seeking stories of non Honda gens....

[SBshaveice]

No one ever got fired for buying a Honda genset right? But they're not cheap and I am. Any good/bad experience with off brand gensets?

 

[CCafe]

Depends on what your needs are amperage wise? Also the key killer here is noise. If you have a mobile setup and you travel to certain venue's they do have noise ordinances in place that will prohibit you from running a generator over a certain dB rating.

From what I've seen in my past years here a lot of people have chimed in that if your cheap about your generator now it can really bite you in the ass later.

 

[SBshaveice]

It's very hard for me to believe that ONLY Honda makes good generators. They're not Fusion Reactors. I'm curious if anyone has first hand experience with NON Honda gens. I used to have a Yanmar Diesel genset and it was fantastic and bulletbroof, but way way way too noisy for vending food/drink.

 

[Mr Shave]

I bought a Briggs/ Winco that was around $5k + shipping (not cheap) (edit this thing crapped out and took 3 months for warranty and it was SUPER LOUD)

I now own a Honda 6500 EU, 2000 EU Companion, and 2000 EU
They are reliable, quiet, work horses, and have a great service network.

I'll take a pic of next food truck rally. It is Honda central. They work and are proven. That isn't saying there aren't other good gens out there. You can a 2000W from Costco for less then half the price of the Honda, good luck getting it serviced in a reasonable amount of time.

my .02 (gen spend for last year $11-13k ish)

edit: I'm also mobile run 220 for EM and 110 on everything else

 

[CCafe]

Depends on what your needs are amperage wise? Also the key killer here is noise. If you have a mobile setup and you travel to certain venue's they do have noise ordinances in place that will prohibit you from running a generator over a certain dB rating.

From what I've seen in my past years here a lot of people have chimed in that if your cheap about your generator now it can really bite you in the ass later.

Your right they aren't fusion reactors but they are your next best hope! Honda has taken a lot of time to develop a quieter generator. There are other generators out there that are as quiet if not quieter but your going to drop a whole lot more for them. My mother is currently looking at purchasing a 20K generator that is quieter then her refrigerator for those nights they loose power to the house. This thing runs on propane and costs about $15,000. I looked them up and found some 10K for about $8,000. This is going to be one of those items you can't be cheap on if you want insanely quiet which your average generator is not known for.

 

[Maxil]

I have looked at generators for other purposes, and the one that always seems to get good reviews is champion. Might want to take a look at their new inverter one, I hear it is very comparable to the Honda. My only question would be its reliability and longevity. For the price, it might be worth it.