RE: (ET) how many feet of lane can be blown on a charge

["David Roden" <roden ald net>]

Remember that the batteries available today are considerably better than 
those available when the ET was new.  In the 70s, a typical golf car 
battery was good for around 102 minutes at 75 amps.  Now you can get 
batteries that will do 145 minutes at 75 amps -- an increase of over 
40%.

Also, if you're running the blower up and down with the lift, you are 
cutting your range -- when the lift batteries are done, so is the 
tractor.  This is where some of our recent discussions on DC:DC 
converters, "bank-switching," and/or separate lift batteries can help.

Finally, some folks use extra traction batteries mounted outboard, 
usually on the rear of the tractor, as a range extender.  One person on 
this list has mentioned his "back porch" of batteries.

All that said, I wouldn't recommend doing this if you were going to 
nearly drain the battery every time you used it.  That would give you 
pretty limited battery life.  The ideal is to use 50% of capacity each 
time, and a practical maximum is 80%.  

But with high capacity batteries and/or an aux pack, you might be able 
to handle this chore just fine.


David Roden
Akron OH USA