Re: (ET) Mower deck rollers or something else?

[dave barden <daveb speakeasy org>]

I just got my E-trac (E-12) and haven't used it yet so cannot attest 
personally
to how well it's roller solution works but it looks durable at least.  The
former owner used a continuous piece of galvanized pipe running the width 
of
the deck and over that a piece of white pvc pipe.  Though I haven't 
measured
them it looks to be 11/2 and 2 inch pipe.

Pieter Litchfield wrote:

> I too suffered from "scalp wounds" from the rear cross bar support - even
> with 2 5/8" OD rollers.  I added a hard slippery surface to my worn 
> rollers
> by slitting 2" PVC pipe, forced it onto the roller, and adding a sliver 
> of
> PVC held by wood screws to fill in the gap.  ground a radius on the ends 
> of
> the PVC, and it worked OK.  Wear on the inside (shaft) is as big a 
> problem
> with reduced clearances as wear on the outside of the roller.  I think,
> however, that ball bearings would have an extremely short life due to the
> amount of dirt and desbris that visits the roller area.  I am thinking of
> engineering a replacement bracket that would mount the ball shaped wheels
> that modern decks ofetn use.  These are not true casters (no swivel), but
> their very round cross section allows them a lot of sideways slippage -
> probably more than the rollers.
>
> >  -----Original Message-----
> > From:         owner-elec-trak cosmos5 phy tufts edu
> > [mailto:owner-elec-trak cosmos5 phy tufts edu]
> > Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2000 08:57 AM
> > To:   Elec-Trak@Cosmos5. Phy. Tufts. Edu
> > Subject:      Re: (ET) Mower deck rollers or something else?
> >
> > I think part of the problem with the rear rollers is that they are too
> > long, and have too much rolling friction. Have you ever seen the 
> > conveyor
> > rollers they use to unload trucks? These have many small rollers like
> > roller skate wheels. What do you think about replacing the 6" ET 
> > rollers
> > with a bunch of 1" rollers with 1/4" spacers between? What about adding
> > ball bearings to the 6" rollers?
> >
> > Rick Barnes
> > Aloha, Oregon
> >
> > E15 Elec-Trak
> > 1980 Cushman Titan