With the modular chargers I am familiar with, they can be left
plugged in, which with an ET would probably mean for a week or so.
that should be plenty long to acount for any imbalance, provided the
winch is used at 24V.
I certainly agree on the winch overkill factor, but if I should
"need" to pull a stump, I can (would probably drag the tractor across
the yard instead;-). I guess I could tow cars around, though. That
would make a statement with the neighbors. I came to the decision
when I found out that the METI guys also used an ATV winch.
Since they are all so overpowered, I went with the least expensive
that would fit - got a new gorilla 2000 lb. winch off ebay. It's
waterproof, comes with a sealed switch (just took it off the
handlebar mount and mounted it to the dash) and a contactor/circuit
breaker that is one unit. also comes with a roller fairlead. I
considered the cheaper harbor freight ones, but they were too big and
were offset too far to mount nicely.
I mounted the fairlead inside the bumper (a perfect fit) and cut the
hole larger. this also required trimming some of the lift arm that
sticks out from the bumper.
I ran the cable over the top of the arm to serve as a lift, but you
can run it straight out as well, by removing the hook, moving the
cable, and putting the hook back on. The bumper limits the angle you
can pull at, but that should not be a problem. I can still pull it
through at about a 30 degree angle without the cable contacting the
bumper's edge.
The only problems are 1) that you need to use some spacers between
the frame and winch mounting points (I used a couple of old car seat
tracks), and if you center the cable with the opening, then the motor
sticks out past the edge of the frame a bit (about 1" - the wheels
don't rub or anything, it just looks odd). The motor terminals are
on the end that sticks out, but that's no biggie if you just cover
them up with terminal protectors and secure the wires well.
David Brandt
--- On Tue, 8/11/09, Darryl McMahon <darryl econogics com> wrote:
From: Darryl McMahon <darryl econogics com> Subject: Re: (ET)
Chargers (and winch) To: "elec-trak cosmos"
<elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu> Date: Tuesday, August 11, 2009,
7:17 AM Perhaps my concern arises from the fact that my typical
applications (snow blowing on a short and angled driveway and
tilling) do use the lifts a lot. I have seen the front and rear
halves of the pack be out as much as 0.2 volts at the end of a long
run. I don't use my ET for mowing as my yard is more garden than
lawn. I have burned out a lift motor and a hand cultivator
attachment.
The flooded batteries will tolerate this, so long as one ensures
the extra charging time required to "equalize" the batteries is
provided, or does balance charging (which almost nobody does).
I'm contemplating redoing the rear lift arrangement with a 12-volt
winch, so it could be used as both rear lift and a winch. So far,
everything I have seen seems overkill; why use a 2500 lb winch on a
600 lb vehicle? Which model of winch are you using?
Darryl
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