Coleman's have been used by a lot of people in some pretty tough areas. They do, however, have some...... uh, shortcomings. I owned 2 of the suckers when I was in business BTW.
If I were going to use this as backup, where I had to depend on it, I would have several spare parts for the genset. The capacitor in the exciter circuit seems to be pretty danged tender in these things. It is the blue electrolytic cap you can see through the rear genset cover. You can find most recent models at their website at:
www.colemanpowermate.com and they have an 800 number to get parts which is: 1-800-445-1805
In the case of this genset (and it's very common throughout the coleman line) it is an Ag-Tronic, part #034819
Again, if I were going to depend on these (this one was over 10 years old, and had only been worked on once) I would have 1 or 2 extra caps, a set of diodes, and brushes in a bag somewhere just in case.
Be very careful about trying to run sensitive electronic gear off of them, they have a very high THD (Total Harmonic Distortion).
Hope this helps.
