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Thread: Petrol mower conversion
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25th August 2015, 01:35 PM #1Product designer retired
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Petrol mower conversion
This may well turn out to be a stupid idea........
Age has taken it's toll on me starting my petrol mower, so was thinking of taking off the two stroke engine and replacing it with electric.
Q1. What type of motor might be suitable?
Q2. What HP and speed?
I have an electric wipper-snipper that's rs so thought that the on-off switch might be re-usable for the mower.
Perhaps with all the mucking around, I might be better off just buying an electric mower.
Anyone done this conversion?
Ken
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25th August 2015 01:35 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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25th August 2015, 01:45 PM #2Senior Member
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Ken,
Is the motor worn out or just hard to start? If it is just hard starting and has a pull rope you can start it with a big electric drill driving a nut on the rope pulley shaft.
Bob
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25th August 2015, 02:18 PM #3Product designer retired
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Rope pull, hard to start
Krisfarm,
That's not a bad idea. My mower is a Rover, rope pull start. At present I have to tie the mower up to a tree stump so it won't move, and get two hands onto the pope, in conjunction with squirting some "Start you bastard" into the spark plug hole.
It's a pain in the neck and just takes all the pleasure out of mowing the grass.
I've had the mower serviced hoping that would fix it, but to no avail.
Ken
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25th August 2015, 02:56 PM #4SENIOR MEMBER
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B&s
I have a small 2m x 1m patch of grass (for the dog) which I cut with an electric mower, but really electric mowers are a bit of a pain: running out leads and making sure you don't run over the cord.
Two strokes are pigs of things to start, I'd replace the two stroke with a B&S four stroke 3.5 hp. Super easy two finger start and they usually start on the first go, most mowers, aside from Honda, use B&S motors and most bases will accept a B&S, if that's not the case they are relatively cheap new and even cheaper second hand. The older models were simple: diaphragm fuel pump integral with the carb which is mounted on the fuel tank, aluminium bore with splash lubrication, and side valves, I don't think they have changed a lot from the old models. Not much maintenance is required except for checking the oil every now and then, washing the air filter and perhaps adjusting the mixture screw - longevity is excellent although when they have done considerable and I mean 'considerable' hours, the sump breather which feeds into the carb tends to enrichen the mixture making frequent mixture adjustment necessary.
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25th August 2015, 02:56 PM #5Senior Member
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Ken
I modified a mate's mower a few years ago,when he was having trouble starting it. Just use a normal depth nut and get a 12 point socket ( I picked one up from our local Mitre11 ie the local tip) and weld it onto a piece of 1/2" diameter bar, this makes it easy to take it off the nut when the motor starts. A 1/2 drill in low range is all you need and you will not use that rope again.
Bob
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25th August 2015, 03:15 PM #6
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25th August 2015, 03:57 PM #7Product designer retired
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One less chore to be nagged about
RayG,
Obviously your backyard is all green painted concrete, my family of possums wouldn't stand for that.
The pleasure of cutting the grass has many benefits,
1. firstly it stops you from re varnishing the back patio, a rotten job at any time.
2. mowing the grass means you don't have time to fix the leaking washing machine
3. mowing the grass, it's now lawn, gets the missus off your back, and she can take the clothes off the line, and
4. how nice it is turn the noisy mower off, empty the grass catcher, admire the bowling green and pull the top off an ice cold VB and put your feet up.
Have I missed anything?
Ken
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25th August 2015, 04:19 PM #8.
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My BIL has done a couple of mower conversions.
He uses gopher motors and a 12V battery.
The first one he did was geared a bit too slowly but the second one runs as fast as a brisk walking pace.
WE have had battery powered mowers for many years.
The first one we bought many years ago has a Panasonic MC size 12V battery.
The plastics on this movers were getting beat up so we bought another and gave the old one to our son.
The older one was never very powerful and if the grass is more than a couple of inches long it is a 2 pass operation to cut a lawn.
One charge was just enough to do our small front and back lawns
I wanted to get a petrol powered mover but SWMBO said if we got a battery powered mower shed would mow the lawn
Ha! - 2.5 years on and she has mowed it once when I was crook.
The latest is a 36V Stihl and it's a ripper.
One charge does the lawns twice but we always leave the battery in the charger.
The catcher is very efficient and it also collects wet leaves off the brick paving very well.
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25th August 2015, 04:53 PM #9
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25th August 2015, 05:10 PM #10<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <woNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]-->
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25th August 2015, 06:30 PM #11SENIOR MEMBER
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One word RaymondG; Roundup.
I have a 100ltr battery powered sprayer here. Just about time to feed the "cultivated grasses", er weeds here.
Ken
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25th August 2015, 06:38 PM #12Senior Member
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If you can still see the clothes line, then the grass (or weeds) are not that long.
Nev.
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25th August 2015, 06:39 PM #13
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25th August 2015, 07:20 PM #14Philomath in training
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25th August 2015, 07:41 PM #15
Visit your local karting shop and have a look at the Rotax Max engine, water cooled, electric start and 30 bhp - just the thing for a lawn-mower (or a gopher in old-age).
It shouldn't be too hard to adapt it and nothing would stop it.
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