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Old 01-08-2018, 09:08 AM   #21
BB_TX
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I think the key here is that some are looking for something economical that might be used only a few times per year on overnight stops. Not something they plan to power up their house with on an emergency basis. That gets into a whole new discussion.
 
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Old 01-08-2018, 09:17 AM   #22
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My only concern with Predator is I heard parts are not available for the 2000. Sticking with Champion.
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Old 01-08-2018, 10:37 AM   #23
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My only concern with Predator is I heard parts are not available for the 2000. Sticking with Champion.
I think they were made by Loncin Industries http://www.loncinindustries.com/en/engine/index.aspx and maybe one of their dealers can help you.
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Old 01-08-2018, 06:44 PM   #24
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Like 762x51 or is that 308 said you need a transfer switch of some type. Not having one could be a shocking experience.
If I was buying a generator use a lot or needed to depend on it I’d get the Honda. If I didn’t plan on using it much a $600 generator would be hard it pass up. If you have a problem it
with it bury it and get another one. No big deal.
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Old 01-08-2018, 07:15 PM   #25
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<snip>Like 762x51 or is that 308 <snip>
I prefer a 20x47.
7.62x51mm is my favorite for long range shooting but 50-70-450 is my favorite for deer hunting as my "deer" rifle was made in 1869...
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Old 01-09-2018, 07:01 AM   #26
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762 your 50 70 would be fun for deer. I’m not a deer hunter. Groundhogs are my game. Do a google search for, groundhog hunting with Lynwood Harrell in Va. That’s my 6mm the 20 is better.
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Old 01-09-2018, 01:22 PM   #27
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I bought one of the Predator 3500 gensets last fall. Ran it for over 40 hours so far on 2 different trips. Starts every time, no hassle and runs great.
I also have a Champion 3100. The 3500 is a little quieter.

I get all the Honda fans. Honda build good products but at less than 1/2 the price, I can replace on of these a couple time and still be ahead.

Additionally, HF offers a 3 year replacement warranty that will cover it if it falls off the back of my truck. I don;t think Honda has that.

For me, its works and for a price I can live with. YMMV.

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Old 01-09-2018, 04:41 PM   #28
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I bought one of the Predator 3500 gensets last fall. Ran it for over 40 hours so far on 2 different trips. Starts every time, no hassle and runs great.
I also have a Champion 3100. The 3500 is a little quieter.

I get all the Honda fans. Honda build good products but at less than 1/2 the price, I can replace on of these a couple time and still be ahead.

Additionally, HF offers a 3 year replacement warranty that will cover it if it falls off the back of my truck. I don;t think Honda has that.

For me, its works and for a price I can live with. YMMV.

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Old 01-09-2018, 04:54 PM   #29
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I agree with Mile and others as to why spend over 3 times the amount for a Honda that has nearly the same wattage rating? Also, when I got the Predator 3500 and was setting it up for it's first run, I removed the side panel where the oil fill is and the visual quality of the Predator is amazing.

I don't have a Honda to compare it with but I doubt there would be much difference in the visual appearance. Yes, the real test would be what the components look like on the inside and only time will tell if the components are as reliable as most Honda's.
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Old 01-09-2018, 06:43 PM   #30
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I agree with Mile and others as to why spend over 3 times the amount for a Honda that has nearly the same wattage rating? Also, when I got the Predator 3500 and was setting it up for it's first run, I removed the side panel where the oil fill is and the visual quality of the Predator is amazing.

I don't have a Honda to compare it with but I doubt there would be much difference in the visual appearance. Yes, the real test would be what the components look like on the inside and only time will tell if the components are as reliable as most Honda's.

Doubt Honda makes all their own parts and any they do they probably supply to others. Vendors will supply all with the cash. They depend on volume.
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Old 01-09-2018, 06:55 PM   #31
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I bought a CNC lathe 25 years ago. It was priced $15,000 less than the competition. There had to be some difference so I opened up all the cabinets, looked under it, checked the electronics and could not find any difference. All three machines did EXACTLY the same thing. In the specifications there was no difference. That machine is still running after at least 50,000 hours and will still hold tolerances closer than I can measure with electronic mikes.
The cheaper product can be as good as the brand name one. That taught me to shop around and get what was best for me.
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Old 01-09-2018, 07:22 PM   #32
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Doubt Honda makes all their own parts and any they do they probably supply to others. Vendors will supply all with the cash. They depend on volume.
Basically I think their price structure is determined by the name "Honda". Like you, I doubt they produce all of the parts of their generators but I suspect their specs. are more closely watched by their suppliers.
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Old 01-09-2018, 07:25 PM   #33
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the Predator is only $659 on sale. I could sell my Yamaha 2400EF and buy the predator and have money in my pocket. Too bad the predator is 20" tall and won't fit under my bed cover.
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Old 01-09-2018, 07:39 PM   #34
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I'm lucky as there is 21" clearance between the bed's floor and the bottom of the bed cover on my RAM 2500 so it fits.
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Old 01-09-2018, 07:56 PM   #35
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Basically I think their price structure is determined by the name "Honda". Like you, I doubt they produce all of the parts of their generators but I suspect their specs. are more closely watched by their suppliers.
My brother is a distributor. He sells a major brand at and the same under his own brand. Both made by the same company in the same plant with the same materials by the same machines/people. Only stipulation is there must be a different hue to the colors. Put them side by side and impossible to tell which is which. The major brand comes from that factory rep at 3.675 times the cost. He sells his at 60% of the cost of the name product and sells a lot more of it.
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Old 01-10-2018, 04:25 AM   #36
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I'm guessing someone forgot their patent rights, they expired and or they signed a contract to allow such ? What I do know is when someone infringes upon Honda's patent rights they go after them and Honda has been successful in the past.

I'm the first one to like a bargain however it seems that cheap Chinese parts have flooded all markets (including RV's) and many of these parts fail prematurely due to poor quality control or poor material control, the workmanship seems to be good.

Its all resulting in the loss of manufacturing jobs in North America one piece at a time, it has created mountains of waste by a society of throw away's which has further eroded employment opportunities for repair of products and the RV industry seems to be one of the worst offenders of this new trend.

We are all guilty of it, we are all supporting and promoting it by buying this cheaper crap and we all seem to bitch & complain about such but then turn around and do it all over again.

This little generator discussion is a prime example of it, a well built proven, long lasting great product (Honda Generators) which 25 odd years ago wowed the market with their new quiet product and has continued to lead the pack and is the one every other has strived to get too (Yamaha now) or has ripped off their designs (Kipor is an example) and the bottom line is we'll all buy the cheap stuff and accept if we have to toss it away and replace it every few years rather than have a superior product to last.

This behaviour is the reason we continue to read all the negative comments and ticked off people on various RV forums......... as long as we continue to accept such as the norm the manufacturers and suppliers will continue to source the crap, companies will continue to off shore jobs and eventually there will be little employment left.

I understand why people do it (i don't care I can buy three of em for the price of the good one that will last) but again at some point we have to stop and ask ourselves what the overall long term cost really was and what did we really give up and pay for this ???
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Old 01-10-2018, 05:46 AM   #37
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can`t make this stuff up

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I'm guessing someone forgot their patent rights, they expired and or they signed a contract to allow such ? What I do know is when someone infringes upon Honda's patent rights they go after them and Honda has been successful in the past.

I'm the first one to like a bargain however it seems that cheap Chinese parts have flooded all markets (including RV's) and many of these parts fail prematurely due to poor quality control or poor material control, the workmanship seems to be good.

Its all resulting in the loss of manufacturing jobs in North America one piece at a time, it has created mountains of waste by a society of throw away's which has further eroded employment opportunities for repair of products and the RV industry seems to be one of the worst offenders of this new trend.

We are all guilty of it, we are all supporting and promoting it by buying this cheaper crap and we all seem to bitch & complain about such but then turn around and do it all over again.

This little generator discussion is a prime example of it, a well built proven, long lasting great product (Honda Generators) which 25 odd years ago wowed the market with their new quiet product and has continued to lead the pack and is the one every other has strived to get too (Yamaha now) or has ripped off their designs (Kipor is an example) and the bottom line is we'll all buy the cheap stuff and accept if we have to toss it away and replace it every few years rather than have a superior product to last.

This behaviour is the reason we continue to read all the negative comments and ticked off people on various RV forums......... as long as we continue to accept such as the norm the manufacturers and suppliers will continue to source the crap, companies will continue to off shore jobs and eventually there will be little employment left.

I understand why people do it (i don't care I can buy three of em for the price of the good one that will last) but again at some point we have to stop and ask ourselves what the overall long term cost really was and what did we really give up and pay for this ???
Quote:
Originally Posted by speedster100 View Post
I'm guessing someone forgot their patent rights, they expired and or they signed a contract to allow such ? What I do know is when someone infringes upon Honda's patent rights they go after them and Honda has been successful in the past.

I'm the first one to like a bargain however it seems that cheap Chinese parts have flooded all markets (including RV's) and many of these parts fail prematurely due to poor quality control or poor material control, the workmanship seems to be good.

Its all resulting in the loss of manufacturing jobs in North America one piece at a time, it has created mountains of waste by a society of throw away's which has further eroded employment opportunities for repair of products and the RV industry seems to be one of the worst offenders of this new trend.

We are all guilty of it, we are all supporting and promoting it by buying this cheaper crap and we all seem to bitch & complain about such but then turn around and do it all over again.

This little generator discussion is a prime example of it, a well built proven, long lasting great product (Honda Generators) which 25 odd years ago wowed the market with their new quiet product and has continued to lead the pack and is the one every other has strived to get too (Yamaha now) or has ripped off their designs (Kipor is an example) and the bottom line is we'll all buy the cheap stuff and accept if we have to toss it away and replace it every few years rather than have a superior product to last.

This behaviour is the reason we continue to read all the negative comments and ticked off people on various RV forums......... as long as we continue to accept such as the norm the manufacturers and suppliers will continue to source the crap, companies will continue to off shore jobs and eventually there will be little employment left.

I understand why people do it (i don't care I can buy three of em for the price of the good one that will last) but again at some point we have to stop and ask ourselves what the overall long term cost really was and what did we really give up and pay for this ???
Ok try and calm down
30 year contractor here, I owned many generators of different sizes for different types of jobs. I think I had 8. I never have bought the expensive gens for the men because they they beat them up, throw them around, pile stuff on top of them in the back of the trailers, use them as saw horses routinely, run them in the rain, never change the oil unless I do it, hardly ever had then sitting level, on and on and on, but you know what I have never had to replace one because it broke or wore out, maybe because it got stolen but that`s the only time. I`m retired now and sold all on craigs list in just a couple of days. I don`t think your logic is vailed and certainly not my very experienced experience.
For camping I use the expensive Yamaha`s only because of the noise issue around other campers, your welcome. But I can afford such luxuries, some people can`t or don`t want to invest in high dollar units for the couple of nights they use them in the Walmart parking lots so there `s a market for this type of gen and Harbor Freight Predator 3500 fills that need......inexpensively, smart business strategy if you ask me.
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Old 01-10-2018, 06:24 AM   #38
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bshgto...... YA kind of missed the point of the post !

BTW ..........I'm totally calm, I'm a retired Union Worker & Activist with a great pension and benefits that happens to understand what supports continued employment and prosperity and the behaviours that don't.... the message is in there !
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Old 01-10-2018, 06:56 AM   #39
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speedster100 - Did you read the first sentence in this thread?

I didn't start this thread to start a discussion about political issues such as where products sold in the US are made and the effect foreign produced products have on the employment and economy here in the USA.

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Has anyone gotten one of these generators? They look to be the same as the one sold at Northern Hydraulics and cost a lot less.
I started this thread to ask folks that actually have one of these generators to let us know what they think of it.

So, do you have one?
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Old 01-10-2018, 07:23 AM   #40
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bshgto...... YA kind of missed the point of the post !

BTW ..........I'm totally calm, I'm a retired Union Worker & Activist with a great pension and benefits that happens to understand what supports continued employment and prosperity and the behaviours that don't.... the message is in there !
Union auto employees don't even buy their own products at all times. LOng ago at an Ohio auto plant the parking lot was so full of vehicles built over seas (before they started building here with non-union workers) GM management came out and said they did not care what company made the vehicle but if not made in the US they would not be permitted in the lot. Just one example. Long before that unions were the greatest thing to protect workers. They still have a place but not nearly as much as so many laws have been put in place like the OSHA and EEO for starters.
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