Champion Generators

Smilingreen

Smilingreen

Well-known member
Does anyone have a Champion generator that the inside cowling have broken into pieces and has long cracks in the plastics? I bought this 3100 watt unit new back in 2017. It has had very light use, maybe 30-35 hours on it. It has always ran perfectly and I love how quiet it is. But, this year, it would only run on choke and would die as soon as you turned the choke off. I knew what the issue was. Old gas. So, about a week ago, I put it on the bench and started taking the covers off of it so I could get to the carb. I was surprised to see long splits in the plastic cowling that goes around the generator section and around the exhaust muffler. The top fastening point for the cowling going around the generator was completely broken off. As I cleaned and disassembled, I kept finding more and more pieces with cracks or completely broken off. This is a 75537i model. I can find parts diagrams for them with part numbers, but it seems no one carries any parts for these units. Did Champion flood the US Generator market with cheap Chinese throw away generators, to cut into Hondas bottom line?

I removed all of the broken cowlings, broken screw tabs and one outer housing and cleaned all the pieces, took 200 grit sand paper to the surfaces, roughed them up and the applied liberal amounts of high temp JB Weld epoxy to them. I am going to let the epoxy sit and cure for another 24-48 hours before I attempt to re-install these parts. Hopefully, the epoxy holds. Otherwise, when this unit mechanically fails, I am going to purchase a bigger Honda to replace it. I have a 10 year old Honda EU2000i that I just serviced. I had to change out the rubber hoses. I can easily get parts for the Honda. The Honda runs like a new one.

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Cowling main mount completely broken off.

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Broken screw tab.

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Completely broken off screw tab.

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Main cowling epoxy repair.

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About a 3" crack epoxy repair on the muffler bottom cowling. 2 separate cracks in one piece.

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Epoxy repair on the exhaust top half of cowling.

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Crazy Glue mounting tab repair.

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Another crazy glue mounting tab repair.

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Another mounting tab I still need to glue back on.

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Don't have that exact generator but none of my Champions have had this issue.
Did it ever take a good fall (like out of a truck)? Seems like it either took some hard impacts or has vibrated itself to death.
 
bczoom said:
Don't have that exact generator but none of my Champions have had this issue.
Did it ever take a good fall (like out of a truck)? Seems like it either took some hard impacts or has vibrated itself to death.
Click to expand...
Well, no. It sat on my covered back porch with the cover on it for 99% of it's life. When it did run, it was in econo mode, as the loads on it were very lite. I never dropped it. Can't say what happened to it in shipping before I got it. I dunno. The parts I needed to rebuild it back to factory spec are not available. To me, the plastic formulation was in incorrect for the temperature environment it was going to operate in or they screwed up the plastics formula when the parts were molded. The plastic cowlings almost have a feel of 3D printed plastic, even though it is moulded. Also, every place that cracked was where the plastic should have been thicker for structural support. Maybe their engineering and manufacturing quality has improved since 2017. I hope it has. I won't chance it again with another purchase. I know that model has been EOL for several years. I'll go Honda next time. I have 2 Honda generators that have seen a much harder life than the Champion ever has. None of their plastics have cracked or broken off. I can still get parts, even for my 20 year old Honda EB3000c construction generator.
 
I have a couple Champions. Bought them because they're cheap, small, quiet and get the job done. I also have a couple other cheap ones (Harbor Freight?). I use these little ones for small things and to pass out to the neighbors when we have extended power outages. I don't fret if they poop out or get damaged.
If I need power for my home, I have a 7500W Honeywell with Honda power or 15000W Generac. These are for me only.
 
Today is re-assembly day and a test run. We'll see if the plastics hold up or if they will crack right next to where the epoxy repairs have been done. I should have applied the epoxy on wider and put small strips of fiberglass cloth embedded in it. I did apply it wider than the cracks and breaks were, this is just an after thought. We'll see.
 
My Champion has been very good. Only issue I had was one winter I had it running on covered deck and it was near minus 40 out. On day 3 pf running continuous, I lost power in the house. I went outside and thought it blew up. It was covered in engine oil.
All it was, was the crankcase vent froze up from condensation.

I filled it back up with oil, cleaned the air filter and it has been trouble free.

Mine doesn't have plastic like that, it is all open with a steel cage.
 
Yeah, mine is a inverter generator. I got it put back together, just haven't pulled the trigger yet on starting it. I might try it tomorrow. It is supposed to be in the mid 40's. It should run good, now that I have the carb cleaned out. I'll run it for an hour or so and see how the plastics fair after my JB Weld Epoxy job I did to it.

As an after thought, I probably should have drilled the cracks out before I JB Welded them. But, I did clean and scuff the plastics well before I slathered the 2 part high temp JB Weld Epoxy on them. We'll see. If the welds break, Xmas is almost here. I might just order a Honda 7000 watt inverter generator and send the Champion down the road after I re-repair the cracks. It can produce 240 VAC, which will allow me to run everything in my home in the event of a power loss. I'll just have to install a transfer switch on my electrical service.



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I have 2 other Honda generators. A EU2000I that I bought new and a EB3000c that I bought used for $250.00. Both have been excellent generators. We built our house back in 2011-2012 running on the EB3000c for a full year. It never missed a beat, even though I bought it out of a rental yard and had been fully depreciated when I got it.

I bought the Champion because it had electric start. My wife didn't have enough upper body strength to be able to pull start the other two Hondas.




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??? When did Kubota start making or selling generators in North America? I have never seen one......or maybe I wasn't looking for one.


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Well, I guess the reason I haven't seen one before is my Kubota dealer isn't part of the Kubota engine dealers. Just tractors, implements, mini-ex's and skid steers. I see Northern Tool sells the Kubota 7000 watt model. I haven't been inside of a Northern Tool in about 15 years. I see a few online generator dealers sell them, also. Not really seeing much in bad reviews on them, except the people who live in the city with postage stamp size lots. They complain they are too noisy. It's a 2 cylinder diesel spinning at 3600 rpm. Probably would be noisy from the sound bouncing off all the cars and houses. Now, I want to see and hear the Kubota in person. It's about $2k more than I was originally wanting to spend on the Honda 7000. The Honda 7000 is $4500.00. The Kubota 7000 is $6500.00. Decisions, decisions. :confused: I wonder if my local Kubota tractor dealer can get maintenance parts for a Kubota generator?
 
Tell us more about your generator needs.
How many Kw's?
What do you have for fuel sources (diesel, gas, natural gas, propane)?
Are you looking for a "whole house" or portable unit?

A few thoughts.
If you're going diesel, see if you can find one that runs at 1800 RPM's instead of 3600.
If you're in the $5K range, take a look at the offerings from Kohler. They make good units. Generac is also an option (and I've had no problems with mine) but from what I've heard, the Kohler is a better unit.
Honda makes great generators. That said, my Honda powered Honeywell has been bulletproof and it was a lot less to buy. (I think I paid about $1K for it - It's 7500W.
Generators have gone way up in price in the last 5 or so years. I paid about $1500 for my 15Kw Generac. Now, I think they're $4K. Around here, you can pick up used (barely) generators cheap. People buy them, put them in the garage, find out they don't really need it then sell them because they want it out of the garage.
They're not for me personally but if you have a tractor, have you considered a PTO generator?
 
Well, I have a 200 Amp 240VAC service on my house. I haven't checked load on my service, but I would say we don't utilize 80% of what we could on the service. Our electric bills hover around $100.00/month, year around. I want to be able to power the whole house (1500 sq. ft.) with one generator. I would shed the water heater during a power outage, as it is electric and we don't use that much hot water. For most of our hot water needs, we can easily heat water on the gas cooktop. My HVAC is a 3.5 ton Trane packaged hybrid unit. Doesn't pull that much power. Our house is well insulated and have e-glass in all of the windows and doors.

I have Gasoline, Diesel and Propane fuel availability on site.

I have a tractor, but looking at selling it next year and getting a track loader to replace it. This diesel tractor would not very fuel efficient for a PTO generator. At rated RPM speed, it burns almost 3 gal/hr. It is a 5055D Deere.

I am also looking at some surplus MEP generators. They appear to be plentiful online. Most of them are very low hours or are NOS. Not sure how they are on fuel efficiency or how common maintenance parts are to get. Their costs online appears to be several thousand dollars cheaper than a new consumer generator is. But, if parts availability is scarce, now you have a big boat anchor if you can't get maintenance parts. I'll have to research these a bit more.

I have looked at the used light tower route, also. These at local auction yards, even if they are disassembled and parts thrown in a box, are going for 4-6 thousand dollars. I suspect there are professional bid jackers at these auctions.
 
I was going to mention the MEP generators but due to parts and price, I couldn't really say. The good part is I think most run at 1800 RPM.

Your heat pump is going to pull at least 3-4Kw plus the air handler.
 
Smilingreen said:
Well, I guess the reason I haven't seen one before is my Kubota dealer isn't part of the Kubota engine dealers. Just tractors, implements, mini-ex's and skid steers. I see Northern Tool sells the Kubota 7000 watt model. I haven't been inside of a Northern Tool in about 15 years. I see a few online generator dealers sell them, also. Not really seeing much in bad reviews on them, except the people who live in the city with postage stamp size lots. They complain they are too noisy. It's a 2 cylinder diesel spinning at 3600 rpm. Probably would be noisy from the sound bouncing off all the cars and houses. Now, I want to see and hear the Kubota in person. It's about $2k more than I was originally wanting to spend on the Honda 7000. The Honda 7000 is $4500.00. The Kubota 7000 is $6500.00. Decisions, decisions. :confused: I wonder if my local Kubota tractor dealer can get maintenance parts for a Kubota generator?
Click to expand...
Some dealers split those lines up? Maybe Canada is different, my Kubota dealer has the generators. And is also a John Deere dealer, LOL
 
Nah. Here in the states, each dealer franchise sells Farm equipment, light construction equipment, or both. They sell just Kubota brand. John Deere is a totally separate franchise. I don't think Kubota USA would allow dealers to sell John Deere also under one roof.
 
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