One thing missing from many small engines in our garage is a good old hour meter to help us assess wear and tear. This goes for the Honda EU2000 generator as well.
Fortunately, the aftermarket comes to the rescue with products to help make measuring run time easy.
Why bother with an engine hour meter?
You spent upwards of $1000 for a first class Honda inverter generator. Protect that investment by following the maintenance instructions on page 40 of the user manual. This includes oil changes of course, but also requires checking valve clearances every 100 hours.
Assuming your generator use is sporadic like most, do you really have what it takes to track the total engine run time? If the answer is no, adding an hour meter is a minimal expense to protect your investment.
Tiny-Tach Model TT2A
After some research I chose the Tiny-Tach hour meter form Design Technologies, Inc.
This unit requires no external power and comes with a battery built in which provides years of service. The principle is very straightforward… when the engine generates a spark, the meter enables an hour counter, otherwise the hour counter stops. The hour counter facilitates the measurement of mechanical age like the odometer in your car. Like your car’s odometer, it counts up… forever… only when there is mechanical wear and tear occurring.
The TT2A actually shows hours and minutes for the first 200 hours and then shows only hours afterwards up to 19,999 hours.
Mounting Bracket
The unit comes with enough cable to mount the display unit just about anywhere on the generator. However, I decided to keep the display behind the cover. I pondered where to mount the display and then I found the…
The unit appears to be sold only on eBay so search for it there.
This extremely robust piece of metal mounts right into the EU2000i and provides a platform for the TT2A meter. The result is a nice clean installation.
Installing the TT2A & HEU-202 into the EU2000 Generator
Here are a few pics of KJ4FAJ installing the TT2A hour meter and HEU-202 bracket into my EU2000 generator. Enjoy.
TT2A, HEU-202 and Honda EU2000 results
I likely use my Honda EU2000 generator like most.
- I start it up every month or so to splash the oil around a bit. (It starts a lot easier if you do this regularly.)
- I use it to power an electric chain saw and hedge trimmers when far away from my home’s power.
- I use it for the ARRL Field Day as my emergency power source.
- When summer thunderstorms or winter ice kill the power, it quickly powers the sump pump, fridge and, yes, the TV.
- When storms like Sandy come barreling through, my generator may run for many days almost continuously while friends borrow it for their fridges, sump pumps, etc.
It’s possible to tabulate the above generator usage by hand and estimates. For me, life’s too short to leave this up to guesswork.
The EU2000 is expensive enough to deserve regular maintenance, but, let’s face it, any generator that has your back is priceless at times.
With this hour meter installation, I can now schedule maintenance based on real generator use, not guesses.
Note, any motor driven appliance is yet another engine you have to maintain. The TT2A is a fine accessory for all gasoline engines.
Pimp my generator
Whether we are RVers, Preppers, laborers with tools, or hams, let’s face it… some of us like gadgets. If you are looking for one more reason to add an hour meter to your generator, how about simply making it look cool.
Other approaches
Others “pimp” their Honda EU2000i generators with different techniques. Here is one that involves far more “intrusion” than the TT2A approach.
This approach is way way more involved than simply wrapping a wire around the spark plug wire and installing a bracket. I do admit, however, it looks… cool.
nice information
Well engineered & well worth installing this meter.