Yamaha Ef2000is

Yamaha EF2000iS

CW EVALUATIONS

Power to the people

YOU’RE PARKED IN AN IDYLLIC CAMPsite near an off-road riding area. All you hear are birds chirping and the sound of your own heartbeat-until you fire up your old generator to power an air compressor and various power tools. The resulting clatter is more reminiscent of a subway station rather than a primeval garden spot.

What you need is Yamaha’s mid-range generator, the EF2000ÍS. Actually, the EF-iS is a “power inverter,” not a generator. Conventional generators flow the kind of raw current from a heavy alternator that could put anything with a circuit board at risk.

Inverters process current to flow a “pure sine wave” of clean AC power. A “smart throttle” regulates rpm based on load: The more juice you need the harder it works, and

j vice versa. Cheap gennies are full-tilt all the time, burning more gas, generating more heat and noise, and wearing out faster.

With a 2000-watt startup and 1600watt continuous output rating, this aircooled 79cc Thumper gets good internal parts, like stellite valve seats/faces, an induction-hardened camshaft and cam surfaces, and balltype main bearings. The EF-iS has an EPA clean-air index of 3 ( 1 is best on the federal scale; 10 is worst). It also gets the maximum “extended” durability rating of 300 hours, meaning it will burn cleanly for at least that long. Weighing 54 pounds fully fueled, this Yammie is about the same size as a small suitcase. Yamaha claims that during-use thrumming ranges from 5 1-61 dB depending on throttle position, and that you can listen continuously to this music for 10.5 hours (at 400 watts) before you need to refill the 1.1-gallon tank. Like we said idyllic.

Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA 6555 Katella Ave. Cypress, CA 90630 800/962-7926 www.yamaha-motor.com Price.. $1099 Ups A Sleek, quiet, clean, easy to use A Fuel-efficient "Smart Throttle" A Three plug-ins-two AC, one DC W~owns v Need to gang two of `em together to run RVAC v Pricey v Looks out of place in a non-Yamaha pit