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Re: (ET) Garden Pulling with the E20
Wow Markus!
What a difference a decent tire makes.
I tried it last year with my I-5. But I have the stock turf tires on.
Other than that out stories are very similar.
My first pull was dismal, only went about 4 yards, then lost traction. I
let *some* air out of the tires and tried
again. My brother was watching, he commented that he couldn't understand
what was keeping my tires on the rims. That's
how much they were digging in with very little air in them. Went about
twice as far but still lost traction. BUT I
never hit the red on the meter. I had LOTS of power available, just no
traction.
I need to get some of those nice deep chevron tires.
I am seriously considering building an Electric Super-Modified for next
year.
The club I pulled with... Brookfield Garden Tractor Pullers.... were are
great bunch of people.
--
Stay Charged!
Hump
"Ignorance is treatable, with a good prognosis. However, if left
untreated, it develops into Arrogance, which is often
fatal. :-)" -- Lee Hart
Get your own FREE evgrin.com email address;
send a request to ryan at evsourcecom
>
>From: elec-trak-bounces cosmos phy tufts edu [mailto:elec-trak-bounces
>cosmos phy tufts edu] On Behalf Of Markus
>Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 2:55 AM
>To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
>Subject: (ET) Garden Pulling with the E20
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I put the following report on the forum, thinking you may want to hear
> it as
> well:
>
> Hi fellow elec-treckies,
>
> I read a mail in the archives once about another elec-trak owner who
> had much success with competing in a garden tractor pulling competition.
>
> I had to try that with my E20 and this weekend one of the German
> gardenpulling championship runs was realtively close by, so... I got my
> E20 ready and showed up there. I could not register as a competitor as
> the
> rules only allow gas and diesel tractors, BUT they let me start with the
> other stock tractors (only rel. small modifications) in my weight
> category.
>
> The tractor with me on it weighed almost 1200 pounds !, which was just a
> bit more than what the large stock garden tractor category allows
> (1100lbs),
>
> there is also a smaller garden tractor category, which is limited at
> 770lbs.
>
> Anyhow, I was to compete with tractors like a JohnDeere 400 and similar,
> wich run in the 25HP category. The inital weight added to the brake sled
> was 500 lbs (the weight moves from the wheels to the sled part while
> you travel). A full pull would be 50 meters (bout 50 yards).
>
> First run:
> I pulled of in L, speed 4 (full armature, full field) and held it there.
> The power meter was in yellow. The tractor was going nicely, I had
> lowered the pressure in my tires so they would flex and provide good
> traction. Everybody was surprised it pulled the sled so easily. The
> moderator also was great, a great comment she made was that she
> really enjoyes being able to talk while a tractor was running
> <http://www.elec-trak.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif>
>
> Well about 10 yards down the path the power meter was in the red
> and .... at 25 yards the needle was pegged right and the tractor
> slowed down a bit, (the weight had travelled about halfways to the
> front where the sled part is) I first thought that was gonna be it ...
> but it kept pulling .... and pulling ... slow and steady ... I rememberd
> that the
> more a series wound DC motor is slowed down, the more torque
> it produces (and amps it pulls, I started to smell the current shunt) ...
> I started to have hopes again that I would make a full pull, but then ,
> about 9 yards from the full pull line, the klixon breaker on the motor
> cut
> out.
>
> Three of the four other tractors with around 25hp made a full pull, one
> got about as far as I did. Even though I had my hook up point pretty
> far back from the axle the fron wheels only came up about 5 inches of the
> ground.
>
> I touched the motor, it was still cold on the outside, the heat built
> up was either not bad or it had not made it to the outside of the case.
> After 2 minutes the power came back and I drove the tractor back.
>
> I then decided that because it was only another 9 yards, that I would
> try without the klixon (everybody has 2 tries). The second run seemed
> to draw more current earlier in the game, it went ok, and I passed the
> 41 meter mark, but I was going very slow by then. I was worried that
> I might damage my commutator if I stalled the motor and at 42 meters
> I decided was getting too risky and stopped.
>
> So, in summary - I surprised a good share of people today with what
> the elec-trak can do. Nobody had ever heard of anything like an electric
> garden tractor. If I find the time I will attend another pulling one
> time,
> then
> with my gel batteries to provide a bit higher current and maybe with
> direct wiring (without the shunt) or with my alltrax, or both. Maybe I'll
> let my son drive the E20 in the 770 pound category by putting light
> batteries in it when he is old enough (770 pound category goes from 8 -
> 16
> years).
> I think it will comete quite well with the smaller tractors with their
> 15ish
> HP motors.
>
> I posted my pictures at http://markus.lorch.net/et/gardenpulling/
> <http://markus.lorch.net/et/gardenpulling/>
>
> Markus
>
> P.S. you can see pictures of the other tractors at www.gardenpulling.de
> <http://www.gardenpulling.de/>
>
>