Electric Lawn Tools
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Jim Rosenow
Line Up and Wait
We have the Milwaukee 12" chain saw, weed-eater and blower....that brand mosly because I have their other 18v tools. So far so good. Our Stihl gas units haven't been off the wall since we got the Milwaukees.
Does anyone have any experience with the BIG electric riding mowers? We're currently mowing 3 acres with a 72" mower on a Steiner 430 mini-tractor. We've recently gone totally off-grid electric (an interesting DIY project in itself), and making enough summer-time juice to power half the county. I should either find something else, or find another, run-out, Steiner and convert it to electric (fairly easy, hydrostatic 4wd). Thoughts?
Jim
Does anyone have any experience with the BIG electric riding mowers? We're currently mowing 3 acres with a 72" mower on a Steiner 430 mini-tractor. We've recently gone totally off-grid electric (an interesting DIY project in itself), and making enough summer-time juice to power half the county. I should either find something else, or find another, run-out, Steiner and convert it to electric (fairly easy, hydrostatic 4wd). Thoughts?
Jim
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. Do have both DeWalt and Porter Cable Battery tools and several corded gizmos for Airplane building and household stuff.
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Domenick
According to this, I must be bi.
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SoonerAviator
Converting yours to EV sounds like an awful idea. You'd need a pretty big battery pack to mow 3 acres on electric not to mention the expense of new drives for the wheels and PTO. There aren't any 72" electric mowers that I know of for under $10K, and while some claim mowing 3-4 acres, I would REALLY doubt they can do that other than in the best of conditions (low, dry grass and golf course smooth land). Green machine makes one that could do it but it's $$$$ (like over $30K). I'd continue using the mini-tractor, or get a gas/diesel powered zero turn if you want to speed up the mowing vs a tractor.
Ed Haywood
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Yeah, agreed. Electric is great for small suburban lots. I have about 5,000 square feet of grass. A single 6A battery easily handles mowing that, with a smaller 2A battery for edging, hedges, and blowing.
But for big multi-acre lots, the market isn't there yet. Until Elon Musk makes a Tesla mower, good ole gas powered is the answer.
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SoonerAviator
There are a few out there, but there's just no way it makes any financial sense. Most small acreage owners also generally have a need for a compact tractor of some sort from time to time. Often it's best to have a zero turn for speed/quality of cut, and a small tractor to run the occasional 3pt implements. Diesels just sip fuel anyway, so it's not like you'd need to keep tons of diesel on-hand and worry about it going bad. My dad can get through over half a mowing season of mowing 2.5 acres using a 16HP Kubota (60" MMM) with a 4 gallon fuel tank. Hard to beat that financially.
He can mow at a slightly faster pace with his 60" Bad Boy Zero Turn, but it burns a heck of a lot of gasoline doing the same thing and is a "one-trick pony".
EV mowers also have the downside of being heavy when you have really large batteries, so that offers more opportunity to get stuck or make ruts.
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JOhnH
Touchdown! Greaser!
I agree that with today's offerings, gas is the way to go for the big jobs.
But for the smaller stuff, from hand tools (drills, saws etc) and yard stuff (blowers, edgers, trimmers etc) battery is just so damn easy. Stick in a battery and pull the trigger. No hauling gas, no checking or adding oil, no cord pulling, no winterizing (I just threw that in, we don't really have winters down here). I consider my chain saw a hybrid. I still have to keep an eye on the bar oil, but it too is just so easy to grab and go.
But for the smaller stuff, from hand tools (drills, saws etc) and yard stuff (blowers, edgers, trimmers etc) battery is just so damn easy. Stick in a battery and pull the trigger. No hauling gas, no checking or adding oil, no cord pulling, no winterizing (I just threw that in, we don't really have winters down here). I consider my chain saw a hybrid. I still have to keep an eye on the bar oil, but it too is just so easy to grab and go.
Jim Rosenow
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I'll grant you that an EV mower that size or converting probably makes absolutely NO financial sense.....but....but.... you're talking to a guy who owns two airplanes (financial sense you say?), and just spent a butt-load of $$ on solar cause the PoCo peed him off. ....and you expect logic? LOL!
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SoonerAviator
I mean, if you want to pony up $35K+ to avoid buying 5-7 gallons of diesel per year, I guess have at it lol.
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texasclouds
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2-stroke everything
flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
I've been watching the market for a while now. There are some 52"-54" electric zero turns that look good, and Greenworks has a 60" out now, but for a 72"+ size you're looking at a Mean Green EVO which has a hefty price tag.
I have thought a lot about doing such a project... Mainly because I have tired of wrenching on my tractor, and damn near everything I do to it is engine-related. I just finished putting another fuel pump on it (last replaced only 2 years ago). In the last 3-4 years, I've had to replace the fuel pump twice, the carb, the ignition coils, a cylinder head, a rocker pushrod, circuit breaker, ignition switch, and a PTO clutch. Plus, there's the other regular maintenance and "while we're in there" stuff - New gaskets on all of the above, overhauling the mower deck, oil/filter changes, greasing, head gaskets, yadda yadda yadda.
And I drive electric cars and the rest of my tools are all electric, so I pretty much spend most of the time I'm wrenching or using the tractor thinking about converting it. And I know people who have done conversions. In fact, a friend of mine is working on converting an International 300 right now:
Personally, part of why I use a tractor and not a zero turn is that the tractor is useful for various tasks year round, and I hate walk-behind snowblowers.
There's several ways to go about it. So far, all of my friends who have done it have gone the easy route - Just rip out the engine, find an old forklift motor or something, and start up that motor the way you'd start up an engine. Unfortunately, that leaves all of the mechanical losses in place, which makes it more difficult to have something with the power and endurance that I would want. One friend who did a small Simplicity conversion with a half-dozen plain old lead acid batteries has to charge it up midway through doing his lawn... No thanks.
I'd love to find a SCUT with a blown engine and convert it, something like a John Deere 1025R. Some engineering students at a university a couple hours from here did a conversion project a couple years ago - Ben's YouTube channel also has a few videos about that conversion:
IMO, while the peak efficiency is obtained by making electrified attachments to eliminate mechanical losses between the engine and the work being done (for example, a mower deck with an electric motor on each arbor) that also makes it more difficult, and a good electric tractor should maintain compatibility with standard attachments via 3-point hitch, hydraulics, and PTO. So, if you put a motor on for each PTO, one to power the hydraulic pump, and one on the transmission you're good... And then you can use pretty much all the space under the hood for batteries and controllers, as well as the space vacated by the fuel tank.
A weight box can be converted into a second battery, too, and if you do more than one, you can drop one on the charger in the garage while you use the other(s) and run pretty much continuously. Pick it up with the 3-point if you're using a front/mid implement, or with a front lift if you have one for using with a rear implement.
The weight should give you the opportunity for more traction, and weight is not a disadvantage when it comes to tractors. If the battery is done right, it'll be as low as possible, thus also helping the center of gravity.
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SoonerAviator
I was only referring to the zero-turn and mowing function. Using weight in a tractor is an entirely different scenario and you're usually okay sacrificing turf damage for stability. Trust me, the weight of even a standard zero turn or garden tractor in a bit of mud or soft grass can have you buried to the mowing deck. Then you're having to use a tractor or truck to come pull it out. Tractors using a 3pt finish mower can lift it up high enough to avoid the issue.
Jim Rosenow
Line Up and Wait
We've taken the electric lawn tools discussion off the rails to mowers. My bad! I find the discussion interesting, so will start a new thread on riding mowers...gas or electric 
Jim
Jim
Ed Haywood
En-Route
Wifey just identified another advantage of electric.
She: I'm going to take a nap.
Me: I'm going to cut the grass.
She: I'll wait til you're done.
Me: You won't even hear me, the mower is electric.
Her: Oh yeah!
She: I'm going to take a nap.
Me: I'm going to cut the grass.
She: I'll wait til you're done.
Me: You won't even hear me, the mower is electric.
Her: Oh yeah!
flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
That is one of the major reasons I want to go electric!
My tractor is LOUD. The guy I bought it from said it was loud, and he'd replaced the muffler and done what he could to help and it was still loud, and even though said muffler has some things rattling around inside these days, a new muffler is over $800!
And it'd still be loud even with a new muffler. Just maybe not LOUD.