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(ET) RE: Elec-trak Digest, Vol 2, Issue 243



OK OK.  I'm 43 and got my first three electric tractors last year; a E-20, 
WH C-185, and a WH A-65.  I sold the E-20 to a member of this list and use 
the C-185 almost daily.  The A-65 is running around with a new paint job 
but needs a new home.  

Bob Klein
Charlestown, RI

-----Original Message-----
From: elec-trak-request cosmos phy tufts edu [mailto:elec-trak-request 
cosmos phy tufts edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 8:01 PM
To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Subject: Elec-trak Digest, Vol 2, Issue 243


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Today's Topics:

   1. RE:  Ages (Pestka, Dennis J)
   2. RE:  Ages (Pieter Litchfield)
   3.  Demographics (Kleinbrahm, Bob)
   4.  age (neil)
   5. Re:  Ages (The Nauglers)
   6. Re:  48v ET    Range Enhancer (The Nauglers)
   7. RE:  48v ET    Range Enhancer (Elie, Larry (L.D.))
   8. Re:  age (Anton Berteaux)
   9.  Re: Parts NOT needed -- cautionary tale(s) (Jeremy Gagliardi com)
  10. RE:  Re: Parts NOT needed -- cautionary tale(s)
      (Pieter Litchfield)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 11:14:20 -0400 
From: "Pestka, Dennis J" <Dennis Pestka TycoHealthcare com>
Subject: RE: (ET) Ages
To: "'abailey clas net'" <abailey clas net>,
        elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Message-ID:
        <C0F66172459829488FCC66C608FDF4230CE70DC2 hazelw1ex1 thcg net>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"

Almost 50, Sep 1
Wheelhorse C-185 for 3 years also.

Dennis
Eslberry, MO

-----Original Message-----
From: abailey clas net [mailto:abailey clas net]
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 9:54 AM
To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Subject: Re: (ET) Ages


Well, let me put in my .02, errr. age soon to be 41 (9 days) and have had 
my WheelHorse 
C-185 for about 3 years now.
Tony

----- Original Message -----
From: Ralph G Vogan
Sent: 5/31/2004 11:09:57 PM
To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Subject: (ET) Ages

> I have been keeping track of the ages of the people brave enough to 
> tell.
So far the avg. 
is 44.1 years old
> 
>   ACK!!    I'm the oldest.
> 
> Ralph V
> ralphgv centurytel net
> 


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------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 13:05:32 -0400
From: "Pieter Litchfield" <plitch attglobal net>
Subject: RE: (ET) Ages
To: <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Message-ID: <LPBBIFAILKDKOGDPGKLGIECDJAAA plitch attglobal net>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="Windows-1252"


At the risk of skewing the average - 56 here.  As a group we are about as 
old as our toys! Pieter

> I have been keeping track of the ages of the people brave enough to 
> tell.
So far the avg.
is 44.1 years old
>
>   ACK!!    I'm the oldest.
>
> Ralph V
> ralphgv centurytel net
>


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------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 11:28:19 -0600
From: "Kleinbrahm, Bob" <rkleinbrahm firstrepublic com>
Subject: (ET) Demographics
To: <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Message-ID:
        <5E43CC64B590E74ABACE201C307FB3912F585D EXCH-VS-AC1 EXCHPROD USA 
NET>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 
To add to the average I am 55 an have been using my E20 for over 1 year 
now.  Have done the normal upgrades to this ET i.e. brakes and curtis etc. 
 I must say that I am in awe of what this machine can do.  This last 
weekend I spent time mowing down 12" high grass on steep hills with no 
problems at all.  My neighbor was out doing the same with his ICE and a 
tow behind mower, and he managed to roll the quad twice on his hill :)
- I did catch him watching me on serveral occasions with a wishfull look 
in his eye.
 
Bob
 
 
Bob Kleinbrahm
Senior Network Engineer
First Republic Bank
San Francisco, CA.
415-288-1478
 
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Message: 4
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 13:59:08 -0400
From: neil <wombat dssinternet net>
Subject: (ET) age
To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Message-ID: <40BCC3EC 5010706 dssinternet net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Gotta comment,  I'm 73, been running an e12 for about 20 years with not 
too many problems.  Most frequent is breaking the rear lift strap and 
having to buff up the fuse connectors occcasionally.

wombat



------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 16:15:40 -0400
From: "The Nauglers" <snaugler earthlink net>
Subject: Re: (ET) Ages
To: <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Message-ID: <001501c44815$408222c0$6f33ef04@k1p0u6>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"

49 years old last February.

I've been using a E15 for just about 12 years.  Have a mower deck, plow, 
and snowblower.  I don't use the snowblower any more becuase it is much 
faster to use a walk behind Ariens, although much noisier.  I also had an 
electric rake, which was sold to Walt Hammer, who has dispersed his ET 
collection. Sometimes wish I hadn't sold it.

I've been wanting a rotary inverter, but a cheap fixer upper.

I got into the Elek-Trak because it was quiet and in my case cheap.  If I 
look at what I would have spent on an IC tractor over the same period, and 
place my time's value at zero, it really has been cheap.  Now I am busier 
and I am concerned that if I start placing a $ value on my time the 
Elek-Trak will become too expensive.

I also have a Wheelhorse C185 and GE E12 as parts tractors.

Not to sound like a traitor to the ET cause, but I have considered an IC 
tractor.  Unfortuneately, the only tractors that hold any interest are 
expensive things like the discontinued Honda 5540s or 5518s that have 
water cooled twin cylinder overhead valve engines.  Quiet, but not GE 
quiet.  And like the GE, considered obsolete by its maker.

Steve Naugler
snaugler earthlink net





------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 16:20:38 -0400
From: "The Nauglers" <snaugler earthlink net>
Subject: Re: (ET) 48v ET    Range Enhancer
To: "Elec-trak list" <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Message-ID: <002e01c44816$2a9e14e0$6f33ef04@k1p0u6>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"

Larry,

I had a range enhancer, which I think I sold to Walt Hammer, who no longer 
has an ET collection.

I spoke to Bill Gunn about it.  It had three 12 volt batteries in series, 
and that 36 volt pack was wired in parallel with the normal six 6 volt 
battery pack in the tractor.

Steve Naugler
snaugler earthlink net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Elie, Larry (L.D.)" <lelie ford com>
To: "Elec-trak list" <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 10:49 AM
Subject: RE: (ET) 48v ET


I may be wrong, but I believe the factory GE extension pack (yes, they made
one) that fit on the back of
the tractor added 2 more 6V batteries IN SERIES!  It was sold as a range 
enhancer.

Someone with the range enhancer please correct me if I'm wrong; I know 
someone who used to be on the list showed one in pictures a few years ago. 
 He probably doesn't have anymore time than I do to show it...

The real problem with raising the voltage is that the current goes high 
(more or less constant resistance... well, the resistance increases with 
temperature, the RTD effect) which causes things to get very hot.  It's 
the CURRENT that produces torque, not the voltage, but you need voltage to 
get the current up.


On the side; Power rated belts are easy to come by.  Ask for 8 HP rating 
for a drive belt.

On the side2; you can get a properly rated CAP at Grainer.

Larry Elie



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------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 16:29:28 -0400
From: "Elie, Larry \(L.D.\)" <lelie ford com>
Subject: RE: (ET) 48v ET    Range Enhancer
To: "The Nauglers" <snaugler earthlink net>,    "Elec-trak list"
        <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Message-ID:
        <FCD6D78D8DDFB54989023EF5D3A2893B01DA605A na1ecm55 dearborn ford 
com>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"

I'm glad for the correction; the ET stayed at 36 (well, 43 charged) volts.

Thanks Steve.

Larry Elie


-----Original Message-----
From: elec-trak-bounces cosmos phy tufts edu
[mailto:elec-trak-bounces cosmos phy tufts edu]On Behalf Of The Nauglers
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 4:21 PM
To: Elec-trak list
Subject: Re: (ET) 48v ET Range Enhancer


Larry,

I had a range enhancer, which I think I sold to Walt Hammer, who no longer 
has an ET collection.

I spoke to Bill Gunn about it.  It had three 12 volt batteries in series, 
and that 36 volt pack was wired in parallel with the normal six 6 volt 
battery pack in the tractor.

Steve Naugler
snaugler earthlink net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Elie, Larry (L.D.)" <lelie ford com>
To: "Elec-trak list" <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 10:49 AM
Subject: RE: (ET) 48v ET


I may be wrong, but I believe the factory GE extension pack (yes, they made
one) that fit on the back of
the tractor added 2 more 6V batteries IN SERIES!  It was sold as a range 
enhancer.

Someone with the range enhancer please correct me if I'm wrong; I know 
someone who used to be on the list showed one in pictures a few years ago. 
 He probably doesn't have anymore time than I do to show it...

The real problem with raising the voltage is that the current goes high 
(more or less constant resistance... well, the resistance increases with 
temperature, the RTD effect) which causes things to get very hot.  It's 
the CURRENT that produces torque, not the voltage, but you need voltage to 
get the current up.


On the side; Power rated belts are easy to come by.  Ask for 8 HP rating 
for a drive belt.

On the side2; you can get a properly rated CAP at Grainer.

Larry Elie



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------------------------------

Message: 8
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 14:19:33 -0700
From: Anton Berteaux <superwonton sbcglobal net>
Subject: Re: (ET) age
To: neil <wombat dssinternet net>
Cc: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Message-ID: <605D13D0-B411-11D8-BF02-000A95A92FCC sbcglobal net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

but do you regularly use the word "dude"? "cause that takes about 20 
years off your age.
anton
On Jun 1, 2004, at 10:59 AM, neil wrote:

> Gotta comment,  I'm 73, been running an e12 for about 20 years with
> not too many problems.  Most frequent is breaking the rear lift strap 
> and having to buff up the fuse connectors occcasionally.
>
> wombat
>
> _______________________________________________
> Elec-trak mailing list
> Elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu 
> https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mailman/listinfo/elec-trak
>
>
Warm globally,
Drive locally




------------------------------

Message: 9
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 18:00:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jeremy Gagliardi com
Subject: (ET) Re: Parts NOT needed -- cautionary tale(s)
To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Message-ID:
        <20040601150039 4503 h006 c000 wm mail gagliardi com criticalpath 
net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

My E20 is fully operational again.  I hope you can forgive my foibles, me 
being a young'un (33.9 years old) and all.

The problem did actually trace back to a faulty connection on my relay, as 
one astute list member pointed out.  One of the wire connections 
physically broke and the wire pair was just dangling free.

However, it was when I was poking around in there, that I caused the major 
problem (and melted 2 contacts & blew a fuse, but that's another story).  
When I was fiddling around with the wires, trying to crimp on a new 
connector for the broken wire, I accidentally (read that as "my 4-year-old 
must've distracted me") wrote down the connection diagram backwards.  
Instead of writing down that the front and middle connectors were used, I 
wrote down the back and middle connectors.  I had the wire numbers in the 
correct locations, I just got the back and front rows mixed up.

Anyway, when I reconnected the wires, no motor action.  By then, I had 
just about given up (thought I'd fried something) and decided to buy the 
Alltrax controller and be done with it.  But, happenstance caused me to 
sit on the problem for a while (that and I had to take care of my 
4-year-old alone all weekend long), and here, today, I had a thought, 
maybe I connected something wrong, let's go see.  Well, sure enough, with 
all wires correctly connected, full operations of every system was 
restored.  Sorry Alltrax, not this year.

Problem #1 turned out to be the #28 wire broke off the bottom of the relay 
(sometime last year), and I hadn't noticed.  With no #28 wire, the only 
way it would work is if I kept the relay pushed in, and I zip-tied it to 
jury-rig it through to this Spring...but that prevented cutoff in a 
braking event, so pretty bad.

Problem #2 was I put the wires back on wrong after I fixed problem #1.

Problem #2a was, again my 4-year-old distracting me, with the power on, I 
touched one of the wires to the finger of another relay and *TZAP*, blown 
fuse and another new connector.

Moral of the story, don't have distractions around when you work on your 
tractor and observe proper electrical safety, ala Al Borland, NOT Tim 
Taylor.


(---------------------------)
 mailto:Jeremy Gagliardi com
 http://Jeremy.Gagliardi.com
(---------------------------)



------------------------------

Message: 10
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 19:57:22 -0400
From: "Pieter Litchfield" <plitch attglobal net>
Subject: RE: (ET) Re: Parts NOT needed -- cautionary tale(s)
To: <Jeremy Gagliardi com>, <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Message-ID: <LPBBIFAILKDKOGDPGKLGGEDGJAAA plitch attglobal net>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="Windows-1252"

Thanks for reporting back Jeremy!  We all learn from each other's 
exzperiences and I, for one, am grateful you shared the results of you 
problem solving.

 Group:  For the benefit of future ET owners, do we have a way (especially 
in the post-Gunn era) of cataloging the collective wisdom of ETowners?  I 
think it is very important for us all to share our problems AND our fixes. 
Then we need to save them in some format that lends itself to searching. 
That way the next time similar symptoms occur to another E-20 owner, 
he/she has a place to go to look for historic solutions, and perhaps 
troubleshooting logic as well.

I don't have a solution, just the unoriginal concept that a better 
organized knowledgebase would be helpful to us all.

-----Original Message-----
From: elec-trak-bounces cosmos phy tufts edu
[mailto:elec-trak-bounces cosmos phy tufts edu]On Behalf Of Jeremy 
Gagliardi com
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 6:01 PM
To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Subject: (ET) Re: Parts NOT needed -- cautionary tale(s)


My E20 is fully operational again.  I hope you can forgive my foibles, me 
being a young'un (33.9 years old) and all.

The problem did actually trace back to a faulty connection on my relay, as 
one astute list member pointed out.  One of the wire connections 
physically broke and the wire pair was just dangling free.

However, it was when I was poking around in there, that I caused the major 
problem (and melted 2 contacts & blew a fuse, but that's another story). 
When I was fiddling around with the wires, trying to crimp on a new 
connector for the broken wire, I accidentally (read that as "my 4-year-old 
must've distracted
me")
wrote down the connection diagram backwards.  Instead of writing down that 
the front and middle connectors were used, I wrote down the back and 
middle connectors.  I had the wire numbers in the correct locations, I 
just got the back and front rows mixed up.

Anyway, when I reconnected the wires, no motor action.  By then, I had 
just about given up (thought I'd fried something) and decided to buy the 
Alltrax controller and be done with it.  But, happenstance caused me to 
sit on the problem for a while (that and I had to take care of my 
4-year-old alone all weekend long), and here, today, I had a thought, 
maybe I connected something wrong, let's go see.  Well, sure enough, with 
all wires correctly connected, full operations of every system was 
restored.  Sorry Alltrax, not this year.

Problem #1 turned out to be the #28 wire broke off the bottom of the relay 
(sometime last year), and I hadn't noticed.  With no #28 wire, the only 
way it would work is if I kept the relay pushed in, and I zip-tied it to 
jury-rig it through to this Spring...but that prevented cutoff in a 
braking event, so pretty bad.

Problem #2 was I put the wires back on wrong after I fixed problem #1.

Problem #2a was, again my 4-year-old distracting me, with the power on, I 
touched one of the wires to the finger of another relay and *TZAP*, blown 
fuse and another new connector.

Moral of the story, don't have distractions around when you work on your 
tractor and observe proper electrical safety, ala Al Borland, NOT Tim 
Taylor.


(---------------------------)
 mailto:Jeremy Gagliardi com
 http://Jeremy.Gagliardi.com
(---------------------------)

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------------------------------

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End of Elec-trak Digest, Vol 2, Issue 243
*****************************************