Well, I haven't posted in a while, but I feel like it after what I
experienced
yesterday. Call this an airing out, if you will. Caution, I'm not
on my usual
bandwagon.
My tractor is currently only in service in the winter now (it isn't
able to
handle mowing anymore, since I moved to a hilly, landscaped lot in
suburbia).
So, here my tractor has been sitting in my garage for well over a
year without
use, but plugged in with Landis controller the entire time.
First, the batteries were very discharged. I couldn't even get it
up to full
speed before the whole thing just quit. Me thinks the controller
didn't kick
in enough. I had to put it on a "quick" 20-minute manual charge
just to get
things going. After use, I put it on a full manual charge.
But, now here's the really horrible part. I have the dozer blade
on for
plowing snow. The crossbar is off so the blade can spring up
whenever it
encounters an obstacle. Guess what happened? This snow wouldn't
budge one
bit. The blade just kept springing up. Plus, the rear tires (with
chains)
would just spin out of control.
I got the dang thing stuck, in 2" deep snow no less, more than 3
times. I had
to get my wife to push while I drove in LL twice.
My wife & I then spent the next hour chiseling a one-shovel width
path down
the sidewalks to comply with city ordinance. We didn't even feel
like getting
to the driveway. We weren't happy.
To be fair, the snow was hard packed, but on the other hand only 2"
deep.
Meanwhile, the neighbors ICE snow throwers were handling things
just fine. I
felt particularly "behind the curve" after that. Kind of like when
I splurged
$500 for a brand new Newton electric walk behind mower, got
everything setup,
charged the battery, and...saw how utterly horrible it performed in
actual
use. It only took me 2 months to ditch the Newton and hire a lawn
service.
--
Jeremy Gagliardi
E20
Potomac, Md
_______________________________________________
Elec-trak mailing list
Elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mailman/listinfo/elec-trak