(ET) More fun snow in MD

[Chris Zach <cz alembic crystel com>]

We got about a foot more snow here today in MD, this afternoon I took 
the E20 up the hill to blow my driveway, on a full charge of the 90 
BB600 batteries I had no problems. So I charged it for 30 minutes, then 
took on a slightly bigger project:

Plowing the street hill.

It was a mess, they don't seem to plow much and no one was getting up 
without 4wd+. So I took the tractor down in speed L to make one track, 
then up to make a second.

Turning the tractor at the bottom was tough, even with the chains. I was 
watching the power levels, because I didn't want to run out of juice and 
get stuck :-)

So up the hill I went. In speed L I was going too fast as the power 
meter was buried, voltage was down to the lower levels on the meter, the 
snow was not going too far (very heavy, thick, and the blown snow from 
the downhill track) and I could smell the wires heating up. So I shifted 
to LL. That did the trick, auger speed was up, and I blew the snow up to 
the top of the hill. Then I came back down and parked the tractor at the 
bottom of my driveway.

Some thoughts:
1) There is a limit somewhere in how much power the Elec-trak bus can 
provide. I know my PTO plug is getting tired, that was probably the 
source of the smell. Slowing down reduced the power draw to a constant 
top of the power meter level, but not buried above. I remember when I 
had an E-meter that I could top out at about 350-400 amps of current 
peak with 300 cruising while blowing snow uphill. Maybe I'll rewire the 
lines to the PTO...

2) The BB600's do not seem to have much of a P factor, and the discharge 
curve is pretty flat. When you see it start to drop off, you're done. 
Likewise the battery cells tend not to reverse too much which is nice.

3) Blowing your street takes more power than the driveway. I'll keep 
that in mind for future reference. At the same time, chains really allow 
the Elec-trak to get out of almost anything.

4) Glad I replaced the drive belts before the winter, I was running for 
about a year there on a single belt. Two are probably better.

It's supposed to snow all night, and maybe turn to sleet. Given how cold 
it is, I think this is more likely than any rain. We shall see. :-)

C