I finally had time to finish putting most of my "new" E-15 back
together, after painting, and plopped the batteries in with my freshly
made cables (4 gauge). For pictures, see
http://einstein.unh.edu/~msbriggs/Elec-Trak/
(the flash from the camera makes it look brighter blue than it really is)
Anyway - I haven't put the mower blades on yet, figuring I could
use the lift to raise the deck up to give me easy access for putting them
on. So, once I got everything back together, I used the lift to start
raising the deck up. After the U-bar hit the top of the deck, it *really*
struggled. I heard a straining/tearing/cracking noise, so stopped for the
moment to check everything out.
I'm wondering if I connected something wrong, as far as how the
deck connects to the tractor. I had trouble getting the U-bar to go all
the way into the rails it slides into (had to bang on it with a
sledgehammer to get it most of the way in), and I suspect that that's the
problem.
I decided to give the lift another try, and again when the U-bar
hit the top of the deck, heard a tearing noise again, and eventually the
lift strap snapped. D'oh.
How the lift strap connects to the mower deck doesn't seem all
that well thought out to me, personally. I'd think it would make much more
sense to have it connect closer to the front of the deck, to give better
torque for lifting the front up for good access to the underside. Instead,
it relies on a very small lever arm between the lift attachment point and
the U-bar. Or am I missing something?
Thanks,
Mike