GG1200 gas generator

[Marc]

After the severe winter storms we experienced on the Island this past fall and winter I decided to pick up a small generator for hunting/camping or keep the freezer running when the power goes off at the house. I'm not sure if it will work on the freezer (5 amp) as of yet but I did trial it on the camper.

I had 6 2 amp camper lights on, the stove fan, the furnace, and the stereo playing all at the same time. I also had one of those small ceramic heaters plugged into the 115v receptacle in the camper at low/med setting and it was heating the camper. I had a power converter plugged into the dc outlet and it was still showing 13.5 volts on the battery. If I tried to put the heater to the second position it tripped the breaker. I doubt I’d ever have this much of a load on it at once but I wanted to see what it could handle.

I know this isn’t a Honda generator, you pay for what you get, I asked how long it would last and the guy I bought it off of said around 2000 hrs. I guess it all depends on what type of oil you use in it as well but for $340.00 taxes in I didn' think that was such a bad deal. It doesn’t have an oil filter so the recommended oil change is 50 hours. Not too bad as it takes less than a half liter of oil to fill it.

It's forced air cooled and I was surprised at how cool it actually stays. The only problem I’ve had with it so far, and was my fault for not checking, was there was one screw and nut loose on the outlet and it fell off when I was breaking the motor in and I had to find a replacement screw and nut for it.

I’ll be leaving the solar panel at home this spring while I try this generator out. 4.5 liters of gas should last 4-6 hours depending on the load. The output is 10 A. So six hours at 10 amps that’s 60 amp/hrs per tank full. I'll keep you up to date on how it works. Eventually I plan on permanently mounting the solar panel to the top of the camper instead of having to take it out and bring it into the camper every time I go anywhere with it. I'll add more to this post as I try it out this spring.

Marc.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/generator.JPG

[ruger#1]

Marc use synthetic oil, and for all the use your going to use it . It will last a long time. I use mid grade fuel in mine. Nice little unit, sounds like a good price. i paid $800. for my 6500 watt with a thirteen horse and electric start. the reason i use high to mid grade fuel is that it lasts longer, what i mean is it doesn't break down as fast as low grade if it is stored for long periods of time.

[Marc]

I was planing on putting fuels stabilizer in the gas can if I wasn't planing on using it in the near future. I was also told to shut the fuel supply off and run it dry so the carb doesn't get gummed up.

A little more about this generator, it's 2.8 hp 1200w.


Marc.

[mntman]

nice little unit wouldn't mind having having 1 for the small trips beats carrying around the 6500

[ruger#1]

Marc i have drained one out before. This is what happened. The gaskets shrunk and when i fueled it up i had gas leaking from the carb. Your best bet would be fuel stabilizer or high octane fuel and no Mohawk fuels. your gen would be 1000 watts continuous and 1200 peak. Not to bad for a small generator.

[Marc]

Good to know, was the one you're talking about the same make as mine? I think I'll go with the fuel stabilizer and higher octane fuels as it supposedly runs cooler as well.



Marc i have drained one out before. This is what happened. The gaskets shrunk and when i fueled it up i had gas leaking from the carb. Your best bet would be fuel stabilizer or high octane fuel and no Mohawk fuels. your gen would be 1000 watts continuous and 1200 peak. Not to bad for a small generator.

[Marc]

I hear you there, it would mean not having to carry around a second battery or the solar pannel when it's cold or during the rainy season wich is from Oct-June on the Island :) Saves you from having to plug into the truck and runing the truck to try and top off the battery.


nice little unit wouldn't mind having having 1 for the small trips beats carrying around the 6500

[ruger#1]

Mine has a motor that looks like a honda. But it isnt. i also think that my father used to use a high output batterie charger with his generator, As it didnt charge as fast as he wanted to. My gen has a high output charger. It is Fast. But to heavy to carry around.Mine is a HY-SPEC Hydrrulik It weighs 86kgs.

[Seth]

I just bought a Honda 1000 watt fo all the same reasons, but where abouts did you pick that up? Doesn't look like that bad of a deal from the picture. Is it as quiet as the new Hondas?

[Marc]

The way I plan on using the generator is pluggin in the 115v cord from the camper, it has a built in charging system. So at night wneh I get back from hunting I'd just fire up the generator while I was making supper ad let it run for a couple of hours to top off the battery from what I used the night before.

The Camper is actually not that bad on the battery. It's just a small import camper.

I'm planning on changing out the camper lights with high efficient LED clusters that only use about 1/10th of the power with roughly the same light output.

This generator with a ful tank of fuel weighs about 50 lbs.

[mooseless]

your house freezer draws the most power(amps) at start up. (double or more.) If you just plug in the genset to the camper you will only get as big a charge as your campers power converter chargers output is rated. (older units...lets say 3 amps, that's not much) A person would do better to also carry a larger output battery charger to plug into the genset for charging RV batt.

I would mount the solar panel. Gets it out of the garage and you don't have to worry about dropping it, or something else on it and breaking it. (costly) What size panel is it?

If your panel(s) is large enough it really helps to keep the battery(s) up silentley.

[mooseless]

I don't know

[mooseless]

if the LED lights are that bright are they? The Interior lights, the tail and maekers are bright.

[Marc]

If I recall correctly the charger in the camper is around 7amps and ajust as the battery gets closer to fully charged. The camper is a 2003. My solar panel is a 45w with a 3 amps charging rate and when it's sunny has no problems with keeping the battery topped off. Right now it's put together on PVC piping and I need to build a frame for it to mount it on the roof instead of having to bring it in and out of the camper everytime I go out.

The generator also has a 12volts DC outlet that I could hook up to the battery if I found the camper set up wasn't doing the trick.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/3camper_with_solar_panel.jpg

[mooseless]

Mounting the panels to a frame and then to the camper would be good.

I see from the photo you too collect the empty cans from around the area. Tee Hee!

Check the gen set 12v output rating, maybe it is higher than the campers 12v charger.

[lip_ripper00]

we have had lots of input of the new offshore power equipment trying to take over the market, who out their has bought a quad from Canadian tire? The Chinese clones are not quite their yet cheapy made when it brakes try and get warrenty in my opion it sucks I might be wrong but when you put a 1000 hrs on it (like I have with my em 2000 honda let me know)

[mooseless]

You said it! Lots of that shi...stuff out there. I would n't buy it or sell it. Will see what happens. People say "oh it's a copy of a Honda generator", "Yeah it's red" I say.

Maybe it's OK for low usage!!??

[ruger#1]

Its not a copy of the generator. It is a partial copy of the motor. They cannot make exact copies of the motor,AS of copy right laws. My generator has stamped on it HY-SPEC generators are for field use only. Not for domestic use. Should be a good unit.

[Marc]

The guy I bought the generator told me that most of the parts on it can be replaced with Honda genuine parts.

We'll see how it goes. This is why I'm posting this up so we get to see how it actually performs. If it last me a year for $340 then I'll be happy. If it last longer then that then great.

[Marc]

I just bought a Honda 1000 watt fo all the same reasons, but where abouts did you pick that up? Doesn't look like that bad of a deal from the picture. Is it as quiet as the new Hondas?

Seth, I've never heard a Honda Generator Run. My guess is this one is probably a bit louder. I only plan on running if for a couple of hours in the evenings when I'm getting supper ready and organizing things around camp before settling down for the night. If it gets to the point where the temperature drops below freezing at night then I could always run it with a 50-100 foot extension cord I guess if it bothered me that much. I had it running in the driveway just under the overhang of the camper and I could barely hear it with the music playing in the camper on low. I’ll have more info on the subject after I’ve had it in the field a couple of weekends.

One of the precautions is to not run it or expose it to the rain. I imagine that is pretty much straight forward with all generators.

[Marc]

This is what I'm looking at. I've never seen them but I'm guessing that if they are designed to replace them then they must be close to the same brightness. I'm thinking of getting a couple of the 36 clusters and one of the 24 clusters for the bunk. I'll let you know how they work out when I get them. They're pricy at over $20 each but if they last a life time they'll be worth it.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/other_bulbs.htm

http://www.superbrightleds.com/store/html/images/1156-PCB-W36.jpg


if the LED lights are that bright are they? The Interior lights, the tail and maekers are bright.

[mooseless]

let me Know how they work for you. with 36 LEDs they may be bright enough.

[mooseless]

123 milli amps that's like.... like..... uhh.... uhhmm... really low. Is it .0123 amps?? If so it's low

[Elkhound]

generator looks good Marc. Should suit your purpose well.

[Marc]

123 milli amps that's like.... like..... uhh.... uhhmm... really low. Is it .0123 amps?? If so it's low

It would be .123 amps. So if you left it on for 16 hours it would use the same amount of battery as if you had left the regular 2 amp camper light on for an hour.

I'll let you know how they work out. It's kind of strange that the RV stores don't stock them, but at $20 US it dooesn't surprise me.

[Marc]

I was comparing the brightness ratings of these bulb substitutes and not only are they 16 times more efficient they gove out 5 times more candle power. I'm going to purchase 3 of then. 2 36 LED Clusters and I 24 LED Cluster. I'll take before and after pictures to show you guys what the difference is. If these bulbs work out I'll probably replace the remaining lights as well.

[Rob]

Ive got a 950 watt Power King gen. ($130 at kms). I took the family out camping on sun/mon,We have a 27' travel trailer, the temp got down to -22, which seemed to want to drain my 2 12 volts pretty fast. I fired up the gen.(after about 30 pulls:-( ) It charges the batteries really quick and also runs the tv/dvd player, some lights, not bad for the price. We are looking at one from Can. Tire. Yardworks 3500 peak 3000 running watts for $699. Rob

[lip_ripper00]

Marc check out Toms website www.sourceled.com (http://www.sourceled.com) I have picked up some from him a couple of months ago an am quite happy with them. He's always importing newer and better products.