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Re: (ET) Elec-Trak E20 fixing up and modifications (including Curtis conversion)



Hey Ben,
that's a big undertaking. I really appreciate the work you have done here, making it pretty (because there's an audience that won't look further unless there is eye-candy), but most of all for documenting it so thoroughly and sharing with others.

I'm a bit short on time and motivation these days, but I will be pulling my eyesore E12 (blade) and E15 (snowthrower) snow tractors out of their summer rest spots to duty stations this week. One snowthrower chain tweak left to do from last year, and annual lube and re-work on the blade controls.

The next E15 project machine is patiently waiting for time, work space and replenishing the 'toy fund'. Might start with cleaning up some accessories first once snow puts other yard work on hiatus.

Darryl

On 11/7/2021 10:48 PM, Ben Carter via Elec-trak wrote:
Hey all,
As I promised a few weeks ago, here's the first bit of what I've been meaning to 
share with the group - taking my E20 from "as found" in rough, 
nonfunctional shape to a good working machine, with some healthy modifications on 
the way. I'll write about the loader build and drum brake conversion in later 
emails. Photos of all this are below, and some explanation below. Note the loader 
build starts with the photos of cutting a chunk of metal out of the large blue box; 
anything after that I really haven't talked about below except for the lights.
Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WEffiGGADUV77G9L8
When I got the tractor, it had been sitting for approximately 25-30 years 
and so the batteries were long since dead and gone. I scrounged up three 
marginal automotive starter batteries and used those for testing of the 
tractor. Testing didn't take very long because nothing at all worked 
except the lights - no drive power at all. I pretty quickly decided to go 
with a motor controller rather than have the ancient wiring potentially 
cause trouble time and again - assuming I could even fix it initially!

<snip remainder of phenomenal post with links>

--
Darryl McMahon
Freelance Project Manager (sustainable systems)

Check out the laundry microfibre catcher at:
https://contest.techbriefs.com/2020/entries/sustainable-technologies-future-energy/10412