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...

[dash8wrench]

Well, I haven't seen this one listed yet, or I might have over looked it. We stopped into Big Lots in Greensboro, NC this afternoon returning from the antique farm show in Denton, NC. While walking around I noticed this unit. I immediately took it down from the shelf and opened it up to see if it was comparable to the others being discussed. It looked to be the same and since I didn't want to pay shipping from partsamerica.com, well, it just followed me home. Price was $288. Manual was vague on choke operation and it didn't start on first or second pull, so I set the choke lever in oposite direction and it started with a nice mellow sound. I ran around to the back of the trailer and brought out the power cord and 15 amp adapter. Plugged it up and hit the AC. Engine expressed it's acquisition of a load with a bit louder rumble but it didn't hiccup one bit. Sure could have used it the past 2 nights when the temps didn't seem to drop below 80 all night. Engine is noticeably less noisy than the 1850 watt Coleman we had used for the weekend. If I can round up a dB meter I'll get some readings. I'm thinking of mounting on back bumper of the fifth wheel in some sort of sound deadening enclosure. Will post more later.



Edited to reduce on picture width to prevent screen scrolling - MELM

[MrWizard]

Kragen has a coupon in their adv flyer 7 newspaper adv

price with coupon $299, save $30 for the RV ready

[jdev]

HELP! I need the step by step info. on how to make a 3500 PowerPro give you 3000 Watts from one outlet via the 220 one or the 120 one Please let me know what I need to get and do!!!!

[Bugs66]

The coupon appears to be yanked from the site. Sorry. Strange because it was supposed to be good until July 4. I picked up my Champion at Schucks no problem, discount and all. Guess a few of us were lucky.

[VDOCAD]

Where do you get such coupon for the the champion generator? Went to the site, entered july46 and it does not update the price. Please advise, thanks.

[elking]

First off Thanks to everyone on this great forum for thier help! I just want to follow up on the problems I thought I was having with my Chinese genset.(4000W 'Contractor Line' from Homier) The only problem with the genset was the idle speed governer was set to low (only putting out 108-109 volts at idle). I adjusted it and now it puts out 120v-123v at idle. The a/c on my new Prowler 5th wheel did not come from the factory with any start capicitor or start relay whatsoever! The electrical diagram showed it as being optional equipment and the manufacture saved the almighty dollar by not installing it! My advise to anyone having a/c-generator problems - check to make sure your a/c unit is equiped with a start capacitor! I installed the Supco SPP6E capacitor and relay in my a/c unit and it starts and runs on generator power with no problems. Before it would trip the breaker almost instantly! Again thanks for the great information available on this forum!

[az-cj7]

Can someone tell me if a L14-30 outlet will produce enough amperage to run a 120V RV 13,500 BTU A/C (using a pigtail)? I've read through previous posts and saw that you'd only be using 1/2 the generator. The Ebay seller who I purchased mine from claims he has over 50 RV's who use this same 4400/3500 30 Amp Powerlift generator with no problem. I'm convinced after studying the wiring of the pigtail that I can only pull 15 amps at 120 V, is this correct?

[madbare]

Bugs66,

Thanks for the heads up. Just ordered mine for pickup with the coupon. $267 with taxes. Awesome deal. Now I need to figure out what to do with my C46535....

Steve

[JohnJohn]

Shoot, and I just bought mine 2 days ago for what I thought was the sale price at $299 from my local Kragen. The clerk said it went on sale that day. It was originally $329.

However, it is leaking fuel from a screw on the bottom of the carb bowl. Bad gasket? I called Champion and the tech told me to spray WD-40 or Carb cleaner in it. I spayed carb cleaner and the leak slowed a bit, but it still sweats fuel around the bowl. Any suggestions before I call back?

[MrWizard]

man O man

what a great deal

too bad i can't use it retro-active at my local kragen auto where i bought ours ( 3 weeks ago )

$356 out the door with the taxes

a $91 savings

[Bugs66]

Hey folks,
I just got the Champion C46540 "RV Ready" generator from PartsAmercica.com for 25% off. It was $267 delivered to my local Schucks. Use the new coupon code "July46" to get the 25% off price.

Just thought I'd pass along the deal.

[Curly2001]

I have a Power Pro 3500 from Pep boys. I have done the wiring mod that has been described and now wonder if I need to do anymore to the generator. Do I need to change the breaker on the front of the gen set? Do I need to change any of the wiring that was modified? Can I run the A/C with no problems from the 120 outlet? Sorry to be a pain but I have been out of this for a long time due to discs out of my back. Thanks in advance. Curly

[Accurate]

found a digital RPM/Hour Meter there that will fit the bill nicely.[$34 out the door with his discount]

While the gen is running it displays the engine RPM's when you shut down it diplays the hours run.
It is factory pre-programed by Yamaha to alert at 10 hours & there after every 50 hours for service intervals.

For anyone interested it's Yamaha Part #ENG-METER-4C-02.
You can screw it on the the front panel with a couple of supplied self tapping screws OR you can attach it with a supplied velcro strip [that's me].

You wrap the supplied wire around your spark plug wire 4-5 time and secure it with a supplied cable tie.

KS

kc0dwx wrote:
I adjusted the governor speed on my generator and got a much better voltage. Cycles were a little under 60 before adjusting and now show up as 62 or 63 hz. at 120-125 volts no load. Under AC load from my RV voltage stays well above 110. It was 95 to 100 here today and my RV was in full sun and the compressor was kicking off and on. It's an old unit so probably needs serviced or replaced(yech).

A lesson I am learning is that all the plugs you find are sorry excuses for electrical plugs. The pigtail I bought to adapt to my camper plug has huge gaps in the blades on the female end.(Brand new adapter. I made some quick bending adjustments but I know the real answer is to go buy good components and make up my own.

[kc0dwx]

I adjusted the governor speed on my generator and got a much better voltage. Cycles were a little under 60 before adjusting and now show up as 62 or 63 hz. at 120-125 volts no load. Under AC load from my RV voltage stays well above 110. It was 95 to 100 here today and my RV was in full sun and the compressor was kicking off and on. It's an old unit so probably needs serviced or replaced(yech).

A lesson I am learning is that all the plugs you find are sorry excuses for electrical plugs. The pigtail I bought to adapt to my camper plug has huge gaps in the blades on the female end.(Brand new adapter. I made some quick bending adjustments but I know the real answer is to go buy good components and make up my own.

[mokanmikey]

Mr.Wizzard, Sorry to hear your down. Get well soon!