(ET) Re: Elec-trak Digest, Vol 3, Issue 109

[John Darwin Powers <jdp3 cornell edu>]

I visited the Edmond site.  It looks like an MTD.  Personally, I like 
the appearance of the GE/Wheel Horse version.  Remember how nice the 
Cub Cadet tractor with the cast iron grill looked?  These two designs 
are nice and clean.  I can't but wonder how much it costs to make the 
sheet-metal dies or the molds for the "bulbus" looking plastic hood 
components, and these costs are of course conveyed to the buyer.  
Somewhere in time, the designers of mowers had to follow the car 
manufactures in "curving" their designs  (some of this was done to 
control engine noise emission with "unitized" hood designs).  You could 
also watch the construction equipment manufactures follow the same 
trend.  Though the sphere is the most efficient use of space, I have 
never seen a spherical battery to fit the same space, so it would seem 
that it would be better for form to follow function.  I wonder what it 
would cost in manufacturing terms to duplicate the E-20 for current 
production?  For any given year plus fifteen more, there will always be 
more GE's around than the MTD that would be fifteen years old (make 
sense?).  Longevity ... the best measure of design, but it does not 
sell mowers.  By the way ... what does a New Idea Tractor look like?  
Anyone out there have a link?  Oh, and one other thing ... maybe it 
would be nice to find a designer who works for MTD and who would join 
the group as a "guest" contributor on "current" design attitudes.

John