Re: (ET) snowblower weight

[Christopher Zach <cz alembic crystel com>]

John Jeno wrote:
> Yup that is a lot of weight up front.
> Make sure your strap is doubled up, i.e. passes through the roller on 
> the blower mount and is anchored up at the tractor bracket and you have 
> good helper springs.
>  
> FYI, about 2 yrs ago I wired my lift motor to the entire battery pack so 
> it operates on 36v.  I did this after seeing an older gentleman (retired 
> power utility electrician) running a scale train using the same window 
> drive motor setup as the lift motor.  This train can pull 6 adults and 
> has been operating on 28v for 20+ years.  I inquired him as to why it 
> did not burn up and he replied that the insulation in the motor is good 
> for 64v (tested) and higher voltages at the same power consumption, 
> load, results in lower current draw.  Since I made the switch to 36v I 
> have never blown the fuse on the lift motor circuit even when lifting 
> the snow blower without helper springs.  (I just had to test it)  Never 
> had an unbalanced battery pack either.

Well, while true you have to be careful. Technically the lift motor is a 
true series motor, but it's designed for intermittent duty, not constant 
operation. Running it too hard will heat up the field coils and usually 
wind up with them shorting out.

You could run it on 36 volts, but in that case I would fuse it with only 
a 15a fuse instead of the 30a one. Make sure the fuse can break 36 
volts, not just 12. Also you might want to either replace or remove the 
internal breaker; it is designed to clear 12v, not 36.

The problem would be if you were pulling a full 30a@36 volts. That's 
triple the amount of heat and stress on the motor as compared to 12v.

Chris