How many hours on it? Buy it used?
Yes, used on eBay. They go for even less at local equipment auctions. I've seen them as low as $750 or such.
Mine has 7,700 hours when I bought it. Kubota rates the engines for 10,000 hour service life, but they typically go way further with any maintenance done. I've seen them for sale at that price level with between 2,200 hours and 21,000 hours on the meter, all operational.
They get a lot smaller if you cut the light tower off and just use it as a doghouse genset on the tiny trailer. But the few around me that liked mine went and bought the same and kept the lights, and have used them to hold night time functions in their yard like ice skating, have loaned them out for parties, etc..... A 4 lamp unit is rated to illuminate about 6.5 acres, 1500 watts per bulb.
The gen heads are brushless, so really only 1 end bearing to wear out. Some say they are not great at regulating voltage and such, and I get it, but other "specific" portable and gasoline home generators use the same tuned capacitor brushless regulation as well. Mine runs everything in the house without issue, electronics or not. Fridge, mini-splits, high efficiency furnace, computers, Wi-Fi, dart board, microwave, laptop and phone chargers, everything is on and working even at the same time and no faults reporting anywhere. Seriously can't tell the difference from when grid power is up except rest of the street is mostly dark.
At least for me, it has been absolutely fabulous. During a several day outage last winter, neighbors were running their gasoline ones so long consecutively that they had to shut them down for oil changes during. Diesel just belts it out, check on it a week later. Tow it up to the fuel station when done to refill it with 15 gallons of untaxed off-road diesel fuel (legally), no fuel cans stored everywhere going stale. The model I bought and have is an Allmand NL-5000, this is an 8kW model, and will be priced higher than a more commonly found 6kW model. An Allmand Pro model will also be an 8kW. But, 6kW is usually plenty, as that is the continuous rating, these do not have surge ratings. 8kW's are more rare. I paid $1,500 for mine last year on eBay plus $400 to ship it from TX to MI, so $1,900 to my door. 3 of the 4 lamps did not work, I sawed the tower off and scrapped that portion and ballasts anyway. Washed the engine, changed the oil and filters, put a new fan belt and battery on it, and haven't touched it since. Used it a bunch. Loan it out all the time for chili cook-off's, etc....
I'd target the Kubota engine, they are the best compact diesels in the industry from a quality perspective. The Isuzu and Mitsubishi diesels can be pretty good as well, but you for sure want to avoid the Kohler diesels in them at all costs, those are junk. Most for sale with a Kohler will have a blown engine.
I at first bought a 6kW, and loaned it to my elder parents because they are more remote than I, so their power is out for days until restored when it happens. It was the first genset my mom was able to sleep at night while running, and my dad never had to check on it for refueling. She begged me to keep it to make their life easier, so I said sure no problem, and just went and bought a second one. Up to that point he was running a really nice Honda 6500 watt electric start construction model genset. They are great, but in comparison, loud and fuel thirsty. Way better than nothing, but if starting from nothing, I would now only go straight to a used light tower. Pull the power pack and mount it if you can't store the trailer.
Just checked eBay completed auctions, a fully working 8kW is selling in the $770-$1,500 range as of January 2025. Liquid cooled Kubota diesel vs Harbor Freight whatever is not a hard decision for me.
