(ET) converting a gas mower to electric

[Michael S Briggs <msbriggs alberti unh edu>]

Hello,
        New to the list.
	I *hate* mowing our lawn with a gas mower (my wife and I run both 
of our cars (VW TDIs) on biodiesel that I make from waste vegetable oil 
from local restaurants). I had a plug-in push electric mower for a while, 
but with the size of our lawn and the hassling with cords, it was taking 
me around 6-8 hours to mow the lawn. I have an old gas mower that I bought 
from a neighbor when he was moving, and I'd like to convert it to 
electric. I'm thinking I should be able to just take the parts out of an 
old electric golf cart (once I find a cheap one) and transfer to the 
mower, probably putting in a smaller motor for powering the actual motor 
blades separately (with a switch to turn that motor on/off).
	I don't need the full range that a golf cart normally has, and 
don't need to go as fast, so I'm thinking about using the same motor and 
controller as a golf cart, just with fewer batteries (to reduce the 
weight, and get by with lower voltage and battery capacity).
        Has anyone else done this?

Thanks,
Mike

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Michael S. Briggs
UNH Physics Department
(603) 862-2828
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