Any Predator Generator reviews?

I have 2 buddy's running them and they seem to be a cost effective alternative to the Honda.

Make sure to look at the Yamaha 2400 unit it is another great option but obviously a little man re expensive, another friend has been running one for 2 summers almost 24/7 building a remote. A remote cabin with zero issues

Kayteg1 wrote:
Hard to believe nobody from the forum tried it?

There are some but not in TC.

keytag1,

I would go with the Champion inverter generator 3400 watts with built in remote electric start.

Harbor Freight Inverter Generator

Posts, Harbor Freight Generator

An option to the HF Predator is the Wen 2000 Inverter Generator

Still don't see actual experience about running AC with them.
I am considering Predator, becouse I can buy it next door and have it operational in 1/2 hr.
Now google is flooding me with adds and seems that if you have time for shipping, nice options with higher ratings are

Briggs & Stratton 30651 P2200


Energizer eZV2200

Hi keytag1,

If the Microair Easy Start kit is added ($300) then at 95 f and low altitude a 13500 btu air conditioner can be reliably run.

At 120 F the 2k units don't have enough surge capacity to take care of the locked rotor amps.

You could add a hybrid inverter/charger to do the surge, but it would be cheaper to use the 3400 Champion.

I have a couple comments, neither pro or con, just my personal experience...

The Pred and the Honda are look alike's but under the caninet. the Honda has a higher quality level of components. In the Pred's favor is the engine. It's a Lifan built for HF and Lifasn builds quality engines, I have 3, one on a pressure washer, one on my rear tine tiller that repaced a Honda that threw a rod and one in my gasoline powered Bobcat and they all run fine, start first or second pull (except the one in the Bobcat, it's electric start.

I owed a Yamaha 2800 I for 10 years and it's an excellent Inverter genny, but it's expensive. Yamaha holds the patent on the multi pole generator head that everyone uses (Inverter units produce DC and it's electronically rectified to AC and electronically excited to 60hz, why all the Inverter's have an 'economy' mode, you don't have to spin the head at 3600rpm like a conventional genny to make 60hz 120 volt power.

I sold the Yamaha last year for almost as much as I paid for it, Yamaha's really hold their value but at 10 years old, I was getting concerned about reliability.

After much looking around and comparing specifications, I purchased a Champion 2000 watt Inverter.

Couple reasons:
One: PRICE... You can get a Champ everyday for under 500 bucks and if you catch a sale, you can get one for close to 400 bucks.
Two: The Champ also has a Lifan motor
Three: Unlike the Honda or the Pred, the Champ is rectangular and it fits nicely in the corner of my TC. It has a double gas shutoff, one to the carb and one on the gas cap so no fumes in the TC. The Honda, the Pred and most of the other smaller inverters have a lunch box shape and it's not conducive to store it, the Champ is like a box, much easier to deal with.
Four: The Champ has parts availability here in the United States (even though it's Chinese built (so is the Honda and the Pred and all the other smaller ones built in China as well. Parts are a big thing with me, everything breaks eventually. Ever see any replacement parts for a Pred through Harbor Freight? Don't think so. It breaks, you are SOL. The Pred is a disposa-unit.
Five: The Champ can be paralleled for 4000 watts if necessaary, not a selling point with me but 4000 watts will run any RV ac.
Six: Weight. The Champ weighs about 60 pounds with fuel and oil, not exceedingly light, but it's shape and built in roll cage handles make it a breeze to handle.

I used my Champ all last year camping off grid and it performed without any issues. Always starts 1st or 2nd pull and it's stupid easy to turn over, even a child can start it. I only run it if the wife wants to use the microwave and a couple hours every day to keep my batteries charged. I can go 2 to 3 days on a tank (1 gallon), no issues.

It's extremely quiet. You cannot hear it inside the camper with it sitting next to the truck. Very happy with it.

Not dunning HF, I buy stuff there all the time but I don't buy complex stuff because they don't carry replacement parts.

The above are personal observations, take them as that.

Thanks for the time to write your observation Flip.
I do have Honda3000ei at home, that I bought for motorhome 15 years ago so I know advantage of Honda, but the Generac I have right now was $4500 option that with 82 hr on the meter is leaving me stranded with no parts closer than 500 miles and no service that would be really qualified to fix it.
Point is that with today't technology the stuff we are using well exceeded the service we can get for it, so instead of buying expensive stuff, that will need several weeks to get fixed, I tend to like the idea of buying cheap, have it replaced under warranty if needed and after 2 years if it breaks - just buy another one without looking back.
Can't stand the fact that stupid (and outrageously expensive) Generac is messing my cross country trip that I planned for years.
Now not only I with no generator, but with 120 lb of junk mounted in compartment I could use for new stuff.

Thats interesting Kayteg, I have a Generac 17KW standby unit for the house that has never had issue one. It's at least 10 years old and other than a new starting batter every couple years, it's been flawless.

I take it that an Onan wasn't an option at the time?

If I was in your shoes, I'd be pissed too.

One of my good friends has a Honda (like yours) and I tease him all the time about what it cost.

Personally, I believe before the competition got with it, Honda and Yamaha had the market cornered and could set their price point at whatever they wanted it to be. Thats all changed and I see Honda came out with a lower cost cradle type inverter just to stay competitive.

Lots of players now.

The only thing that I'm leery about with the HF Pred Inverter is parts. If you buy one and it pukes right away you can exchange it, however, down the road a bit, after the initial exchange period is done, because there are no parts or service centers available, you have a rock and even good priced rock is still a rock.

Being enviromentaly correct, I hate landfilling things like that and I'm pretty much electronically challenged. Mechanically, no problem.

Kayteg1 wrote:
Now when my build-in Generac died and even new $350 board is not fixing it, I am researching more reasonable option.
$500 inverter generator have excelent reviews and some say it runs smaller AC just fine, but forum search shows 0 topicks.
Hard to believe nobody from the forum tried it?

I own both the 2000 watt HF gennie you reference here, and a 4000 watt HF gennie.

I'll live dangerously and make a blanket statement; the 2000watt HF inverter generator won't power your a/c. It won't power my Dometic a/c even, when it was direct plugged into the a/c unit (testing it before I mounted the Dometic a/c on my TC)

Further, the 4000 watt HF gennie is a red herring WRT being "4000 watts". The way the 4000 gennie works with it's voltage regulator to regulate power, it splits the armature into 2 halves of power - i.e. 2 separate 2000 watt circuits that the ARE OUT OF PHASE with each other so you can't easily combine circuits to make that power an a/c either.

You could buy 2 of those 2000 watt gennies and do this: Predator Parallel Circuit
Good luck in your pursuit.