Considering an electric XT1 LT42E........whataya know about them...?

[jack casey]

The place where I work got into solar powered energy. They have several acres of open land, and decided to install solar panels to power the machinery. After installing all those panels on all that land, they generated enough solar power to run almost one whole machine out of the 50 or so that they have!

There are about 350 Elec-Trak devotees, lots of techies dedicated to keeping the ET's going. Like me, the majority prefer lead-acid storage batteries (you fill 'em with distilled water) along with AGM's. See the Trojan site, I know a place for a good price. They provided enough weight for me to plow snow with Ag tires, no chains.
Cheers, Jack C

 

[jack casey]

That is basically what happened with the General Electric Elec-trak tractors from the early 70s. A great idea and the 36 volt tractors were excellent but service became problematic with few trained personnel to work on them and when the six 6-volt batteries gave out after a few years, the cost of replacing them became mo

 

[jack casey]

What actually happened was that GE did not know how to market the tractors. They entered a crowded market populated by Sears, Bolens, Wheelhorse, Cub Cadet,Massey and so forth and charged more than the competition. I am not a technician, my first was an E12 model with simple electronics that anyone could understand. It did not break down but if it did the Homeowners Manual led you through an easy fix. Other models were E15 and E20 - they did break down due to problematic circuit cards that did not like fried-ass summers and brain-freezing winters.This led led to new operating systems like Curtis, 4QD and others. Batteries were good for 8-12 years with minimal care. There was a cadre of people providing service, tech-savvy owners, Bill Gunn (ret), Harold Z at Clean Power, Jim at the Electric Tractor Store etc. Lemme know any questions.
Cheers, Jack

 

[justinpittman]

I cannot explain how this relates to a 20hp Deere, but I have seen ET's drag a Deere backwards with its wheels spinning - extraordinary torque. Look at tractor pulling websites.

Racers have finally caught onto that. There's a vid of a Telsa Plaid outracing a Mustang Shelby on the 1/4 mile! Ford is planning that their new Cobra Jet 1400 will put the Stang back on top -- though in electric form.

Electric has a ridiculous amount of torque. It's hilarious that tractors keep getting higher and higher horses. Wish manufacturers would state ft-lb instead.

They provided enough weight for me to plow snow with Ag tires, no chains.

Nice! I've gone to this guy's site: My Elec-Traks - Introduction

 

[jack casey]

Racers have finally caught onto that. There's a vid of a Telsa Plaid outracing a Mustang Shelby on the 1/4 mile! Ford is planning that their new Cobra Jet 1400 will put the Stang back on top -- though in electric form.

Electric has a ridiculous amount of torque. It's hilarious that tractors keep getting higher and higher horses. Wish manufacturers would state ft-lb instead.



Nice! I've gone to this guy's site: My Elec-Traks - Introduction

The guy is not a techie but no one ever did more for us ET owners, the site is invaluable. It contains all tractor manuals including repair plus accessory manuals along with every piece published by GE. Nothing has copyright. You'd need two bookcases to store them. See the Homeowners Manual for each tractor which includes schematics - you NEED this if you ever buy an ET. Why? There are smart guys out there that don't replace broken parts....they jerry-rig the wiring to make things work. I ran into one of those guys just east of Albany NY. Every wire is numbered, see the schematic for the tractor you want to buy and follow the wiring. We Cubsters have a forum, the ET gang has three including facebook, surprising as there are many more Cubs out there than ET's. That's not me in the photo.
Cheers, Jack

 

[Ken macphee]

Electronics and the elements/outdoors do not get along. What is the #1 enemy of electronics? Water or moisture. What is outside? Bingo!

Oh please, vehicles are almost always outside they are full of electronics.

 

[dschwandt]

Vehicles yes.....They are a hell of a lot more mouse and rain proof
Lawn mowers.....not so much.
Think about it.

 

[jack casey]

Oh please, vehicles are almost always outside they are full of electronics.

Oh please, vehicles are almost always outside they are full of electronics.

Gee, Ken, you don't get it. If you're an Electrak expert I'll listen to you. Look under the hood of any car, no matter how old. Do you see any circuit boards,
in which electronic components (resistors, capacitors) are exposed? No. Electraks such as models E12s, E15 and E20 all have these boards and this is the main reason that so many of these tractors get converted to a modern operating system (controllers) that are made for industrial use by Curtis, Quad4, Alltrax, etc. You'll see zero complaints about them if you research the ET forums. My Curtis controller is sealed. Open circuit boards belong in your tv, not in the yard.
Cheers, Jack

 

[Shellie]

Update: they discontinued the first model and gave me a $4000 refund. I enquired about the new model and they did not have in stock any had no idea when it would be available. I went back to gas powered.

I'm curious how you got a refund. I had an issue August of last year. Found a shop to work on it, an hour away. It stayed up there for a month and magically started working again. Now it won't go when I press the pedal. No error codes this time. I actually really like the mower. It's just a pain when something happens and there's no one to fix it close by or anything online.

 

[jack casey]

I'm curious how you got a refund. I had an issue August of last year. Found a shop to work on it, an hour away. It stayed up there for a month and magically started working again. Now it won't go when I press the pedal. No error codes this time. I actually really like the mower. It's just a pain when something happens and there's no one to fix it close by or anything online.

MTD picked up where IH left off in 1981. For a few years, tractors still had IH quality but that slipped with HD influence. Stanley Black & Decker owns it all now. If you ask Ken, there seems little interest in building an electric tractor product. The ones I see look underpowered.
Cheers, Jack