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Jon,
The full floating deck was a lot of work, but well
worth it, I think. Chances are that you won't be mowing anymore grass in
Albany for a while, so we got time to go over this in as much detail as you'd
like.
Basically, I welded a mounting plate and some
reinforcing brackets to the front-middle area of the deck and attached two 4"
swivel casters side by side and about 7" apart. This allows the deck to
follow the ground instead of the tractor like the original parallelogram setup
it had. For all practical purposes, the deck is being pulled
along the ground by two tie rods with rod end bearings where they attach to the
deck. These tie rods are about 18" long and attach to the
original front two sets of "pipes" welded to the bottom of the tractor.
The other ends attach to the deck at about it's center of gravity, but just
a little rearward of that point. When I raise the deck, the back end kinda
comes up first and hits a rubber bumper. As I continue to raise it
all the way up, it's setting level and I can mow weeds if I wanted
to. I hardly ever change mowing height, but have the
capability by adding or removing 1/2" spacers between the front casters and
their mounting plate. The rear wheels adjust just like they
always did.
These tie rods are 3/4" solid steel with a short
pieces of "pipe" welded to the ends that attach to the tractor, in a "T"
shaped arrangement. These tie rods fit up along the outside of the
front attachment "pipes". A hardened steel rod passes through the
"pipe" ends of the tie rods and the original front "pipes" attached to the
tractor. This allows the tie rods to pivot in only one plane, but
independently of each other, and plenty strong enough. I replaced
the deck's original rear wheels with some fat rounded ones that have less
of a tendency to dig into the ground when turning. I also had to make a
new drag link for the steering setup with an offset in it to clear the two
casters now attached to the front of the deck.
Got ya totally confused yet? Somewhere around here I have some pictures that I took way
back when I made this change. I currently don't have a digital camera or a
scanner, but I'll try to get you some pixs if you might want them.
As for the drive belt, The E10 originally
had an "A" size belt, one that's only 1/2" wide. It had a tendency to
slip a little when I engaged in tug-of-war
contests with the 10 HP Cub Cadet down the street. I still drug his ass
backwards up the hill on blacktop, but I wanted to go to the next size bigger
belt. It's commonly called a "B" belt and is about 5/8" wide and capable
of higher loads. Don't confuse a "B" belt with a "4L" belt. They are
about the same size, but the 4L series is intended for fractional HP drive
loads. I had to change both pulleys too, but not sure right now what sizes
they are. I do know that I use a "B43" belt with the current setup and
went to a slightly stronger clutch return spring.
Coating the inside of both battery
compartments with RTV Silicone rubber was quit a job too. It took multiple
tubes of RTV, and all hand applied. I used a 1/8" notched trowel to
spread the RTV over all surfaces the batteries would/could be in contact.
When that set up, I went back and filled in all the grooves with more
RTV using a straight edged trowel. So I wound up with about a 1/8"
thick liner of Silicone rubber inside the battery compartment areas.
Chances are there is a more practical material we could use to "paint on"
today that would protect the steel from corrosion. I was never happy with
the plastic trays and plastic bags GE used.
So tell me about your chainsaw setup. Is it
just the standard one supplied by GE or something else? Way back before
small gas powered weed eaters were practical, I took one of the original 110
volt Weed Eater brand trimmers and swapped the motor with a 12 VDC one that I
ran off 18 volts. I had a bracket attached to the rear bumper of the
E10 to hold it and a reel-up extension cord mounted on the right rear side under
the seat. I had about 25 feet of cord to weed eat about any place I
wanted. I even took one of the original big gas powered Weed Eaters
and replaced that Clinton 2 cycle gas engine with a blade motor off a 36"
deck. This was one of those big monsters that had a shoulder strap and two
handle bars to control it. It worked fine, but that sucker was
heavy. Needless to say my little Echo does just as good today and it's a
lot easier to handle, but definitely not as quiet.
Hope this has helped you get a better picture of
some of the things I have done to my E10.
Mike Wallace
hi, thanks for your input and welcome to the list. i also like the e10 and its my favorite model for mowing and chainsawing. could you explain about the floating mower deck? also interested in what you mean by a and b drive belts, and what did you use for the silicone rubber liner. thanks, jon k albany ny |