Harshly used Predator 3500 Generator for sale - $100

TL;DR version: Pull-start only. 1070 hours on it. $100 and it's yours. Can deliver to GNF.

Full story:

I can't remember how long ago it was that I bought this at Harbor Freight but it has served me well for over 1000 hours of use.

It was one of the victims of the Great Talladega Flood of August 3, 2025. Submerged up to the letters in the flood it wasn't running for some reason when I woke up around 4 in the morning to see the river rolling along outside my camper.

Thinking it was probably a goner I went ahead and bought myself a new generator. But those sneaky bastards at Harbor Freight had put the Predator 5000 on sale for $900 and a new 3500 was still $800 so I went ahead and upgraded even though I really didn't need to since the 3500 has always been plenty for my needs.

I let it sit for a couple of weeks drying out with a fan blowing on its innards, then proceeded to work on it. Drained all the gas and disposed of it properly. I even stuffed paper shop towels into the gas tank to absorb any remaining moisture until the tank was completely dry.

I pulled the carburetor out and cleaned it (definitely had water sediment in it). Cleaned everything else as best I could including (of course) the air filter sponge and gave it an oil change.

I discovered that the starter doesn't seem to work. I did some rudimentary troubleshooting on it but didn't bother going beyond being sure that the battery was good (even tried a different motorcycle battery I had handy). I even tried shorting the solenoid connectors and got nothing.

But it pull-starts just fine. I made a quick video of the first pull-start from cold (hadn't been running in well over a week) and put it up on the youtubes. https://youtube.com/shorts/43H4tzs2-pI?feature=share

Anyway once it was runing fine I ran it for about 5 hours with a portable air conditioner plugged into it, drawing about 800 watts under load, and it was in my non-airconditioned garage on a hot day with the thermostat on the air conditioner set to 65, so I'm pretty sure it stayed under load the entire time. I believe it's good to go. Wouldn't sell it to my WERA peeps if I didn't trust it.

 

I'll take it

 

Want me to bring it to GNF then?

 

Yes please

 

I'll plant to have it there. I'm usually pitted near the Sunoco pump on the 2nd tier so you can find me there.

 

Great! I will normally be right on the third tier. Let me know if you want me to PayPal or venmo you

 

I don't want any money until you're happy with the purchase. I'll have it at Barber and if you like it in person it's yours for $100. You can just give me cash or Paypal then. I don't have a Venmo account.

 

Generator is sold, thanks for the interest.

 

I liked the new genny stand. Your bunk is gonna get wet before your new generator does

 

Yes, not going to lose another genny to flooding. But it was also so I don't have to dead lift the generator into my pickup truck bed. It's kind of like having a hand truck just for the generator.

 

Pic of said stand possible? Curious...

 

Thanks! Another winter project to add to the list...