T-Pain Is On A Boat: Re: Re: [Electric Boats] Motors for Zero Turn Lawnmower?

Monday, November 11, 2013

Re: Re: [Electric Boats] Motors for Zero Turn Lawnmower?

Don't underestimate the power required for the blades (or overestimate the power required for propulsion.)

We have a zero-turn (and an older tractor-style) ride-on here. On both you can climb our steepest hill at idle, but the long grass in the wet paddock will stall out both at full throttle if you hit it too fast.

Now, you might only have light grass, or be willing to go very slow, but I'd be counting on quite a bit >50% power output goes to the blades...

On Tue, Nov 12, 2013 at 9:46 AM, Jerry Barth <shredderf16@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Jim and Kevin,

Thanks for the help. I did go to the electric tractor group, they suggested either forklift motors or scooter motors. I did find some 750 watt electric scooter motors for about $100, I think that geared down that would be more than enough power. The mower has a 21 hp gas engine now, I think I can bring that down to about 12 hp to drive the blades if it doesn't have to move the mower also. There's a big difference in price between gas engines in the 10-12 hp range and 21 hp ones. I also found a video on Youtube that was pretty much the same thing I'm trying to do, looks like he never finished it though. For the mandatory boat content I have a 35 foot catamaran project in my barn with a Yanmar 20 hp diesel in one side. For the other side I was considering electric power but it looks like that's impractical unless the batteries get a lot better. I'm still years out on that so I'm hoping that the batteries do get better. I am going to put a bunch of solar panels on it though. I've also got 10 KW of solar panels going up on my barn next week, our electric company here in Texas has an amazing subsidy on these.

Thanks,

Jerry Barth

From: electricboats@yahoogroups.com [mailto:electricboats@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of luv2bsailin@yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2013 3:33 PM
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: Re: [Electric Boats] Motors for Zero Turn Lawnmower?

Hi Jerry. Electric wheelchair motors might be a good choice. Check these guys for controllers: http://www.dimensionengineering.com/products/sabertooth2x60 Jim