The rings and bore were massively worn. It would still stumble along but would not run smoothly despite all of my regular efforts. There was no catastrophic failure although I’m sure it wasn’t far off given the state. Considering the hours (and cognizant of the lack of maintenance) I replaced it. Thanks for watching!
Dude,that’s incredible! I would never have that anyone would see those kinds of hours out of one of these. Especially with the infrequent oil changes😂 You got your moneys worth! My problem with the Predator series is they change parts and the quality control isn’t there. We could both buy the same model the same day-yours may last forever and mine will crap out in three months. Pot luck
Truth brother. The two greatest issues I’ve had with HF over the years have been that initial setup and fiddling is required and quality control is non existent. Cheers!
As another person mentioned in their comment, the QC on these units in no bueno. This one used enough oil to trigger the low oil shutdown about every two to three weeks, or about 500 hours. The one I replaced it with uses much less oil.
I did a oil change and it triggered the low oil sensor.It doesnt start when sensor is “sensing” whether enuf oil or not. So I disabled it, and then it burned a lot of oil, then had mechanical damage of course. so be quiet careful when you tweak with these things.
The load was varying from idle to 100% with an approximately 30% average. It rarely ran at full load for more than a half hour or so. I believe 10’s of thousands of hours, given regular maintenance.
Wow! That makes it better than consumer-grade Hondas with their specially-treated aluminum bore (and air filter housings that leak). Thank you for the info.
I saved this video because it's so good and shows how the thing is built. I have two 3500's that I use around the farm and thinking of getting a 2000 as well. Predators are very well built I think. I'm only seeing splash lubrication which is the dipper on the rod, do you think it's no pump and oil mist only that oils the rocker arms? Can't wait for next teardown. Thanks for vid. Greetings from the farm near Battle Creek, Mich.
Wow. Thanks for the kind words. We will have to wait to see what blows up around here for the next teardown. Yes, your understanding of the oiling is correct. Dipper on the crank and oil mist to the top end.
@@bluewhaleadventures152 Checking back in and wondering how you're doing? Bought a 2000 a year ago and never started it. Pulled the case halves off to look into bypassing that C.O. sensor as they all cause problems. No info then but now there is a couple vids to unplug the two 2 wire connectors that head to the sensor. Then you are left with a male and female 2 wire connectors that go into the wire harness. Connect them together and sensor is bypassed. For myself and others it does not work so they did something different in china. No matter what I did it would only run about 5 seconds. I plugged the sensor back in like factory and it ran perfect for 1.5 hours. Mine was built 3-2023. Sensor also has a 4 wire connector going to the yellow light on the dash. I'm thinking I'll be probing those 4 wires at the light to find out which wires have voltage while running to try to bypass. Have you figured this out on your newer 2000? Any more tear downs? Thanks.
I’m thinking about getting one of these and keeping it forever. What would you recommend doing though if I have to rebuild the engine trying to find piston parts or just buy a whole new engine
I honestly can’t speak to parts and/or engine availability. IMHO, unless you run it continuously and neglect most if not all maintenance, and if you use a quality oil such as Amsoil, I doubt you’ll ever have to contemplate replacement.
I did not. Its replacement was less than $400, the parts would’ve been at least $100 with shipping and it didn’t make the project cut. Thanks for watching!
I’m crazy! Don’t you see the beard? And yeah, I DID change it once. 💪 Haha, just kidding. It’s just pure neglect. I got caught up with other stuff. For what it’s worth I am doing better with its replacement after seeing the same thing you did. I’m now using good quality synthetic and changing it every few hundred hours. Thanks for watching. ❤️
Wow I probably have 2-3 weeks of runtime on mine and I thought they were getting towards their end of life. I just went ahead and changed the oil, hopefully I can get many more camping trips on them
The consensus seems to be change the oil (I’m using synthetic in the new gen) and adjust the valves and they may run forever although there are no guarantees because the quality control is low. Cheers and good luck!
I think this is the single greatest common complaint I’ve heard, poor quality control. Many/most are pretty good but an experience like yours can leave an understandably bad taste. I’d be just as frustrated as I’m sure you are.
Nope. Sorry, I’d have given it to you. After finishing the video I still had thoughts of rebuilding it myself but quickly realized the bore was nearly 020” out of round and abandoned that plan. Keep watching, in another 2-1/2 years I’ll have a new 20,000 hour teardown video of its replacement. 😹 Cheers!
Ha! Small engine repair instructional videos aren’t really what I do here, although IRL I seem to get to do a heck of a lot of it. AND, there are so many great channels on RUclips that already do this so well. Not really sure I did that great a teardown vid but thought there might be something to share with such a high hour unit. Thanks for watching!
Ha! Yep, me, Zach! I’ve already showed my three year old daughter how to change the oil more than once and also given her stern lectures on the importance of being a contributing member of the family and small engine maintenance but she just doesn’t seem to care. 😀 I do appreciate that you’ve taken the time to both watch and comment.
Nope. For what it’s worth, although I didn’t check them with a feeler gauge, they had a reasonable but not excessive clearance when I rattled them back and forth before disassembly. Also, no sign of burning on the valve or the exhaust seat. Thank you for watching and thanks for your question. I wish I’d measured this prior to disassembly.
Sorry for the confusion. On our end the generator is both the engine and the inverter. Teardown of the electronics beyond the scope of this video is above our technology as they are fully potted. Good luck in your search.
You joke, the one I had before this ran for about ten months straight and then stopped. Still being inside the one year warranty I took it back and they exchanged it for this one. Apparently most don’t use their generators like I do or they’d have a warranty nightmare on their hands.
Not entirely sure what you’re not buying, but I’ll give it a shot. At the time, we were living off grid in Oregon and that generator provided our power. It ran continuously during this time. My channel is unmonetized, I paid for that generator and the one that replaced it (not HF btw) and have received no compensation of any kind for making that video or any other. My 20 year old Pickup has 12k+ hours and our skoolie has 16k+ hours so it doesn’t seem so far out of range to me, tbh. Hope this helps. Cheers!
If you ran Amsoil, changed it every 1000 hours and adjusted the valves, these generators would likely last most users well past their lifetimes. IMHO Peace!
@@bluewhaleadventures152 no change oil three times in first few hours and purchase wen magnetic dip stick in beginning. Break in like others suggest then switch Amsoil 30 in summer 10w30 winter change oil every 100 hours or so or what amsoil suggests once month? twice year lol
I just did the math, 2.5 years X 24 hours equals 10950 hours. This video is false advertising
I guess we will have to agree to disagree.
2.5 x 365 x 24 = 21,900 is my math.
I wish you well on your mathematical journey. ✌️
Better go back to the school you learned math from and ask for a refund, because 2.5 years @ 24 hrs/day is over 20,000 hours.
@@TroyOnymous LOL, I'm going with your math and not the new modern math where everyone gets a trophy.
What was the failure point?
The rings and bore were massively worn. It would still stumble along but would not run smoothly despite all of my regular efforts. There was no catastrophic failure although I’m sure it wasn’t far off given the state. Considering the hours (and cognizant of the lack of maintenance) I replaced it.
Thanks for watching!
Dude,that’s incredible!
I would never have that anyone would see those kinds of hours out of one of these.
Especially with the infrequent oil changes😂
You got your moneys worth!
My problem with the Predator series is they change parts and the quality control isn’t there.
We could both buy the same model the same day-yours may last forever and mine will crap out in three months.
Pot luck
Truth brother.
The two greatest issues I’ve had with HF over the years have been that initial setup and fiddling is required and quality control is non existent.
Cheers!
Excellent video, thank you
It would be neat to put a new set of piston rings and see if it could go another 20k 👍👍
How many gallons of gas do you think it consumed in 20k hours?
Ha! Well it used about 5 gallons every two days. Using that rate it’d be about 2000 gallons.
@@bluewhaleadventures152That's a pretty expensive power bill
@@matt45540 Only in la' la land can you produce power cheaper than local power plants can.
How often have add oil or would they keep running low? You could use that Pulsar tank pump I bet or get propane umit and 200 gallon tank
As another person mentioned in their comment, the QC on these units in no bueno. This one used enough oil to trigger the low oil shutdown about every two to three weeks, or about 500 hours. The one I replaced it with uses much less oil.
I did a oil change and it triggered the low oil sensor.It doesnt start when sensor is “sensing” whether enuf oil or not. So I disabled it, and then it burned a lot of oil, then had mechanical damage of course. so be quiet careful when you tweak with these things.
What kind of load was on it? I've heard some of the better Chonda clones can get 10s of thousands of hours at lower rpms.
The load was varying from idle to 100% with an approximately 30% average. It rarely ran at full load for more than a half hour or so.
I believe 10’s of thousands of hours, given regular maintenance.
Was it cast iron lined or just an aluminum bore?
There’s a cast iron liner cast into the block. ✌️
Wow! That makes it better than consumer-grade Hondas with their specially-treated aluminum bore (and air filter housings that leak). Thank you for the info.
I saved this video because it's so good and shows how the thing is built. I have two 3500's that I use around the farm and thinking of getting a 2000 as well. Predators are very well built I think. I'm only seeing splash lubrication which is the dipper on the rod, do you think it's no pump and oil mist only that oils the rocker arms? Can't wait for next teardown. Thanks for vid. Greetings from the farm near Battle Creek, Mich.
Wow. Thanks for the kind words. We will have to wait to see what blows up around here for the next teardown.
Yes, your understanding of the oiling is correct. Dipper on the crank and oil mist to the top end.
This week I’m about to do a teardown on a 2000 W unit so stay tuned to my channel.
@@bluewhaleadventures152 Checking back in and wondering how you're doing? Bought a 2000 a year ago and never started it. Pulled the case halves off to look into bypassing that C.O. sensor as they all cause problems. No info then but now there is a couple vids to unplug the two 2 wire connectors that head to the sensor. Then you are left with a male and female 2 wire connectors that go into the wire harness. Connect them together and sensor is bypassed. For myself and others it does not work so they did something different in china. No matter what I did it would only run about 5 seconds. I plugged the sensor back in like factory and it ran perfect for 1.5 hours. Mine was built 3-2023. Sensor also has a 4 wire connector going to the yellow light on the dash. I'm thinking I'll be probing those 4 wires at the light to find out which wires have voltage while running to try to bypass. Have you figured this out on your newer 2000? Any more tear downs? Thanks.
I’m thinking about getting one of these and keeping it forever. What would you recommend doing though if I have to rebuild the engine trying to find piston parts or just buy a whole new engine
I honestly can’t speak to parts and/or engine availability.
IMHO, unless you run it continuously and neglect most if not all maintenance, and if you use a quality oil such as Amsoil, I doubt you’ll ever have to contemplate replacement.
Did you rebuild it??
I did not.
Its replacement was less than $400, the parts would’ve been at least $100 with shipping and it didn’t make the project cut.
Thanks for watching!
it looks excctly like you never changed the oil. Why would you do that ? It could still be running.
I’m crazy!
Don’t you see the beard?
And yeah, I DID change it once. 💪
Haha, just kidding. It’s just pure neglect. I got caught up with other stuff. For what it’s worth I am doing better with its replacement after seeing the same thing you did. I’m now using good quality synthetic and changing it every few hundred hours.
Thanks for watching. ❤️
If you changed the oil more than twice you may have gotten 40,000 hours. Great video!
Could I use "Wireless Remote Control Switch 120V with 328 ft Long Range,40A Relay Switch,AC110V/120V/240V" As a kill switch for a similar generator?
Can you? 100%
Will it work? That’s above my pay grade.
Wow I probably have 2-3 weeks of runtime on mine and I thought they were getting towards their end of life. I just went ahead and changed the oil, hopefully I can get many more camping trips on them
The consensus seems to be change the oil (I’m using synthetic in the new gen) and adjust the valves and they may run forever although there are no guarantees because the quality control is low.
Cheers and good luck!
Mine ran two hours before the inverter module went out.
I think this is the single greatest common complaint I’ve heard, poor quality control. Many/most are pretty good but an experience like yours can leave an understandably bad taste. I’d be just as frustrated as I’m sure you are.
hey do you still have the engine and all the parts?
If you do i'd like to buy them from you with the goal of rebuilding
Nope. Sorry, I’d have given it to you. After finishing the video I still had thoughts of rebuilding it myself but quickly realized the bore was nearly 020” out of round and abandoned that plan.
Keep watching, in another 2-1/2 years I’ll have a new 20,000 hour teardown video of its replacement. 😹
Cheers!
@daletrigger,,,, So just how are you going to rebuild an engine that you can't get ANY parts for? It's not a Mack Truck.
Nice but how about fixing it?
Ha! Small engine repair instructional videos aren’t really what I do here, although IRL I seem to get to do a heck of a lot of it. AND, there are so many great channels on RUclips that already do this so well. Not really sure I did that great a teardown vid but thought there might be something to share with such a high hour unit.
Thanks for watching!
So a Guy who knows how to tear an engine down and the condition of internals never changes the oil or adjust the valves? What gives..?
Ha! Yep, me, Zach!
I’ve already showed my three year old daughter how to change the oil more than once and also given her stern lectures on the importance of being a contributing member of the family and small engine maintenance but she just doesn’t seem to care. 😀
I do appreciate that you’ve taken the time to both watch and comment.
I thought 2000 hours was a lot.
It is a lot lol there is no way that has more than 400 hrs on it.
Were the valves ever adjusted ?
Nope.
For what it’s worth, although I didn’t check them with a feeler gauge, they had a reasonable but not excessive clearance when I rattled them back and forth before disassembly. Also, no sign of burning on the valve or the exhaust seat.
Thank you for watching and thanks for your question. I wish I’d measured this prior to disassembly.
Mine should last forever then. I change my oil every 50 hours 😅
need wen magnetic dip sticks change first oil first hour
how do you know how many hours you kept it running ?
@@vandweleer8004 I put an hour meter on mine when I got it out of the box
@@vandweleer8004 I put an hour meter on mine when it was new
🙏
Will be the same as pred 1400
I can’t speak to this. I believe they are very similar but have no specific knowledge.
I got 30k hours on mine before it lost spark
I only wanted to see an inverter teardown. Don't care about a motor.
Sorry for the confusion. On our end the generator is both the engine and the inverter. Teardown of the electronics beyond the scope of this video is above our technology as they are fully potted.
Good luck in your search.
get extended warranty lol return
You joke, the one I had before this ran for about ten months straight and then stopped. Still being inside the one year warranty I took it back and they exchanged it for this one. Apparently most don’t use their generators like I do or they’d have a warranty nightmare on their hands.
@@bluewhaleadventures152 Give Amsoil holler see if they would participate longevity enduro on new gen. They like that
to put that many hours on a car it comes out to 700,000 miles, not buying it
Not entirely sure what you’re not buying, but I’ll give it a shot.
At the time, we were living off grid in Oregon and that generator provided our power. It ran continuously during this time.
My channel is unmonetized, I paid for that generator and the one that replaced it (not HF btw) and have received no compensation of any kind for making that video or any other.
My 20 year old Pickup has 12k+ hours and our skoolie has 16k+ hours so it doesn’t seem so far out of range to me, tbh.
Hope this helps.
Cheers!
get mag dip run amsoil i bet they would pay for everything do video two years
If you ran Amsoil, changed it every 1000 hours and adjusted the valves, these generators would likely last most users well past their lifetimes. IMHO
Peace!
@@bluewhaleadventures152 no change oil three times in first few hours and purchase wen magnetic dip stick in beginning. Break in like others suggest then switch Amsoil 30 in summer 10w30 winter change oil every 100 hours or so or what amsoil suggests once month? twice year lol