Johnny, thanks for the input.

What's you sister-in-laws name? She sure sounds familiar!

CR

 

I ditto the Generac, have a 4400watt with a Honda motor. $600 from Costco.
Buit a house with it, camp, use winter/summer. Runs camper with 13500 BTU
airconditioner. Just like Honda outboard on the boat always starts by second pull,
usually the first. Bigger Generac's have their own designed/built motors over head valve comercial, oil-filters, Good Generators.

 

I was on the fence between the Mitsubishi and the Honda,I liked both but the Mitsu was quieter than the Honda,as far as Coleman goes it is good enough for somethings but will fall short if you plan on powering like a camper.

 

Still trying to decide.

I found a Honda EN2500 advertised in the paper for $500. Does anyone know anything about them......is that a good price?

CR

 

I'm not sure about hooking two little ones in parallel--what about differences in phase? If you happen to be 180 out, one generator could be producing +120V while the other is producing -120V for a net result of zero on the same line.

Also, make sure your generator will run whatever you intend to power with it, and I don't mean by comparing generator power output (in watts) to the power requirement of whatever it is you're going to run. I made this mistake. I wanted to run my air compressor with the generator and on paper it has all the power and surge power it needs, but it will not start the compressor.

 

I have two Coleman 5000's powered by Briggs 10 h.p. which we use to start equipment in the winter. I've noticed the things everyone has said about them in earlier posts, except maybe not quite as severe as some. They always start, but we found out the hard way that you must use 5w oil in the winter, otherwise the oil is too stiff and spills out of the crank-case plug and other places. When I bought the 5er, I thought I would use one of them to dry-camp. Bad idea, since they are louder than satan yelling. I guess I should have thought of that since you could always hear the generators over the diesel engines they started . It wasn't so much that they annoyed me as I sat in my air conditioned camper, it was the other campers in the 5-state region who were quite perturbed by the Brigg's incessant and extreme bellering.

I too, yearned for a Honda, but when it came time to get out the ol' check-book, YEOOWWW! I settled on the Generac EXL 4600 at home depot. I retailed for 800 bones, but I only paid 650 since I bought one that some guy only used a couple of hours and brought back. It came with a full warranty and all the goodies. I am pretty happy with it. I is quiet, starts well and easily powers everthing I throw at it from the camper. As the unit was running the campers A/C, the kids even were able to plug a large boom-box into it out side, and guess what, you could actually hear the music over the generator with a 25' extension cord. I had to put the Kabosh on the music however since their choice in tunes was far more annoying than any sound ever made by the Colemans. Point being....The Colemans are LOUD!, the Hondas are BIG-BUCKS, The Generac is a good middle ground, for us anyway.

 

i have a honda EX5500 super quiet,this thing is great,2 cyl. liquid cooled,electric start.this thing is so quiet you can stand next to it and talk to your buddy with out raising your voice.i have it in the bed of my truck in the front and i just leave it there when we are 5ing and we can run anything anytime with out over loading it witch is great when the A.C. is on and i have two teenage girls.


www.hondapowerequipment.com

 

i have a coleman 6500 that is powered by a honda. 13 hp, 6500 running watts, 8150 max. best of both worlds.

jake

 

Me and my wife bought a Generac 7550 from Home Depot. Its real nice and real heavy. 240 pounds. I am glad it came with wheels on it. Some features :

7550 continuous running watts
13,500 maximum surge watts

14 HP Briggs and Stratton OHV
Electric start - nice feature, but it starts easy with the pull rope too.
No load idle - if nothing is drawing power it lowers the engine rpm to save fuel.

Here is the link to it.

It only cost $900. It is a bit loud but it is not bad.