Loyal Predator 3500 inverter generator until recent. I purchased my first Predator a few years back. Great machine, quiet, and did what the reviews said it could do. The bonus I thought is how well Predator design was when doing maintenance (oil change, filter, spark plug, and so on) Easy, quick and well thought out. Very impressed and well thought out. Than I purchased another two 3500's this last year. They changed the design surrounding maintenance. They added a 2in hose to the oil drain area where the previous 3500 simply had a bolt. Unscrew it and the oil drained out the bottom by why of a rubber funnel. I remember the first time I changed the oil I thought is that all there is to this. Got it done in five minutes, note I use the machine frequently so I change the oil frequently. The hose idea doesn't work, barely drips out and makes a hell of a mess. You have to literally tip the machine in order for it to drain at all. Hu? doesn't make sense, also when tipping it it barely comes out. Plus the hose can only go sideways, that's why you have to tip it. isn't long enough to even get over the lip of the cover so you have to tip the machine to get it to come out. Oh, then, for the dipstick, they cheapened it to, tried to screw it back in after the oil change and nearly stripped it. Minutes later and with a few cus words I got it threaded correctly enough to get back one. Eventually I ended up stripping one of them. Note, if this happens lots of luck getting a new dipstick. Went to website for parts, finding that you have to order additional parts in order to get the dipstick. Cost to you around $80.00 for a $5.00 dipstick. Absolutely terrible. My question to Predator is why did you mess with such a good thing. The bolt worked so easy, took me less than five minutes to change oil for this machine and as much as I run it I change the oil frequently. Oh and another funny about this is you put a screw on the door that leads to the oil change. When prior you had a plastic hand screw to open this. Really, ha. I'm afraid to try and do the other maintenance pieces as I'm sure I will unfold further shortcuts and changes made to cheapen up the generator. Ya saved a few bucks and caused headaches for those who run these machines. Now is this all worth it to complain about this when the machine seems to be working ok. It is, because whoever had the bright idea of doing these changes obviously never works on anything mechanical. Guys like and truly appreciate when you have to fix or do maintenance on something that its easy. Ya had that, so sometime, just leave a good thing alone. Oh lastly and what's funny is how when you go out on Youtube to see how to change the oil on this model, there isn't even one that shows it with these changes. I looked because I thought I truly was missing something. Thought I might have missed the obvious. I didn't...