Generator Prices.

Hobo,NC

Well-known Member
Location
Sanford, NC
First my hats off to Lowe's they shipped in 100's of generators for the hurricane. I have been told and seen pix's of recites from Lowe's from last week for a Cat 7500 gen electric start looks like a nice gen.. The price range was all over the place from different Lowe's stores from $499.00 to $1000, My neighbor got one for $549, I know a guy that said he got one for $515.

On Facebook folks were posting $1000 price and $500 so what do you do beach about its more are because it was sold Cheap...

My sons Honda Honda gen would run for a min and shut off it was the coil it lost spark. No parts and his yankee wife said go buy one!
I could have got the spark plug wire out of it and replaced it if that was the issue are took the coil out of my Honda pressure washer and check if it would fit.

He got a B&S 6250 from Lowe's $799 life was good BUT the 120V outlets have ground fraught receptacles and keep tripping... About all he could do was hook up his freezer directly to the gen to keep from tripping the breaker. Gen set did not come with a 240V plug by luck I had a 240V gen drop cord that plunged into the 240 outlet and split the power to four 120V plugs splinting 240 two plugs for each side of the 240.

Question I did not check coil gap to flywheel on the Honda I had already removed it before it hit me to check the gap I spec 4 to 6 tho would be close enoufh. I found a coil on ebay $15 should be here Wednesday... BTW I know about all the other stuff that will kill power to the ignition Cylinder head temp, low oil switch and bypassed the key switch...

Neighbors new Cat Gen from Lowe's

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Honda coil

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After a big storm in my part of Mo. one of the local outdoor power equipment places doubled the price on his generator. Ended up paying huge fines for price gouging, pus I believe they had to make huge refunds to customers.
 
I would like to see the wording for that law (or bylaw or whatever it might be). Never heard of such a thing. If a guy like
you or me was selling a gen set privately and set the price ridiculously high, could we be fined?
 
John ..... I did some Googling .... I see that some states do have fines ..... not extreme but still might keep a few
retailers honest. Laws seem to apply in times of emergencies, etc ..... see link below for various states, etc.
Untitled URL Link
 
Just like the price at the gas pump. You can only raise it so much and
only every so many days. There is a normal store price, and even
discounted prices, then a storm comes by and a store can charge LIST
price but not GOUGE price. Big big problems with very substantial
fines and even a couple of nights in the slam. The two closest Home
depots and the Lowes during hurricane Sandy six years ago hat TWO
trailers loaded with generators and sold out as fast as the trailers
could be unloaded. The cardif Harbor Freight could only get one
trailer load. Same story. I tell Sssooooo many people after they
loose everything in the fridge and freezer, go BUY a generator! Don't
cheep out, because you want a 8000k unit. Also only run it on hi-test
gas. Also for goodness sakes plan ahead a little. For my units right
now there is almost 30 gallons of hi-test in metal Eagle saftey cans
tucked away. Never goes bad because it later will go in my garden
tractors or the truck. Next storm comming i just refill the empty
cans. Quite a few of the folks around me now have auto start
generators on nat. gas. They go from 7.5K all the way to 25K and
almost all of them are Generac.
 
Like everything else it pays to plan ahead and be prepared,wait until the last minute and you'll pay more for less.Bought my wood splitter from Northern Tool a couple years ago in July or August when they were on sale if I'd of waited until late Fall I'd of paid of couple hundred more.
 

$1000 is the going price for those cat gens google it. Someone made a mistake at lowe's for those in the $500 range... I run 87 E10 in my gen no problems YET... I filled up a 55 gal drum and every thing I could put gas in was ready for the world to end we were without power close to two weeks during Fran I had motor home at that time so got by off a MH genset...
 
I have a HF portable generator that looks nearly identical (from the photo) but is labeled a bit higher and is red and black.

The Chinese will paint them whatever color the buyer wants.

I bought mine about 3 years ago with a coupon for $549 plus $25 for wheel kit and a few bucks for a battery. The lowest price I ever saw was $529 with coupon.

Other than hurricane issues, now is a good time to buy one because they have recently tweaked the design and are heavily discounting the earlier similar version.

Dean
 

Got the coil in today have the same issue runs for a min starts to misfire about 30 sec into run time and shuts off 30 sec later its a pattern one min is all it will stay running . No doubt its ignition spark shows a misfire when it sputters and goes real weak about 5 sec. before it shuts down. I never lose spark it just goes weak. You have to let it set about 2 min before it will restart spark is weak adding fuel is of no help.

Question is this a Magneto System the coil has one lead going to it I think its to kill the coil. I am going to try and get the cover off later and disconnect the one lead going to the coil and see what it does...
 

Removed single wire to coil engine ran same problem. It has auto idle let it idle same problem. I have the air cleaner off just before it stops it pops/backfires/blows a flame back thru carb...

Cleaned the flywheel, checked fuel flow and quality, checked valves .006 intake .008 exhaust, checked cranking compression 60 psi. Its getting harder to start almost need to use the electric starter to start it even then is does not fire right off. It will spit and backfire right before it starts... Long crank times :SHOCK:

I know it has some kind of compression release I see the exhaust valve blip open while turning it by hand at TDC. I have found a few post with the same problem no confirmed fix other than one guy said a coil fixed his.

form net about what I have.

My generator starts up immediately and runs for about 1 minute. Then it shuts down just as if I turned off the key. It usually backfires loudly just before it stops turning over after it dies.

I've tried disconnecting the low oil sensor and the fuel cut solenoid to no avail (still does it). If I hit the auto switch it will idle down (no load). I shut the auto function off and it spits and sputters trying to regain rpm. it runs really rough for about 5 seconds before it kicks back into high rpm. I can repeat this every time by turning the auto switch back and forth.

If I try to put a load on the generator it just dies like I turned the key off. Sometimes it just dies in a matter of minutes even with no load. This is a 2000 year model that has very little run time on it.


60PSI cranking compression is bothering me :( I am going to put a new spark plug in it for the ell of it and remove the flywheel for a check of the key way... Any other Idea ...
 

Dean you may be on to sum'N I seen a gen this weekend at Northern tool that had the FORD name on it blue oval and all...
 
Did you end up changing the plug? I went through almost the exact
same thing on my pressure washer. It would run great for 2, 5,
maybe 10 minutes and the spit back through the carb. Maybe catch
itself, maybe blow the choke shut and die...

New coil, same deal.. Long story short, changed the plug and it's
running like a Honda again.
 

Installed new spark plug it ran for 5 min going to put'er back together for now so I can run it outside.

Hard start issue... It applies the choke anytime its not running has a vacuum operated choke pull off I had the linkage 180 out now choke works automatic and manually. I had to almost remove the carb to get the fan cover off so got the linkage out of wack...

Manual choke off engine off... This is a fancy little devil has more gizmos on it than the law allows...



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