If your having issues this is the place to be. Most common issue happen with all thunderbolt models not just one model. So every thunderbolt owner can help with most issues.
I did notice more of the amp models with slide issues compared with the smaller Thunderbolts.
Thanks one thing that I noticed to day when I was running the generator it ran fine yesterday but today it would run for about 5-10 minutes and act like it was running out of gas but never cut off and I have over a 1/4 tank of fuel and it let this cycle up before I just cut it off.
My 5500 did the same thing when I got my unit. I just primed it a few time and everything worked fine. I run mine every two weeks for 1/10th of a hour.
I have a 300x12hp and my generator will lope also. I noticed as soon as I put a load on it, it ran great. When the load was off and the gen was idling...it would lope again.