Harbor freight RV generator predator 3500 trash?

Well stick around for this one, how will I feel after this bad experience??

Good content, glad it worked out for you. I picked up the 9500 version for backup power on the house.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!!!

There is a removable grommet under the drain plug.

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?

These used to be great. Newer ones the gas tanks rust out even on non ethanol within a year or two.

The Very first instructions given are, put OIL in generator ! Before trying the starting process.

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 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

The way I look at it ——- this generator is a money PREDATOR !!!!!!!!