long time A-60 owner comments

[vic garza <vtr-garza worldnet att net>]

 Corrosion is a big problem with the wet type battery which came with the
mower, so switching to optimas would save on maintainence. How do the rest
of you deal with corrosion problems? One thing I did with the wet type was
to route aquarium tubing from each cell to location outside the body so 
that
venting would not result in corrosion. I got rid of the original holdowns
and post clamps which were corrosion and contact problems. Replaced the
holdowns with heavy duty rubber tie down straps and the post clamps with
small SOLID COPPER heavy spring battery clamps. This allowed me to quickly
switch out a set of batteries in under 5 minutes for use in my electric
motorcycle if need be. The original batteries that came with A-60 are group
27 a designation for 12" long battery, wonder if any of the higher rated
cell would fit in same space... Be very careful not to put too much weight
on the seat if you have the type of battery with screw and wing nut
terminals which project upward. There is not much clearance and once when
sitting down hard shorted contact to body resulted in welded open holes
which scared the hell out of me!!! (though I was in no danger due to seat
standoffs). Grounding to the body is poorly designed and can result in
intermittent charging problems according to an engineer I spoke with many
years ago-so this is the first place to look when you have charging
problems. I lost a mower motor by using water spray to clean under the deck
after each mowing (motors look sealed but will leak moisture inside and it
is extremely detrimental). Stock front wheels are a very poor BUSHING
BEARING design and failed after a couple of years but easily fixed by
replacing with equivalent ball bearing type. All load bearings needed
replacement about 9 years due to heavier weight of battery pak (mower is
mostly stock IC model converted to electric). Mowing range will depend on
terrain, temperature and thickness of material you are mowing but you 
should
easily get more than one acre of mowing with new wet cells after break in.
The charger is a weak spot with a very crude timer design with a trickle at
the end of cycle so long as it remains plugged in. You have to guess how
long to set the timer based on time used and harm can come from over or
undercharging. I usually opt for slight undercharge and let the trickle
eventually make up the difference. Anyone got any suggestions on charging
improvements with these units? If you switch to sealed gels or optimas, the
original charger will have to be replaced as it will ruin the sealed type.
Since optimas are designed for much heavier ev use you might possibly be
able to get a 3 acre range with them...

--Vic