RE: (ET) ETs After Bill Gunn

["Chris Tromley" <chris_t microtrac com>]

Just my luck.

Last weekend I mowed my lawn for the first time with my new (to me) New
Idea EGT150 (E15M equivalent).  (Thanks, Harold!)  I'm happy as a clam,
envisioning a bright future of green groundskeeping.  Now this.

I'm sure Bill Gunn deserves an aggravation-free retirement and I wish
him the very best.  And actually, I think we can still keep these
tractors running after we get our legs back under us.  The coop idea has
real merit.  One thing I would suggest is that we'll need someone to
take a management role, and others will need to assume full
responsibility for specific tasks.

For example, I have no knowledge whatever in building websites and no
diagnostic knowledge whatsoever.  But as an engineer I am quite familiar
with getting parts manufactured.  Give me drawings, existing vendors and
rough annual order numbers and I can get you parts.  Maybe cheaper than
currently in some cases - I have some good sources.  I can even convert
old drawings to electronic files on an occasional basis.

Others might be well-suited to reverse engineering electrical cards and
making equivalent assemblies.  They'd probably be hand-soldered on
perfboard, but they'd work as original.  Or maybe it's more likely that
Alltrax will soon see a an increase in controller orders.

If we all pitch in as our knowledge and experience dictate (and realize
no one is going to make a lot of money doing this), I think we can make
it work just fine.

Peter Schut wrote:

> But... what I'd really like to do is set up a company that 
> would buy the 
> rights to the ET from Bill Gunn, and arrange to manufacture brand new 
> ones based on the original design, with whatever upgrades 
> might be worth 
> incorporating.  The time is right folks - gas prices are 
> high, and there 
> is a strongly-increasing consumer appetite for green alternatives.  
> Witness the commercial success of Black and Decker's battery powered 
> lawnmower - they're hard to keep in the stores this year - and I see 
> there are two new competitors out there this season.  People 
> understand 
> a lot more about rechargable batteries today than they did in 
> 1970, and 
> I think consumer acceptance would be quite high.  I've got minimal 
> practical business expertise, but an excellent gut feeling 
> about market 
> timing and what will sell, and have watched too many of my ideas be 
> successfully commercialized by others, even though I thought of them 
> years before.  I'm convinced that the time has come to 
> reintroduce the 
> Electrac.  The development costs would be minimal, production costs 
> should be comparable to ICE lawn tractors, the track record for 
> reliability is incredible, the market is really ripe, and there don't 
> seem to be other cost-effective alternatives on the horizon.  
> If anyone 
> is interested in joining me, or looking for an investor/advisor for 
> their own venture, please let me know.  I don't know if Bill 
> would sell 
> us the rights, but it's certainly worth asking.

Selling an electric tractor in today's market is not for the faint of
heart.  I do believe there is or could be a real demand.  But there are
other concerns.

Liability insurance is one.  Remember that people get hurt on these
things with surprising frequency.  Does anyone have any idea what
proportion of the retail price of a typical ICE riding mower goes to an
insurance company?  I don't know, but I'll bet it'd make you choke.  I
also think the way this stuff works, you need big volume before the
per-unit insurance costs get manageable.  This is an industry that
favors big companies.

And the big companies could make electric tractors right now if they
wanted to.  Briggs & Stratton has a nice little motor called the Etek
that would be ideal, and they've been promoting it.  There is also a
growing trend in the forklift industry toward AC drives.  Very
sophisticated stuff.

If someone managed to bring the original ET back into production and got
some significant sales figures, the major companies could shut down the
newcomer rather easily.  They could produce a very attractive, very
modern electric tractor.  With better performance, more versatility,
better reliability and at a lower price than the 30-year-old ET.  The
newcomer wouldn't stand a chance.  If someone does this they need to
keep it small, so the market doesn't attract the big players.

Maybe the best solution here is to make the ET open-source.  Publish all
known information and documentation for free.  Then people could
specialize in making available some part or parts, and put together
packages of parts or partial assemblies.  Consumers could then put their
own brand-new ET together in a weekend from a kit with the help of the
coop.

My two cents,
Chris