Room for CO2 tank on hump of 7.0 cu ft GE Freezer?

[Wort_Cleaver]

I recently moved cross country and had to part with my extensive bottle collection. Now that we're settled in our new place, I'd like to start brewing again. Instead of becoming a raging alcoholic in an attempt to rapidly replete my bottle supply, I've decided to finally bite the bullet and get into kegging. My goal is to eventually construct a coffin keezer which will become a nice handmade piece of furniture to add to our new house. But given my circumstances, I am just going to start basic with a chest freezer, a few kegs, and some picnic taps.

My plan for now is to get 4 small 3 gallon pin lock kegs and a 5 lb CO2 tank. Three of these will be used for beer and one for soda. I'm just a weekend partaker so it would take quite a while for me to drain a 5 gallon keg, and I want to keep a nice rotation going for variety.

I have my eye on a 7.0 cu ft GE chest freezer (FCM7SUWW). I do not want to build a collar on it as my plan is to eventually convert it to a coffin keezer. With that freezer I should be able to fit 3 of the kegs on the floor and one on the hump without the need for a collar (the 3 gallon kegs are 9"W x 16"H). I would also like to keep it self contained with the CO2 tank on the hump next to a keg. It looks like most CO2 tanks are 18.25" tall, which happens to be the exact amount of space available between the lid and hump on this model.

My question is this - does anyone else out there have any experience with this particular GE freezer, and is there enough space to put the CO2 tank on the hump without a collar? If not, would it be possible to cut a hole/notch in the lid to allow for enough room to close it? On the 'Freezer Specs' thread, it implies that the tank would fit on the hump without a collar, but I imagine it would be extremely close. I don't want to make any purchases until I know my plan will work.

So if anyone out there has firsthand experience, let me know. The dimensions I was able to find are listed below:


3 Gallon Pin Lock Keg
9”W x 16”H

5 lb Aluminum CO2 Tank
5.25”W x 18.25”H

GE 7.0 cu ft – FCM7SUWW
Exterior – 37”W x 22”D x 33.25”H
Interior– 31.5”W x 15”D x 27.5”H
Hump – 7.5”W x 15”D x 9.25”H (leaving 18.25” to lid)

Thanks!

 

[sawbossFogg]

Two.
One; when you make a keezer its best to add a wooden collar on top that you can refit your hinges to and run your tap lines through. Use a wider 2x like 6, it'll look cool and you'll have plenty of room.
Two; consider Sanke kegs! Its really not that tough to work with them and they don't suck like the other soda crap.

 

[Wort_Cleaver]

I'm not planning on building a collar. My eventual plan is to build a lid with a coffin box on top to mount the taps to. The lines will run through a hole in the top of the lid. Something similar to this: