Just the other day...

[Dafni]

Well, the other day I was mowing my lawn. I would have never thought I will become the lawn-mower type one day, but having a family changed me quite a bit.

However, we moved to a bigger house, and inherited a bunch of stuff from the predecessor (a cat, a stupid lawn-mower with a blunt blade, a house mate etc). So, this mower is gas powered, and I knew I have some kind of spell on me when it comes to combustion engines.
(Quite unlike my father, who is a real car tinkerer and engine fan at haert, I never really liked real cars, and I don't even made the driving-license.)

With this said, back to the lawn story. Okay, I had a horrible time starting this mower, and got reminded of the sore arms my Madforce gave me. Pullstarters are a real pain, but at least this one was big enough so you can actually hold it in your hands.
Once the engine was running, the cutting of the grass went surprisingly good.

But after 5 minutes it stalled. I already noticed a leaking carb, and after checking everything else, I decided to have a look at the carb. I was unable to start this sucker again, so I opened the carb, just do discover some dissolved O-rings and a broken needle-thing. Well, then, off to get a replacement. Backorder, took two weeks.

Needless to say the lawn (for lack of a better word) grew out of controll. Once the carb was fixed, and a new blade was installed, the motor came to life quite easily. But after 5 minutes something else broke! This was not for the first time I thought about the advantage of electric powered stuff.

If it comes to EP lawn mowers, you always hear people say: They don't have enough power. -Have you ever heard the term Brushless, hmm??
There's a picture in my mind, it looks like this:

Insane, eh? Would surely cut some grass.

And then they say, you'll cut your own cable. -But, have you ever heard about LiPoly, hmm?

Well well, that would be a cool lawnmower. You could even build something with Maxx suspension:L:

Guys, have you ever had to cut your lawn with a scythe? I did yesterday, and lemme tell you, I thought of the BL mower more than once.

LOL

[Serum]

You just wrote a perfect script for a 35 second commercial.

Perhaps it is an idea to make a RC lawnmower

or introduce her to some brushless





And i am just a sucker for the good oldfashion way;

[RC-Monster Mike]

Great story, Daf! Definately fun to read. I can't say I haven't thought of this myself!

[Sylvester]

cool story, enjoyed reading it, a BL lawnmower would be a nice idea. The plus of this would be no hassle of starting it, no gas, no maitnance, and much quieter!

[Nick]

Great idea. :)

I have a hovermower that is electric and with the power raises of the ground and glides smoothly across the grass - good stuff electric, petrol would be too heavy.

[Serum]

good stuff electric

Yeah, we know..

;)

[Dafni]

Hehe, funny pics Serum. I like the old fashion one. A BL-ized Robo mower?! Better call the kids in:L:

[Serum]

Yeah..

'Honey, i shrunk the kids' gets a whole other, unpleasant dimension..

Me and supermaxx4190 have always dreamed of racing some of the old lawnmower he has I wouldn't just it though. Hope everything gets better for you.

[Dafni]

Originally posted by Serum
Yeah..

'Honey, i shrunk the kids' gets a whole other, unpleasant dimension..

Hahaha, you made me laugh. Almost bad taste, but funny as heck.

I would take the motor out of this RoboMower, and pull it around with my RC.

Good to hear you guys enjoyed reading my story.

[Dafni]

Another proof of this spell that lies on me, when it comes to combustion engines:
I fixed this horrible engine, took it completly apart, even lubed all bearings and cleaned the exhaust. Got it to run on the workbench, one pull and it purred like a cat (:rolleyes: can't stand this noise at all)
Installed it back on the "chassis", wanted to try it before I put the blade back on ..... nothing, not one single darned puff. I pulled, primed, checked for flooding, swore, pulled, pulled .... kicked the stupid thing, good night.
The next day when I came back from work, my wife told me she started it on the first pull :W: Gosh, that's baffling. But since the blade was still not installed, she couldn't use it.
Guess what? Yepp, exactly, put the blade back on, refueled it, ... I don't have to tell you, right? You guess it. At least I have an excuse to never ever touch that wretched thing again.

:mad:


Serum, this RoboMower made me think. I still have a stock Maxx, originally I wanted to turn it into a race-Maxx, but the Revoxx covers that nicely.
Why not modifying the Maxx to some trailer capable truck, who can pull around stuff, like mower units. Gear it low as heck, use some narrow wheels, and customize a robomower-like trailer.
Of course this would be only suitable to cut short grass, (not the Jungle I am cultivating at the moment) but it would be a ton of fun, and I could do it every second day or so.

[Re~Mix]

Thats strange, I mow about 6 lawns a week, and run two gas mowers, never had a single problem cutting through the neighbors jungles. The engines hum nicely, and make me want to buy a xxx-nt to go with the xxx-t lol. Maybe the 3 blades on the john deer cut better.hehe, I've always stuck with john deere on lawn mowers, superb machines.

[Batfish]

I just stumbled across this thread and wanted to add my own experience.
Daf - I, too, can't get combustion-type tools to run (or stay running) unless certain planets are aligned. They just plain suck. Really. Yep, they suck.
So anyways, I figured I could let you in on how I solved my lawnmower problem. I bought a rechargeable electric mower :)
I know you're not in the US, and I'm not sure if they sell/ship to you, but Black & Decker makes a good electric mower with no cord.
http://www.blackanddecker.com/outdoo...istByType.aspx
I bought this mower just about 3 years ago and have not had a single problem with it yet. I have about 5500 sq ft of lawn that I mow about 30-40 times each year and have never had the mower battery die during the job. I keep it plugged in from the first time I mow (usually in April) until the last time I mow for the season (October-ish).
After reading this post, two things occurred to me...
1 - What would it take to make my lawnmower R/C? :)
2 - What motor and gearing is in my lawnmower? After all, B&D says it's a 24 volt lawnmower with 5HP. Not knowing the gearing, that sure sounds like a good power and motor combination for R/C use. I run it for about 45-60 minutes at a time without the battery dying and, considering how long I've had it that means that the motor has held up to about 100 runs of 45+ minutes. Sounds like a durable motor, too :)

Figured I'd toss that into this thread.

[Serum]

it won't deliver 5 HP. it would draw 280A on 24V to get to this. so if you are able to drive it around for one hour, it would cary a 280Ah batterie.. I think a 2000 watt motor is enought to keep the blade spinning. take a big 2280 with a gearreduction. it would be a blast.

You don't need much to make a mower RC, if you are planning on doing it seriously i would help you out. but i think my plan makes the first 60mph rc mower, and with the money invested you could buy several brushless completely hoppedup maxxes.. :D

[Batfish]

Looking up a few things and seeing a couple diagrams, I've found more information on my mower.
According to B&D, it delivers 5-horsepower gas equivalent at peak torque. You folks more experienced in electronics and mechanics can tell me what that REALLY means :)
Also, the motor produces 1339 maximum watts output. I see 1300 watts on the XL1600 and XL1200. Provided their information is accurate, that sounds like it's on the powerful end, in comparison.
Lastly, from the diagrams I've seen it looks like the motor drives the blade directly.

Although I'd love to make it into an R/C mower, I really can't justify the cost when I could be dropping that money into an actual R/C car or truck :)