Re: (ET) New list member

[Barry Woods <barry woods wright edu>]

It's not overkill at all, Graham. I only have a 1/2 acre and would not give
up my Elec-Trak (E-15) for anything.  I can get the whole yard done in 
about
40 minutes.  If you live in a suburban neighborhood you'll have to allow
time for neighbors who interrupt your mowing to ask you where you got you
tractor.  I live on a corner lot, so when I mow I am quite visible and my
tractor literally stops traffic.  People will slow down and look at it.  
One
gentleman in a truck actually stopped in the middle of the street and just
starred.

BTW, I don't know if others in the group have encounted this, but most
people who look at my Elec-Trak think it's new.  When I tell them it was
made in the early 70's they usually have a look of disbelief.  Oddly 
enough,
I have not met one person who remembers the Elec-Trak, even the older
people.  I don't GE did an adequate job of advertising the Elec-Traks when
they were in production.  If GE bought the rights back from Bill Gunn (and
hired him for their cheif engineer) I bet they would make a mint if they
would put the elec-Trak back in production (and advertised!).

Someone should contact GE's CEO, Jeff Immelt and make this recommendation.
Jeff is still relatively "green" having been in office for only about two
years and might be ammenable to new ideas. It would not be like developing 
a
new product and all the original dies still exist so they could go into
production with a minimum of start up capital for research and product
development.  Bill certainly knows the weak points in the original design 
so
the new product would not suffer some of problems they had in the original
units.


Barry
Dayton,OH








> I wonder, would an Elec-Trak be massive overkill for about 1/2 acre? We
> just moved to a place with a decent size yard... and have no mower...
> now spring is here and the thought of buying a stinky noisy mower is
> not appealing. I wonder what the chances of finding one around
> Minneapolis or greater Minnesota might be?
>
> Graham
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Graham Allan
> School of Physics and Astronomy - University of Minnesota
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------