Battery Vehicle Society

My old petrol mower has cut it's last blade of grass:(. However, as I have a solar panel already charging a 12v battery in my garage I'm thinking that this could be an oppertunity to build a 12v PV charged mower. I've had a quick look on the net but powerful 12v motors seem to be quite expensive. Has anyone done this kind of thing before?

Floydster.

p.s. It takes about 45 minuted to cut my grass with the petrol mower.

Right this is an easy one, what you need to look out for is a black and decker 4x4 cordless mower.
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/garden-tools/bl ... lawnmower/
They where absolutely hopeless as a mower BUT they have all the bits you need i.e a nice big phat motor with blade etc, a switch thing ( but to be honest it was a bit rubbish and a contactor would work better ) and it ran a 12V 17 Ah sealed LA battery

They turn up on ebay from time to time and normally only sell for 30 quid or there abouts complete and in good condition cos people cant get on with them .........and cos there rubish mowers, keep an eye out for one.

Why do I know so much about them.........cos I had one

Not for long I might add stripped it for parts on another project and binned it , and yep paid 30quid off e-bay and it was almost mint, and I bought it off someone who had ......yep you guessed it bought it off e-bay from someone who couldnt get on with it

I've now got a new battery mower made by Hayter and its the mutts , I'll post a picy of it sometime

ChrisB

Thanks. That's another saved search on eBay.

Floydster

Cant remember if I've posted this or not now ??

Heres me mower anyway, its not the prettest thing around as its a working machine and gets used and abused










Top battery mower and it does the job great, afraid I only charge it off the mains currently but I have got a panel that I've been wondering about hooking up to it.

ChrisB

Like it a lot. How long does it run for?

floydster

Well I've run it for nearly an hour and its still going strong, but I suspect it depends how tall the grass is and how hard you work it, I tend to take it easy with it as I cant see the point of stuffing something like this into 8" high grass as it was just smoke the motor or wipe out the batts so I tend to attack it when its only got to take an inch or so off the top.

I can try a full run test on it if you want and see how long she will run for ??

ChrisB