Harbor Freight Generators....

[DangerousDave]

I own a Harbor Freight generator and I've had no problems out of it. It paid for itself last year when our power was out for three days straight. I used it to run our refrigerator and two chest freezers full of meat. I couldn't be happier with it.

 

[JeepHammer]

Friends don't let friends buy anything important at Horror Freight...

You want a 'Real' genset, hit a salvage yard that has motor homes and get an Onan.
Half the speed of a lawn mower motor, twice the power output, and 10 times the lifespan...
Idiots are crashing motor homes regularly, so there is no shortage and that keeps price down.

If you heat with city gas or propane, and don't have, or turn off electric cloths dryer, ranges & water heaters, it will power the entire home with no issues. Most motor home gensets start about 7,500 watts continuous...

I've had a few, the oldest is 16 or 17 years, and the only 'Repairs' have been fuel pump diaphrams and an ignition coil, spark plugs, a couple sets of breaker points...
Tune up parts.
Since I upgraded to breaker-less ignition, no issues at all in the last 12 years or so.
Got it for $150 bucks out of a wrecked RV...

It has about 11,000 hours on it and still starts right up and runs smoothly, most are air cooled.
You gotta love nickel iron blocks & ductile iron sleeves, stainless steel valves!
I cheat, I run mine on propane now, MUCH cleaner, but hard on soft valves & valve seats.
Onan uses hardened valve seats & stainless valves since they don't have different builds for gasoline, alcohol or propane/CNG.
Same generator/motor no matter what the fuel.

I left the steel gasoline tank & fuel pump, I *Could* run gasoline or alcohol if I had to, but propane is just so much less hassle, it never goes bad and never rots the fuel system.

Just an idea, depends on how serious you are...
A few days/week or so with aluminum lawn mower motor, or YEARS with cast iron.
Fuel issues with liquid fuel, or trouble free with compressed gas.

If you get a salvage Onan, BUY THE MANUAL!
The entire maintenance, trouble shoot, teardown & rebuild manual was about $15.
Most you can download now and print.
Keep in mind, without a PRINT COPY you are SCREWED when the power goes out!

I think Onan must make every part for every generator they ever made, my main backup genset was made 20 years ago, I got it with 16 hours on the clock about 17 years ago, Onan still lists every part as 'In Stock'.
About 12 years ago I was debating on buying extra breaker points, and the website listed a direct, screw on upgrade to breaker-less ignition! And at $30 VERY reasonable priced!
Who keeps making upgrades for something that's already 8 years old besides Onan?

The aftermarket supports Onan like crazy, Keep in mind there are MILLIONS of them running light plants, water pumps, all kinds of construction & mining equipment...
This isn't the 'China' lawn mower motor knockoff that's not supported and no part numbers interchange, and it's discontinued after one or two production years, with build numbers of a couple thousand worldwide.

 

[dudley0]

Good info for sure.

Makes me sad because my father had an old RV that he scrapped. This was about three years ago. Had I known then what you just said now...

 

[DangerousDave]

No doubt about it, Onan makes a damn good engine. Never thought about getting a generator out of a motor home, but then there isn't any junkyards in my area that scrap RVs either.

 

[dung]

For the right price that would be worth a drive to get something from Onan. Do we have any in-state or nearby? A quick google search didnt show anything closer than MO.

 

[JeepHammer]

Another source for odd ball industral engines... The Amish.
Every Amish area has two or three small engine places, and they can *Usually* find the parts you need.

I was up at the local Amish place about a month ago and they had 5 or 6 Cummings mechanical injection diesel engines.
30 years old and still in the factory crates.
These engines live in the 100,000s of thousands of hour ranges with no issues at all...

And for the hard core 'Prepper' types, they WILL run on veggie oil without doing the 'Bio Diesel' thing no caustic chemicals or reactor/separation vats required.

I'm in the process of trading machine shop time for one, those Cummings engines are just this side of an anvil in reliability.
Mechanical injection means NO electrical power of any kind required to run them, you can hand crank them started if needed.
I have a '48 Jeep CJ2A project that's going to get a 4 cylinder Cummings diesel! I'm so excited!

For a gasoline, alcohol, compressed gas, it's REAL hard to beat an Onan.
It's a true INDUSTRAL engine, and having a big, low speed, rebuild able generator attached hits the 'Easy' button about a dozen times in a row.

If you are a 'Prepper', or homesteader, don't forget this!
With an exposed crankshaft end, you have a mechanical drive power take off for water pumps!
Everyone worries about how to get water moved around, this is two jobs at once, everytime you fire the generator.
Hauling water is a thankless, back breaking job, and these engines can move quite a bit of water very quickly!
Doesn't matter what the engine brand is, if it's larger with exposed crank end, or pulley for belts, you are off to the races!

 

[JeepHammer]

A bunch of wrecks wind up in Elkhart and surrounding towns.
They build a crap load of trailers & RVs up there, and wrecks wind up there to be evaluated for repair/rebuild.
I've just not found they sell the salvage parts all that cheap.

You can watch government auction sites also,
They are constantly selling power plants & light plants cheap, some are just missing one or two parts and are otherwise brand new industral grade.
If you are getting them for $50 each and it takes two or three to get one running, you are still $20,000 ahead for what you get!

 

[Floorguy]

I have 3 predator motors on 3 different go karts. Quick to start and take a lot of abuse.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

The most highly skilled, and highly paid engineers at companies that design and build generators (or any gasoline-powered equipment) are known as the Oil-Slop Engineers.

They are the ones that carefully design each piece of equipment to make sure that the oil fill and oil drain areas are as inconveniently located as possible, with the primary goal of making the user spill oil when adding it, and dripping it all over when draining it. Frame cross-members and heat shields are very carefully positioned to get maximum effect in this.

Ideally, the oil drain looks like it will flow into a pan, but when the plug is removed, the oil flows out onto a part of the frame, running under other components so that some of it misses the pan and drips on the floor, and continues to drip periodically, leaving a spot of oil everywhere the generator is kept.

The positioning of the oil fill is to make the user think they have a funnel that will work in the tight space, but with tubes, wires, or a heat shield, the user never can get the right angle, thus spilling more oil. Additionally, when they really get it right, it's also next to impossible to see into the hole to tell if the oil level is good. Sharp edges that cut the knuckles when removing the oil fill cap are another added feature that they always aim for.

 

[JeepHammer]

Most drain plug holes are a pipe taper, so it's pretty easy to screw in an extension and then screw on a cap or valve.
Just depends on if it's a bottom plug or side plug on how easy it's going to be...

What I don't like about 'China' made stuff, the half size metric bolt heads & threaded holes.
For whatever reason, they never seem to get a full size fastener or get the threads quite properly sized.
My theroy is, worn dies, drills & taps, but I've never actually been to China to see for myself...

I'm a little annoyed when I have to break out the US made metric tools (within specification), but I'm A LOT annoyed when the tools don't fit the odd sized fasteners,
Then I'm down right, red faced , kick rocks MAD when the bolts have split a casting threaded hole (and made it past QC!)

Or the undersized or misshapen threads have ruined the soft bolt, or worse yet, bad bolt threads have screwed the threads in the hole up!
That's a case of having to re-tap the hole, and find a metric bolt that will fit the application, which often means a 17 miles run into town to visit Fastenal...

Split castings sometimes mean I can TIG weld the split back up, tap the hole, but more often than not the casting is just ruined...
And the customer ALWAYS blames me for the damage.
I won't send a know bad casting back out, I always contact the customer and let them know I found a serious issue.
I don't want them to get stranded, stuck when they need the item the most, but I ALWAYS hear about it and often loose customers.

When a cast iron block comes in, or one of the better aluminum blocks comes in, it's usually not an issue.
Cast iron I simply bore & insert a sleeve, aluminum blocks will have a sleeve already.
Standard size pistons when a sleeve gets changed, and your clock rolls back to 100% new condition.
It's the non sleeved aluminum engines that are a serious pain in the butt, some aren't thick enough to bore for a sleeve...
If you can get a sleeve in the cylinder, it's actually BETTER than new!

When you want to mount the genset, water pump, etc,
Hunt up some round/donut bigger truck engine & transmission mount rubber inserts.
They are dirt cheap and take a LOAD of the vibration out of your mounting, and last for decades.

Gensets mounted solid don't live as long as suspended ones, the reason is simple,
When the genset vibrates, the entire engine-generator moves, everything moving together.
When things move together, there is a lot less stress/hammering force being stopped cold by a solid mount.
Suspension allows the parts of the genset to move together, and the genset lives longer.

There are 'Super Duper' hydraulic shocks, springs, all sorts of suspension link types, but a bolt through a rubber donut is cheap & effective, and you don't need to over engineer a genset mount, this isn't a guided missile mount...
Use the fancy mounts if you find them surplus somewhere, but just plain old don't work well in big trucks for millions of miles with a ton more vibration/torque loads than your genset will produce.

Some people might have noticed a lawn mower engine often won't run at all, or run well without an air cleaner in place...
These little engines are super sensitive to fuel mixture, and when you remove the air cleaner the fuel mixture leans way out.
That will drive combustion & exhaust temp to the moon, and *IF* the engine runs, it will run rough.

I use a much larger, round car air filter, and those CAN lean out the fuel mixture, much more air flow available.
I simply cut a piece of thin aluminum sheet ('Flashing' at the home center) and enclose the sides of the filter, blocking as much off as I need to, restricting air flow until the engine runs smooth and the exhaust temp comes down where it's supposed to be.
When the opening in the filter gets dirty, I simply move the aluminum around the filter a little to expose clean filter.

Not only did I pay less for the car filter, it lasts MUCH longer, and when it degrades, it doesn't get sucked into the engine as small foam particles...
This isn't practical with a push mower, or even some riders, but for a genset that doesn't move around much, it works quite well.
When you get into Onan size engines, they are MUCH less sensitive...

Don't have a pyrometer or thermometer that gets into exhaust temp ranges?
Rev the engine up and close the throttle all at once a few times with the factory air filter, listen for exhaust 'Popping' (lean misfire pop).
Most will only have a slight pop when the throttle is slammed shut.
When you change to a car type air filter, use duct tape on the filter and keep blocking a couple inches off at a time until it runs smoothly, then start with the Rev up and slam throttle shut testing until the engine acts like it did before you changed filters.
The length of duct tape on the filter is how long you cut your aluminum/tin for the permanent cover.
Zip ties, wire twist or hose clamp holds it to the filter, and the rubber gasket built into the filter top/bottom seals it.

Stupid simple...
Don't worry about what it looks like, FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION!
If it works, it looks EXACTLY like it's supposed to!