Portable generators

[Dive Bar Casanova]

We had the Honda i2000 and it has 1000's of hours on it.

Couldn't quite run the microwave unless most everything else was turned off.

Finally, it suffered the dreaded oil leak from a crack in the crankcase the older models are subject to.

 

We bought the Honda i2200 and it's much improved. Can run the microwave with other RV electronics running, not the AC of course. Excellent generator. Runs over 8 hours 1/4 load. They improved the gas fill neck and oil drain and a gas shut off, a BFD. It's heavier more iron and copper on the winding but manageable.

Easily accommodates the girls blow dryers and other electrical gizmos they run in the bathroom.

Use a thick dia cord hooking it to your RV. Makes a difference. 

 

The HF Predator 2000 is worth a look. Priced right.

Check the You Tube videos on the demons you may encounter if the Predator is considered.

Especially the Predator 3500. Campers are having generally good experiences with both and they really are quiet.

 

Friend Fernando just bought the 3500 and experienced the air starvation issue. I gave him a handful of 1" dia Uni plug filters and that solved the problem when installed in the housing. Drill 1" holes they pop in.

It runs his 1500 btu AC with ease and is very quiet. Priced right.

 

We have the Handi i3000 and it's great. Grudgingly will run the AC.

We have the Honda i3000 as well and it'll run the 15000 BTU RV AC if not too hot a day and it's in the shade. Others we camp with experience the same. They may over heat and shut down or separate from the load. It has slightly more power than the Handi 3000.

Edited November 2, 2018 by Dive Bar Casanova
HF 2000 not 1000

[dunefreak]

Great info @Dive Bar Casanova. Thanks!

 

Amazon ended up refunding my $ so I'll be picking one up eventually. I love hearing all the reviews though. Keep them coming.

[desertrider71]

If you are going the Lowes route I get a 10% discount so you end up paying just under the posted price.

[dunefreak]

4 hours ago, desertrider71 said:

If you are going the Lowes route I get a 10% discount so you end up paying just under the posted price.

Thanks Eric. I appreciate that. I have a few other military buddies as well that offer the same. I'll let ya know. 

[Svengoolie]

I get almost 12 hours per tank on the Yamaha if the load is minimal. Lights, furnace, charging type stuff. It ran another 60+ hours last weekend. Temperature never matters, microwave or coffemaker not a problem.

 

The reason I leave it run almost 24/7 is we keep our campsite well lit all night and we use the furnace regularly although we didn't need it last weekend.

 

We had someone set up next to us with a crappy contractor generator last weekend. 

 

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!   All weekend long. 

 

They suck.

 

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

On 10/31/2018 at 5:20 PM, Svengoolie said:

I get almost 12 hours per tank on the Yamaha if the load is minimal. Lights, furnace, charging type stuff. It ran another 60+ hours last weekend. Temperature never matters, microwave or coffemaker not a problem.

 

The reason I leave it run almost 24/7 is we keep our campsite well lit all night and we use the furnace regularly although we didn't need it last weekend.

 

We had someone set up next to us with a crappy contractor generator last weekend. 

 

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!   All weekend long. 

 

They suck.

 

 

Yeah we run our generators 24/7 too. 

Wifes a nurse works all night to morning. 

So when we camp she’s up all nite too. 

Blinds up, security lights on she watches the camp for poachers as well. 

 

Shes on line in contact with with her hospital, watches those medical shows where someone is getting new bushings installed in their ass and shes doing all her stuff that chix do. 

 

So as a courtesy we run one of the quiet Hondas and park our rig so’s to try and not bug everyone else. Seems to work. 

 

People forget how cold Dumont can get and RV heaters draw a lot of power. Batteries puke fast. 

 

Funny thing is those of us that have several  generators seem to have inherited them. 

Change the spark plug every year - change the oil every 100 hours. 

I change the oil after a weeks running time. 

Edited November 4, 2018 by Dive Bar Casanova

[Svengoolie]

Just saw a Yamaha on Craigslist for 450

In the RV section.

If you don't want it I might pick it up for a spare.

[dunefreak]

On 11/8/2018 at 7:08 AM, Svengoolie said:

Just saw a Yamaha on Craigslist for 450

In the RV section.

If you don't want it I might pick it up for a spare.

I'd look into it but I'm out of town for a few days. Thanks

[White Rhino]

They used to sell that generac at harbor freight. A person in our camp has ran his 2 years now with zero issues. 

[dunefreak]

31 minutes ago, White Rhino said:

They used to sell that generac at harbor freight. A person in our camp has ran his 2 years now with zero issues. 

Really? because that model just came out. 

[bp-guy]

Pete, I am bringing my generator to the roundup. You can give it a test drive to see if that model works for you. I love the remote start feature on it. It has the RV plug on it as well.

 

[dunefreak]

 

 

update!

 

Thanks to a heads up from @raspadoo, Chad and I picked up a couple of these around Christmas time on a 4 day only sale for under $300 with a 3 year warranty and tax. Score!

 

I ran it last trip and it worked great. It is just as quiet as the Honda.

 

 

[Svengoolie]

I'm now up to 1900 hours on the Yamaha after Presidents day. 

It draws fuel from an external marine gas tank I got for x-mas. So the generator runs for days without even looking at it. 

 

almost 2000 trouble free hours and it still runs like the day I bought it.

Cost per hour is cheap considering the amount of hours it runs and it's nice having the peace of mind that it isn't going to shut off because of a poorly engineered part. I can also get parts for it easily if something should eventually fail. 

 

I had a knock off generator a few years ago. It acted like vapor lock after a while and I had to mess with it. It cluttered the garage for a while before I tossed it.  

The Yammi has even powered two RV's when their generator crapped out. It was enough for lights and the furnaces and keeping the batteries topped off. Microwaves and coffee makers as long as we ran them at different times.

 

A/C doesn't matter. Our RV has three so if it's that hot we fire up the Onan.

 

I'd love to know how many hours the off-brand generators will run. If they do well enough, I'm not opposed to saving money.

 

 

[dunefreak]

So far so good on my "off brand" generator. 😆 I don't need to run it 24hrs a day or even for that long so I don't really have a ton of hours logged yet, but so far it's worked great. It runs just as quiet as the Honda and runs just about everything I need. 

[Svengoolie]

 

Wasn't sure what I should call it. Never heard of the brand. 

I'm curious how many hours they'll last. It is cheap. If I can find one  for that price, I'll pick one up and put some serious hours on it and we'll find out if it's a good value. 

[Larry Mason]

I am brand new to this site. I use to be a member but dropped out for quite a while. So why am I writing this. I just happen to sell Yamaha Generators and I am getting back into duning. My company sells more Yamaha generators in the nation than anyone else. Just Google Yamaha Generators and we will come up on the top. I know quite a bit about generators. We get calls constantly about a "Yamaha Gen" they bought at Costco or somewhere else. These are generators that have the Yamaha casing but they are not Yamaha's. If you have a problem, too bad. Yamaha will not fix them. The ones at Costco are made by iPower and they seem not to last very long. Yes, Yamaha's and Honda's cost a lot more but they will run for years and years. I am talking 10-15 years with no problems. You pay for what you get. If you use a generator a lot for camping, dunes, etc. I would only buy a Yamaha or a Honda. They are both great generators but you get a little more with a Yamaha and pay a little less than what the Honda cost. No one in the nation can come close to our prices on our Yamaha's because we buy in bulk. We probably sell around 50 a day. Now, let's talk about air conditioners. To start up an air conditioner, there is a surge. Sometimes it is twice to three times the running watts of the generator. To find out how many watts you need, you have to know the BTU's of the air conditioner. An example: take a 13,500 BTU air conditioner. Divide the BTU's by 3.41 and that will tell you the surge power needed to start that air conditioner (just under 4000 watts). That is what you need to start that air conditioner - a 4K generator. If you want a quite one, get an inverter gen. The industrial gens are loud and could harm anything with a micro-processor in it. Now, if you want to run that air conditioner with a lessor gen, get a soft start for your air conditioner (get the Micro Air Easy Start 364). They run about $300 and it eliminates the surge. Now you can buy a 2000 watt gen to run the 13,500 BTU air-conditioner. I have two Yamaha EF2200's that I pair up giving me 4400 watts. If you have two air conditioners with soft starts in them, you can run both AC's at the same time. Oh, and by the way, I run them off my propane tanks and don't use gas. If you want any more info on generators, let me know. I would be glad to talk to you about them.

[dunefreak]

1 hour ago, Larry Mason said:

I am brand new to this site. I use to be a member but dropped out for quite a while. So why am I writing this. I just happen to sell Yamaha Generators and I am getting back into duning. My company sells more Yamaha generators in the nation than anyone else. Just Google Yamaha Generators and we will come up on the top. I know quite a bit about generators. We get calls constantly about a "Yamaha Gen" they bought at Costco or somewhere else. These are generators that have the Yamaha casing but they are not Yamaha's. If you have a problem, too bad. Yamaha will not fix them. The ones at Costco are made by iPower and they seem not to last very long. Yes, Yamaha's and Honda's cost a lot more but they will run for years and years. I am talking 10-15 years with no problems. You pay for what you get. If you use a generator a lot for camping, dunes, etc. I would only buy a Yamaha or a Honda. They are both great generators but you get a little more with a Yamaha and pay a little less than what the Honda cost. No one in the nation can come close to our prices on our Yamaha's because we buy in bulk. We probably sell around 50 a day. Now, let's talk about air conditioners. To start up an air conditioner, there is a surge. Sometimes it is twice to three times the running watts of the generator. To find out how many watts you need, you have to know the BTU's of the air conditioner. An example: take a 13,500 BTU air conditioner. Divide the BTU's by 3.41 and that will tell you the surge power needed to start that air conditioner (just under 4000 watts). That is what you need to start that air conditioner - a 4K generator. If you want a quite one, get an inverter gen. The industrial gens are loud and could harm anything with a micro-processor in it. Now, if you want to run that air conditioner with a lessor gen, get a soft start for your air conditioner (get the Micro Air Easy Start 364). They run about $300 and it eliminates the surge. Now you can buy a 2000 watt gen to run the 13,500 BTU air-conditioner. I have two Yamaha EF2200's that I pair up giving me 4400 watts. If you have two air conditioners with soft starts in them, you can run both AC's at the same time. Oh, and by the way, I run them off my propane tanks and don't use gas. If you want any more info on generators, let me know. I would be glad to talk to you about them.

 

Welcome back, Larry! I must state that after 2 years my cheap ass Sam Club generator is still running strong and doing exactly what I bought it for. I don't even try to run my AC off of it. There's no doubt the Yamahas and Hondas are much more superior, but I don't need that. I just need to keep the hours off my big Onan when things are being run for hours in the trailer.  I feel I got what I paid for. I appreciate the input though. You do make some valid points, just none that specifically apply to my situation.