# My John Deere "Sabre" Riding Mower EV



## Woodsmith (Jun 5, 2008)

Very nice. I like the touches of yellow, goes well with the green.
What components are you using?
What sort of range do you get between charges?
What charger are you using and how long does it take to charge?

I can see that some of my tractor parts are built overly strong in comparison.


----------



## AmpEater (Mar 10, 2008)

It's a 6.7" raymond forklift motor, rated for 24v.
Sears DieHard Platinum, really Odyssey AGMs 75ah, 60 lbs
Switched to walmart 105ah deep cycle marine @~60lbs
(no comparison between the two  )
Curtis 400a controller (1231?) @48v

Charged by a bank of 4x Iota 55A chargers. Super quick and balancing built in. Thats why you can see such a big bundle of wires running under the seat in the last pic.

You can dial it in to cut at 3kw, 4kw, 5kw, 6kw.....I've found 4kw to be the "sweet spot". It's got about 2kwh on board with the AGMs, so @4kw it cuts for about 30 minutes. I don't baby it, I abused it when it ran on gas, and I absolutely flogged it to test the EV stuff. Got the motor smoking more than once. But I was cutting through a field at full speed. Couldn't stop it. Wet grass, etc.

Range was just a matter of "enough" for my needs. Don't have a monster yard right now. More would be easy with lithium.

I'm in the process of re-building it right now with an etek motor, kelly speed controller, and ~48v of lithium. Should shave over 100 lbs off easy.


----------



## TigerNut (Dec 18, 2009)

Very cool. What size is the mower deck? I've been debating whether I should get into the EV thing by converting our 1985 John Deere 112L - it's got a Kawasaki 460V of about 12 HP and a 38" deck. I figured that an Etek or the newer Etek-R would be a pretty good match...

We don't use this mower for heavy duty stuff anymore... got a Kubota 22hp diesel for that now.


----------



## major (Apr 4, 2008)

AmpEater said:


> I'm in the process of re-building it right now with an etek motor,


Hi Amp,

I'm real interested in seeing if the etek holds up as well as the Prestolite/Raymond motor. Give it the same treatment and report back, please.

BTW, nice job on the tractor. I have to put new batteries in mine, so I was thinking about some new paint for it. I think the original paint must be like 30 to 40 years old by now, what's left of it 

major


----------



## AmpEater (Mar 10, 2008)

TigerNut said:


> Very cool. What size is the mower deck? I've been debating whether I should get into the EV thing by converting our 1985 John Deere 112L - it's got a Kawasaki 460V of about 12 HP and a 38" deck. I figured that an Etek or the newer Etek-R would be a pretty good match...
> 
> We don't use this mower for heavy duty stuff anymore... got a Kubota 22hp diesel for that now.


It's a 42"

I think either of those would be fine. 

John Deere is a household name for a reason, they go forever. Great reason in my mind to go EV. You generally need at least 3-4 years out of an EV before it makes cents, with a JD you're probably going to get it


----------



## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

I really like the color scheme. i just started to mow the lawn this past weekend and building an electric lawn mower just had huge appeal. I can't stand the noise, smell and filling it up with gas. 

How long can you go on cutting grass per charge?


----------



## AmpEater (Mar 10, 2008)

TheSGC said:


> I really like the color scheme. i just started to mow the lawn this past weekend and building an electric lawn mower just had huge appeal. I can't stand the noise, smell and filling it up with gas.
> 
> How long can you go on cutting grass per charge?


Anymore I just can't stand gas. The smell. Driving around with it sloshing in a tank because you ran out halfway through the yard. Always seemed like there should be a better way

About 30 minutes. Around an acre, perhaps

But with 48v of lithium at 100ah, you could go for an hour at the same rate within a comfortable DOD. That should be something like 2-3 acres with a riding mower, I think. And all for around the weight of 1 1/2 lead batteries.

I guess I'm liking the lithium + etek also because you can fit everything under the hood. No need to build an additional support structure to hang some extra batteries off the back, or in a trailer like I've seen before. Makes for a much more "clean" install, IMHO

But now that EVComponents is going under I'm not sure where I'm going to be getting mine


----------



## major (Apr 4, 2008)

AmpEater said:


> But now that EVComponents is going under I'm not sure where I'm going to be getting mine


Check out http://alliancerenewableenergy.com/Thunder-Sky-LiFeYPO4-Batteries_c3.htm


----------



## procupine14 (Mar 17, 2010)

This is very informative. Thanks! If you saw I am currently getting ready to build a budget lawn tractor for mowing less than an acre of land so this is prefect! I might have some questions for you so be ready!


----------

