Re: (ET) FW: elec-trak front mower capabilities?

[Charlie <medievalist gmail com>]

I was noodling around with exactly the same idea, Dennis!  Even made a
few drawings on napkins.

The sickle bar has the advantage of a wide swath, so that you'd get a
cleaner cut in fewer passes.  The string trimmer has the advantage of
doing less damage if you're cutting the water's edge and a goose or
pet dog suddenly appears in front of the cutting head.  Yowch.

I've been thinking vaguely about some sort of outrigger to mount the
deck out from the side of the tractor, too...  but that wouldn't work
as well, since it couldn't be angled down a slope like the sickle bar.

My kids have found rusty old stoneguards from a John Deere sickle bar
on the property, lost by someone in the past or upstream.  It took me
quite a while to identify what the heck they were.

--Charlie

On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 8:27 AM, Pestka, Dennis J
<Dennis Pestka covidien com> wrote:
>
> I have a pond that I cut around, so I’ve always been thinking of an easy 
> way
> to cut at the water’s edge.
>
> An idea I had, was to build a nylon string trimmer attachment.
>
> If available buy a used large walk behind unit with a blown ICE, or the
> largest plug in electric model you could find. They’re fairly inexpensive
> and you could retrofit with a small 36V DC motor.
>
> Plug it into your accessory outlet for power.
>
> Mount it on an aluminum or steel arm that you could swing out away from 
> the
> tractor.
>
> Adjust as needed depending on size, and make as many passes as needed to 
> get
> the job done.
>
> Haven’t built one yet, but maybe someone else will beat me to it and let
> everyone know how it works.
>
> Thanks;
>
> Dennis
> Elsberry, MO
> http://www.evalbum.com/227
>
>
>
> From: Pieter Litchfield [mailto:pieter_litch yahoo com]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2011 7:01 AM
> To: Elec-Trak Tractor
> Subject: (ET) FW: elec-trak front mower capabilities?
>
> I wonder about using a towed mower with a hitch offset.  There are a few
> brush mowers made for ATV use with tow bars that can be angled to allow 
> the
> mower to track off significantly to either side.  If you don't want to 
> use
> an IC engine, then maybe rig an electric version.  But a sickle bar 
> would be
> better yet because there would be no weight on the ground from the mower
> blade so the undercut banks would be no threat.  I have never seen an ET
> with a sickle bar, but I do still have an old horse drawn version (with a
> metal tractor seat) that powers the bar with a geared wheel - never 
> tried it
> behind an ET - a bit big for my needs
>
>
>
> From: Steve & Carol Welch [mailto:welches dejazzd com]
> Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 7:09 PM
> To: Chris Tromley
> Cc: Elec-Trak
> Subject: Re: (ET) elec-trak front mower capabilities?
>
> Charlie, if I'm understanding what you want to accomplish, I'd do a 
> sickle
> bar.  The front mount poses too many risks & not enough benefits for this
> purpose, IMHO.
>
> Chris, I have my Alltrax in my E20 on a foot-pedal control, with
> forward/reverse handled by a toggle switch on the dash (where your hand
> control would be).  Nice thing is, you can switch directions with a 
> flick of
> the toggle, and if your foot is still on the "gas", the controller
> automatically ramps down & back up again.  I've found that sometimes if I
> find myself needing to stop quickly it's almost faster to flip to reverse
> than to hit the brake.  Also, with the speed controller's plug braking, 
> if
> you take your foot off the throttle, and then flip the switch to 
> reverse, it
> will stop you just as fast as the brake does.  ('course with the open
> differential, fast braking on grass always results in a slide - anybody 
> have
> a Peerless 2317 for sale?)
>
>
>
> Steve
>
>
>
>
>
> On Nov 7, 2011, at 6:45 PM, Chris Tromley wrote:
>
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 3:46 PM, Charlie <medievalist gmail com> wrote:
>
> What are the limitations on how far the Elec-trak front mower deck
> travels?  That's a strange question but I don't know how else to put
> it.  If I accidentally run the front rollers off the edge of an
> undercut bank, is the blade going to get driven into the ground at the
> edge, or will the deck hang out over the stream?
>
>
>
> My Spidey-sense is tingling.  I think all the large-frame ETs (maybe the
> small-frame too?) use a similar hand-lever-forward-reverse-multi-speed
> control.  There has been the rare occasion where I've been moving in one
> direction, brought the lever to the off position and it slipped beyond 
> into
> the opposite direction slot.  A couple times it was surprising how far 
> the
> tractor moved in the unintended direction, and I'm generally in pretty 
> good
> control of my body.  If you're zig-zagging along as you repeatedly ease 
> up
> to the stream bank and your mind wanders, I'm thinking there's a greater
> chance than I'm comfortable with that some time your tractor might take a
> shortcut into the stream.  It's not the greatest control arrangement, but
> I've never really thought it was a hazard.  Until now.
>
>
>
> When an ET is equipped with an Altrax electronic control, is the
> forward-reverse function more ergonomically separate from the go 
> function?
>
>
>
> Chris
>
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