Coulda or shoulda ???

I am going to post this on the place where almost everyone can read it. Found something that I thought would be great for up at the folks farm. The local Harbor freight had this monster parked out front. That is 13,000 peak 11,000 full load, at 425 pounds of dead weight. Now here is where I started. It is marked "AS IS" on the tag. No book, no key for the start switch, no battery, and only a seven day return period. They will not sell you the extended warranty on it neither. It lists for some pretty heavy change "$1,3oo" but the tag on it was only $8oo.oo. Now it has a little dust on it, I checked as far as I could. No recoil in the 22hp engine so I could not check the engine. I did have a 6 inch mechanics rule in my pocket and could poke it through the cover over the cooling fins put I pushed as had as I could and the engine would not budge. There was a tiny bit of oil on the end of the dip stick. Everything looks like this big baby has like zero time on it. On a brand new 22hp engine I would think I could have budged the flywheel. I fooled around for about 30 minutes and finally walked away. Would be nice to save over $500.oo on a beast of a machine but something just kept poking me in the but. Final thought, do you think some idiot "locked" up the engine with no oil in it? So sad and such a shame. I was really caressing this big baby!!!

You're better of to put yer money in a real gen set like a 2 or 3 cyl Lister diesel

well you have a 7 day return it
wouldn't take much to hot wire it with a battery hooked up

I bought a smaller champion with a predator motor 8 yrs ago and it has worked flawlessly
even after it fell out of the front bucket and I bounced the tractor over it
messed up the gas tank and I had to create my own 3 yrs ago but it still runs
I can't complain but for my use it's for power usage in the outer areas where electric power isn't practical

And you are also talking two or three times the money. I do have a big bad Homelite 8K unit but I just had to ooooh and ahhhh over this monster. I just don't quite want to mess around with something in this price range and not have a way to easily back out of the deal. It is sad that some idiot most likely blew the engine.

I would have bought it. You would have had time to check it out. HF also has the replacement engine on sell for about $700

Keep an eye out. The price may come down a lot in a few weeks.

Go back in, buy one of their power packs for it costs. Hook it up and give it a spin.

Then return the power pack or keep it. Be sure to use a 20% off coupon.

Well, on the one hand, saving $500 is pretty tempting. BUT.....$800 is a LOT of money for something that may need a whole lot more than $500 to put in operating condition. I think you made the right choice.

If I'm not mistaken, all Predator engines have a "low oil shut off". Could be someone had it hooked up and running when the power came back on. Poof!

Why would you save $500 on the generator, and spend $700 on a new engine?

You'd be $200 ahead of the game if you just got a new in box generator from the get-go.

Not everything (or depending on POV: anything) is a "good deal" at harbor freight. I particularly would not go for their power tools, generators included. IMHO, you'd be money ahead to go for a better name brand unit, from say Home Depot, or Lowes. Something that comes with a good warranty.

Besides, the HF 20% coupons specifically exclude "Predator" products (and any "on sale" products, and any "open box" items, as well as Badland winches, and trenchers, and trailers, and...)

Some units might work fine for some folks for some time, but I don't think the overall QC is there. I could also be wrong.

With a 7 day return period it seems like a better deal than you get buying used at a farm sale - there you better like it once you own it.