Harbor Freight Generator

[fireman1028]

New guy here.
I recently purchased the Predator 3500 and it has been great. It does suffer from the air starvation, when the oil door is in place. I have ordered some 1" vents that should solve that.

I did follow a break-in procedure that has worked for me in the past.
1. remove spark plug and put a couple of ounces of Lucas Oil Stabilizer in the cylinder.
2. Put a couple of ounces of the same Lucas product in the oil fill. Finish filling up the crankcase with conventional oil to the proper level mark.
3. Dry pull crank the motor slowly, then at a faster pace.
4. Add gas and run the generator for 1hr with no load.
5. Drain the oil and refill with conventional oil and a little stabilizer.
6. Run engine at 25% load for one hour.
7. Drain oil and refill with Synthetic oil and maintain strict 50hr oil change intervals.

I was amazed at how much metal was suspended in the oil, after the 1hr run. The 2nd oil change was much cleaner.

[Dave377]

I have one of the 3500 predator generators and it has 240 hours on it so far and has worked great. I have had people tell me it seams to be very quite. I run my ac refrigerator and my 1300 BTU ac unit my coffee pot or my microwave when not making coffee and it does a great job. I would buy it again.

[George Miklas]

I chose the Champion Dual Fuel generator because I do not want to carry jugs of gasoline, but bottles of LP gas instead.

So last Thursday (9/13) I ordered the generator. I'm an Amazon Prime member, so the purchase was guaranteed delivery for Monday, 9/17. So today, the generator is marked as "shipped" on 9/14, and "not in UPS possession" on 9/15. I call Amazon today to inquire. Customer service told me that the generator would be delivered on 9/24 due to the weather.

I ordered it with the Hurricane Florence coming, expecting it to be delivered when my town was forecast to be deluged from flash floods. Now no generator until next week!

Amazon customer service offered me $50 for my trouble. I laughed.

[brinkman01]

George, hope everything turned out alright for you with the hurricane and sorry to hear you didn’t get your generator in time.

I did look at the champion line and like I mentioned in my post I have the big dual fuel (9000 watt) but just couldn’t handle to noise. Thought about getting the inverter series but right now we don’t do enough dry docking or stay in places without power hook up.

So today in fact I bit the bullet and bought the 3500 predator inverter generator. Based off everyone’s comments from here, YouTube videos and some reading I went ahead and did it. Like a couple post back I ended up getting a coupon over the weekend with the generator on sale for $649 originally 769 and did purchase the 2 year no questions ask warranty for $129.

I haven’t got to mess with it to much but I was able to start it up and run it for about 10 minutes. I will say right off the bat is it is very quiet. My father in law was with me when I started and we could have a normal conversation while the generator was running full speed. Very impressed by how quiet it is. From all the videos and reading I have done it looks like the key to it is the break in period. Do it right and most people don’t seam to have a problem with it.

Will keep everyone posted how i progress with it. Thanks everyone for their input.

[George Miklas]

I just opened the new Champion Dual Fuel Generator, connected the battery, added 10w30 oil to the full line, and have started the first hour of break in under no load. I'm connected to a 10# LP bottle, so I'm also testing the length of time that my 10# bottles will last. This genset is SO quiet! I love it!

Tomorrow morning I will drain the oil, refill with fresh oil, and run for 6 hours under a 25% load. (would someone please confirm that this is the next step?)

I could connect to the trailer and run the AC for 6 hours, but that would be a full load. I'm not sure what else I have that will run at 25% of 3400W (700w)... maybe 7 100w light bulbs... oh yea, we don't have those anymore... LOL, what else?

[Dutch Star Don]

Just a side note:.....In So California, Costco has the Yamaha 1600 Inverter Generator on sale for $499.00. A nice generator for a small RV.

[George Miklas]

So I started the second phase of the break in this morning. Running on LP, I kicked on the trailer's AC and that threw the genset into "overload" but did not kick the breaker.

I will need to add the capacitor to the AC on the trailer.

[pasdad1]

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

Just a side note:.....In So California, Costco has the Yamaha 1600 Inverter Generator on sale for $499.00. A nice generator for a small RV.

I have seen that also, however it is misleading...... it is actually an “A-1Power” brand which uses a yamaha engine.....but not Yamaha electronics.

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by George Miklas

So I started the second phase of the break in this morning. Running on LP, I kicked on the trailer's AC and that threw the genset into "overload" but did not kick the breaker.

I will need to add the capacitor to the AC on the trailer.

The generator output is down graded while running on propane. Have you tried it with the economy switch off and the engine running full speed.

Did you try it with everything else off. You could also try it on gasoline.

A hard start capacitor may or may not help. There is a EZ Start device but its half the cost of the generator.

Here is a screen shot of the specs.

[weredoingit]

Originally Posted by brinkman01

I’m sure this has been talked about before but is anyone using the 3500 watt inverted predator generator from Harbor Freight to power up their RV/Camper? I currently have a duel fuel 9000 watt champion generator bolted to the back of our camper. The upside is duel fuel and it has enough power to power a small city lol. The down side is that it is heavy. I can’t move it around by myself and to heavy for my wife to really help me move it around also (the reason why it is bolted down). But the biggest downfall it is LOUD.

So I’m looking for a quieter and lighter one. If I had the money I would by a Honda but we don’t use a generator that much so I can’t justify spending the money on one.

So if anybody uses one would you mind letting me know what kinda of luck you have had with it.

Thanks

I guess with me, Harbor Freight has always been known for selling "Junk" tools. You know the kinda of tool you need on a Sunday afternoon when all other tool places are closed. The kind of place where you go to buy that one tool that is an odd duck, that you need once and if it works you probably will never need it again. For that reason I could never bring myself to buy a big $$ item from them. Over twenty years ago I broke that rule. I needed a parts washer, after much shopping around I bought one from HF I think I payed $129 got it home and spent about an hour putting it together, filled it with a gallon or two of HF'S environmental safe fluid. The pump pressure was so weak it barely came out, the environmentally safe fluid was not strong enough to wash your hands with it. It was returned for my $$ back. With that said I could not bring myself to buy a HF generator but's that's me. All I can think is you get what you pay for. Also If I'm using a generator it's not going to be at my house, but out in the woods somewhere where that I need it to work.

[Zoom Zoom 1]

I considered the HF Predator 3500W unit. I was surprised my research showed the HF unit as a fairly good generator. Others I considered Honda, Champion, Yamaha, etc. All seemed good to very good. I am a mechanic by trade and have all kinds of tools from the highest quality to what some have called a throw away tool. Each was bought with a specific use in mind. Over the years, I have owned Honda and Yamaha generators that were very reliable and solid quality.
I think when considering what generator to purchase the usage should be a primary consideration. Power output, size, weight, fuel type(s), amount of usage, recreational or critical power supply, cost, etc.
I always appreciate other inputs on whatever I am considering, but at the end of the day the end user should do their homework and select accordingly.
For what it is worth, I ended up purchasing the Champion 3400W Inverter that suited my needs.
Mule

[CCrew]

Originally Posted by George Miklas

Everytime that I get one of those 20% or 25% off coupons for Harbor Freight, Predator products are always excluded.

They are, but that site will always get you the best coupon that's currently available for it. In our case it was $649.

My outlook on it was that if you search the web it's actually well regarded except by the crusty codgers that won't buy it because it's Harbor Freight. For $129 on the 2 year warranty at 1 year and 364 days it could break and they have to give me a new one . In the meantime since my last post we have close to 80 flawless hours on it since new and I have no reason to believe it'll have issues. In the meantime I spent 1/3 of what a Honda equivalent would cost.

[George Miklas]

Originally Posted by CCrew

They are, but that site will always get you the best coupon that's currently available for it. In our case it was $649.

My outlook on it was that if you search the web it's actually well regarded except by the crusty codgers that won't buy it because it's Harbor Freight. For $129 on the 2 year warranty at 1 year and 364 days it could break and they have to give me a new one . In the meantime since my last post we have close to 80 flawless hours on it since new and I have no reason to believe it'll have issues. In the meantime I spent 1/3 of what a Honda equivalent would cost.

That is what I thought about as I pushed the button and bought the Champion. I wanted LP operation, so paid a little higher for the Champion Dual Fuel model.,

[weredoingit]

Originally Posted by George Miklas

I chose the Champion Dual Fuel generator because I do not want to carry jugs of gasoline, but bottles of LP gas instead.

So last Thursday (9/13) I ordered the generator. I'm an Amazon Prime member, so the purchase was guaranteed delivery for Monday, 9/17. So today, the generator is marked as "shipped" on 9/14, and "not in UPS possession" on 9/15. I call Amazon today to inquire. Customer service told me that the generator would be delivered on 9/24 due to the weather.

I ordered it with the Hurricane Florence coming, expecting it to be delivered when my town was forecast to be deluged from flash floods. Now no generator until next week!

Amazon customer service offered me $50 for my trouble. I laughed.

You should cancel with Amazon and buy from this guy.
"Super Gen Products LLC -West" <support@aynax.com>

He is the best, I bought my Champion remote start, and he installed the Propane regulator, and natural gas, installed an hour meter and free shipping. Great guy to deal with. And I love my Champion.