On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 05:45:01PM -0400, Flying Pig wrote: > Well, as always, in cruising, stuff happens. This time it's the Honda > eu2000i genset, which we'll have to get to a service shop, my having > exhausted my troubleshooting and spare parts abilities.
We finally gave up on ours after fixing and refixing it, again and again - until the day that the Honda dealer (the one in StA, as it happens; it's First Coast Honda, 210 State Rd 16, 904-829-5822) told us that it would take $850 in parts alone, not counting the labor, to replace the worn piston rings (seems that there's no way to do that directly: the engine block and the head are a single piece (???), and must be replaced.) We got rid of it and "repowered" with an open-frame Honda generator. It is certainly noisier, but: 1) It was $300, for a nearly-new unit. 2) I can replace either the entire motor or the genny for ~$200 used, 3) these parts are universally available (it's a Honda GX160 motor), 3) it actually puts out 2.4kW - as contrasted against the eu2K's 1600W. I might replace it with a 2.6kW Kipor - just a little larger, about the same price, and about the same noise rating as the EU2K - but a much higher power output and much better reliability, at least as reported by a number of owners of these units. The Chinese government used a Kipor to power the world's highest cell station, the one on Mt. Everest. I'll take that as a fairly high recommendation... For sure, I *won't* be buying another EU2K. I'd repaired mine enough times that I knew the thing inside and out, and its design was just awful. E.g., the recoil starter is wound _in the wrong direction_ for a fair lead through the case; this results in the pull cord wearing out constantly - and replacing it is a complete nightmare unless you know exactly what you're doing. I actually wrote a detailed rant about it in another group when the thing finally died on us. -- * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET * _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
