, use one of the connector nuts on each piece of all-thread to extend it the desired length with another piece of all-thread, then hang the furnace.

 

[bottom feeder]

I am getting ready to hang a heater also.
can you explain why I shouldn't hang from the truss (I wish to learn something here)?
My location for the heater, I have attic trusses that are finished top side with 3/4 t&g, insulated, and sheet rock on the bottom (ceiling), glued and screwed.
Most mounting directions I have read have never posed the issue of truss mounting.

Please don't misunderstand - I'm not saying that you shouldn't hang a heater from the trusses. Hang it from anything you want. Heck, my electric heater is hanging from a truss. My suggestion was intended for Kevin54's situation regarding the difficulty in placing the heater in the location and orientation that he wanted. Point being, if the overhead mounting options are not working out, then use the wall(s) instead.

 

[theoldwizard1]

The bad thing about mounting it on scissor trusses is that the all thread will be four different sizes. And the ceiling will be drywalled. Where the heater is going to go, I can't squeeze my big *** down into that small of area to mount things after the drywall is up

I like Thumper's solution.

Hire a very short, skinny drywall guy !!

 

[laser3kw]

Please don't misunderstand - I'm not saying that you shouldn't hang a heater from the trusses. Hang it from anything you want. Heck, my electric heater is hanging from a truss. My suggestion was intended for Kevin54's situation regarding the difficulty in placing the heater in the location and orientation that he wanted. Point being, if the overhead mounting options are not working out, then use the wall(s) instead.

got it!
you had me scared there for a minute. I thought there was a whole new world of sh!t that is was about to experience. That's why I like hang'n out at GJ. It keeps me from hurt'n myself!

 

[PittsS1]

Kevin,

I just went through this exact same dilemma, and got my heater hung a couple days ago. I have scissor trusses, 2.5/12 pitch bottom chords, and spent months trying to devise the best scheme. What I ended up doing was making some 2.5 pitch blocks, and putting a 2x6 above the bottom chord on one end and butted up to a bottom chord on the other, and in the other two locations have separate boards that are level and above the ceiling. Pictures should hopefully make it more clear.

Same problem: Once drywalled I won't have access. So... I'm going to measure really well to the rod locations, take the heater down and leave rods in ceiling. Then cut ~1" holes in rod locations and a bigger hole for vent, and hang the sheet of drywall with all those holes pre-cut. That way, I don't have to try to reach 3' down in an area with no access to put the threaded rod in.

I used 3/8-16 rod, the setup you see is temporary- have to cut rods to length and fasten for good to the boards still. Hope this helps... Oh yeah- a drywall lift really helps to get it in place precisely without struggling. This one weighs 60lbs. Was going to use unistrut, but getting it at the right angle would have been a bit more work (could have just put blocks on the side of bottom chord for it to rest on), however, when I got this up and decided to hang my 190 lbs from the 2x6 and it deflected about 1/8", I figured it was good to hold 15 lbs at each corner. I tend to overkill a lot of things, but heavy duty Unistrut just isn't necessary IMHO.

 

[Zick]

Been up for 5 yrs.

 

[samert111]

Kevin,
My ceiling is Dura Panels and the area where the heater is has rafters similar to your scissor trusses and I used the unistrut and threaded rods which I had to put slight bends in at the unistrut for them to hang vertical and level it out. It's also in the corner like your describing.