payaso del mar

interesting. looks like a pretty good knockoff of the Predator...that Is the red one that everyone tries to make their inverter gen look like, right? pretty decent reviews, altho many of them seem to like it for the easy Costco return policy....lots more reviews and info on the Despot site, but they want $80 more for it than Costco. 47 lbs, about the same as a Honda. they claim less dB than the Honda but one guy actually tested it and they may have been optimistic: but all told, it does look like a semi viable alternative. not as cheap as it used to be but still 60% of cost of a Honda. still thinking...........

now that's maybe just a hair strong. nylock has its place even here, but no question steering and suspension ain't it. your comment brings up one good point about my reservations about China Inc: effectively very little tort (or otherwise) accountability. got some new 7/64 cobalt-steel bits on the way home yesterday and will be pinning those nuts tonight or tomorrow. great example of why I like air drills....SO much easier for stuff like this than electric. (hey, now that we've beat AGM vs FLA and China Vs Japan to death, now we can all argue about air tools vs electric.....)

ya know, I accept there is no comparison from a cost efficiency standpoint. FLAs win, hands down. I think I agreed with JD on that several pages back. this isn't the total equation when installing lead-acid batteries in a movable vehicle, though....and not just "space ships and race cars". most of those don't use lead-acid batteries of any kind anyway..... some folks do think that nonspillability, no more acid vapor corrosion*, far less risk in an accident, ability to install most anywhere in any position, mostly zero maintenance for non-mechanical spouses to worry about, and reducing hydrogen outgassing to near zero is worth something, especially when considering batteries that will share the cabin of your RV with you. it was many many years ago that the courts decided that being in a collision was a likely enough part of the expected service of a motor vehicle that the vehicle manufacturers had to consider safety in a reasonably expected crash in their engineering. how would your house-battery box do in a rollover? ultimately, I feel like we're beating two dead horses here, given that lead-acid tech is so archaic and will eventually be replaced by lithium or something else. like I said, I want a Powerwall for my Bandit. but I realize these two horses are the only affordable ones in town right now......... * for this reason alone, many people go to AGMs, especially in higher end cars. it kinda hurts to watch your 911R rust away in the area of the battery...... and battery tray corrosion is the single thing that killed more 914s than anything else.

maybe check the "check engine" light? unplug a sensor that you know should generate a code and see if light comes on?

that's not by choice....in the desert or on beaches, not many trees etc to tie off to.

where'd you see these? I haven't bought yet. I just re-read the negative reviews on AMazon and there are two that seem like pretty legit issues. (I ignore complaints from people who don't understand the relationship between tiny carb jets on small engines and old-fuel varnish around the edge of the jet orifice leaning things out). as I said, i'm trying to be open minded. I will admit to a Honda bias, since I like working on basically the same simple, reliable SOHC engine in wife's C70, a lawnmower, and two outboards. you do mean if the HF one dies during the first 90 days, right? after that, no switcheroo unless you bought the extended warranty. am I missing something? also, has Honda eliminated their network of dealers? I could have sworn I saw a Honda sign along the freeway on the way home yesterday......and I kinda think I've gotten parts there before. ??? FWIW, I can still get parts for a 1979 CM175 Twinstar, a cheapie throwaway motorcycle, from Honda. think i'll be able to find parts for anything from HF 37 years after the sale? at least in the motorcycle realm, Honda has it all over even Yamaha on parts availability for older bikes. Most Honda bike dealers are also Honda engine dealers; that's not as true about Yamahas. I left out the comparative wattage because for my intended purposes, the two are effectively identical. and note that the 2500 is surge watts, so apples to apples would be more like 2200 vs 1600 running or 2500 vs 2000 surge. and that's assuming the manufacturer is not lying.......here are a few comments on that big wattage difference from people who actually bought the HF unit in question: This unit was put thru many test with a kilowatt meter. Bottom line it wont do what it says it can do. Especially when it comes to a 11.9 amp 1340 watts air conditioner. It wont come even close to starting it. I gradually added tools even to give it the benefit of the doubt and it overloads @1900watts. I called the customer service number in the manual no answers but a promised call back from a supervisor tech and that never happened. What your getting yourself into is wasting $10 of 10w30 oil when you buy it plus Harbor Freights insult of a restock fee. Do not buy and make the company address their issues. Made the plunge after reading many positive reviews at the end... to power up our pop-up trailer with A/C $500 mistake... Topped it up, checked oil, started up fairly quickly at first, then just stopped. Restarted with a bit more difficulty, let it run for five min. and again... stopped, no explanation. Restarted a third time, added a few small loads trailer lights etc ok, added in the a/c... overload, unit wouldnt even power on, althugh multiple users claime to have done the same in recent reviews. Powered off, ran the a/c on its own with nothing else, overload. Turned off, and now the unit will not even start up... Look elsewhere. I bought this generator to power a small (17 foot) travel trailer. I did all the math and 2000 watts should have been plenty to run the air, but even with everything else turned ofF, it just couldn't do the job. To make matters worse the person that checked me out at the store, who just happened to be a manager, told me at check out that it could not be returned if it failed to run any equipment. Wonder how he knew to say that, especially when,according to the manufacturer of my air conditioning unit, this generator should have been more than enough. Live and learn! $500 mistake!

I would think so. my '85 chassis with 4 cyl engine and manual trans has one....i'd expect a newer and more sophisticated drivetrain would too.

OK, thanks. in my case, it will really pull downward since i'm likely to be tying off to a stake or a buried spare tire....or if i'm lucky, another vehicle. what I'm planning on making is sort of a mirror image of a rear trailer hitch receiver mount...figure that should be stout enough to support whatever I carry and occasional winching

no doubt the HF generators and those from Northern are great bang for the $. lots of folks make Honda knockoffs, at least in appearance, and many are decent units. but comparing even the HF knockoff of the Honda 2000, it's rated at 64 dB at not-stated load (ie, I assume 1/2 load or less if they avoid stating). the Honda makes 59 dB at full honk and 53 at 1/2 load. as you know, given how the logarithmic scale on dB works, 64 dB is over twice as loud as 53 dB. it weighs 64 pounds to the Honda's <47. the smallest Predator model (4000w), which is going to be more representative of the old-style non-inverter gens, weighs 99 lbs and puts out 70dB, again at not-stated load. there are about a zillion used gens on local CL...Predators, Champions, youname it.... and most any of em would get the job done. BUT I want 1)least feasible weight on rear bumper and 2) quietest and 3)user friendly to the point that even a wholly non-mechanical spouse can't be defeated by it. and 4) dead nuts reliable (no glitches) even when not run and maintained by a mecho-nerd. and I don't need and don't want to lug 4000+ watts unit when i'll never use much over 1000. and when I need parts for the Honda, I know i'll be able to find em. HF or Northern units from a few years back, who knows? Yes, I know I pay a lot more for the Honda. like 2x what you paid for probably twice the wattage. and I know that part of what i'm paying for is Name. but there's that other part.......engineering and quality control. not even the equivalent Yamaha gets the almost-uniformly-good reviews. trust me, i'm not eager to drop $1000 on a small generator if there's a reasonable alternative that gives me what I need at half the $. i read literally thousands of reviews on virtually every small generator commonly available, on Amazon, HF and Northern, and Lowes/Despot sites. (even looked at that nasty (but light) 2 stroke Stormcat thing (91 dB!) , which might sorta run the AC.) the Yamaha and Generac inverter units came close, but even those had some quality control issues. but.........NO ONE who'd bought the Honda wishes they'd bought something else. period. even the inevitable mouthbreeders and idiots aren't defeated by it. that kind of idiot proofing and sweating the details is worth something, IMHO.

yeah, I like that part too. also lets me carry the heavy mass somewhere centralized, like under the opposite bunk from the batteries, instead of on the far end of the vehicle. the mount sounds pretty simple to weld up, tho...even as cheap as HF is, cheaper to weld steel from the garage bin. i'm going to have to do some welding anyway to make up the receiver.....looks like I can tie into the bolts for the towing eyes to mount it. I want to keep it from hanging down too much so as not to kill my approach angle.

bottle jack is best compact option for lifting something as heavy as any motorhome. look at Northern Tool or Harbor Fright, they both have em on sale frequently. and familiarize yourself with the correct jacking points before you're by side of road laying in the dirt......

anyone had any experience with the ARB or any of the lightweight offroad-ish awnings (rhinorack, smittybuilt, etc)? don't want to add the weight of a big Carefree etc unit and not sure I could make it work with the Bandit anyway. I have the Dometic 8 or 9' roll-up and am not too impressed with it...too hard to deploy and even worse to stow, and I don't think i'd feel comfortable leaving it attached while traveling....the attachment of the plastic "spline" that fits into the groove on the awning rail seems pretty flimsy. tanks in advanz......

i'd be scared to meet the person who DIDN'T jump when they got zapped with that much voltage.......

a small shopvac? the new dog has only been there for 2 weeks and the house is covered in white dog hair.......

the kickstarter site quotes $400 retail. how true. a lot of times, I only really "need" A/C to sleep....during the day, I just suffer with the ambient temp rather than go from the freezer to the furnace and back unless i'm taking a siesta.

I've actually known of people getting injured while testing spark....but it wasn't from the electricity, it was from whatever they ran into or slammed their elbow against when the wire zapped em and they jumped!

appreciate everyone's input! I know close to nothing about winches and winching. Totem, the issue with a larger winch isn't $, it's weight and power draw. the winches i'm lookin at aren't sold as ATV winches per se, just utility winches. I am worried about the issues you mention, but as I said, i'm only looking for a little extra pull out of deep sand, not any sort of dead lift. the biggest I could see going is maybe 3500# and even that's pushing it. but maybe I should look at something a little bigger than 2000#. whatever I do, i'll let y'all know the results, even if i toast it first use and eat mucho crow. thinking about mounting it to a 2" tube and just making a hitch receiver for the front, so I could use it front or rear and move it between vehicles. Warn makes something commercially for this but it's a lot of $ to avoid a little welding.

Dave, I can't speak for your maquina, but the on the Bandit, i'm going to need to add 2x3 frame reinf....factory work is pretty crappy, and then it looks like some prev owner overloaded the step bumper hitch, bent bumper down, and then welded straps in places to secure it...without ever raising it back up into correct position! I want to add a regular 2" hitch receiver and actually am "toying" with trying to use it to pull my 18' tinboat down to Mexico to leave it.

the 1000 would run it, but you'll be happier with the 2000. I was looking at the 1000 and just reached that conclusion on my even-smaller A/C. running gen at 1/2 load = LOTS less noise and fuel consumption, not to mention effect on longevity of gen. this is especially true with the variable-motor-speed inverter generators like the Hondas. 17 pounds difference between the 1000 and 2000, per Honda, and seems about $200 difference if bought new. I strongly suspect the 2000 will use much less gas than the 1000 when running your A/C.

I've used a simple 12v outlet before as a 12v INlet from PV panels and plan to do this again on the Bandito. just wire it to the upstream side of the controller. get a marine grade one and read the reviews to be sure the cover stays in place...many don't low voltage landscape wire from Lowes/Despot is cheap, 12 gauge, UV resistant, and comes in any size roll you want. used it lots for solar wiring and like it. bought it for our "cabin" before I learned that NEC requires a ground conductor if you're pushing >50 volts, so getting 10/3 UF for that and using the landscape wire for the Bandit.

don't feel bad, we all have a learning curve. I had to learn that item myself.... i'm adding two AC outlets that will be run off the inverter. tried to find the special orange or red ones that signify something under the NEC (connected to backup power?) but no luck, so I just painted em orange for a reminder that we're drawing battery power when we're plugged into that one. the other outlet in the box is regular shore-power system.

you should have an array disconnect switch anyway for safety. not too hard to add one....for the amps you're seeing, a simple Cole-Hersee SPST switch will do the job altho it's not code approved.

sorry, I seem to have missed the start of this party. no point worrying about fuel pressure til you get spark. the fuel lines will be pressurized at 35ish psi even when engine is stopped, so checking to see IF you have fuel to the injectors is easy: loosen clamp and wrap a rag around where the fuel line connects to the hard lines and gently start to remove the fuel line (but don't pull it all the way),,,,you'll get significant gas on the rag if you have fuel to the fuel rail. to test coil output without electrocution, tape the insulation of the coil high tension wire to a DRY wood dowel with electrical tape, then use that arrangement to hold end of wire near a grounded point....maybe 1/16" and see if you have spark jumping.

LOL omg no castle nut??? that's straight up death suspension. nylock nut on that is absolutely asking for trouble All of my tie rod ends I've ever had from any make always have castle nut and cotter; even the tiny ones on my 4 wheeler yeah, i'm debating drilling them for cotters, nylock or no. I agree, never seen nylox used in lieu of pinning....bienvenidos a China

also depends on how long it was left in a discharged state.