Gary:
you made a few points
1. you seem to be of the impression that an st head is deficient in motor starting capability.
compared to what? if there is one thing they seem to excell at, it is motor starting.
2. i suppose they might be overall less of a gererator than a stanford newage or lima or some other american generator, but at a small fraction of the cost.
not many folks want to or are able to spend 2 grand up, for a genhead
3. the st head for what it is, is a tough reasonably well regulated, reasonably clean power source,
sure it has some wave form issues, but not many folks have a need for many kwatts of pure sine wave power, and for what they need in pure power there
are better ways of getting it than through the use of a high price generator head.
4. a relatively handy DIY'er could if pressed, tear down his st head, and with a pencil, paper and a few digital pics, stip and rewind it if the need arises.
the US heads are out of the reach of the average DIY'er when it comes to repair.
are they perfect, no... nothing is perfect. Genheads just as all mechanical things have inherent issues, so you make some comprimises
for my dollar the st head is damned hard to beat.
for 1/4 to 1/5 the price, i can arrive at many ways of handling my critical need pure sine wave needs. the st head is more than sufficient to handle all other needs.
i am curious though,,, what loads can you not start with your st head? were you not sized correctly? did you try to start a 10 kwatt load on an st head driven by a 6/1?
your report seems drastically in the minority of users reports.
bob g