This hub is not to promote any generators, but just to tell our experience with running a generator.

As you know by Leah's Hub that we live in a 5thwheel. We have been doing this for almost 9 years now (with no regrets). when we first started out we bought a small generator to just run my breathing machine in case I needed it on the road (I have severe chronic asthma) and other small appliances if we needed it when not hooked to power. It served it's purpase well. But then it got to the point that we hardly ever used it and so therefore we sold it (which we regret now).

Anyways, over the course of the summer we planned on doing some boondocking as we head south to Texas and therefore would need a generator to make coffee and maybe have tv in the evening. We researched quite a bit on the Internet and found what is called a Boliy Generator(3000 watts). We were a bit skeptical about it, but I thought we did enough research to finally make the decision to purchase one.

I'm not going to tell where we order it from, for I don't feel it's fair to the dealer for he does sell other items. Anyways, when we ordered it, we ended up having problems. First of all, all the 4th generation Boliys had defects and had to be shipped back to China. Like dumb heads, that should have been our first clue of problems....

When we finally recieved it, we did all the necessary things that told us to do before starting the generator. We had no problems and even used it during a power outage that we had in our park. We was able to even run our air conditioner and still no trouble. So we were excited about having our new generator for boondocking.

Our first night out was at a Wal-Mart parking lot and Brian went to pull the rope and it snapped. So no generator that night. Brian called the company, and told him it was not hard to replace and just to be on the safety side, he would mail us a whole new coiling kit.

We finally got to the National Seashore (North Padre Island). Brian was able to fix the rope with no problems and was able to run the generator for TV that night. The BoliyGenerator comes with a fuel gage, so that you can see when it gets close to empty. Half way through the night we went out to make sure there was still fuel in it. The gauge said we had 1/2 tank-plenty to keep watching TV for another hour or two. We did even get into the second hour when the generator quick running. Gauge still said 1/2 tank, but we went ahead and filled it up. Then all the trouble started; I guess it was meant for us to go to bed early that night....

The next day Brian went out and started to work on the generator. Changed fuel filter, made sure that the fuel line wasn't plugged. Could start the generator, but barely getting enough power to only run one small item at a time. Well not knowing for sure what the problem could be, we decided it was time to find a repair shop and have it fixed under warranty. Contacted on guy that told Brian to try something. Taking the generator apart-again, learned that the part that he was looking for was nearly impossible to get at! So back on the phone again just to get nowhere.

Finally frustrated and wasting our vacation time, we decided as long as the generator could run our coffee maker, TV and the vacuum cleaner (not all at once-only one at a time) once in a while would suffice us until we got all the way down to the valley; then we would look for a repair shop.

What use to take only 15 minutes to brew coffee, took over 45 minutes!  We couldn't charge camera batteries and watch TV at the same time....we did this for about 3 to 4 days.  Then one morning Brian went to make coffee, and the dumb thing wouldn't even run....Took another two hours to get it to finally work and another hour and half to have luke warm coffee!  By this time we both were ready to throw it into the ocean!!!  But we didn't....

Now that we are in the valley, we called the company that we bought the generator and now he tells us that he cannot recommend anyone to fix it....that we would have to locate that ourselves.  We found two that use to work on Boliys-but refuse to touch them, any longer!!  The company, thinks he can "walk" Brian through the trouble!  My husband has vision trouble and with new technology, he doesn't feel comfortable working on it; and by rights shouldn't have to since it's suppose to be under a 2 year warranty.

So now, we are stuck with a genertor that's basically garbage and now we have to go buy another one!!!  I guess the lesson here is don't buy something that you don't know a thing about!

We are not sure what we are going to do with the generator, we have half the notion to send it back to the company and telling them to put the generator where the sun don't shine.  We have found a Honda Generator that meets our needs and will buy it this spring before heading north.  At least with a Honda, we know they have been around for many years and we know that we will be able to find repair shops-Guess we should have gone with our first instinct in the beginning and bought the Honda!!

A Hard Lesson learned.......