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Small Cabin Forum / Off-Grid Living / Generator break-in (HF Predator 3500 invert..)
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WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 10 Sep 2020 08:27
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Bought one this past weekend as i suspect we will need it in the short term to power our 5th wheel and potentially longer term if we decide not to bring power in due to cost.

The break-in procedure within the manual is pretty vague. Watching YouTube videos, everyone seems to either have a different opinion or they appear to have different manuals with different instructions.

Here is what MY manual says:

Break-in period
a. Breaking-in the Engine will help to ensure proper equipment and Engine operation.
b. The break-in period will last about 30 hours of use.
DO NOT exceed 75% of the Generator’s running wattage during this period.
• Change the engine oil after this period.
Under normal operating conditions subsequent maintenance follows
the schedule explained in the MainTEnanCE section.

Now on the videos i've seen people say run 30mins with no load, and then no details beyond that. I've seen others say run it for 1hr with no load and then change the oil and no further details. The list goes on and on.

So what have ya'll done?

Brettny
Member
# Posted: 10 Sep 2020 09:21
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Oil is cheap..change it alot in the first 30hrs.

What I would do is make sure there oil in it, run no load for 30min, change the oil, 1hr some load change the oil, few hrs 75*load change the oil. Then change the oil every 5hrs or so for the first 30hrs.

At about the 7hr mark I tipped my 1kw on its side to dump the oil out. I noticed a bunch of stuff staying in the oil sump. I sprayed it out a bit with brake clean. It helped to keep the sump clean alot.

Nobadays
Member
# Posted: 10 Sep 2020 09:22 - Edited by: Nobadays
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The procedure I used gotten from a small engine repair shop guy.... Toyota will likely have some good info too. I have about 600 hours on it and it runs great!

Using regular 30w motor oil - run for 1 hour at idle/eco mode, then drain the oil let it cool down and put fresh regular 30w motor oil in it.

Run for 4 hours alternating between eco/standard mode, plus start putting loads to it off and on for a few minutes at a time - nothing too heavy, stay under that 75% - I used a hair dryer, turning it on for 3-5 minutes then turning it off. Sometimes when not using the hair dryer let it idle to eco, others the standard idle. Probably turned the hair dryer on and of 6-8 times each hour. (I babysat this thing all afternoon. )

After this 4 hour run I again changed the oil but this time refilled it with full synthetic 5/30w, this was winter, normally I use 10/40w full synthetic in the summer. I did not exceed the 75% load for the first 100 hours.

EDIT: Brett is right oil is cheap... I didn't change mine as often as he suggests but that is likely good advice.

I will give you one heads up on this generator. The vent for the gas tank is hooked to a charcoal canister that then feeds these fumes back into the carburetor. If you over fill the fuel tank... which will happen... the excess fuel floods this charcoal canister. What happens next is this fuel/air mixture is injected into the carburetor making the engine run extremely rich, fouling the plug and just generally running like crap or just dieing. There are YouTube videos out there showing how to remove this canister... or if you just look you can likely figure it out. I ran overvalued year without flooding the canister but when I did, I could not get the engine to run well, continually dieing, sputtering. Took out the canister and now it runs great.

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