Is it time to consider electric?

[ArlyA]

On the ego, when power gets real low they go into limp mode. Still can be moved. Brakes still work and I'd guess all battery powered mowers would do this. Why would the brakes not work when the battery was low or dead?

 

[DarkBlack]

Wouldn’t a $27k electric mower use motor regenerative brakes?
Do they still work if the battery is dead is probably his thought

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

If you are on a hillside when a battery powered ZTR dies, does it freewheel down the hill?

Includes a rope & anchor

 

[2manyrocks]

About 40 years ago, my Dad owned a Cub Cadet International model 106 which was a gear drive with external disc brakes on the rear axle. The disc pads were shot. He parked the machine and got off to do something near the hill at the front of his house. It rolled all the down the hill without him into the field below that had just been plowed so it softened the landing.

After pulling it back up the hill with the tractor, I installed some new disc pads for him.

 

[CliffordK]

For those worrying about running out of juice.

Have you ever been told not to run their diesel tractor out of diesel?

How many times have they done it anyway?

Pay attention to your vehicle, whatever it is.

 

[Coffee drinker]

If you can compare fueling up a mower to charging one. Does it run out of juice when you are done for the day or are you done for the day because it ran out of juice.

 

[CliffordK]

If you can compare fueling up a mower to charging one. Does it run out of juice when you are done for the day or are you done for the day because it ran out of juice.

Does it matter? Plan on getting it back to the charger or up on the trailer before it runs out of juice.

Just like you refill your tractor before it runs out of diesel.

Or if you have cartridge batteries, have a couple to spare.

Pay attention to how the mower sucks juice out of the cartridges. On my old Greenworks push mower, it would drain one battery then move on to the next. So, it would run 100% on a single battery. I don't know if the riders do the same, but I'd expect that it would be able to at least drive on 1 or 2 battery packs.

 

[Coffee drinker]

I can't count the times I have had 5 minutes of work left with mine cordless impact and the battery goes dead. Not a problem if I am prepared I just swap for a charged one and put the dead one in the charger. The reason it works is I can charge when in use. Not so with a electric mower. I can see a lot of applications where a electric mower would be a real pain.

 

[CliffordK]

I believe the Greenworks and EGO residential (and PRO) zero turn mowers have removable battery packs. Just get a few spares and throw them on the charger.

They have dual chargers for the "Pro" tools. Two of those and you're charging 4 batteries at a time.

In the Commercial product line (82V) they have 6 battery chargers.

It is possible that those 82V commercial batteries would work in an 80V pro mower.

Size the battery pack of the larger Greenworks Commercial mowers based on your job expectations. Or get the largest battery pack.

The John Deere appears to simply plug in. Again, size it to your job.

 

[Coffee drinker]

Now that we have the mower all figured out, let's work on the 645hp tractor that runs 24 hours a day.