PREDATOR Gen

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Interested in people who are using a 2000 Watt Harbor Freight inverter generator. I see good things about their bigger generators but, I'm interested in the $449 2000 unit. Ed
 
Not only is it made in china garbage, but that won't run much. A good Champion (Made in USA) is a far better investment. It's what we have (a 9375 watt dual fuel), and with a good transfer switch we can power up about 1/2 of the house including one of the AC units and the air handler. During Michael we lost power for a couple days-pretty much a non issue for us and several of the neighbors made their way over to spend some time in the AC.

Our Champion wasn't much more than the price that you quote for the little 2K watt from china.
 
Originally Posted by Fawteen
Not only is it made in china garbage, but that won't run much. A good Champion (Made in USA) is a far better investment. It's what we have (a 9375 watt dual fuel), and with a good transfer switch we can power up about 1/2 of the house including one of the AC units and the air handler. During Michael we lost power for a couple days-pretty much a non issue for us and several of the neighbors made their way over to spend some time in the AC.

Our Champion wasn't much more than the price that you quote for the little 2K watt from china.


Which Champions are made in America? They all are also Made In China with American support. That is one thing that sets them apart - they have awesome support.

That being said the reviews from all the HF generators seem to be good. We've got the previous blue version and while it doesn't have a lot of hours on it it never fails to start and produces stable power.
 
Originally Posted by Fawteen
Not only is it made in china garbage, but that won't run much. A good Champion (Made in USA) is a far better investment. It's what we have (a 9375 watt dual fuel), and with a good transfer switch we can power up about 1/2 of the house including one of the AC units and the air handler. During Michael we lost power for a couple days-pretty much a non issue for us and several of the neighbors made their way over to spend some time in the AC.

Our Champion wasn't much more than the price that you quote for the little 2K watt from china.



He's also talking about a quiet, inverter generator. The one you have is an old school non-inverter. Big, loud, and heavy. Two different use cases. Non-Inverter generators are generally always way less expensive and have higher output ratings.

I don't have the predator, but I've heard decent things about them. There's plenty of RV sites with people that have them and have had good luck from them.
 
Originally Posted by itguy08
Originally Posted by Fawteen
Not only is it made in china garbage, but that won't run much. A good Champion (Made in USA) is a far better investment. It's what we have (a 9375 watt dual fuel), and with a good transfer switch we can power up about 1/2 of the house including one of the AC units and the air handler. During Michael we lost power for a couple days-pretty much a non issue for us and several of the neighbors made their way over to spend some time in the AC.

Our Champion wasn't much more than the price that you quote for the little 2K watt from china.


Which Champions are made in America? They all are also Made In China with American support. That is one thing that sets them apart - they have awesome support.

That being said the reviews from all the HF generators seem to be good. We've got the previous blue version and while it doesn't have a lot of hours on it it never fails to start and produces stable power.



This. Plus...............

Champion 3 yrs warranty with great support

Predator 3 mos with lousy support. Just try to get a spare part, forget it.
 
I can't speak for the Predator inverter myself, but following RV forums it seems the Champion 2000 inverter has a good reputation and it's a little bit cheaper. Reviews of the Predator 2000 inverter seem favorable, but it's relatively new compared to ones like the Champion that have been around longer. Just don't buy a Powerhouse. I had one. You don't want one, unless you need an expensive boat anchor. It was the Yugo of cheap Chinese generators.
 
Originally Posted by Fawteen
Not only is it made in china garbage, but that won't run much. A good Champion (Made in USA) is a far better investment. It's what we have (a 9375 watt dual fuel)

Our Champion wasn't much more than the price that you quote for the little 2K watt from china.


The biggest issue with Generators vs the invertors are incredibly noisy and fuel pigs. If 2000W suffices for needs its better to get.an efficient invertor set because you spend significantly less in fuel and don't have to keep running out constantly to get more gas where power and fuel sometimes sparse.

The daily cost of my 8500Watt generator is 8 gallons of fuel which gets spendy and painful to run out daily to keep getting fuel. At least we have a truck stop with generator backup in town to get gasoline from.

Pros and cons to each.

I like my FIL approach, his 2005 GMC truck 6 cylinder idling with a 3000W inverter formally used in his van for tools hooked directly to battery under hood. He does not worry much about fuel with its monstrous gas tank on his truck.
 
Thank you for the input. It appears that the subject of repair parts over the long haul may be an issue with the HD unit. I don't subscribe to the Chinese junk or [censored] garbage mentality. I will look into the Champion and other 2,000 Watt units. Thnak you again. Ed
 
The only parts my harbor freights ever needed was the gas shutoff valve, hoses and the oil sensor all were inexpensive and easily available with simple internet search.

Rod
 
Originally Posted by Dave Sherman
I can't speak for the Predator inverter myself, but following RV forums it seems the Champion 2000 inverter has a good reputation and it's a little bit cheaper. Reviews of the Predator 2000 inverter seem favorable, but it's relatively new compared to ones like the Champion that have been around longer. Just don't buy a Powerhouse. I had one. You don't want one, unless you need an expensive boat anchor. It was the Yugo of cheap Chinese generators.


You do realize that the Powerhorse and the Predator Inverter generators are the same unit. Both are made by Loncin and rebranded in whatever color the customer wants.
 
Originally Posted by madRiver


The daily cost of my 8500Watt generator is 8 gallons of fuel which gets spendy and painful to run out daily to keep getting fuel. At least we have a truck stop with generator backup in town to get gasoline from.
.


That 8gal/day fuel consumption has got to be with conservative use of the unit as well. I can see an 8500 watt "portable" sucking up in excess of a gallon per hour easily when drawing hard off of it.

I hear folks suggest all the time "go big" for generator purposes. I say just the opposite if you have to fuel it from a can. Larger units mostly just turn fuel into noise and heat.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by ironman_gq
Originally Posted by Dave Sherman
I can't speak for the Predator inverter myself, but following RV forums it seems the Champion 2000 inverter has a good reputation and it's a little bit cheaper. Reviews of the Predator 2000 inverter seem favorable, but it's relatively new compared to ones like the Champion that have been around longer. Just don't buy a Powerhouse. I had one. You don't want one, unless you need an expensive boat anchor. It was the Yugo of cheap Chinese generators.


You do realize that the Powerhorse and the Predator Inverter generators are the same unit. Both are made by Loncin and rebranded in whatever color the customer wants.


You do realize that POWERHOUSE and POWERHORSE are two different brands and their units are not only different colors but in fact bear little resemblance to each other, right? I had a PowerHOUSE. Not a PowerHORSE.
 
Originally Posted by Eddie
Thank you for the input. It appears that the subject of repair parts over the long haul may be an issue with the HD unit. I don't subscribe to the Chinese junk or [censored] garbage mentality. I will look into the Champion and other 2,000 Watt units. Thnak you again. Ed
I don't think that you can go wrong with the Champion units. The only thing I don't like about my Predator 3500 inverter is that it doesn't have a fuel gauge. The Champions do.

I've had a traditional [not inverter] open frame Champion 3500 for seven years now and it has never let me down. I bought the Predator because I wanted something quieter with better fuel economy and a cleaner power output. Whatever you buy, be sure to feed it good oil and change out the Torch plug for NGK, preferably Iridium.
 
I don't recommend a large unit unless very necessary. I have a portable 18,500 watt (26,500 surge) Generac unit, and holy moly does that thing make the fuel disappear. But it will run my 5-ton and most of the rest of my house.

That's only for daylight hours if there is no power. Otherwise, I'd run my Predator just to keep power to the fridges and bedroom.

Strongly considering a pair of wireless Champion 4000 inverters and a combiner to carry "low power mode" through the nights if power is knocked out by a storm. Still won't run the 5-ton, but whatever. Would keep fridges and two bedrooms/bathrooms going with my Whynter portable AC units.
 
Originally Posted by DoubleWasp
I don't recommend a large unit unless very necessary.


Agree completely! My motorhome has a 7500 Onan diesel gen, but I don't like to run that much and prefer to operate from my Yamaha efs2000i inverter when possible. With that said, it's a pain switching everything around to run the A/C, microwave, or an air compressor.

I recently borrowed my dad's Honda EU3000i to see how it would handle everything. It ran the motorhome A/C, refrigerator, microwave without a sweat, but it used a lot more fuel than I am used to with my little Yamaha. I'm torn between biting the bullet and getting a 3000-3500 unit, or getting another 2000 to use as a companion on the hotter days when A/C is necessary.
 
Agree on the smaller units. Getting 10, 20 gallons of gas per day to run a large unit in an emergency could be hard to do.

As to predator generators they are a HARD pass to me as long as Champion generators exist. Champion have the BEST parts and support network in the industry and you can get parts for a 15 - 20 year old generator very easily.

I bought the 2000 watt inverter generator from Champion and it's a solid unit. It will run a 5000 btu window ac unit all night long in my bedroom for pennies and keep me comfortable. It will also run the fridge.

I have a 5000 watt generator as well, but the inverter generator gets used more often if it can handle the load.

I HIGHLY recommend Champion over Predator for budget inverter generators.
 
Originally Posted by Dave Sherman
Originally Posted by ironman_gq
Originally Posted by Dave Sherman
I can't speak for the Predator inverter myself, but following RV forums it seems the Champion 2000 inverter has a good reputation and it's a little bit cheaper. Reviews of the Predator 2000 inverter seem favorable, but it's relatively new compared to ones like the Champion that have been around longer. Just don't buy a Powerhouse. I had one. You don't want one, unless you need an expensive boat anchor. It was the Yugo of cheap Chinese generators.


You do realize that the Powerhorse and the Predator Inverter generators are the same unit. Both are made by Loncin and rebranded in whatever color the customer wants.


You do realize that POWERHOUSE and POWERHORSE are two different brands and their units are not only different colors but in fact bear little resemblance to each other, right? I had a PowerHOUSE. Not a PowerHORSE.


Not enough coffee this morning on my end to notice the spelling difference
 
Getting enough gas for my generators is not an issue. I buy 300 gallons for the house at the onset of storm season, and then pump it out into my boat on a trailer when storm season is over. To get through a day takes 20 gallons, so that's enough for me. Before and after a storm, fuel is super easy to get ahold of. Florida continues to evolve in the way it handles storms.

But that's just my specific situation. Totally does not apply for everyone, everywhere.
 
Originally Posted by Eddie
Interested in people who are using a 2000 Watt Harbor Freight inverter generator. I see good things about their bigger generators but, I'm interested in the $449 2000 unit. Ed


Not all generators will parallel very easily.

My Honda EU2000i and EB2800i will parallel very easily with almost anything.

The Champion 2000 inverter generator is kind of fussy when when paralleling.

My Yamaha EF1000is is picky! it will parallel with only a few inverter generators I have.

My Sportman 1000/800 WILL NOT parallel with ANYTHING!

Alternatively, my Blackmax 1000 will parallel very will parallel very

Same with the $450 Predator - it will parallel very easily with almost any other inverter generator!

MY ONE GRIPE about the 2000 Watt Harbor Freight inverter generator IS:
The pull rope. it's a very cheap copy of paracord, and will fail after less than 50 pulls.
 
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