So I recently bought the Storm Cat 900 Peak/700 Running Watts, 2 HP (63cc) 2 Cycle Gas Generator from Harbor Freight (Item # 60338). With a coupon it was about $100.
I purchased this for my 1978 Hallmark Truck Camper. I bought it for two main reasons:
1) It is so small!
2) I don’t have a need for a very high wattage generator because I high no large appliances in the truck camper.
I will be purchasing a small space heater that is 400-800 watts which this should run in addition to the lighting and we can plug in some small electronics.
I will take future videos of how this generator works while camping. Thanks for watching!
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Spare parts with standing. my gen is up and healthy. where else can you get a thousand dollars work out of a 88dollar out fit? Treat her right. They want to be part of that next adventure. 73 kv4li
Love em. How ever make sure that you get extra plugs, coil,and starter don't even try to get parts from lawn mower shops. you will get the bums rush. V power is good for spares.with also harborfreight has pointers as to find them. Oh the spark and start are linchpins. 73 de kv4li
I have one and im very happy with it . It work as long as you use it with in specs. Grab spare parts ( starter pawls ropes spark plug wires ect) because they do break and it always happens when you need it.
Take the slack out of the cord before you yank it, it'll be easier on the plastic mechanism inside. The recoil starter is the weakest part of the generator.
to be honest you should be able to run a small ac with it
I saw a you tube video that said to change the spark plug to a better one.
I'm guessing my TailGator is a clone of the Generator you have there. They both have same wattage ratings and same wording on the Gen itself.Im looking for reviews on YT but nothing.I was impressed by your generator starting on the first pull.It also recommended you change out the generic spark plug and replace with NGK or a name brand.
So second time to start it, the dam pull rope jumped the pully wheel. So carefully took apart carefully, and of course the hidden sub assembly spring sprung..What a bitch. You can get it back in place. But next to impossible to reattach to back of rope pully. Took a break to see if anyone has been down this road. Brand new, twenty minutes of run time to test it out.wtf! Thinking maybe leave cover off, little rope tie knot, and put knot in fly wheel fin…Might work, I'll get back on out come
I have one, they are loud, but they work well. If you ever have intermittent problems starting or running, check the HV wire where it enters the spark plug boot. Mine failed and I checked everything over and over until i figured out exactly where the problem was. The conductor actually broke from vibration inside the boot.
What's your run time
There all junk !~ I have owned two . One froze up the other fell apart !@#$
I bought a similar one at a K-Mart 20 years ago for my rig for emergencies ….have only used it twice and it starts up every time ….and it has served me well . recharged my batteries with it last fall in Idaho and got back on the road .
Go easy on that pull mechanism. It's plastic on the inside. This is a great little generator. Should come in handy for a lot of things.
Those are awesome generators if you get a good one out of the box. I've had 2 of the blue ones for many years. Here's some tips that will make it last much longer. First thing is check all the screws/bolts and make sure they are tight. Replace the cheap chinese sparkplug with a NGK or Autolight plug. NEVER run ethanol gas in it or leave ethanol gas in the tank. If you must use ethanol gas use Stabil or a fuel additive to lessen the chance of the fuel separating and always use fresh gas. Small generators or any small engine like that will die a quick death if you use ethanol gas or don't drain o run the carb. dry after use.
Monitor the run time and don't let it run out of gas with any electronics hooked up. Too great a chance that the engine will run up and spike the voltage. Been there done that!…..:) The cheap surge protectors that I saw on your other video won't catch a voltage spike fast enough. There are voltage conditioners or get a battery UPS as a buffer. I would check the voltage with a meter and verify it's putting out around 120 volts at 60Hz. They are notorious for odd voltage out of the box. There are 100's of reviews on the Harbor Freight website with lots a good info.
They are great little generators. For less than $100 they are the most economical generator to use for battery charging and light duty use. I have a Yamaha 1000 watt and more times than not if I'm someplace that I won't bother anyone with noise I'll use the HF and save my Yamaha. They really aren't much louder than my Yamaha. If you keep the ethanol gas out of it and run the carb dry after every trip it will last a long time. I have 1,000s of hours on my little blue, and couldn't be happier.
Only thing you need to do is replace the cheap spark plug with a real spark plug. No clue why they do not install a quality spark plug to prevent its from break down. ( Biggest complaint) and your good to go!
I enjoyed how thoroughly you covered this product and used it in practical ways. Thank you, and I hope to see more videos of this kind from you.
Awesome, I need one of those for my jeep trailer! Thanks for another awesome video!
personally i liked the blue version better (chicago electric one). you could consistently exceed the load ratings without any issue at all. it saved my ass during hurricane sandy b/c it was all i had at the time. my house has natural gas w/ gas stove and gas boiler so my electrical requirements for basics are not that much. this generator was able to power all essentials (not at the same time) for a full 5 1/2 days. i ran it non stop. as long as there wasn't an additional load, it could handle the compressor surge of my full size 18 cu-f fridge. used regular gas and 2 stroke supertech from walmart. once i got power back i ran it dry and followed all of the instructions for long temr storage. a few months later when i went to use it again, it ran for a bit then blew out and it was kaput. took it back to Harbor Freight since it was still under the extended warranty. it was replaced with the red one. it cannot handle the compressor surge of my fridge. i definitely got my money's worth out of it for $95 (gen price + warranty) but i'm pissed that the red one isn't as good
Ive had mine for 4 years now and i use it with my travel trailer when boondocking and its worked flawlessly!! as far as it running a heater i dont know? but running lights and battery charging not a problem! dvd player and tv works fine except it does have a flickering line in the tv sometimes but that could be the tv itself not sure. One thing you should do is pull the spark plug and replace it with a NGK plug! that cheap plug will foul oit very quickly!! and always keep a xtra on hand!
just bought a honda 2000 2 weeks ago. got a good deal online for 879.00 i couldnt be happier. heading out thanksgiving morning for a 4 day boondock trip. I looked at the harbor freight 2000 watt, but just didnt want the noise. i have a 4000 watt onan on the toyhauler, but didnt need that much juice to run a few lights and a microwave oven. hope that thing works out for you. what kind of run time do you get on a tank of gas?
Brian you should checkout the Big buddy propane heater by Mr Heater thing would keep you toasty in the truck camper.Nice little genny should keep you in the light.
That oil cup snaps into the cap so you don't have to touch it! Also don't pull starter so hard and extended rope all the way..trust me
+Dustin Venhaus I think a muffle box will be a must! I am thinking I will just build or put the thing in a tub or large cooler for traveling. But it would be dual purpose – a storage container for traveling and a muffle box. I will make a video on what I end up doing.
I just bought one of those too!
Awesome man! Keep the videos coming! Muffle box would be a cool.
great little generators. i've had several and was very impressed. i stumbled across a little honda gen so i sold the two strokes but they do work great.