How long did the tractor run with the snow thrower running? Did you have a full charge? How old are your batteries?
You should get alot more run time out of your batteries than a 200' strip.
I'm assuming you made it 3' with a blade attached.?? Are you running tire chains? I can push through a snow pile bigger than my E15 with the blade, tire chains and no weight on the back. I would think you would be able to also in one of your low gears.
As for a hybrid...that kind of defeats the purpose of our electric tractors doesn't it?? :) You would need a setup to generate 36 volts at very high amperage if you want to run the tractor and the snow thrower. Sounds expensive to me.
I would check the batteries. You may be due for a new set or have a bad one.
Good luck.
Billy
From: "Banks, Michael J." <BanksM zhi com>
To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Sent: Fri, January 14, 2011 10:25:10 AM
Subject: (ET) Hybrid Electrak?
I have a 200’ driveway that is paved and flat, but here in New England we just got hit with 19” of snow. The E12 tractor got about 3 feet out of the garage before it couldn’t go any farther. I put the snow thrower on and I made it down the driveway and almost back to garage before my batteries didn’t have enough charge to throw snow.
Has anybody tried hooking a gas powered generator up to the tractor to extend its range for extreme cases like this?