Lets talk portable generators....

URCLEVER

URCLEVER

Well-known member
Joined
May 5, 2021
Messages
724
Reaction score
586
I have been looking at portable generators. I had a predator 3500 and it worked well. let my buddy have it since he had a Harley loud generator. So I have been looking at the honda 7k and they are quiet and nice but 5K nice I am not sure. I also see the predator 9500 which is fair priced. Any other options to run my ac and fridge in my rig. I was looking at the onan 4500 as well. Let me know your thoughts.

Honda Ultra Quiet 7000-Watt Electric Start Gasoline Powered Inverter Generator-EU7000 - The Home Depot

9500 Watt Super Quiet Inverter Generator with CO SECURE™ Technology (harborfreight.com)

 

 
How many A/Cs are you planning on running? Those two gennys are a little overkill for 2 A/Cs and a fridge. The Pulsar 4500 is electric start, remote start, 3700 w continuous. Most A/Cs are about 1600 w, let's say the fridge is roughly 300 w. That's 3500 w total. The Pulsar is nice and quiet and about $900.

The 3500 w load might be a little too close to max. for comfort, even though my Pulsar 4000 actually produced about 200w over it's rated max. If you can find a comparably priced 4000 or 5000 w continuous genny, it should work out great. You might not have to run 2 A/Cs very often.

 
Honda 5500 will be more than enough generator to run the a/c or even two a/c units and the fridge.  They are super quiet too and a great set up for the money.  

 
URCLEVER said:
I have been looking at portable generators. I had a predator 3500 and it worked well. let my buddy have it since he had a Harley loud generator. So I have been looking at the honda 7k and they are quiet and nice but 5K nice I am not sure. I also see the predator 9500 which is fair priced. Any other options to run my ac and fridge in my rig. I was looking at the onan 4500 as well. Let me know your thoughts.

Honda Ultra Quiet 7000-Watt Electric Start Gasoline Powered Inverter Generator-EU7000 - The Home Depot

9500 Watt Super Quiet Inverter Generator with CO SECURE™ Technology (harborfreight.com)

 
Click to expand...
My buddy just bought the Honda UQ 7000, and he is very happy with it.  The predator is 67 dB, where as the Honda is 52 to 58 dB. 

JF Harbor Freight review

The Honda is fuel injected, no carburetor or the problems. The Honda has a pressurized oil system with a spin on oil filter so that really puts it in a different class from this generator also that means it doesn't need oil changes nearly as often if you're using it for say commercially.
Click to expand...


Trace Harbor Freight review
Click to expand...
Most of the critical maintenance like checking the oil has to be done removing panels. The big sticker on top of the unit says check the oil every 8 hours or warranty is void. To me, that's a big indicator you know it's a pain to check it. To change the oil has two rubber plugs to remove. One gets you to the drain plug the other so the oil can drain through the body of the unit. I think it would be a lot nicer if you could drain outside the body and make less mess to clean up on the floor of the unit. My second problem will be the air filter. There's a clip at the bottom that's almost impossible to remove the cover by the side. The panel under the control panel makes this easier to remove the air filter. This requires more panels to be removed and the cooler for the stator.
Click to expand...

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I have a Yamaha 4500 inverter generator in the garage... thing is pretty quiet! they Yamaha's seem to be a bit pricey compared to others out there. 

 
Just (2 mins ago) fired up my new Cummins P4500i (made by Onan).  Tons of features, long run time, pretty portable and has a dedicated 30A plug.  Also has remote start and stop so you don't have to get your toes cold when the wife wants coffee in the morning lol.  We run a generator a lot (last year was Honda 2200i) to supplement the solar on the coach.  The Honda was nice, but it would not run the refrigerator.  I paid $1249 shipped to my House.

 
1newbie said:
Just (2 mins ago) fired up my new Cummins P4500i (made by Onan).  Tons of features, long run time, pretty portable and has a dedicated 30A plug.  Also has remote start and stop so you don't have to get your toes cold when the wife wants coffee in the morning lol.  We run a generator a lot (last year was Honda 2200i) to supplement the solar on the coach.  The Honda was nice, but it would not run the refrigerator.  I paid $1249 shipped to my House.
Click to expand...
Check camping world, They may have this in stock

 
The Cummings Onan have a fairly good defective rate. We sold them. Check out the firman generators 3650. It has a 30 amp plug also I'm a dealer. Furman actually makes all their own generators and parts in a quality controlled Factory. The Cummings Onan is a Chinese copy with Onan slapped on it. If you want a big one The Hondas or the Yamaha 65 hundreds are pretty quiet too

 
URCLEVER said:
I have been looking at portable generators. I had a predator 3500 and it worked well. let my buddy have it since he had a Harley loud generator. So I have been looking at the honda 7k and they are quiet and nice but 5K nice I am not sure. I also see the predator 9500 which is fair priced. Any other options to run my ac and fridge in my rig. I was looking at the onan 4500 as well. Let me know your thoughts.

Honda Ultra Quiet 7000-Watt Electric Start Gasoline Powered Inverter Generator-EU7000 - The Home Depot

9500 Watt Super Quiet Inverter Generator with CO SECURE™ Technology (harborfreight.com)

 
Click to expand...
I have the Onan 4500, it's quiet and will run two of my 15k ACs on the coach, while the battery charger hits... I did not expect that (figured it'd be okay with one).  That's pushing it hard though, but running 1 AC plus the big battery charger it's super happy.  The charger alone is too much for my Honda 2200.  It'll do it, but it surges and struggles (it's the nearly new, 2200 not the older 2000 model).  I might sell ya the Onan, because the Funco trailer has a built-in 4k so I really should just use that if I don't want to run the coach gen. 

I thought about the Honda 7k or other Yuge externals, but at the end of the day, why?  If you're getting the 7k I assume it's to run two AC in the coach, right?  Why not just run the coach gen at that point?  The Honda 7k is what, $5k?  $5k goes a long way to rebuilding your onboard gen "someday" if it ever fails.  I know ppl with 10k+ hours on their Onan diesel coach gens.  It's just way easier, convenient, one less big/heavy thing to pack, don't have to fuel it separately etc.  

Here's where I'm at on the generator thing: I just want an external genny to charge batteries, run lights etc. at night.  If I need more than that (aka ACs) I'm just gonna run the coach gen: that's what we spend all the money on these damn things for, right?  It's like guys we know with six-figure trailers or RVs that still p00p in the public bathrooms at RRE.  We didn't spend that $ to sit in a chit house on a 100 degree day with flies trying to get up our asses.

Anyway, I have the 4500 because I got it for like $1k when there were deals on it, so it was cheaper than a Honda 3k... but the Honda 2.2k wasn't doing the job.  I've also had the Champion 3500, but again it was more (not by much) than the Onan so I said screw it.  Also, IIRC the Champion has a small fuel tank.  

-TJ

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Squatcher said:
The Cummings Onan have a fairly good defective rate. We sold them. Check out the firman generators 3650. It has a 30 amp plug also I'm a dealer. Furman actually makes all their own generators and parts in a quality controlled Factory. The Cummings Onan is a Chinese copy with Onan slapped on it. If you want a big one The Hondas or the Yamaha 65 hundreds are pretty quiet too
Click to expand...
Can you PM pricing on a Firman 4K watt model or something close to it? I want to be able to run the microwave or 1 AC unit if needed. 

 
I think out of every portable generator I seen this halloween weekend 70% of them where the predators.i been seeing them on job sites also and I hear very good things about them.2 or our guys in camp have them and swear by them.

 
Squatcher said:
The Cummings Onan have a fairly good defective rate. We sold them. Check out the firman generators 3650. It has a 30 amp plug also I'm a dealer. Furman actually makes all their own generators and parts in a quality controlled Factory. The Cummings Onan is a Chinese copy with Onan slapped on it. If you want a big one The Hondas or the Yamaha 65 hundreds are pretty quiet too
Click to expand...
Ever been in the firman warehouse?   They have more pallets full of returned defective generators than they do new ones.  

 
realtreeHD said:
Ever been in the firman warehouse?   They have more pallets full of returned defective generators than they do new ones.  
Click to expand...
I guess you've never really been to their warehouse then. They have over  80,000 square feet of brand new generators. I bought 28 pallets last year of their return generators. This year all the returns are junk all the Costco returns go to their Greensboro facility now. I'm very good friends with one of the owners. They just sponsor their first NASCAR team to on today's race. 

Yes the guys that wanted pricing I will p.m. you some tomorrow

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top