| Author | Message | ||
     Sparky |
Have this old Craftsman 18" reel lawnmower with Briggs & Stratton engine. Modded it with a SuperTrapp megaphone muffler from my dirt bike just for kix. Engine still works but it's getting tired again. Instead of rebuilding it, was superficially thinking of shucking the motor and going electric by installing a Harley starter motor, car type 12V battery and toggle switch. The Harley starter is fairly small and should be simple to adapt. Anybody done anything like this? Suggestions? | ||
| Tq_freak |
Awesome Idea, and started motors have a lot of TQ so it would probably handle the tall grass pretty well but I think the motor would over heat rather quickly. I dont think they were intended for that long of a duty cycle. | ||
| Sleez |
i have used chevy starter motors running 24vdc through them for fairly extended times, 20 minutes at least, in "homemade go cart-type-things". they do get hot, but you could make a decent heatsink really easy. i have also built some high end go carts that ran 96vdc through a small dc motor and had one up to 75mph in under 4sec, and could run for about 45 minutes on a charge. too much fun. | ||
| Djkaplan |
Only a guy named 'Sparky' would try something like that. | ||
| Rainman |
Maybe you could turbocharge it and bore it out and refrabulizate the knuten valves with CNC sneezepins and, um, what were we talking about? | ||
| Sparky |
TF, Thx. You're probably right about the heat but I'll have to see how it holds up! Sleez, that's cool! 96 volts, hmmm. I'll betcha I could mow the front yard in under 3 seconds with that setup!!! DJ, ya got me there, LOL. RM, yyyyyyyeeeeeeeeesssssssss but, well, you know...  | ||
| Bake |
I don't think they are rated for continious duty, I smell burning wires. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Don't muck about, go find a nice little 2 stroke dirtbike engine & strap it in there. A nice crackly expansion chamber too. Your neighbours will just love it!  | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
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| Wile_ecoyote |
Why not buy a blast motor for it? | ||
| Sparky |
Nate, that's a righteous All-American concept! I like it. And it's got the mass-centralization thing dialed in to boot. Sorry, Erik. Couldn't help that. I mean, where Honda has mowers that go hhhuuummmmmm, with that we've got the perfect mower: one that will not only mow your lawn, but can mulch and trench it at the same time. At idle. Potato, potato, potato. Wile, now yer talkin'. Starter motor, right? | ||
| Sparky |
Grumpy, the neighbors already love the SuperTrapp and 6 discs. Maybe I should go for 12 and an open end cap? Wait, that's it! That's why it seems tired -- it's too restricted! Maybe I need to let it B R E A T H E. I don't know, 96 VDC & a Chevy starter is mighty tempting.  | ||
| Cityxslicker |
here I was thinking this was going to be a post about the bar fly. A bar stool with a briggs and stratton You can tell they had a few in the creation of it. www.barfly.com | ||
| Cyclonecharlie |
I like the dirt bike motor concept. It's compact and has a self contained 5 speed. Make a little hitch and a two wheel platform to stand on. A couple of sprockets to get it going. Man you could draw a crowd with that thing.  | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Some interesting reading here, may give you a few ideas. http://yarchive.net/car/hotrod_lawnmowers.html | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Here's another good place for info. http://sportsvl.com/wheel/lawnmowerracing.htm |
