Generator Info

I just picked up a Champion 3100 remote start on Amazon for $800. They get very good reviews.

I work for a commercial roofing and sheet metal company. We used to buy Honda's but our equipment takes a beating on the large construction sites we are on. So, we started buying the predators from harbor freight thinking that at 1/3 of the cost we'll treat them as throw-aways. We now own 4 of the 3,500 watt ones, 57 db and have been rock solid. The 1st we bought is only a year old, so I don't really know about long term reliability but for under $700 bucks I've been pleasantly surprised. I also hear good things about the Champions. Good Luck!

The Honda EU3000is (actual output is 2800VA) is probably the quietest, but is pricey.

Note that paralleling gens does NOT double the output. That depends on the particular model's parallel kit for what receptacle it has. Very important to talk to the company you choose, to get the right info and not from the salesman in the store.

EG, with Briggs and Stratton, two P3000s will get you 4800w, and I am not sure from that info whether that is the continuous rating in VA

Champion has some info on which of their kits would "work" with which combos of their gens, but some that will "work" they say are not "optimum" whatever that means. It looks like it might be that the kit is limited to what will fit the smaller of the two gens if one is more watts than the other.

Each company has its own kits, so beware. Do lots of research, because there is a lot of BS at the sales end of things--such as that it will "double the output"

The most quiet, and best unit for the dollar may not be out there. IMO, the best gen for the dollar, in your case may be the Champion 3400 dual feed, with electric start, at Amazon. It is $838, can be paralleled and is ultra quiet. Champion has great customer service!

Jerry

Hi,

I'd certainly get remote electric start units.

Anyone know if you can run one, while paralleled with the other NOT running?

If you'll always be paralleling them, it might be worth looking at the Honda EU7000iS inverter generator. It would be a little more fuel efficient than the pair of generators, and according to the specs should be microscopically quieter (though in practice not enough to really notice).

One obvious disadvantage is that it's a lot heavier and more cumbersome to muscle around if you cannot wheel it into position than each 300W generator. Another is that, like all the Honda inverter generators, it's not exactly inexpensive.

6 years ago I had a pair of Powerhouse PH2100PRi generators and the parallel kit for them. They were louder than I would have liked, and I believe they could run independently of each other, with the kit installed to pair them. You would only get half the available power, obviously. The peak wattage was 4200 and they produced 4000W continuous. They were inexpensive IIRC, at about US$1200 for the whole system. I hardly used them as we sold our TT and never had it our of the driveway. It was an experiment in trailering that ended with us deciding it wasn't for us, after all. I sold the generators and parallel kit not long afterwards for what we paid for them to someone that liked trailers.

Another vote for the Champion 3100 with remote start, a veritable workhorse thus far in our nearly 4 years of ownership. They do have a slightly more powerful 3400 watt version, we have a single 15K AC on our rig and the Champion 3100 easily runs it with power to spare.

pianotuna wrote:
anyone know if you can run one, while paralleled with the other NOT running?

Yes, you can.

I see this came up in the 5th wheel forum. I didn't read it all, so wondering how you can take along two 3000w gens. We carried the Honda 3000 in the truck between the front of the box and the hitch. It was too tall to go behind the hitch or the trailer would hit it.

OTOH, you could take along one great big gen up there between the cab and the hitch if it is not too tall to get hit by the trailer.

I see the object is to run two air conditioners at once. I suppose the answers are in that other thread I didn't read.