Harbor Freight generator...

[coppertales]

The latest Popular Science mag has a Harbor Freight ad with a coupon for a 800 watt generator for 89 bucks. They normally 130 bucks. Seeing HB is right down the street, I stopped in and bought 2. One for me and one for my FIL. I read all the reviews and they look like a good little unit. Just thought I would share.....chris3

[ready]

I love HF. Alot of guys will knock their stuff as being junk because it's not Dewalt but I have quite a few of their tools and haven't had a problem with any of them. Must be the same guys knocking AR's that aren't made by Colt.

[O.S.O.K.]

Is this it?

http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/175x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_1879.jpg

[00RedZX-6R]

800 watt is not very much wattage. It wouldn't even run my tire warmers for.my buck

[coppertales]

Is this it?

http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/175x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_1879.jpgYeah, that is it. As soon as the old lady wakes up from her nap, I am going to fire it up. As stated in the reviews, you need to check the fasteners for tightness and the plug. I will get a new plug tomorrow, payday, and it should be good to go. I just want it for down at camp and camping. It weighs around 30 pounds or so....chris3

[coppertales]

I love HF. Alot of guys will knock their stuff as being junk because it's not Dewalt but I have quite a few of their tools and haven't had a problem with any of them. Must be the same guys knocking AR's that aren't made by Colt. I hear you. I only live about 4 miles from the store. Their tools have worked just fine for me. At my age, 67, the lifetime warranty doesn't mean as much as it used to. I can buy a whole set of wrenches for the same price as one wrench at Sears....chris3

[ready]

And for the price, if it breaks, so what, you can buy a new one and still be ahead.

[Infidelski]

Is this it?

http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/175x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_1879.jpg

Thats a good price, we've had quite a few of these 2 stroke units ranging between 800 and 1000 watts, You're correct about tightening fasteners, also make sure fuel lines are snug on fittings and electric connections stay tight. The electric connections tend to get warm and loosen. These are not meant for long continuous runs, hence why we go through so many of them running halogen lighting. I did run one for 4 uninterrupted tanks of fuel against a 1000watt bank (4x250w) of halogen lightening, it nearly made it but overheated and later ran at least another 12hours before terminal bearing failure which tends to be the death of them. For the price, a little TLC and tuning you can't go wrong with them. The throttle control arm probably has 3 settings which we believe is 800/900/1000watts.

[Helen Keller]

IMHO

if it can run my furnace blowers or my well pump It's good to go.

[Klawndyke]

I was just there picking up punches for my psl kit i am working on.... funny i was looking at those to but
I keep going to the larger one but hey that would run some lights and maybe your pump..

good ideal for the money

I would like to know how loud it is

[coppertales]

I was just there picking up punches for my psl kit i am working on.... funny i was looking at those to but
I keep going to the larger one but hey that would run some lights and maybe your pump..

good ideal for the money

I would like to know how loud it is

I fired it up this afternoon. It is not nearly as loud as my lawn mower. I plugged in a 3/8 drill, a recip saw, window box fan, and an electric chain saw and it handled each of them just fine. The chain saw made it work a bit but not really hard. I think this gen will run the 12v system on my RV ok. That is just lights and water pump. I have a 3500 watt Champion generator for larger applications. chris3

[Infidelski]

Its a 2 stroke so its loud even more so when running full capacity, they are louder than our 5hp honda/winco generators

[Klawndyke]

The one thing i was thinking about was one size that coppertails picked up and stay under 200 bucks
verses having solar panels and batteries for my trailer. an idea i have been kicking around for a couple months..

and like the most of us i have a HF right around the corner

HF has a 45watt 3 panel solar kit reg. price is 229.99
they have a store sale going for 199.99
insider track club price is 169.99

plus i got a club member email for another 20% off
so around 135.99
not to bad for the price

hmmmm now you have me thinking coppertails

Heres a link to the coupons

LINK (http://widgets.harborfreight.com/wswidgets/common/displayCoupon.do?week=1711&campaign=a_retail_2&page=stepup.html&single=true&cust=02002346506&keycode=0000)

[O.S.O.K.]

I bought a Champion generator a while ago for $179 IIRC on sale. They are now going for $279 on their web site. This was at the local tractor supply. This is a 4000 max, 3500 running unit. They have very good reputations with the RV crowd and the guy at the store said that he was using the very same unit to run his 5th wheel that he lives in and highly recommended it. Said he wished it'd been on sale when he got his :lool:

These are US made and the company makes their own engines on an expired B&S patent design.

The way I see it, a good set-up would be to have a bank of deep cycle batteries and an appropriate charger and run this puppy for however long it takes to charge them and then run things off of the battery bank. You could have things hooked up while charging too of course...

Strikes me that most of the energy is just wasted if your not pulling the full wattage off of the thing while it runs...

[Infidelski]

OSOK, usually the engine is throttled by the load/demand on the generator no matter what brand it is and technically the electricity isn't there until load/demand is there so the more demand the more fuel. If the engine is running and nothing is plugged in then the generator just spins and the engine burns fuel to idle along, ZERO Watts per gallon. I'm sure there is a performance curve out there for many generators but essentially you are right.

Really can't stress enough changing the oil and cleaning air filters in small 4 stroke engines. Typically the small engine generators 5-12hp require new oil and air-filter cleaning every 15-20 hours.

[O.S.O.K.]

Yeah - I've read that the oil and filters need a lot of attention. I see this as only being an emergency thing...

I'd like to eventually have solar and/or wind generators that charge a battery of batteries :) for everyday needs.