One of the things I hate about portable generators – any generators really – is the noise. The incessant, teeth-grinding noise. I like quiet. It’s a major reason I live here.
One of the things I always liked about other people’s Honda inverter generators is they’ve got something called an “eco-throttle,”…
…which throttles the engine down to a very low idle when there’s no load on the generator. It’s quiet. Unfortunately, since I first took mine out of the box almost five years ago, that setting on mine hasn’t worked. There’s nothing wrong with the machine, apparently it’s an altitude thing. The engine ran too rich at 6000′ to idle that low.
Supposedly there’s a carb jet kit you can buy for high altitude, but I never got one. So I never used that feature. Except this spring I decided to give it a try for shits and giggles and for some reason I don’t understand, it works now. I like my cool generator even more now.
Anyway: I had it, and a bunch of different power tools, out this morning to make a new stand for that metallic target I brought in a while ago.
Up till spring 2018, the rifle range target stand consisted of an old fuel tank rack. It fell over in one of the big 2017 floods, and the following year I cut it up for its angle iron and made proper target stands. I had the ends of the rack left over, nothing to do with them but they were too big and heavy to haul to the dump. Erosion was slowly burying them in the hillside.
But this morning…
…I cut them both in half. Much grinding and drilling ensued, and by the time I was done making noise…
I made a thing! Weather won’t wear this one out, by golly.
That’s the Sawzall that you had to order a part for a few months ago?
Yeah.
That is a fine-looking target stand. And I’m sure it will be around for a very long time barring flood or earthquake.
Honda generators are all but bulletproof, so the issue about altitude surprised me. I didn’t know about that issue with the Honda or that you were that high above sea level. When you wrote about the Honda not throttling back, my first concern was with the added wear on the engine. Considering how little you use the Honda, I suspect the extra wear and tear issue is moot.