Harbor Freight Tools... Inverter Generator

[Gulfcoast]

I received a new sale paper from Harbor Freight the other day and see that thay have a NEW inverter generator:

Predator brand
2500 max./2200 rated watts
125 cc
Red in color
Lot # 61169
$499.99

I don't see it on the website yet... probably in the stores soon.

[deleted-2]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
So picking on Harbor Freight is easy. I sarcastically label them HARBOR FRIGHT. But it isn's so funny when you buy a CRAFTSMAN hand wrench that costs six times as much as discover it is JUNK. Open end jaws that open wide, box end side that snaps open or rounds off a caterpillar brand bolt.

Used to swear by Craftsman.
That brand has pretty much degraded into different levels of poor quality.

Some Harbor Fright stuff scares me to use it.
Stuff like exploding air nailers, hammers made from chinese low chromium steel, engine hoists with welds that look like a wood glue joint, 110 AC powered tools with sparks flying out, motorized things that always run hot, hum and smell toxic...

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Stuff made in China under strict supervision is good stuff...but oh yeah, there's a small catch...

[ralphnjoann]

When I was younger, I bought tools that would last a lifetime, usually Craftsman. Other things being equal, I had a lot of lifetime left. Now that I'm over 70, a tool that lasts a lifetime isn't worth the price. This is where HF comes in.

[time2roll]

Everything I have bought at HF has been fine for normal light duty use.
I imagine the generator listed by the OP would work fine.
Still better IMO to spend the $500 on solar.

[beemerphile1]

My HF 800 watt generator will power my electric chain saw. I have two Champion 2000 watt inverters and neither one will run my chain saw by itself. I have to parallel the Champions to operate the same chain saw.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
...So picking on Harbor Freight is easy....it isn's so funny when you buy a CRAFTSMAN hand wrench that costs six times as much as discover it is JUNK. Open end jaws that open wide, box end side that snaps open or rounds off a caterpillar brand bolt.

If you look close you can find power tools in other stores with name brand labels on them that I swear are the same tool as you find at HF with a Chicago Tools label. Same tool, different label, higher price tag.

MrWizard wrote:
my HF 'vibrating multi-tool has seen many hours of use....

Yep, I've got one of those also, works great.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

HARBOR FREIGHT SALVAGE was the one and only original name of that company.

They made a lot of money selling $4.95 socket sets with ratchets. IMHO most of their stuff then can be compared to the worst of what they have today. They also sold drill presses for $49.99 I bought one. It wasn't anything to brag about, it got the job done.

Go into a supermarket and you need to cherry-pick what you buy. Off-Brand canned products can be so poor they get opened, sampled and go into the trash. Home Depot sells receptacles made so poorly that it is almost a joke. Same with wall paneling. I've purchased many name-brand seeds that did not sprout. None in several hundred is a pretty sad ratio. I just got through installing a pair of HELLA genuine 9004 headlamp bulbs in my car. One lasted four hours and both the high and low beam failed. No dammit, I did not touch the bulb with my bare hands.

I purchased a DACK & BLECKER (this is my official name for them) half-inch drill. It was not nearly as powerful as their cheaper 3/8" drill. I turned it in for warranty. They refused. Their answer. "This drill is not intended for heavy-duty service". B&D has lost a customer for life. What do they think I am? Stupid?

[MrWizard]

my HF 'vibrating multi-tool has seen many hours of use
saved me a gang of labor when I peeled all the chauk and roof molding off
and put eternabond on the roof seams of our previous MH ( preventative maintenance )
i also used it to cut the flooring and molding when i installed laminated hardwood flooring
and some friends used it to scrap old motar when retiling steps at their stick house
i also have an HF hyd porta tool that has served me well

[mlts22]

The sad thing, HF tools have not gone up in quality, but if you compare name brands to what they made 10-20 years ago, tool quality as a whole has taken a nose dive.

Disclaimer: I've only been to a HF once. Instead, if I need tools, I almost always wind up at Lowe's, and the Husky brand is decent. It isn't a MAC or Snap-On, but it does the job without issue.

I've read about the HF Predator generator. It isn't the Yamaha ET800 clone that we normally see (the two cycle that always needs a new spark plug from the start and some careful breaking in.) I'm curious about it, especially how clean the power is, although I am leery of trusting the electronics on a multi-thousand dollar rig to a bargain basement generator. The lowest I'd go would be a Champion because they make generators that do fairly clean power, at least voltage regulated.

[westend]

otrfun wrote:

westend wrote:

otrfun wrote:
Wow, you guys/gals are certainly down on HF. There's a reason they're a very successful company. They do offer value for those consumers who don't have the highest checking account balance. I agree sometimes it may be little difficult to find the values, but they're there at HF. I have top-of-the-line woodworking equipment for situations where I need this precision. If I purchased top-of-the-line, ego-expanding, tools for all my woodworking, I'd be broke.

The only reason the doors aren't closed is that Americans shop by price and they can offer lower prices because what they sell is imported from Asia. As was stated, choose carefully and be prepared to make a return trip when the product fails.

There is a regimen posted about using the HF two-cycle generators, nothing too special but it increases the longevity of that model. I would guess as the 4 cycle units are put in use, user-based modifications will make them workable.

The process is called capitalism---the freedom to buy junk if we so choose. As an American I absolutely wouldn't want it any other way. If we as Americans didn't "shop by price", we would have "closed the doors" on Toyota, Honda, and Sony, back in the 50 and 60's.

I think you might have misunderstood my post. I'm not against any type of pricing, nor marketing, nor quality control/lack of, or any other classification of consumer enterprise. What I mean is that WE (the collective Americans) as a culture, shop by price first, in most cases. This is different than other cultures. If you shop in Europe, you won't see every store with "SALE" banners hanging from every nook and cranny. Prices may be listed on a shelf but the print is small and very few shops have "clearance" or "now only..$$", "savings of xx$$", etc.. My experience is that folks from other developed countries shop by quality and use, first, and price is secondary. Of course, they are aware of the price and may make choices based on that but price alone doesn't make shopping into a destination like HF, here.

FWIW, I buy stuff at HF. Some of their goods are just the fit for what I'm doing. I am always aware, though, that what I buy is close to the bottom of the barrel for quality. The only store worst than HF is Northern Tools. I have a store 5 miles away and won't go into the place. I've been burned too many times.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Few things are as frustrating as finding a hundred dollars pair of dykes get dull just as fast as a pair of twenty dollar Crescent dykes. Yeah a Snap-Off ratchet is great - until it isn't. And when it isn't is when the Snap-Off truck is in the next county. No tool is immune. My twenty dollar made-in-Germany WiHa screwdriver snapped like a Loyal Hummmingbird brand screwdriver on a screw in a new Square D breaker box. I had to do the job with a Chinese screwdriver in a live box. almost 500 volts, 100-amps. I have encountered many almost new Honda and Yamaha generators that would not start (parts failed). My TWENTY DOLLAR Kitchen Aid hand operated CAN OPENER RUSTED JAMMED in less than six months. Solid corrosion on shafts, and disc cutter. Not even KROIL would free it.

So picking on Harbor Freight is easy. I sarcastically label them HARBOR FRIGHT. But it isn's so funny when you buy a CRAFTSMAN hand wrench that costs six times as much as discover it is JUNK. Open end jaws that open wide, box end side that snaps open or rounds off a caterpillar brand bolt.

[TomG2]

Who is getting cheated at Harbor Freight? Does anyone really think they are buying top of the line products at Harbor Freight? I doubt it. We want six dollar hammers instead of thirty seven dollar hammers, so that is what they sell. Would the thirty seven dollar hammer be better? Maybe, but for pounding a few nails around the house, many of us would rather have the extra thirty one dollars in our pockets. I am not talking about tradesmen who make their living with their hands and tools.

[Gale_Hawkins]

If you can get a 2 year in-store exchange for like $50 more than that would be a positive. If it will out put to posted specs it would let some run roof AC when a Honda 2000i will not.

My beef with HF is going there makes me like a fat kid in a candy store.

As a person with tool and die background from long ago I love HF tools. I expect many slamming have not spent $3K at HF like I have over the past five years.

I am running the MH off a 12 gauge 50 ext cord from HF that works about as good running the roof AC as the 30 amp RV ext cord at a fraction of the cost and weight. For little $$$ I can remove about anything with all of the seldom used bits and wrenches we have.

With out wrench sets up to 2.5 inch I use a 2 pound hammer if needed to remove or replace without concern and so far never broke one. The large size of offset open end wrenches get used in tight places quite often.

I agree the professional charging $100 an hour shop rate can and should spend $5000 to get what I can get for $500 at HF. HF enables us to save $1000's in labor and the hassle finding and getting the stuff to a shop for repairs.

Those with some skills can and will find HF an asset. I teach the kids to grab HF wrenches vs our Crescent and Craftsman wrenches when using a hammer on them. :B

[MEXICOWANDERER]

The process is called HONDA, where a run-of-the-mill assembly worker makes between 70 to 80 thousand DOLLARS a year. So Honda contracts the work out to Koreans who in turn get genuine HONDA parts manufactured in Taiwan or mainland China.

The Chinese are still in their infancy as far as bringing consumer parts online. Only companies meaning factories under STRICT SUPERVISION from outside manage to produce gear worth anything. Much of what China produces unsupervised is utter garbage. Some companies who sell direct to the "consumer" are crooks. They only accept bank transfers and MoneyGram. Payments that cannot be challenged. If you think this tech area is "bad" you ought to try MEDICINE. The fraud and incompetence is gagging.

Not all of us make 100K year. Frankly I am sick and tired of folks whose income is "comfortable" from deriding the character or even intelligence of other RV'ers who are forced to purchase carefully and if it means Chinese or nothing WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE US DO? Say "No" and do without? Yes, Honda is great. So is Rolls Royce, a nine million dollar condo on an artificial island in Bahrain, a corporate jet and "I have someone that does that for me".

[MEXICOWANDERER]

3 tons wrote:
I've never had any longevity with Harbor Freight electric power tools.

Aww hell, you haven't tried the emperor of garbage yet...

BLACK & DECKER

[powderman426]

I have had and still have some HF tools. Its a crapshoot as to how long it will last. At $500 I guess you need to take the dirty Harry approach. So do you feel lucky punk? Well do you? :B