Harbor Freight Predator 3500 Inverter Generator Power Distribution Accessory Box for Camping or Emergency Home Backup. Get FULL power From Your Harbor Freight Generator (or any other brand) while adding extra safety and power cord length to get the generator away from the camp site to help control sound. I made this portable power distribution box (some people would call this a spider box) for three reasons:
1) Get full power output from the generator. This box allows me to use the large RV plug on the generator while tent or truck camping to get the full potential power output from the generator without owning an actual RV. I cannot get the full 3500 watts out of the standard outlet on the front panel of the Harbor Freight Predator generator. The one standard outlet on the front panel is only capable of supplying between 1800 to 2400 watts (best case scenario), but I paid for 3500 watts, peak. This portable power distribution box allows me to use the 30 amp round RV plug to get the full 3500 watts. This same type of power distribution box (spider box) would also work on just about any of the other import inverter generators that are on the market today, Harbor Freight Predator, WEN, Northern Tool Powerhorse, Westinghouse, Champion, Generac, Ryobi, etc…. Even the Honda and the Yamaha generators could benefit from a spider box like this.
2) Added safety. None of the built-in outlets of the front panel of this generator have GFCI protected outlets. My new portable power distribution box has two, 20 amp GFCI outlets. I am sure there will be a few people that will say GFCI outlets are not needed on a generator but I cannot thing of a single scenario where using GFCI outlets is MORE dangerous than NOT using them. I would MUCH rather know that I have GFCI protection while camping in the woods that are soaking wet from all the rain that usually falls in the area where I typically camp.
3) Sound control. The cord on my spider box is 25 feet by itself, plus I have an additional 100 feet of extension cord that will potentially allow me to push my generator 125 feet into the wood, away from my campsite, to help greatly with sound control. This generator is already very quiet, but the further away I can get ANY generator from my campsite, the better my overall camping experience will be.
Please leave a comment below and let me know if something like this would be handy for YOUR camping situation. Also, please ask any question that you may have.
After many years of looking at drones, I recently acquired a DJI Mavic 2 Pro. I was slightly familiar with drones from watching YouTube videos and reading articles on the internet, but once I actually owned one, I quickly found out that I had a lot more to learn. One of the problems I was having was trying to fit my Samsung Note 8 properly into the holder that is part of the Mavic remote control. It just never seem to fit correctly. And when I did get it to stay in there (certainly not fit correctly) the cable connection was so sketchy that any little movement caused the USB C plug connection at my phone to disconnect. It’s pretty clear that DJI designed most of their stuff around Apple products, and that’s fine, but that doesn’t do me any good as an Android user. After looking around on-line I saw many aftermarket phone and tablet holders that looked great in pictures, but in person they weren’t so great. (I had to return several) I finally stumbled upon an all metal phone and/or tablet holder that looked pretty good, and based on it’s description it should hold my Note 8, OR my new Samsung TAB S6 tablet…. so I bought it.
Once the holder arrived, after being on back order for about two weeks, I was very impressed with the overall build quality and fit & finish. It is everything the product listing on Amazon says it is. The one problem is….. The only way for it to hold my Samsung Note 8 phone, or my Samsung Galaxy TAB S6 tablet, is to remove them from their cases. I did fly my drone a few times with my Note 8 removed from it’s case, but I refused to remove by new table from it’s case just to fly the drone. I really wanted to see the drone view on my larger tablet screen so I did fly it one time with the tablet on the tailgate of my truck with a long USB cable going to the controller. The large tablet made flying the drone WAAAAY better than watching on the small (relatively) screen of the Note 8. Way better!
So back to Amazon I went in search of a quality, all metal tablet holder that will hold the Samsung TAB S6 WITH a case. They don’t exist. At least not that I could find and I spent hours looking for something that world work. I even searched google for something that might not already be listed on Amazon. Again, no luck. So after some serious thinking, I discovered the all metal holder that I already own would do what I’m looking for with just a little modification. And so the modification project began.
After some measuring of my tablet and tablet holder, I knew what I needed and headed to the store. below is a list of items I purchased to make this modification in case you’re reading this and planning to do this same modification for yourself.
One piece of 1″ wide X 1″ tall X 1/16″ thick X 4′ aluminum angle. You don’t need four feet but my store didn’t have it any shorter You could get my with about three inches and still have leftover.
Four #6-32 X 3/8 long, Allen head cap screws. You can use whatever screw you would like but this is what my store had in 3/8″ length, by #6 diameter, and also had a drill bit/tap kit available in that size.
Two #6-32 drill bit/tap kits. I bought two, but if you don’t break anything, one kit should be just fine. They were slightly over 5 bucks each. I can return the unused set next time I visit that store, which is fairly often.
Tablet holder Mavic drone 1″ X 1″ X 1/16″ X 4′ aluminum angleTablet holder Mavic drone #6-32 X 3/8′ allen head cap screw
Tablet holder Mavic drone #6-32 drill bit tap kit
Once I had all the parts and pieces it was just a matter of cutting two pieces of aluminum angle to the correct size, drilling two holes in each aluminum angle, drilling two holes in each end of the metal tablet holder, tapping threads in those four holes, and then assemble for test fitting. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of the hole drilling process but I just used a cheap bench-top hobby drill press. It even has a bent shaft so the chuck and drill bit run completely out-of-round. lol.
The pictures below show the results of each step:
Aluminum extension brackets cut to size and holes drilled.
Tablet holder Mavic drone finished with both brackets installed
Tablet holder Mavic drone finished with both brackets installed
Test fitting the Samsung TAB S6 WITH case in the modified tablet holder.
Tablet holder Mavic drone test fitting on Samsung TAB S6 tablet
Tablet holder Mavic drone test fitting on Samsung TAB S6 tablet
Tablet holder Mavic drone test fitting on Samsung TAB S6 tablet
One last thing…. I need to take off the new aluminum extension brackets and do some filing and sanding to smooth all rough edges. I do have a large disc sander, which I did use briefly on these brackets, but it’s too course and leaves a rough finish. I need to hand finish these for a nice finsh that won’t cut my skin, or leave marks in the plastic tablet case.
This thing is ROCK SOLID now! The tablet fits very tightly and feels like it’s permanently installed. There is absolutely no movement to speak of. I can’t wait to fly the drone with this new (modified) tablet holder. Look for an update at the bottom of this article with the real world flight test results, and pictures of the finished, hand smoothed brackets.
Disclaimer: If anyone reading this has found themselves in the same situation I was, and is thinking about trying this modification, please do so with caution. Just because it worked for me without damaging the tablet holder itself, doesn’t mean everyone will have the same results. Precisely drilling and tapping small holes in sintered powdered metal parts (I’m pretty sure that is what the original tablet holder is made from) can be tricky. Not to mention, drilling a hole in an already small (relatively weak) piece of metal can remove enough material to cause the part to lose it’s original rigidity and can break very easily. MODIFY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Today I demonstrate my new 16 ton Chinese hydraulic wire crimper that I bought from Amazon. I will be using it with 4/0 (four aught) 100% copper, fine stranded welding cable and per-tinned crimp lugs. I even cut apart the finished crimped fitting to inspect the quality of the crimp connection. I bought this crimper to use on a starting unit for heavy equipment that we were building a few months ago and I was impressed with it’s capability, especially for the low cost of the tool. I figured it was worth sharing my experience with the good people of Garage Topic and youtube. Harbor Freight offers a hydraulic crimping tool also, but it costs more than the tool in this review, and it’s a smaller crimper. The largest wire listed on the Harbor Freight tool is 0 AWG (zero gauge). The cable I am crimping in this review is 4/0 (four aught) which is four sizes larger than 0 AWG. (zero gauge) This 16 ton Chinese crimper comes with 5 sets of dies LARGER than the 4/0 I was crimping. (11 sets of dies in total) This thing is an absolute beast for the price. I should have bought this tool sooner!
YouTube video down below.
I am pretty sure that most of the 16 ton hydraulic crimpers listed on Amazon and eBay are probably from the same factory in China. They are just re-named, or re-branded depending what the private sellers decide to call the product in their Amazon or eBay listings. The unit I purchased from Amazon is called “Goplus”.
This is a picture of the hydraulic crimping tool I purchased:
Goplus 16-Ton Chinese Hydraulic Crimper
PROS:
Low cost. I do not remember the exact price that I paid for this crimper but it was considerably cheaper than the Harbor Freight crimper, which is also considerably smaller than this unit. Not to mention, this crimper is WAAAY cheaper than the well known, brand name crimpers that is available on the market.
Capability. This crimper comes with eleven hex dies which will cover a wide range of cable and wire sizes. Everything from a wire just large enough that you wouldn’t want to crimp it with a hand crimper, all the way up to cable sizes that your average guy would probably never be working with anyway. Another thought I had was…. the dies are nothing proprietary. They literally look like a square piece of metal with a hex hole punched in the middle, then cut in half to make the die. A handy guy in his home shop could easily make custom dies for this crimper out of a square piece of mild steel, drill a hole, then cut in half. Presto! Instant custom die.
Simple and easy to use. This crimper is very easy to use. There is one vale to open and close just like on a hydraulic floor jack, and a handle to pump the hydraulic jaws together. That’s it. (The jaws are spring return) As long as you have the correct size dies installed for the size of cable and fittings you’re using, and you center your fitting in the dies, you really can’t screw up the crimp. Then you just pump the handle until the dies come completely together, so there is no longer a gap between the dies. Done.
Complete kit. The crimper comes in a blow mold case, which is not very good quality, but the only thing the case does is hold the tool and dies together while being stored. The case does not affect the functionality of the tool while it’s crimping wire or cables. And besides, for the cost of this tool, I really didn’t expect the case to be great anyway. lol. It also comes with an extra set of o-rings so when the tool develops a leak in the future, you will already have the o-rings to fix the leak….. if the extra o-ring kit isn’t lost by then. lol
Quality of crimp. I was very impressed by the quality of the finished crimp. Between the size of dies I was using, and the size of the fittings and cable I was crimping, I was VERY happy with the result of the finished crimp. I used my sawzall to cut a test crimp apart to inspect the crimp quality and it looked perfect to me. See for yourself below:
Freshly cut apart with sawzall to inspect quality of crimp
Same crimp as above but different view.
Finished crimp with adhesive lined shrink tubing
CONS:
My number one complaint is die sizing. The numbers on the dies are not inline with any numbers used for wire sizing here in North America, not this part anyway. I’ve been told it’s some sort of metric wire sizing….. which is perfectly fine, but it’s just not very convenient of anyone in North America. You would think if they’re selling millions of these crimper kits here in North America, it wouldn’t be too much trouble to have a different set of dies stamped with AWG sizing. It takes a little trial and error to get the correct size die for your project. I recommend at least one or two test crimps with scrap wire to make sure you get the sizing correct before crimping anything on your project itself. I was mildly upset with the die sizing but then I remembered how much I paid for this crimper kit and I immediately had a smile back on my face. lol.
Other than die sizing, and the low quality case, there really is nothing else to complain about with this hydraulic crimping tool.
Conclusion:
I would absolutely recommend this hydraulic crimper to anyone who needs to crimp any wire or cable that is too large to crimp with a hand crimper. It is a complete kit that covers a wide range of wire and cable sizes, it is very easy to use, it gives very high quality crimp results, and is very reasonably priced. The only down side would be if you’re a commercial contractor, who needs to prove that he used certified crimp fittings with a certified crimper, on a commercial job, then this crimper would not be for you. However, if you found yourself in the situation that I just mentioned, you’re probably not reading this review anyway. You would most likely be standing at the city desk of your local electrical supply house picking up that well known, brand name crimper that I mentioned earlier in this post, and paying 60 times (roughly) more than I paid for the crimper in this review.
For the average guy who is looking to crimp heavy gauge welding cable, or battery cables, or even cables for your DIY solar system install, this crimper would be excellent for you.
Thanks for stopping by Garage Topic.
Check out the crimper video on my YouTube channel
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