3000W Chinese Gensets Info.

[professor95]

professor95 wrote:
EDIT ADDED 45/5/2013- When this thread started in March of 2005, I never expected to see it survive this long or amass the quantity of information that has been shared here.

In the eight year run of this thread we have amassed almost 10,000 postings and surpassed a million views. This creates somewhat of a dilemma for anyone who has just discovered the forum.

Since the amount of information is virtually overwhelming, I suggest you set your preferences for this thread to read "newest first" and then begin to page backwards.

What you will find in these pages is a wealth of info on virtually any make or model of Chinese manufactured synchronous (non-inverter) generator in the 3,000 watt performance class. Info will include how to rewire series coils to parallel to obtain maximum wattage from a single 120 volt outlet. Tips on further reducing sound levels, how to care for these generators, which ones are "RV ready" and provide the best overall performance for the dollar invested. Which companies NOT to deal with, where the best prices are, how to safely wire the generator into a home or RV, how to check your RV for electrical faults, sources for generator accessories, which 20/30 adapters are safe to use and which are not. How to convert a gasoline generator to propane or NG. This is only the beginning. The forum has a life of its own with the focus sub-topic switching frequently. Still, the main topic of utilizing the amazing, inexpensive Chinese gensets is always there. The amount of creativity and innovation presented in these pages is indicative of the talents shared in the diverse backgrounds of the folks who make up our combined RV community.

Many of the original brands and models of Chinese gensets mentioned in the introduction and early pages of the thread have since disappeared. New EPA and CARB emissions requirements, company bonds assuring the emissions warranty will be honored even if the company goes out of business, and fierce competition in the industry have changed the playing field. Champion Power Equipment has become the apparent "trophy team" providing an ever expanding retail outlet, an ample parts supply, a strong warranty and excellent customer service. CPE has continued to improve their product and now offers a new model (#46538) with exclusive convenience, safety and performance features aimed at the RV market. Big names like Cummins/Onan, Honda and Generac all now have Chinese built open frame synchronous gensets available. Ironically, the prices often found on these gensets has not significantly changed during the past eight years - even with the devaluation of the American Dollar and new EPA/CARB requirements.

I also encourage you to use the search function and even the advanced search options to find information. Key works such as "rewiring", "PowerPro", "Champion", "Onan Homesite", "Duropower", "ETQ", "Jiung Dong or JD", "Tractor Supply", "Costco", "Lowe's" and "Home Depot" are all examples of keywords that will give you specific information on different models being sold by retailers today.

Or, you can fill your glass with your favorite beverage (keep more close by - maybe some munchies as well :D, sit back at your computer, tell your wife (or significant other) that you will see her in the morning and spend the next 10 or so hours reading through the postings.

No one on the forum gets mad if you ask a question that is a repeat. Please do not hesitate to post to the forum. All questions are considered important and those active on the forum will do their best to respond with a valid answer.

Also note we are not out to knock the Honda, Yamaha, Kipor or other brands of high end digital gensets. We recognize the quality of these products and their suitability for quite, efficient RV use. But, there is a flood of reliable, inexpensive and comparatively lower cost gensets coming out of China that are excellent alternative choices for the RVer wanting power to run an air conditioner, microwave, etc. without excessive noise or breaking the budget.

Oh, one last thing. The folks on this forum are true gentlemen. We do not flame one another or the product discussed - period. Ugly contributors usually have their comments and remarks ignored by our masses. It is not a forum to start arguments to obtain a clear win. We do disagree on many issues, but we have all agreed to do that in a respectable manner.

We now have the introduction of more and more inverter gensets. There is a rather extensive thread named "The Official Unofficial Champion 2000i Generator" on this forum. Today, I added info on the new Champion 3100i inverter genset. Discussion on this product may get moved to its own thread at a later date.

Many have looked upon this thread with distain saying Chinese is cheap and doomed to failure. I remember saying exactly the same thing about Japanese products a few decades back. But, over the past eight years the track record for Chinese built generators has shown otherwise.

Please, join us in a fascinating journey down the Chinese built genset road of knowledge.

This is the question I posted that got it all started back in March 2005.......

Randy

For a little over a month now, I have been somewhat intrigued by the availability of a 3000 watt, 6.5 HP generator at Pep Boys and Northern Tool for under $300.00. The engine on this generator looks identical to a Honda 6.5 HP OHV engine. Knowing that the Chinese have become very adept at “cloning” reputable technologies from other manufacturers, I was not surprised at the similarities. Neither store could give me any information on the generator nor did they have a “running” display model.

I have done a little research. This is what I have discovered:

Many of these generators are imported by ELIM International (www.eliminternational.com) out of Buffalo, New York from Jiung Manufacturing in China. (The unit at Northern is identical but carries the JIUNG name.)

The engines are indeed a Chinese knockoff of the popular 6.5 HP 196cc Honda Engine. “Supposedly” Honda has licensed the engine technology to the Chinese manufacturer of the product.

The Chinese company that makes the ELM3000 generators is a rather large, diverse, long-standing company with a reputation for “above average quality” Chinese made products (Jiung Manufacturing). There are many more Chinese companies making almost identical gensets.

The generators at PepBoys do have a six month limited warranty. But, it is only on the engine (not the generator) and requires paying for shipping to and from Buffalo. Probably not a very practical thing to do if you have warranty issues.

ELIM does supply replacement parts (a PDF parts manual is available on the ELIM web site). No prices are given for replacement parts nor is there an “availability listing”.

The generator head itself is a brushless design. The only really significant wear parts in the generator are the bearings – most likely universally available.

The published dB rating is 67 at 23 feet. This is “reasonably” quite for a generator of this size as most comparabl.... The 67 dB rating is the same as Honda gives their 3000 watt CycloInverter with a “look alike” eng...

[dlefarris]

I found this fuel pump....1.5-4 psi is quite low and I thinks about any carb would handle it.

Fuel Pump: Universal; Electronic; Solid State; POSI-FLO® Pump; 1.5-4 PSI; 25 GPH; 95 LPH


http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?categorycode=3339K&mfrcode=PUR&mfrpartnumber=PRO04SV

[youth4him]

BTW, just a quick note, these guys are really good with communication, so be patient. The guy, Alan has answered my questions readily, and really took care of me on the auction/purchase process. I'm pumped to get the genset, it's shipping tomorrow!

So, for those of you wondering, Wildfire Motors is a good seller, don't hesitate!

KD

[mavapa]

I e-mailed the seller to make sure the whole power is available on one plug. I have not heard back yet, but I just did it a little while ago. Of course, it might be assuming too much to think they have that knowledge readily at hand.

[Dubman]

DaveVa78Chieftain wrote:
Only question I have is if anyone knows if the exhaust outlet in the head is threaded or not? If it is, it would be easy to reroute the exhaust system if installed in some form of enclousure (like an existing RV generator compartment). Already have done that before with a lawn mower engine driven 12VDC automotive alternator.

Dave

By looking at mine it appears to be a 2 bolt flange with a fiber gasket... at least where it appears to attach to head area..

[youth4him]

If it's not threaded, the auto stores sell a clamp-on flexible tubing for that purpose, the ones I saw were like $50 for 25' and they come in several diameters. I'm hoping my new TT will have a big enough door on the front compartment for this, otherwise I'm contemplating building a box on the roof of my TV (Jeep GC).

Do you guys think elevating the genset, and putting it in a topless box with dampening material all around would effectively reduce noise, or would it just come out the top? What about heat, given it's topless and if you left adequate room all around?

[DaveVa78Chiefta]

Getting to be amazing at the number of ELIM3000 clones and variations of it there are. I have been using my ELIM3000 for about 4 weeks now (4 days a week [Mon-Thur] for about 4hrs/night). Always starts up on first pull. Only thing I have noticed is the 110VAC recepticle is not very well made. Contacts loosen up over time. Thats why I installed the 30amp RV pigtail which is attached to the generator frame. Noise wise, I would not run it at night in a quiet campground but if your someplace where no one is close by, then it is ok. Then again, mine is currently mounted to the rear bumber of my rig so that possibly could be acting as a sounding board. My goal is to install it in my existing generator compartment. A challenge, but no hurry though. It will be mounted on springs (vibration damping). Will be replacing the existing compartment sound damping material that is 25 years old. I have the space for a blower fan for ventilation. Hope to find a low psi electric fuel pump so I can draw gas from main tank like a normal RV generator. My gen compartment access door is far to small to entertain using the existing generator tank.
Only question I have is if anyone knows if the exhaust outlet in the head is threaded or not? If it is, it would be easy to reroute the exhaust system if installed in some form of enclousure (like an existing RV generator compartment). Already have done that before with a lawn mower engine driven 12VDC automotive alternator.

Keep the good ideas and thoughts coming. It's been a real treat.
Dave

[youth4him]

I bit. $376 shipped ($389 on their website). Should be 5-6 days, so we'll see. I'm still interested in noise abatement strategies/boxes.

I'll let you know on the genset.

[mavapa]

So, youth4him, are you ordering? It ends up being around $50 cheaper than the other one (branded as Eliminator 3000). I am champing at the bit here, but I haven't jumped yet.

[youth4him]

Yeah, I really liked the extra outlets, and of course, the 220v is a huge plus.

[mavapa]

It sure looks the same, except that it has five total outlets instead of three, and, of course, it has a different name on it. The weight differs by about 3 lb, and the dimensions appear a little different. But it looks like almost exactly the same one. Any opinions? Prof?

[youth4him]

So, lots of good info in this, but a couple of questions.

Did we reach a decision that the ELM3000 IS a campground friendly genset? And, can they actually be had?

Also, has anyone actually built the box yet?

I was thinking you could make a multiple hinge set up so you can fold the thing up small for storage, but still would work for sound barrier.

Thanks.

KD

EDIT: found these new on ebay: $376 shipped, the guy said he fired one up in the store and they are pretty darned quiet, so the 68db on the ebay listing sounds close...

Wildfire Genset

[Palpatine]

Just want to let you all know that I fired up the Cummins 3000 watt generator and it runs great. I plugged an 1800 watt toaster-oven into it and set it on 450f and it worked flawlessly.

It did not want to start with the choke closed though. I opened the choke and started it that way. It was about 55f outside - maybe it needs colder outdoor temps to use the choke. No big deal.

This baby is just what I wanted - thanks for all the great infos and replies.

And that owners manual is a joke. It tells you to fill the gas tank with oil. I have seen some pretty bad manuals in the past but this is so bad it's comical.

Happy with my purchase!

[catalina30]

mkmathis wrote:
Well, it looks to me like another brand for the Jiang Dong has been found.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50073&item=4542193979&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

I think after looking around Jiang Dong is like saying B&S. the engine is on a lot of these machines, and that is great for parts, but the generator head is different on a lot of them. Please note a gen head can be rewound at a electric motor shop so to be able to find the engine no matter what generator company comes, or goes, makes anyone of these a good deal. you can get the generator that suits your needs and not worry about parts.

Kevin
catalina30

[mkmathis]

Well, it looks to me like another brand for the Jiang Dong has been found.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50073&item=4542193979&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

[subcamper]

Instead of using wood for the structure, a good material to use is Homasote 440 Sound Barrier. This is a structural board that isn't too heavy, but has a Noise Reduction Coefficient of 0.20. It's also readily available at local lumberyards ($16 here locally for 1/2" x 4'x8' sheet). More info at: www.homasote.com

Steve