re: Has anyone had experience with "Preditor" generators from Harbor Freight?

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read and follow the break in procedure before you need the unit.

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Yeah, I'm pretty particular about performing break-ins on small engines. For my boat motor, I sat with a literal timer making sure I got the appropriate hours.

Luckily for me, this generator is not exactly a "need", as I have a 6500W Generac that I bought before hurricane Laura. However, I need to pull that bad boy out and go through it, and service it good. I fell behind on my upkeep with it.

I was mulling over the WEN, and the Westinghouse brands, but decided I heard enough first hand cases of the Preditor being good quality, so I went with it.

The break in for this one is pretty simple, just run less than 75% max load for 30 hours, then change oil. That's it.

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sounds like the engines are solid but what about the electronics for the generators vs actual Honda? I know Hondas are great for putting out "clean" power but I wonder about the preditor.

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I’ve tested a bunch using an instrument which shows the whole waveform and the harmonic distortion spectrum. The predator inverter generators out out about as clean of a sine wave as you can get. So does the Honda inverters. The non-inverter models of all the brands less than about 12kW (which is all the small ones) put out a dog shite sine wave that is very distorted due to the cheaply designed, built, and wound alternator.

For portable generators in the 15kW range and larger (ain’t many of them) and home standby generators, the alternator quality is much better - what I’d consider acceptable, but still not nearly as good of a quality sine wave as the cheap little portable inverter generators.

If you’re getting a small portable generator, get an inverter model. I personally have a few predators and I would consider them better than Honda. Compare the 2000W versions - the Honda has a much bigger displacement engine and is heavier and uses more fuel. The Predator is lighter and more fuel efficient, but at full load it’s got to run the engine at higher rpm to make the horsepower needed, so at full load it’ll be a little louder than the Honda due to the predator’s smaller displacement engine. We’re talking about a decibel or so we’re splitting hairs.

Another reason for the inverter is that when you inevitably run it out of fuel while on load, the inverter will just shut off. A non-inverter model may become unstable in frequency and voltage and may be problematic for your connected loads, and may also lose the residual magnetism in its field as it spins down while under load.

Any of those little engines will just about run forever if you service it by the book.

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if they ever make the parallel for the larger ones I will buy another.

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You can build a homemade parallel kit like many have done.

I have the 3500, it works great, but it has an common issue with the "low oil" pressure switch that will keep it from cranking, just unplug a connection and it solves that issue.

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I’ve tested a bunch using an instrument which shows the whole waveform and the harmonic distortion spectrum. The predator inverter generators out out about as clean of a sine wave as you can get

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Very interesting. Its the #1 thing I was concerned about when considering Predators. The longest lasting generator in the world doesn't mean anything if its destroying the electronics its feeding.