Harbor Freight Tail Gator Generator 63204

[Texan]

Got the Tail Gator generator from Harbor Freight last week. With coupon, came out to like $96. Used it this past weekend for the back of the property with no power for a small TV, string of lights and radio for a party. It worked fine. Got about 6 hours run time to one gallon of gas out of it.

Starts easy and is not too terribly load, nothing a long extension cord and turning up the radio couldn't take care of.

I measured output voltage, and was getting about 148VAC. I know generators are not considered “clean” power. Anybody got any advice or experience (good or bad) with these little generators? Any cheap gadgets to protect electronics from the “dirty” power? (Somebody wanted to charge their phone on it, told them do it at your own risk, they changed their mind LOL)







PS: Wonder if I adjust the spark plug gap to the recommendation, maybe it will run even better? Pulled the plug before starting it, and it is at .016” gap.

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

Perhaps one of those RV voltage regulator/surge protector. But they run about the same price as you paid for the genny.

 

[anickode]

Did you check the voltage with a load on it? It is possible that even a few watts of load is sufficient to bring the voltage into normal range, as portable generators do not typically use any active vltage regulation.

 

[landuse]

I have a 950W Ryobi generator that I think is exactly the same as yours but just branded differently. It works like a charm. I can run my TV, satellite decoder, loads of energy saver lights as well as my ADSL (internet)

I would recommend it to anyone

 

[Texan]

Did you check the voltage with a load on it? It is possible that even a few watts of load is sufficient to bring the voltage into normal range, as portable generators do not typically use any active vltage regulation.

Checked it with no load. Next time I start it up I will check it with a couple of things running. Anything I plugged in it worked fine, just seemed like a little too much volts, but I too figured it would drop with a load.

Where I work, we have 24VDC and 120/220VAC products, on our wire diagrams we specify +/-10% voltage range. So at 120VAC our products should be ok up to 132VAC.

An engineer here has us test the products at the low range, so 120V product would be tested with 108V. I believe he said it was more abusive.

 

[supermanotorious]

try a line conditioner, I like the ones Monster Power make

 

[anickode]

Checked it with no load. Next time I start it up I will check it with a couple of things running. Anything I plugged in it worked fine, just seemed like a little too much volts, but I too figured it would drop with a load.

Where I work, we have 24VDC and 120/220VAC products, on our wire diagrams we specify +/-10% voltage range. So at 120VAC our products should be ok up to 132VAC.

An engineer here has us test the products at the low range, so 120V product would be tested with 108V. I believe he said it was more abusive.

Low voltage is more abusive for things like motors because the amp draw increases to produce the same amount of power, which will frequently be enough to overheat the motor.