Brad NSW
California
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Joined: 02/17/2009
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Bought the Boliy 3600 today from a Chinese distributor in SD. Manual start 4th gen model. I had them unbox it, put oil and fuel in it. Started on 3rd/4th pull. Surprisingly quiet...similar to Yamaha/Honda.
Threw it in the back of the truck, brought it home and started on 1st pull. Ran it in the garage for an hour. Plugged in wife's 1375 blow drier. RPMs went up a bit. Didn't need to manually switch to higher output mode.
So far it seems like $950 well spent...will be boondocking Fri-Sun this weekend and will report more details. Knowing the repair/distributor was 20min drive away made me confident enough to pull the trigger.
USN Ret. 03Ram3500, 5.9CTD, 5spd, SRW, ATS filter, S&B Intake, IssPro (Pyro, Boost, Fuel, Trans & R Dif) SMARTY SR, Prodigy Controller, AirDog 100. 09Montana 3665RE 5er, 6 TST Tire monitors. Pakbrake Ex brake & airbags, 12' Baltik inflatable w/3.3HP OBM
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Old & Slow
Texas
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Joined: 07/25/2007
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Old & Slow wrote:Boliy is interesting. I have tried to follow along with the reports of various Inverter gensets. On the Boliy the Inverter is said to be of German design. The Germans are known for the most advanced technology in Microprocessors. So, the main question might be, 'is the engine of good quality?". Some difference in dependability seens to exist with the Chinese Chonda made by various mfg. Perhaps someone will come through with a fact check.
Is this the gen/inverter of the future? Can anyone verify the electronics are of German design. Who is the MFG of the engine. JD? or other?? JD seems to be the main mfg of the better Chinese Chonda engines. Is the fuel system of the gravity flow type or fuel pump? These facts are going to be interesting.
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tamathumper
Ballston Spa, NY
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Joined: 09/25/2009
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tamathumper wrote:I purchased one on eBay 5 days ago...
OK, I got the Boliy the other day, and unboxed it right away. First impression was - WOW, this thing is BIG! I guess I just didn't see any photos of it that gave any sense of scale.
Second impression was that it's really ruggedly put together. Now, I've bought a LOT of substantial Chinese products. I imported Chinese Jinma tractors and assembled them myself from just parts for a while. None of them were as well put together as this unit to be honest. The fit is good on all the plastic panels, and there are no gaps. Nothing was apparently loose or rattling.
I did note that the door panels on the front and back are tabbed plastic panels. Although they remove somewhat easily now, they require some flexing to do it and they are of a design that I fully expect will crack and break when the plastic has a few years on it and gets brittle either from heat or sunlight exposure. Time will tell.
Third impression is that it's easy to pick up and move around. It weighs all it says it does, but it's no problem for me to pick it up with one hand and walk around with it.
It had some oil on the lower part of the unit. I found the oil fill plug was a little loose because it must have been started and tested then drained, so some oil dripped out. Whatever it's made of though, the oil wiped off and left no marks or residue whatsoever.
Next impression - the labels on the unit are appropriate and meaningful, you understand what they mean just by looking at them. The fonts they picked are amateurish, they have a "cheap" look to them which doesn't inspire confidence, but it's not an iPod, it's a generator.
I filled it with some gas - darn those new "safety spouts" because they always make me spill. The gas fill hole has a plastic filter in it that I removed first. Whatever gas drops hit the unit evaporated immediately in the 30-degree cold, and the larger drips when wiped off again left no residue.
I filled it half-full of gas and filled it with 10W-30 oil, which was a little bit of a frig because the oil filler hole is inside the shell and is at a very flat angle. I propped the unit up on a piece of wood and filled it slowly, checking the level now and then by re-leveling the unit. Once full I replaced the oil fill plug and pressed the "start" button. It just clicked.
I re-read the manual and made sure the gas was turned "on". Interestingly enough, the manual was reversed in a few places, telling you to ensure a switch was "off" when it should be "on" for instance, but I'm pretty used to that with Chinese manuals. The manual, by the way, is much better than the Jinma manuals I am used to, which call anti-freeze a "happy freeze-proof liquid". One point I remember is that the 30A RV receptacle is somewhat mis-labeled as the 30A Receptacle, and the 20A 120V receptacle is very mislabeled as the 30A RV Receptacle.
There is an "on/off" knob for the fuel on the side of the unit, per the manual. There is also another "on/off" knob on top of the fuel filler cap, which has to do with the built-in spring-loaded vent. It is not mentioned in the manual.
I pulled on the recoil starter cord twice, and it fired right up with a little puff of smoke. The unit had been prepared for storage apparently (per the manual) with a few drops of oil put into the cylinder. It ran in non-economy mode for about 15 minutes before I tried to switch on the "Econ" switch.
On "Econ" mode, the unit would run for 10 seconds and then seem to lose RPMs to the point that the voltage would drop and it would shudder and rev up quite a bit. Then it would level out and putter along nicely then do it again about 10 seconds later.
I ran the unit for about 30 minutes on full throttle and "Econ" mode alternately. I did not put a load on it yet.
The Looks, 2008 Sprinter 311BHS, 2006 Ford F-250 SCab/LB/4WD/6.0
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mrad
Prineton, MN
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I saw this generator last night at the Minneapolis RV show. I was surprised at how light it was for a 3000 watt model. My buddy and I just purchased a Honda EU2000 a month ago for our fish house. I am now wondering if we should have purchsed the Boliy. I did notice that the noise level was rated 53-58 decibels at 7m @ 1/4 load. That seems like quite a variance. Is this a China generator. They were making it sound like it was a USA product.
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tamathumper
Ballston Spa, NY
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Yes, totally Chinese.
EDIT: I neglected to mention that I did walk away from the unit about 21 feet while it was running at full throttle, and the noise was negligible. It's hard to describe a noise. Yes, I could hear it running clearly. Yes I could have heard a person next to me talking in a normal tone and even whispering. Yes it would have been more annoying after a few hours I suppose. I walked into my garage which put one wall between me and the generator, albeit with the garage door still wide open, and it was of course much attenuated, nothing that would bother you - unless it was your *neighbor's* generator at a camp site 
* This post was
edited 02/13/10 09:09pm by tamathumper *
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tamathumper
Ballston Spa, NY
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Here's a fun comparison of the Boliy manual and the Yamaha EF2400iS manual. Most of the images are near-identical, while the text is amusingly different.
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tamathumper
Ballston Spa, NY
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My favorite part is "you'd better use impregnant clean it then for dry." 
EDIT: There's also a section of the manual that says while filling the generator with oil, you should "be careful to over-fill."
I notice in the newest "2009 Manual" available on the internet as a PDF that many of the pictures have been very crudely re-drawn. I wonder if Boliy didn't get their hand slapped for photo-copying all the pictures out of the Yamaha manuals, so someone's grade-school kid crudely traced over them to "protect the innocent."
At least all the pertinent info is in there.
* This post was
edited 02/14/10 09:45am by tamathumper *
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tamathumper
Ballston Spa, NY
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I had some time to get the generator out again today for a second test. It was 30 degrees.
I turned on the gas and the "on/off" switch, and set the ECON mode to off. I turned it over for 8-10 seconds with the electric start but while it turned over fine it would not start.
One pull on the recoil starter and it puttered right to life.
I let it run for 5 minutes on normal mode and then turned on ECON again. It went into the low idle, sputter, rev way up cycle and I let it do that about a half-dozen times before I figured it wasn't going to stop.
I turned off ECON mode and went and got a 500W halogen work light and plugged it into the 20A socket on the generator. After a minute I turned ECON mode back on. The generator hunted RPMs for about 30 seconds and then settled into a low RPM idle with some stuttering but no rev up/down issues.
I let it run that way for about 5 minutes then unplugged the lamp. The generator did two sputter/rev up cycles and then settled back down and seemed to run pretty good in ECON mode for about 10 minutes.
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hard3
southern Illinois
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Joined: 07/10/2009
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Sounds just like mine did over the weekend when I ran it to excercise it. I t really sputtered for a few seconds until it warmed up a bit, or it just had not fully filled the carb with gas . I usually turn off gas valve and let it run dry,till it sputters, then turn it off. So far I'm really happy with it. I have it mounted on the back porch I built, setting on a couple of rubber mats to absorb vibrations a bit. have strapped down with a couple of ratchet straps for transporting. With exhaust pointing away from truck , you can hardly hear it inside with 1500 watt heater load on it. Taking a trip to Florida in a few weeks, we'll see how it does then under a longer run.
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pianotuna
Regina, SK, Canada
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Joined: 12/18/2004
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Hi all,
I purchased a "beta brand" Chinese Generator on Dec 14. It was 2000 watts and supposed to be electric start with a remote. I was able to get it running using the recoil cord. It ran just fine--with nice clean power.
The seller would do nothing for me so I took it to a local repair shop. They fixed the generator--but while they were testing it (outside) they heard it come to a stop.
They went out to see smoke coming out of the housing.
The fortunate parts is that it was outside--and not in my home or in my RV, and that no folks got fried!
The end result is that I'm back in the market for the smallest possible (1000 watts minimum) electric start generator I can find.
If anyone knows of one please pm me!
Regards, Don
Kustom Koach Class C 28'5" 256 watts solar, 875 amp hours in two battery banks 12 volt batteries 2500 watt inverter.
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