(ET) First mowing of the year (at last!) and questions

["Christopher Zach" <czach computer org>]

Well, at long last the grass was *finally* long enough to try mowing the
lawn with the E20. I made a few observations, and have some questions on
best technique:

1) The battery voltage fluctuates from the bottom of the green (when mowing
up a hill) to the top of the green (going downhill :-) Is this swing range
normal? At what point do you check the fuel gauge to see how much power is
in the batteries? At rest or under load?

2) The E20 doesn't steer as well with the mower on. In fact at any speed
above L1-2, the front wheels don't seem to provide much input at all. On 
the
hill I have to slow to speed 1 in order to steer.

3) What is the recommended speed for mowing the lawn? I've been using L
gear, speed 4 (cruise control, no resistors, full field) because D speed
drives the batteries into the red when climbing the hill. Also L seems to 
do
nice amounts of regen, while D doesn't do much regen braking at *all*. Is
this normal?

4) How noisy should the deck be? I don't hear any mechanical whines, but 
the
blades do appear to make a lot of air noise (roar). Would new blades be a
good idea; do I have an aerodynamic issue here?

5) To increase the range (and decrease the voltage drop under load) I have
been thinking of adding three 12 volt Dynasty AGM batteries (100 amp/hrs at
36 volts) in parallel with the six T105's. Is this a bad idea? I would
charge them seperately; I know about the setpoint difference and can put a
second solar charger on them.

My thought is the AGM batteries can provide a lot more amperage over a 
short
period of time than the lead acid batteries and this might help smooth out
the voltage fluctuations when going up a hill.

Thanks for any thoughts or input.