New Generator

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I've been sitting here surfing the net looking at Brand New Generators.
There must oodles of them. I've never owned one.
I want one thats just big enough to fit in the back of my Kobota 500.

What are you guys using?

Thanks.

[red oaks lumber]

i have a coleman 5000 watt. weighs around 100 lbs and is about 2 ft. sq.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

i have a coleman 5000 watt. weighs around 100 lbs and is about 2 ft. sq.

What all do you run off of it Steve? Is it just for emergencies?

[thecfarm]

You got a tractor? I've been thinking of one that runs off the PTO. No gas motor too maintain. I don't lose power here often. In fact I went about 10 years without it being off much more than 4 hours,once a year. Two years ago we was without power for about 14 hours.

[Qweaver]

It seems like 2 out of 3 storms put us out of electric.  I have an 11000 watt welder/generator that will run the majority of my house and we have had it on often this  summer.

[giant splinter]

I have two Honda generators, the 6500 and the 2000 ..... both are very quiet, fuel efficient and easy to start. I use them in case the power goes off or for running lights in the field if i am not around any other power source. They are very helpful in any emergency or for heavy equipment maintenance and repairs in the evening after daylight hours, Great around the mill when you run out of daylight and need to finish up your cutting list.I keep the 2000 in the back of my pickup with a few cords and a light stand along with a drop-cord to light up anything i need to work on at night.

[sawguy21]

You obviously want a gas drive portable. How many watts do you think you will need? Is it for occasional use or is it going to see heavy service? What is your budget? Briggs and Stratton makes some reasonably priced units but don't expect to use them as primary power for say a hunting camp or run a construction site. Honda, Yamaha and others make good quality gennys that are very reliable and quiet but not cheap.

[Holmes]

I agree about the Honda being the better product. The less expensive generators tend to give excessive power. I tested  a unit and it was putting out 147 volts on the 120 outlet, it had  fried the controls on a boiler.  I believe the better generators use inverters to give a more even power supply, at least my Honda does.

[WmFritz]

I've got the Honda 2000 watt inverter. It will run the eccentials for us like; furnace, sump pump, fridge... runs about 8 hrs on a gallon of gas. One of the other nice things about it is it can safely  be hooked to sensitive electronics like laptops.

[Holmes]

When you need a gen it's great to have one but if it is noisy it is no fun to listen too. 

[VictorH]

Just a thought - you can get some of the 4-8K ones that run off propane.  propane doesn't go bad and the carbs don't gum up.  Also in a power outage gas can be hard to get whereas the bbq tanks are still often available.  And if you have a couple 100# tanks they will last you a long time.

[pat smith]

Yes i agree, i think if one can afford it propane is the best choice today, i've made my living being a mechanic , in oklahoma we've been able to keep some ethanol free fuel but now it's all going to ethanol they say up to 10% but alot of what i test is 10-17% and you also get phase separation ,and ethanol draws water, problem with things that doesn't run alot is fuel gets stale but will still burn and turns to varnish when heated ,so engines will run but when they cool down varnish gets very hard ...locked engines,stuck valves, in 2-cycle scored cylinders , oil will not bond to alchol , so in short all the schools i attend......no one know's how we are going to deal with this !!! propane in my eyes would be the best answer!!!

[bugdust]

I recently had a 20KW natural gas generator installed to service the house in a power outage, which seems to be more often now that the electric company no longer maintains their rightof-ways. I also kept the 5KW Honda gasoline generator for portable jobs. The natural gas unit kicks on once a week for a test run and has functioned great so far. These also will run on propane too.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Lots of good advice here.

I'm looking for one to run an air compressor occasionally, skill saw and air wrench.
Needs to run on gas.

[pat smith]

what i try to do is only put however much gas i think i will need, and try to let it run out of gas, this is only my thought on 2-cycle oil but i use echo red armour fuel mix been using it in my chainsaws,and brush cutters for 11 yrs and never had to touch a carb on any off them!!!

[loggah]

I bought a generac 6500 a few years ago i use it to run my sawdust blower,works great,but it is a bit heavy has its own wheels and handle. Most of the time when im doing a big project i use my Miller Bobcat portable welder ,its good for 8000 watts. Don

[Seaman]

We run the Honda 2000. You can lift it over the tailgate of a pickup, it's light! Runs quiet and a long time on a tank. I got an electric impact to go with it, great combo.
Convince a neighbor to get one also, a slave cable between the two will give you 220W!
Not cheap at $ 1000, but well worth the price.
Frank,

[justallan1]

I just bought a Coleman Powermate 3000 for $300 and it does everything I want. It's 120/240 volt. I can run a 240 well on it or bring it to the house for outages and have run the computer, my work radio charger, a light, freezer, fridge and the heater on it at one time without a problem. It has wheels and a handle, but is just small enough that I can pick it up to load in the truck when I need to.
I have found that it's a little small to run my mig welder on the higher settings.

Allan

[gspren]

I recently had a 20KW natural gas generator installed to service the house in a power outage, which seems to be more often now that the electric company no longer maintains their rightof-ways. I also kept the 5KW Honda gasoline generator for portable jobs. The natural gas unit kicks on once a week for a test run and has functioned great so far. These also will run on propane too.

  What brand did you get? I am looking at this size in propane.

[Hilltop366]

Not sure what else you want to run on air but if it is just the air wrench I would go with the electric impact, then you would not require to drag along the compressor, also would not need as large a generator.

[DeepWoods]

For what it's worth, I have a Honda EU3000is.  It is very quiet, sips gas, and has enough power to run a pancake style compressor.  It is an inverter style generator that can be used for sensitive electronics.  The only drawback that I find it has, is that it is only 120 volts.  It will not run our well pump during a power failure, since it has a 240 v motor.  But it does well with the rest of the 120 v loads in the house. 

I recently had a carpenter friend that needed to fill the tires on his skid steer. He had a 2000 watt generator and a pancake compressor.  It wasn't enough to get his compressor to run.  I went to get my Honda, and it started his compressor right up.  I find starting an electric motor is the hardest thing to do with a generator, as they can use as much as three times the power to start, as to run.  Just my .02

[LAZERDAN]

I see now they have come up with the portable propane (Lp) gen set. (google generac propane)  You can use the 20 lb. bottle off your grill if you want.  no bad gas anymore.  I do not see to many drawbacks if you don't need it daily for construction    Lazerdan 

[scsmith42]

David, between my wife's veterinary practice and our farm, we have seven generators, including propane, gasoline and diesel in wattages from 5,500 up to 225,000.  Brands include Onan, Honda, Kohler, Miller, and Northern, and we've also had a Generac for a while.  Our diesel Onan's both have over 7000 hours on them - one is approaching 9000 hours.

If you want mobility, gasoline is the most portable and economical option.  If you plan on a stationary installation with an automatic transfer switch, then propane or natural gas is best (fuel does not go bad and NG outages are rare).

If you need portability with durability, then go with diesel (but they cost and weigh more).

A portable welder is another option, as they offer portable power as well as portable welding.

For a house, if you have a gas furnace and don't need to run the HVAC in the summer during an outage, then you can usually get by with 5.5 - 7 KW.  These will start a well pump, run the fridge, some outlets, etc.  If you need to run the air conditioning as well, you'll need at least 12KW.

For small, portable needs, it's hard to beat the Honda EU series.  One of our generators is a 6500 Honda EY, and right now it is being used for 50 hours a week w/o any problems.

A lot of times you can find a reasonably priced used stationary generator at a generator service company (15 - 50 KW) that was removed when they upgraded to a larger unit.

I will admit to some brand bias; my Northern diesel generator with a Hatz diesel burned a hole in the piston at 103 hours and they would not warranty it because it was 3 hours out of warranty.  That was even with 50 hour oil changes.  Also, the Generac that we had for a while kept having nickle and dime type of problems.  One week a sensor would go bad, a few weeks later the starter drive would go bad, then the start switch would go bad, etc. 

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I have learned a lot from you guys.....But my goodness, after reading SCsmith42's reply, I believe I could just run a drop cord from his farm to mine.  :D

Good information Scott and from all the rest. I appreciate it! 

[BobInMN]

I'm just curious, has anyone ever tried one of the 800 watt generators sold at HF for $100?  I kinda figured for that money it might be worth a gamble to buy one for camping.