(ET) follow up on Gatorblades

[Barry Woods <barry woods wright edu>]

Hi Gang,

Did some peformance testing of Gatorblades on the ET deck.  I ordered a set
online from "Jacks Small Engines". Steve S. (our resident ET wizard) was
kind enough to make some reducing bushing (which fit perfectly) so the
blades centerhole would fit the 5/16" holdown screw on the Elec-Traks.  He
also customized an ammeter to check current draw during operation.

For the tall, skinny deck motors, both Steve and I got approximately 6.0
amps current draw with the standard blades.  To my great surprise, this
remained virtually unchanged whether it was no load or cutting grass, which
makes no sense to me.
After installing the gatorblades, current draw jumped to 12 amps, then
leveled off at about 10.5 for most of the mowing with occasional peaks at
11.5 - 12.0 amps

Cutting was good, slightly better in appearance over the stock blades in
eveness.  Mulching was very good, though, with very few, finely chopped
clippings coming out of the side discharge chute.  There were no visible
clippings on the lawn.  Gatorblades indicates you do not need to block off
the discharge chute as the aerodynamics keep the clippings wihin the deck.
Apparently this is true.  I have one of the original, older decks with no
baffles and an open side discharge chute.  I was expecting one or more of
the motors to cutout due to the high current draw, but none did for the 40+
minutes that they were operating.  I believe that Eric said he had a 
problem
with his overheating when he used gatorblades.  However, for those of use
who have larger areas to cut, I suspect you might encounter thermal
shutdown.  I would also think that your cutting time would be reduced by a
good margin due to the extra battery drain.

I like the Gatorblades and intend to keep them on.  I am really hoping they
will mulch leaves as well as my push mower did.  However, do any of you
think permanent damage could be done to the motors by operating them on a
regular basis at such a high current draw?  If any of you want to try
gatorblades and have baffles, you may get different results.  You will also
want to order a slightly smaller blade length so the spinning blades don't
encounter the baffles.

I'll keep you informed of the blade performance as I use them under
different conditions this summer.


Barry
E-15
Dayton,OH