Harbor Freight Tailgator generator review

dedmiston wrote:
A buddy I camp with a lot has a son who works for HF and brings home a lot of vendor evaluation units. Picture a camp filled with stuff that's almost good enough for HF. It's pretty funny to see some of the things he brings out with him.

30 some yrs ago, my one Brother found a neat little 350W two cycle red generator at a flea market. He gave it to my Dad to use with his 5th wheel.. Stored in one of the basement bays in a plastic milk crate..

The name tag was scratched off but we determined that it came for HF and was most likely a returned unit that some wholesaler that buys returns and broken store stuff must have bought and was reselling HF items .. It actually worked and was a nice tiny lightweight gen for light duty use.

He did use it some camping and even used it at home for quit a few power outages.. Not pretty nor quiet but when you have nothing else for power, it became a lifesaver..

It eventually we had to scrap it after the ignition module failed and we could not find the exact replacement module.. 2 cycles tend to be picky on ignition models as the timing varies from engine to engine and without being able to identify the exact manufacturer it wasn't worth buying and trying modules.

Dave H M wrote:
Jerry, you need to lighten up on that razor soup you been eating.

Ever heard that comment in your neck of the woods? :B

Dave ol-buddy... not into soup much, and never heard that reference before. I do live in a newish neighborhood though, not in the woods. Since we are old friends, I will take the meaning a good thing!:@

Jerry

A buddy I camp with a lot has a son who works for HF and brings home a lot of vendor evaluation units. Picture a camp filled with stuff that's almost good enough for HF. It's pretty funny to see some of the things he brings out with him.

Dave H M wrote:
I been hawking HF listings and the ole tailgator does not come up on my puter anymore. :h

HF seems to have removed a lot of stuff off the website..

Was just in my local HF this morning, they had a dozen boxes of the Tailgator gen sitting there.. Current price is $124 in store.

Went to look up the manual online for my 8700W gen a couple of days ago to review a couple of things.. That gen was removed from HF website but yet had it in stock in my local HF store this morning..

Noticed that HF has pretty much quit issuing 20% coupons a while ago and their email specials have gotten pretty lame.. Nothing more than a "crummy commercial".

Jerry, you need to lighten up on that razor soup you been eating.

Ever heard that comment in your neck of the woods? :B

MFL wrote:

Dave H M wrote:
I been hawking HF listings and the ole tailgator does not come up on my puter anymore. :h

So many members here ordered, after reading this thread, they sold out! More on the way, but always a slow boat from !:W

Jerry

Now ,now . :) They can always get that 2000 Predator , as said its a nice running generator for the money .

Dave H M wrote:
I been hawking HF listings and the ole tailgator does not come up on my puter anymore. :h

So many members here ordered, after reading this thread, they sold out! More on the way, but always a slow boat from !:W

Jerry

I been hawking HF listings and the ole tailgator does not come up on my puter anymore. :h

OK, here’s my Harbor Freight 800/900W generator story. I had purchased one for $88 in about 2010 (It was the red version). I used it a few times on small projects. Always started. Mixed gas wasn’t a problem because I always had a few gallons around for my weed eater and leaf blower.
About seven years ago we had a huge wind storm and power lines were down everywhere. (It’s Oklahoma, June, and a lot of tornadic action that evening). For my personal use I had a 6000W Generac that I fired up, ran extension cords and I was fine.
After getting stuff up and running I hurried to my 90 year old Mom’s house about 1.5 miles away, her electricity was out also. (This was after 9:00 at night). Her house was dark so I told her she needed to come home with me…..she wouldn’t budge. Said, “I’m staying in my own house! I got plenty of flashlights so I’m not going anywhere”.
Yes, she had several flashlights….all batteries were dead! I had a few out in my truck so I gave them to her.
So, I headed home, got the Harbor Freight generator, gas, and went back to her house. I thought it would be good enough to handle some lights, her lift chair and TV.
Put the generator on her patio, fired it up and began running a few extension cords. She was good, so I left.
Early the next morning I headed back to her house to gas up the little generator. It was still running. I turned it off, gassed up and restarted.
Now here is the “rest of the story”…. I go in the house and Mom says, “Can that thing make a cup of coffee?”
I didn’t know so I checked her coffee maker and on the bottom it said 1100 watts. I’m thinking probably not. But she really wanted her coffee. So I unhooked everything else, and plugged in the coffee maker. The little generator was just humming on the patio, but as soon as it hit the on button to start the coffee maker, you could hear the generator really start to strain, but it kept running and after about five minutes her coffee was ready. I turned off the coffee maker and plugged in the other items and added a cord for the refrigerator and the little generator worked fine for five days. Every morning we did the coffee routine and mom was happy!
When power came back on Mom’s first words were, “I want my own generator…. Big enough to make my coffee”.
So now she has a 3200/4000 watt generator (also Harbor Freight) in her garage….never been used! I run it under load every three months.
So, that small generator gave me my $88 of value. I gave it to my grandson a few years ago.

Purchased the Yamaha 2000 generator last year for dry camping. Nice little generator, will run for about 12 hours on a gallon of gas and is very quiet.