Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Generator

Bigger is always better, having said that we have had a few outages over 8hrs and I used our RV Yamaha 2400 (surge to 2800) to power a refrigerator and a large chest freezer and a couple of lights. It's when they start up that is the problem, fridges and freezers pull much more current starting than running. I would look at something in the 5K range.

That's the correct answer. Plan for the unexpected (desirable). And, use an oil with a higher viscosity than the one recommended in the manual, if running for days at a time.

Get a portable welder/generator and have a welder for when you want it and a generator for when you need it!

Gen fuel is a big deal to maintain. They can suck some gasoline & that stuff seems to go sour after a few months.

The more I think about it, propane seems to be the answer for fuel storage. Although, refilling the tanks at a later de could be a problem. But... if ya have enough of them, refilling is not a concern. I'm slowly gathering tanks now. They can run a big or small grill, & various types of heaters or cooking appliances.

The more I look, the better a dual fuel gen sounds.

Side note here regarding generators and fuel.


About 5 years ago we bought a Honda EG5000(?), it's their basic econo version. Safety for freezers, general backup, nothing fancy.



It sat in our garage for about a year and I got bored one day and thought I better test this thing out. Added oil and a gallon of NON ETHANOL gas, of course it fired right up.

Shut off the gas valve and ran the engine until it ran dry.


It sat 3-4 years unused until I recently got bored(rainy afternoon). Turned valve on and it started and ran perfect on the first pull.

As saddlesore said.

I was looking at welder generator combos just yesterday... kinda a bonus to have both I reckon...

There are many brands...

My guess is 99.9% are from China.

50 Amp to 210 Amp DC welding is nothing to sneeze at.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/seort/40636877

https://www.harborfreight.com/weldi...ven-stick-welder-ac-generator-57167.html

Good luck.

Buy bigger than you think you might really need as the investment cost difference isn't really that big.

I run an entire 2400 ft house with 2 fridges, a freezer, air, & a well pump with all normal accessories on an 8500/9500 watt unit.

If you can afford it, buy a fixed install natural gas unit................if you ever can't get NG, things are so far gone that whether you have a genset or not won't matter much. Butthe wait time to get one right now is loooooong in most cases.

Non-ethanol gas will keep for a year+ if treated with stabilizer when new.........but unless you have a storage tank, keeping enough for a week or so is a PIA as you do have to use it & cyle through fresh gas on a planned schedule. But you have to do that with a storage tank as well.

MM

There was a post a few weeks (months?) ago about generators and I was saying how I bought a 12k portable but hadn't used it yet. That also includes not having it hooked up to the breaker box. We had a bad storm a few weeks ago and I had to drag out extension cords to the fridge/freezer and deep freezer downstairs. We also had 2 portable ac units plugged in along with lights and other oddball things. It worked great but I learned two things: They are expensive to keep gas in when your house has no NG and they are also pretty loud when the neighborhood is quiet as a church mouse.

Good advice for generators, chain saws, tractors.

..., Barns

Gun safes

Humidors

Regarding the subject of reserve fuel for generator -- the larger the generator the higher the fuel consumption -- the higher fuel consumption the more reserve fuel needed.

Point is, widespread power outages can last days, weeks and sometimes even a month or longer and fuel can be hard to find if at all as fuel retailers within the outage area likely won't have power needed to transfer fuel for a while either.

Same goes for electronic payment methods -- credit/debit...

Cash in hand rules during widespread power outages, especially early on.

Always non-ethanol and run the carb dry. I also like some Sta-Bil or even Seafoam in the gas too,

I've got one still in the box that is about 8 years old now. Just bought a Champion duel fuel a few weeks back. I guess I better get it out and get it fired up.

Maser, where did you get that tip on the oil? From Happy Camper?

I have a Champion 7500W running, 9000 peak. It powers well pump,2 freezers, refrigerator, two fans on gas fireplaces, power vent on a gas water heater, lights and electronics in the house and a 1500 watt tank heater in the winter.Yes it is big and heavy , but it doesn't get moved around much.

Added.This is when we have a power outage. Some times for 3-4 days

This spring,I bought a Powersmart 1800W running, generator/inverter. It powers my little camper, and I can tote it around the place for jobs that need electric away from my house. Less than 50 pounds, as quiet as a Honda, but 1/3 the price. Mostly I put in the bucket of the tractor.

About $450 on Amazon but you can get one on Ebay for about$225.

https://www.amazon.com/PowerSmart-Portable-Generator-Inverter

Freezers are not a big deal.
Let it cycle, get as cold as it gets. Leave the [bleep] door closed, once
A day on the generator will keep your [bleep] frozen. Twice if it's hot where it sits. They sure as heck do not need to be on a generator 24/7.

But, keep the dam door closed!

Friend worked for the REA. When we had big storms folks would call
him about "My freezer full of meat". Like that meant something to him
When there were hundreds of customers without power.

He never knew of anyone losing food in a freezer.
Except, the Ftards who keep checking the freezer.
Funny that. "Let's check it"
WTF you gonna do if it's thawing? Turn it on?

The Chinese change brand names faster than you can change shirts and these cheap welder/generators are junk. We've got one that was given to the fire dept. and it was used 2 times before it broke. Got a good diesel engine, but it wont gen and you cant find the parts to fix it. It needs an AVR (automatic voltage regulator) and there are hundreds if not thousands on the market, but none are wired like this one.