(ET) Elec-trak Gone

["Markus Lorch" <mlorch vt edu>]

Hi Guys,

well its time for me to leave our current home in Virgina and
move "back home" to Germany. For the last two days we had the
mover's in the house helping with packing and loading. The
last things to load were my two E20s with attachments and 
wagon as well as the chipper that I wanted to convert to
electric but never got to. 
I had charged the batteries up all the way, then sealed the
battery vents with hot glue - (just in case, don't want to 
have any acid spills) and eventually drove them right in the
40ft container. My yard equipment and the BBQ took about
15ft of the container. Initially we didn't think we will be 
even close to fill that HUGE container but in the end we had 
to get creative to get it all in. 
For a while it was up in the air if I could take the flooded
batteries or not but the transport company had found out that
you are allowed to, just the negative battery terminal has to
be disconnected. 
So now the tractors will be rocked accross the big pond. The
full journey will take about 30 days. The ship will only take
about 14 days from Norfolk, VA to Bremerhaven, Germany. With
a bit of luck I will be mowing grass in Germany by mid June. 

Well, just felt like sharing the story. The movers were pretty
impressed by the tractors going up the steep ramp without a 
fuzz, I just had to take the tiller off and lift the tiller bar
up to its highest position. I had to get more clearance to enter
the ramp. They had to help me with the second tractor as it had
to go in backwards I didn't have enough weight on the rear wheels
to provide for the necessary traction. 
Oh, one funny part. When the tiller bar initially left me 
high-centered trying to enter the ramp the two big guys thought 
they could just lift me a few inches until I had passed the dead 
spot. I told them that I thought it would be a bit much but they
had to try ... well to no surprise they weren't able to get it off
the ground. 

So much from Virginia, next mails will be from Germany

Markus