Let me know, in the same situation, haha!

For what it's worth- I didn't use crush washers on Fumoto valve and it worked fine.

How are y'all breaking in the generators?

I've read several different opinions but the concensus seems to be :

change the oil within the first hour or up to four.
Add oil conditioner before oil and at spark plug followed by slow crank pull. I don't see how that would be possible with this electric only start.
Load for an hour or two.
Some break ins as low as 2-4 hours. Some listing 50-100. All seems kind of a mixed bag. General consensus though is most of the critical work is changing oil within first few hours.

Quote:

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A couple of words of caution. First, when they drain the oil at the factory, it gets all over the plate to the left to the battery, just below the white plug in Nobody's second picture. They don't do a great job of cleaning up that oil, so it can/will get on you if you don't wipe it up first. It just proves Nobody's point about installing the Fumoto drain valve and tubing.

Second, before you mount your wheels, look at the bar holding the battery on. The battery is on the bottom, with the label with six icons on it. The bar has a hole on one end and a slot on the other, so only one bolt has to be removed completely. In the posted picture, it looks like the end with the slot is the one behind where the wheel will go (right end). I didn't notice it until I had the wheel on, but mine had the slot on the left end. With the wheel in place, it was difficult to get the socket in place to take that bolt out completely. If the bar has the slot on the right end, you only have to loosen that bolt. I was able to swap the bar ends so in the future the right bolt will be loosened.

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Yeah they definitely didn't think through the oil drain design. Oh well the Fumoto valve solves it and will make oil changes quick work.

Oddly enough, my battery bar is not slotted. I may have to modify it cause that just makes too much sense!

Quote:

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Don't forget all the little electronics that are now in fridges, washer and dryer, thermostats, tv, etc.

For the amount of time you are going to use it, maybe not an issue. If you have an issue like this winter storm or maybe Ike, you might be increasing your risk of more equipment failing down the road

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My neighbor's fridge wouldn't even work at all on his "regulator" generator. Fortunately when power came back on after the freeze, it worked fine and he didn't do any damage to it.

lurker76 said:

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Nobody Knows My Name said:

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Would be hard to get pictures at this point, but I put one of these crush washers on top of the Fumoto fiber washer (crush washer between generator case and fiber washer). I ordered extra fiber washers, but am going to leave it the way I have it as long as I don't have any problems. I then ran a foot and a half or so piece of 3/8" ID hose that I can dump into a oil drain pan.

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Nobody,
The page link you provided above for the crush washers goes to this item::

part number X0002WT3CJV

I ordered from that link and was sent a similar item:

part number X000WT3CJV

Any idea if this is "close enough"? It fits on the valve, but I just want to be sure before I fill the oil sump.
Thanks. Also, I really appreciate all the info you've provided.

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Your second image is not showing up, but my guess is you should be okay as long as the dimensions look to be the same. It should be for a M14 bolt.

cb said:

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For what it's worth- I didn't use crush washers on Fumoto valve and it worked fine.

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Lucky- the way my casing was machined, my Fumoto valve didn't feel like it was seating properly as the flange was a tiny bit wider than the raised (non-machined) area of the generator casing. I was too afraid to try and tighten it down and strip something out.

ag_pete09 said:

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How are y'all breaking in the generators?

I've read several different opinions but the concensus seems to be :

change the oil within the first hour or up to four.
Add oil conditioner before oil and at spark plug followed by slow crank pull. I don't see how that would be possible with this electric only start.
Load for an hour or two.
Some break ins as low as 2-4 hours. Some listing 50-100. All seems kind of a mixed bag. General consensus though is most of the critical work is changing oil within first few hours.

---

I ran mine for 5 hours fluctuating the load every 30-45 minutes on average, but keeping it at or below 50% of load. I used a heat gun and two portable electric heaters to do the break-in.

The good news is these have filtration with concern to metal contaminants. I didn't add an conditioners, etc.

I drained the oil at 5 hours, change the oil filter and will do it again at the 25 hour mark. Then I will do it again at 50 hour mark and proceed with regular maintenance schedule (every 50 hours) from there.

Not sure if I made this suggestion yet, but I marked the oil level on the Westinghouse bottle and bought a couple 5 quart bottles of full synthetic 5W20 from Costco. I use the Westinghouse bottle to measure out the oil and prep for the next oil change.

mandevilleag said:

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Just saw this today. Looks like a pretty good deal.

https://www.harborfreight.com/9500-watt-super-quiet-inverter-generator-with-co-secure-57080.html?utm_source=1621_predator_generators&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1621_predator_generators&uid=bfa69cd6a08e6bfb48e6f84075a03c3d7d3b92989cdc02d4e3e66ecc604a3142&infy=602828605&bxid=602,828,605&mi_u=602,828,605&mi_ecmp=2021_04_21_wk1621_NEW_predator_generators_Engaged&plcc=

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I've been eyeballing those. I have the Predator 3500 and it is solid as a rock and is unbelievably quiet. That 9500 would be great to have at the house as a standby emergency, it can run pretty much everything but the AC. And if you can series 2 of them together, you can just about run the entire house. For way, way, way less than a whole home unit.

88Warrior said:

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mandevilleag said:

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Just saw this today. Looks like a pretty good deal.

https://www.harborfreight.com/9500-watt-super-quiet-inverter-generator-with-co-secure-57080.html?utm_source=1621_predator_generators&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1621_predator_generators&uid=bfa69cd6a08e6bfb48e6f84075a03c3d7d3b92989cdc02d4e3e66ecc604a3142&infy=602828605&bxid=602,828,605&mi_u=602,828,605&mi_ecmp=2021_04_21_wk1621_NEW_predator_generators_Engaged&plcc=

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How reliable is the Predator line?

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Haven't had any issues with mine. I am around 400 hours on it, maybe more? It's my deer lease power source, so it goes long periods without use and then gets used almost continually for 2-3 days at a time. One of the other guys at the lease has one as well and hasn't had an issue either that wasn't something his drunk ass little brother did (like putting diesel in it once instead of gas).

I use ethanol free gas in it exclusively, add some fuel treatment/stabilizer and change the oil, clean the air filter and check the spark plug once a year. Royal Purple full synthetic oil.

The only issue I have had with it was user error - I left it in the 'start' mode after checking everything on it before the season hit and it drained the battery down and wouldn't start with the push start button as a result. Started on the first pull of the pull start handle, charged the battery back up and hasn't missed a beat since then. I was worried I may have to replace the battery because of my mistake, but so far a year later it shows no signs of issue.

Thanks again for all the great information; it's greatly appreciated. Your set-up looks professionally done.

If anyone's searching, I watched this one all weekend for it to come back in stock. Finally paid off yesterday. Tax free and free shipping.

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/champion-4000w-inverter-generator-with-remote-start

Ended up getting the one you posted as well. I had seen it at some point, but forgot about it after looking at so many over the last year. Thanks for posting this and making my decision much easier.

Anyone own the Winco HPS12000HE Tri-Fuel Portable Generator? I bought one thats backordered until August but any tips/tricks would be appreciated as I've never owned a generator before. I'll need to hire a plumber to hook up the natural gas line and an electrician of I want to do a transfer switch (or anything else to potentially hook it up to the a/c, etc).

I picked up a Predator 6500w at Harbor Freight this weekend for $500.

The old generator at the lease is starting to crap out and wouldn't start. Figured now was as good a time as any to pick up a new one.

Thanks.

Did anyone buy the filters from Westinghouse? I assume they are generic?
https://parts.wpowereq.com/products/35273?variant=14619355676739

On the site it also references "751-12690" oil filters off Amazon for when they are out of stock.

Did you crank on gasoline or propane?

I tried on propane but it ran really rough and never really got going. I could also smell the propane so I shut it down.

My hose did not have a regulator on the hose as shown in the pictures in the manual. Not sure if that's the issue but thought it was probably in the manual incorrectly given the regulators on the machine itself.

Did anyone else's hose come like mine or did it have the regulator on the hose itself too, as shown in manual?

Did I hook up incorrectly? Propane tank to hose to inlet as shown in manual.

Poured in some gasoline and it's been running steady for about 20 minutes.

ag_pete09 said:

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Did you crank on gasoline or propane?

I tried on propane but it ran really rough and never really got going. I could also smell the propane so I shut it down.

My hose did not have a regulator on the hose as shown in the pictures in the manual. Not sure if that's the issue but thought it was probably in the manual incorrectly given the regulators on the machine itself.

Did anyone else's hose come like mine or did it have the regulator on the hose itself too, as shown in manual?

Did I hook up incorrectly? Propane tank to hose to inlet as shown in manual.

Poured in some gasoline and it's been running steady for about 20 minutes.

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Pete,
As I have yet to get mine up yet, I'm not sure about your situation. The electrician I want to use for installing the inlet/cutover has not called back yet, so I haven't made any progress yet. I plan on getting with a propane shop to get the correct installation. Anyone know Hank HIll's number?
Seriously, though, the regulator on the machine may be require a lower pressure than the cylinder has. That would be a two-stage, or step-down setup where the regulator on the cylinder drops the pressure to a level that the generator regulator can handle. Check the manual to see what the recommended inlet pressure is.

Thanks. Did your hose have the regulator or just connections? The only comment I found before about pressure was in reference to the 10-14" water column (roughly .35-.5 psi).

The first regulator on generator states max psi of 250.

I'll give them a call tomorrow.

Anyone else tried propane from a bottle yet?

Update:

I found pictures on home Depot reviews without the hose mounted regulator. Decided to go and give it another try and it started right up without issue.

It does sputter every now and then on smart idle mode. I didn't try that on gas though so maybe just a propane issue. The smart idle does drop the voltage and frequency to 190/40 vs 240/60.

Also while searching, I used chrome to access the generator on Lowe's and was surprised to see it at $2500 vs. $2180 when accessed via safari (still showing our of stock).

ag_pete09 said:

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Thanks.

Did anyone buy the filters from Westinghouse? I assume they are generic?
https://parts.wpowereq.com/products/35273?variant=14619355676739

On the site it also references "751-12690" oil filters off Amazon for when they are out of stock.

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I've bought a couple from Westinghouse and one on Amazon. They all were the same but oddly enough, all of them were a bit shorter (like an inch) than the original filter that came with my unit. I sent Westinghouse an email several weeks ago about it, but never received a response. Maybe they ship them with a slightly bigger filter for break-in...

ag_pete09 said:

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Did you crank on gasoline or propane?

I tried on propane but it ran really rough and never really got going. I could also smell the propane so I shut it down.

My hose did not have a regulator on the hose as shown in the pictures in the manual. Not sure if that's the issue but thought it was probably in the manual incorrectly given the regulators on the machine itself.

Did anyone else's hose come like mine or did it have the regulator on the hose itself too, as shown in manual?

Did I hook up incorrectly? Propane tank to hose to inlet as shown in manual.

Poured in some gasoline and it's been running steady for about 20 minutes.

---

I did not try running mine on a bottle although I probably should just to ensure it works. They put the primary regulator attached to the frame right next to secondary regulator so you should be good. I think they did it this way as the connection between primary and secondary regulator requires a larger hose to support the volume the gen set needs. It's a 3/4" connection between the two.

For my setup, I had to bypass the primary regulator since I'm attaching to household propane which is already regulated down. I added a brass 90 degree elbow on the secondary regulator inlet and trimmed a few inches off the hose between the regulators, then added a brass cap where I disconnected the hose to keep crap out of there. Thus if I do want to hookup a bottle, I just have to unthread the quick-connect hose and thread in the original hose into the elbow.

Did you run it on gas first?

Only ask bc the kit I bought said to run on gas for 2 hours to set the piston rings and cylinders. For what it's worth.

V8Aggie said:

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Did you run it on gas first?

Only ask bc the kit I bought said to run on gas for 2 hours to set the piston rings and cylinders. For what it's worth.

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Yes I did. I ran about 5 hours on gas for the initial break-in.

Which kit did you buy? For the wgen12000df or a different one?

I initially cranked on propane to test it out.

Interesting on the advice to crank and break in on gas first. Will finish the break in later. Oil filters should get delivered tomorrow or Wednesday.

I have a ~6 year old champion DF that won't crank on propane now. I never messed with it initially and regret not doing so. It may be a easy fix, calling champion and/or messing with regulator. champion had the regulator on the hose.

Still waiting on my electrician to call me back. Thinking he may not want to do the interlock kit.

Sorry I bought a HF 3500 inverter right before they released the bigger one... dammit

Anyone have quotes on installing the interlock kit?

I've received two so far, both with plug, interlock, cord, etc. $895 and $922. The $895 was originally $1595 until I mentioned he used to be a neighbor up until recently. Amazing how fast some of those "discounts" kick in, haha!

Quick math on supplies if I sourced it myself runs around $430 pretax. That doesn't include tools I would need to drill through exterior brick or the cable from inlet box to breaker.

Does that sound about right? Roughly $500 in labor and miscellaneous wiring, etc. I thought it would be $250-$300 but maybe that's just what I wanted it to be, haha.

I'm in Conroe/ The Woodlands for anyone else that may have a better priced electrician around the area or wants those contacts.

Getting a quote on Thursday for the electric work. I'll post back when I receive. Also curious to compare to others.

I've had 2 different electricians out and talked to a third on the phone. I provided the make and model of my main lug panel and what kind of 50A inlet I wanted, but all of them want me to select or even source both the interlock as well as the inlet. (located west of Austin in Dripping)

Strange, at least not at all what I was expecting; I thought they'd just come back to me with a few options. Think I'm going to end up doing it myself...

Y'all have a similar experience?

One said he keeps them on hand in his truck. Another had them in stock. Last wanted a picture of generator and panel and is supposed to get back to me tonight but would be ordering parts.