I bought something for my AF811 - it's BIG and HEAVY!

zcookiemonstar wrote:
Kinda funny that you rented a U-HAUL to pick it up when you have a pick-up and a cargo trailer.

Actually, it's not funny.

The camper is on the truck. The cargo trailer is full of stuff because it's a mini garage during the winter.

If the camper was off the truck, it would have been very difficult to get the generator in the truck bed.

Renting the trailer cost half of what I'd have spent in fuel to drive the truck.

The roads were covered with ice, sand and deicer in some spots. I don't drive the truck in cr-ap like that.

It was far more efficient to just rent a trailer. and drive the car.

Kinda funny that you rented a U-HAUL to pick it up when you have a pick-up and a cargo trailer.

Isn't 6500 having oil filter?
Kind of bummer such advanced engines don't have it since small filter change oil intervals from 50 to 500 hours.

deltabravo wrote:

RoyB wrote:
I have always wanted to get the Truck camper setup here but there is not enough on-board room to justify it.

I have the same dilemma. I take too much junk with me camping and want lockable storage space for my motorcycle and generator.
I started with a 6x12 cargo trailer and have a 8.5x20 now, which is totally overkill for my current needs, but I don't want to buy a smaller trailer and re-outfit it to my liking.

I was camping at our Local Westmoreland State campground here in VA in my OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer enjoying my bon-fire a couple of years ago and this guy shows with a Truck Camper pulling a utility trailer. He unhooked the trailer right away and then backed in his Truck camper... Then he jacked up the camper and drove out from under it and set the camper on the ground... Did all of this in no time... Then he and his wife get in the truck and headed for somewhere and came back around 4PM... Looks like it had it all down to science haha...

Roy Ken

RoyB wrote:
I have always wanted to get the Truck camper setup here but there is not enough on-board room to justify it.

I have the same dilemma. I take too much junk with me camping and want lockable storage space for my motorcycle and generator.
I started with a 6x12 cargo trailer and have a 8.5x20 now, which is totally overkill for my current needs, but I don't want to buy a smaller trailer and re-outfit it to my liking.

Clarryhill wrote:
Hey, DB, got one of those for the house 10 or 12 years ago. Think that is the sweetest machine going in that power category. You're going to love it!!

Yep, It's pretty sweet.

It only has 285 hours on it.

The interior looks spotless (like new)

I will probably sell one of my EU2k gens to help offset the cost of 6500.

I have actually used the 2ks in tandem and ran two 13,500 BTU A/Cs. I did that at the 2015 NW Overland Rally, when it was 95 all day.

I've done that several times, but if one A/C kicks off, things go south quick due to the generator's inability to ramp up from eco-throttle fast enough to start the second A/C. Then the EMS (surge suppressor / voltage monitor) unit in the truck camper kicks off due to low voltage, which causes the truck camper A/C to go in to locked rotor condition, preventing it from starting up for 3-4 minutes.
The work around was to leave the inverter on, allowing it to start the A/C in the camper, and also have the generators in full throttle when the A/C units start at the beginning of the day. Once they start, I put them in eco throttle and everything works all day long.

The heat at the various NW Overland Rallies are the only times I've ran both A/Cs. The reasoning for running the cargo trailer A/C was because it was my mobile showroom, and I stayed in it out of the sun, manning the product sales and stuff

I was not in the market for a big generator when I accidentally stumbled across this beast.

Honda replaced the 6500 with the EU7000. The 7k is fuel injected and priced at $4000. One of those looked nice for home backup, but there's no way in #^%^&@ I'd spend that much for something that would get used so little at home.

Long story:

Early 2016 I bought a Polaris Ranger through the Costco dealer program. A bonus they had going was to include a $200 Costco gift card. I'd been eyeballing the big Champion generator Costco sells when I bought the Ranger. It came on sale... but I didn't have the gift card yet. Took about 2 months to get that in the mail because Costco paperwork got lost at the Polaris dealer.

A year went by before Costco had the generators on sale. Normal price was $799, sale price was $549, so I bought the gen using the gift card. I bought the generator probably June of 2017.

In the back of my mind I started thinking having a big generator that can only be used at home seems not my thing. I want equipment that is multi-purpose. (There's no way I'd ever take that loud monster camping if I needed mega power)
The Eu7k looked pretty sweet, but there's no way I'd tie up 4 grand in something that would only see limited use.

I kicked around the idea of selling the Champion noise maker, knowing I could nearly double my money on it since I bought it on sale and used a gift card. I finally pursued that plan in November, and sold the gen on CL for $825.00 to some people that lived in the sticks and had lost power during a snow storm in December.

My new logic was that if I was going to have a big generator, something multi purpose made more sense, but not a $4000 version!

Fast forward to 3 weeks ago, I was reading a different section of the forum here (not the TC section) and someone had started a thread on generators. A few people chimed in and said you could usually find good deals on used EU2000s on CL, so I did a search for "Honda EU" to see what the going price of them was in the local area and stumbled across the 6500, located about 75 miles north of me.

I emailed the owner, he replied, I replied back, then he called me and we made arrangements to meet up on Feb 3rd. Weekends were his only option because as he described it, "he lived off-grid up a 6 mile goat trail" and didn't like to drive after dark, and his "road" was mushy during the day after it thawed out.
He loaded up the gen and we met up in town.

He used it as his backup generator, but decided it no longer made sense to have generators requiring different fuel types. His main generator was diesel and he said he had a big diesel tank to supply his main generator, and to run the 6500, he'd have to run in to town to get gas for it. That's his story as to why he wanted to get rid of it.
He bought the 6500 in Tacoma, WA prior to moving off grid on the dry side of the state. He didn't say what he used it for over on the wet side.

I have always wanted to get the Truck camper setup here but there is not enough on-board room to justify it. I have a 5x8 front deck on my OFF-ROAD POPUP and the use of my covered and locked truck bed for all of the things we bring along with us including our 2KW Honda Generator. We do everything except the Air Conditioner and high powered Microwave when camping off-grid.

Roy's image

My idea ended up being a nice battery bank and Power inverter to run all the things we want to have when off-grid and only use our 2KW Honda Generator to run my on-board converter/charger to recharge my 50% depleted battery bank back up to its 90% charge state with a three hour generator run time each morning. This is when we are allowed to run generator here on the East side of the US. Seems like everyone has generator restrictions in place where we camp off grid...

Roy's image

Not having my truck bed and front deck with the Truck Camper i would have to pull one of these trailers with us all the time when camping i guess...

Google search

Roy Ken

mat60 wrote:
Looking forward to seeing how your going to take it with you along with your truck camper.

20' cargo trailer / toy box. Wheel it up the ramp door.

Captain_Happy wrote:
Kind of a total over kill for a truck camper don't you think?

Yes.

It's way bigger than is necessary for camping, except when I go places where I want to run the A/C in the truck camper and my cargo trailer. Even that scenario is a rarity. The only time I've done that is when I set up as a vendor at the NW Overland Rally, and it was 95+ degrees all day.