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After you've done a once-over to make sure things are the way they should be, prime the fuel system (see owners manual, mine has a pump in the gas cap) and fire it up. Start with choke on and "eco mode" off. Open the choke valve slow enough the engine doesn't flood or bog down. Once it's running steady, let it warm up for a minute or two before turning "eco mode" on or applying any load to it.
The biggest thing I see people do is fire it up then plug everything in their camper into it without letting it get up to operating temp. This is really hard on the engine and can cause the gen to seize up. Air-cooled motors have a lot of mass on the engine and cylinder that needs to heat up with the piston.
Once it's warmed up, throw some load on it. I have a 600w halogen work light I put on it. The engine will bog initially, then the stepper on the carb opens the throttle and it revs back up to operating speed. I'll run it here for 10mins or so to get the oil up the cam gears and into the valve drive on the engine head.
Shutdown's the same way - Pull all the load off it, turn the "Eco-mode" off and let it run for a minute or two without anything hooked up. This allows the stepper motor on the carb to throttle down to its idle position, making the generator easier to start next time. Once it's stable, use the engine-kill switch and close the fuel petcock (On my generator they're one and the same, there's a switch in the petcock; on a buddy's generator it's a switch on the panel and a fuel valve).
