Tezza, That was not the question old mate, we all love to sit near a quite place and listen to the frogs ..Some gennies are very noisy and some are very quite..My brother had one of them tomhawk gennies and in a few weeks .things went wrong and it didnt have replacement bits.. Just now Honda are "haveing to drop their prices" ..Now they,, are quite and very long lasting ..No i dont have one but have looked at a few and have lived along side a few..I have a kippor 1kva inverter and its very quite as well being a copy of a honda..There are so many Inverter genies out now ..There is no need to have the old two stroke generator running and making life a little "on the edge" right tezza Im on your side love the quite, when we can get it..I think Kippor are around $800. honda around 1400 .tomahawk on ebay 350.. to 600.??Plus..
The chineeees are masters at the copy..some good some not so good..for what its worth..
Bob n Bev...

Thanks Tezza, BobnBev and Oz John, much appreciated. We do have one of those noisy 2 strokes which we don't put on unless it is absolutely necessary. Want to look at upgrading without having the expense of a Honda if we can. Just looking around and getting some opinions. Thanks people !!

-- Edited by valnrob on Saturday 3rd of July 2010 10:17:10 AM

ozjohn wrote:

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Also look at the Yamaha. They have a fabulous reputation.
Kipor also have a good following (mainly on price) but I have no personal experience using them.
ozjohn.

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Those two are ever bit as good as the Honda.

Depends how much you intend to use it, if only for those odd occassions  when going native  then  buy cheap and bin it if it gives you trouble,  at around $98.00   they will give good service for a couple of years at least .  If you intend to live off it full time then go the more expensive  inverter models with are becoming the RR of gensets .  They are all noisy in the dead of night  but what the hell just enjoy life and turn it off at bed time and go battery

 

valnrob wrote:

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thanks Wombat, we probably need an inverter one, to charge the laptop, phone etc. Have solar panels and batteries. Don't have an inverter in van.

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I have no "hands on" experience with "gennies" so I could stand to be corrected on this but it's my understanding that the reference to inverter generators is a newer type of generator that uses an internal inverter style circuit to generate a more stable and cleaner ("pure" sine wave) output than "conventional" generators and should not be confused with the little boxes that we call inverters that are used to convert 12 v DC to 240 volts AC to power mains type appliances.

As I've expressed elsewhere on this forum my view is that (in the absence of a good quality genny or available mains power) where possible, Laptops, TVs etc should be powered directly from 12v. 12v power supplies for laptops are readily available and are compatible with most laptops. Many small LCD TVs and TV DVD combos can be powered directly from 12v. 12v chargers are available for many mobiles.