Harbor freight RV generator predator 3500 trash?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ย. 2024
- Today I give my 2 cents on the Predator 3500 generator from Harbor Freight. Do I think you should buy this unit or shoud you stand clear? well I will give you my opinion on that.
#harborfreight #predator #camping #maine
/ @207ice2woods
Welcome to our adventure!
Well stick around for this one, how will I feel after this bad experience??
Mine has around 750 hours on it BTW. I have heard of them being sold still working great with 3000 hours. If you are having problems with one, I'd suspect your spark arrestor is plugged (I removed mine), or you have dirty fuel, dirty carb, or wrong brand of oil. Some of the oil brands out there (Havoline, Gold State), etc are absolute trash, use a good oil, or even the HD30 from Walmart $4.49 for a quart, it's good oil for small engines.
Predator gensets have come a long way! There are a few smaller units that put our more power now. The Powerhorse 4500 shares everything with the 3500 but the inverter is a bit better for 500 more continuous watts. Also Westinghouse has a 4000w in a Honda Eu2200 sized package and they offer dual fuel which is awesome. But, the piece of mind of knowing you can just bring that Predator into a HF if it messes up is a huge plus. Thanks for sharing your experience with it.
We are only using it for camping but I hear a lot of good things, like I said too my cousins has 800 hard hours on it with no issues. I’ll run good fuel and start it every 3 months and probably change the oil every season. I think it will last. I will also never talk bad about Honda though, I just did not need to spend that much for what I need
@@207ice2woods I feel ya. Reason I own a Champion, Westinghouse and Genmax is I have had 2 Eu2200i's die on me. One 2 days into hurricane restoration in FL and the other had intermittent inverter issues that tied it up for months at the dealer. I used to be a you get what you pay for hardcore Honda guy. Now a days... I will pass. I can buy 3 off brand units for the price of 1 Honda. That gives me a backup vs relying solely on the Honda. When you get a min look into LubeGard Bio/Tech. It'll help keep the bearings oiled during storage and it also cuts down on friction increasing runtimes. It worked particularly well in my Westinghouse giving me just over an hour of extra runtime per tank. There's a study on it being used in gensets floating around the web, can't remember how much it increased the runtimes in their tests. Good luck with the Predator and enjoy the camping season!
I have a predator and a powerhouse 3500 on the boat and the powerhouse burns less fuel.
Good content, glad it worked out for you. I picked up the 9500 version for backup power on the house.
This one’s for our camper we’re excited to get off grid
After years of 1-2 power outages per winter in Northern Michigan, I finally solved my problem with a HF 8750 inverter generator... Haven't had a power outage in the last 2 winters. I too have become a button pusher - absolutely hate pull starting things.
We had a big storm up here in Maine and we were out for about a week. Typically we are not because we are on the same grid as a school campus. I went and got a big generator for the whole house though. My thought is especially in the winter paying a plumber to come fix pipes especially after hours or during a storm will cost more then the generator itself lol pull start does suck but you know what’s better then push start? Remote start hahaha maybe next one will have that hahah
I just got done diagnosing a Predator 3500 that displays a short circuit on the display. Unit has 4 hours, Inverter module went bad just after the 90 day warranty. These generators are hit or miss and Harbor Freight has no intentions of standing behind them. Now if you buy it as Loncin 3500i you'll customer service and a real warranty. Same generator different seller. Harbor Freight is sh*t. Inverter module $215, 3 hours at $75 per hour to replace. I highly recommend buying a generator at a reputable seller.
@@JPaul60 I won’t lie if that was my experience I would not give it a 2nd chance! It definitely sucks when you’re excited about something and it turns into a nightmare! I’m glad you found something that works for you though. Time will tell how this works for us. We probably won’t use it more than 1-2 times a year.
My husband has burnt through 3 of these with his construction company. Bought ours for our rv and have probably 15 hours on it. Barely used it and when we needed it the most it wouldn’t handle our rv anymore. It was barely used.
That is absolutely horrible! I hope you found something that works for you guys! I might go years without using this so I definitely don’t have to stress about over using it. I’d say you guys would use it enough to spend more on a Honda for sure! Thanks for watching and I hope u subscribe and follow our adventures even though seeing the predator might bring back bad memories hahah
I got one last Saturday 7/6/24
Hooked battery up filled oil and gas. Cranked it over with electric starter no go. one pull started right up ran for 12hr the first day. I have about 30hr on it now.
There is a removable grommet under the drain plug.
I’m on my second one in less than a week. After mods and a trip to a small engine repair shop, got the jets changed to suit the altitude in my area. Finally, after more adjustments once I got it home, it’s run through the last three tanks of gas without issues
I have always been interested in the effects of elevation, it does not sound like it’s a fun time! How are other small engines like weed whackers and chain saws?
These used to be great. Newer ones the gas tanks rust out even on non ethanol within a year or two.
I’ll be interested to test the longevity in this for sure.
Sounds annoying, there is a fix for that tho, an annoying fix. Keep the gas tank full and it cant rust, on the inside anyway.
@@andrewa8569 I don't disagree. Kind of hard to do unless you add an external tank to keep it full which I'm thinking about doing.
For anyone curious, this guy pulls
I have one for my house. It runs everything in the house except the central ac. I have a three bedroom house. I put small window units in all the bedrooms and one in the kitchen. The 3500 ran it all from 8am till 2am the next morning on less than 5 gals.
That’s awesome info!
We have the same generators on the deck boats I run for work. Got a new generator and had the same problem. When it would not start I figured since the battery was not hooked up maybe the spark plug wasn't plugged in . The plastic boot was broken.
Hey did you return it to Waterville Maine?!?? JUST KIDDING hahahah it looks like you stuck with the brand like I am! Manufacturer defects happen.
Ok so I dont know but after like 5 pulls I would have been checking....... SPARK GAS AIR ...... NO WAY I would have let it go that long to the point of running battery out .....? Oh and "Synthetic engine oils can actually prolong break-in time. They also have potential to glaze cylinders, which will incapacitate proper ring seating. This is because synthetic engine oils inherently have lower friction coefficients." Should always break in engine with none synthetic oil just an FYI!!!
i got mine today, i have not opened the box yet, that's for tomorrow. I'll now know what to look for if something bad happens
Yeah pop the back off before putting gas and oil in, also make sure the eco mode is off when starting. Let us know how u like it!
I bought one of the first and it had 4300 plus hrs and ran great and I cleaned the carb and screwed up and cut the gasket… called hf to see about gasket and lady told me to bring it in and pay the 2 year extended warranty and get a new one….. lol couldn’t believe it I beat the crap out of it and was like 5-6 years old idk can’t remember but has been years since I had a warranty…..but it ran amazing but new one with warranty for 150…. He’ll ya that’s customer service
That’s two awesome things to know, the fact it’s lasting and the customer service was a similar experience to mine!
Why couldn't you save the gas you drained from the gen you returned? Seems lame to waste it. Not to mention that fact that had you kept the 1st unit you'd still need to buy more oil to have as backup. Furthermore, since the 1st unit didn't run there's no reason you couldn't have saved the oil you drained either, for a purely backup scenario. What am I missing?
U missed nothing lol, I called HF and they said to return I had to drain the gas so I did and did not think about the oil. And then after the fact I was like wow how dumb am I that gas could have went in the mower or one of the ATV’s lol. Stupid decision when I was irritated for sure.
The Very first instructions given are, put OIL in generator ! Before trying the starting process.
Thanks for watching! I followed the directions for start up. The spark plug wire ended up being broke. Factory defect but HF took care of me
Synthetic for break in? Thank God Mobil 1 has hydro cracked (non- synthetic) base stock. It used to be 100%synthetic.
I hope you enjoy that thing when you go fishing, if it's really cold out you might want to research if you need to run a different oil in it for very cold weather. It really is quiet too. I know it sounds loud in your video with it right by the camera, but in real life, it just purrs like a cat. China Manufacturing is the bane of all products we buy here in the USA, we are at the mercy of their factories that do everything they can to cut costs and get stuff out the door and onto the boat to other countries faster. The only real downside to HF generators is that if you don't buy the extra warranty, it's only like 90 days. Which is enough, if you actually use stuff shortly after you buy it, to find out if it's a good unit or a defective unit.
I sold my big shack so idk if I’ll take it fishing but you never know what I’ll get myself into hahaha and ur right prob a thinner oil
Too bad you cant get parts or even a manuel for this machine!
I got a manual for mine however I think Google would be my go to for sure. As far as parts it’s still early this is no means a long term review. We will only be using this 1-2 times per year so it will be interesting to see how a more budget friendly unit performs. Thanks for watching and supporting the channel!
I found plenty of parts on eBay and Amazon for my 3500 although I haven’t had to replace any of them yet three years and still going strong
I’m hoping if I do maintenance on a regular basis I can limit what I’ll need for parts. If you take care of it, it takes care of you
I have had no problems getting parts for my hf3500 purchased in 2019.
@scmgunner out of curiosity what have you needed for parts? Thanks for watching and supporting our channel!
The way I look at it --- this generator is a money PREDATOR !!!!!!!!
Bad experience with the 3500?
That's why you buy a Honda!
I will never talk bad about a Honda, I grew up on Honda wheelers, my parents had Honda generators, multiple other pieces of equipment were Honda. We got this because we “might” boondock lol with the discount this was too good of a deal to not give it a shot. Thanks for watching!
I'm a big honda fan and have had my watercooled 6500 since 83. Best $2500 I've ever spent. However, nothing is built like it was back then. The Honda is simple, solid and quiet.
Having said that, when it came time to purchase a smaller unit in 2019, I went with the hf3500. $600 vs $3000 was hard to overlook. With 800+ hrs of abuse the hf is still going strong. My only problems have been with the stupid little wheels and the start knob screw falling out. I do change the oil frequently since it doesn't take much.
I'm under no illusion that hf will be around in 40yrs like my Honda 6500 and that's fine. I don't think anything built today will last that long.
Good points I definitely don’t know how this will be years from now but I’ll run good fuel and frequent oil changes to hopefully make it last. Hondas are great as will.
Buy Honda you wouldn’t regret it
I absolutely love Honda products, I have been around them most of my life with generators and wheelers. We don’t really boondock but want to get into doing 1-2 trips a year so this won’t get a ton of use. I’ll be interested to see how a 600$ option performs. If I needed to rely on one for every trip Honda would be the go too for sure. Thanks for watching and supporting the channel!
Why buy Honda when you can buy this and make videos
Might have been good advice five years ago. The world has changed. Honda has nothing to compete with this, the 5,000, or any of the countless dual fuel units on the market. And I’m speaking as the owner of an EU2200.
Not all of us have Honda money 😮
Anything I owned that had a small engine was replaced with a Honda version. Very reliable, start on the first pull typically