Another storm, another full day going on a second without power. Poles snapped all over, might be a few days. I have a 5000w generator and an 800w generator. The 5kw has wheels, but usually sits in its shed wired into our panel. After fixing the 800w 2-stroke one i rarely use, I kindly offered to bring it to the neighbors cabin for his fridge (he is 4 hours away and has meat in there). Little did I realize at the time, a fridge takes WAY more power to start the compressor than it takes to run. So, I go home and get the 5kw gen. Meanwhile, my better half decides to hold our fridge door open hoping it suggests a snack and now our fridge is warm. Ok, back to the little 800w gen... After a few failures seeing it struggle at 85v (probably destroying my compressor), I stick my finger in there to bypass the governor and rev it hard while I plug in the fridge. 5th try, success! Voltage stabilized at.... 105v???? And thats with a power factor of .88 and only pulling 200w. Back to the tool box. I made a new governor connecting arm and got it running the fridge at 116v!!! Good enough for me! Or was it... Turns out, with such a small load on the generator (after, of course, getting it to initially start the compressor), the motor sputters like it has no load. Only having one outlet, I had to once again shut it off and add a splitter to include a 250w light to keep it stable. Now, as long as the compressor dont cycle off then back on, she is good enough to use and the fridge can cool down while I go get the 5kw back. The neighbors rack of ribs is rock solid now and our good generator is home for the night heating my shower water. I think tomorrow will go a little easier, but as I write this listening to the hours rack up on the 5kw, I realize how badly I want a DC solid state freezer!