Posts Tagged ‘electric lawn tractor’
Error Code
Before the sun came up yesterday, I heard rain falling on the roof. By the time we got out of bed, the precipitation had passed, but it looked like it had knocked the stuffing out of one of the trees over the driveway.
As the day progressed, the wind picked up significantly. In the afternoon, all of that debris was rolling together into large fuzz balls. Nature making a big mess.
Lacking tangible support from the manufacturer of my battery-powered riding mower, I ended up making a mess of my own to troubleshoot the recurring error code.
After determining that the left and right blade controllers were identical, I swapped them. The problem didn’t change. That pointed me to the blade motors, which also happen to be identical. I swapped them next. While I had everything apart, I decided to install some new blades I had on hand when putting it all back together.
With everything back together, I set off to do some test mowing to see if the error reappeared. In a classic situation, which technicians are well familiar with, no error code occurred for the rest of the time I mowed. The only reason I quit was that the batteries needed charging.
It appeared as though I fixed it by taking it apart and then putting it back together again. That is not as rewarding as it seems it should be.
When the batteries were fully recharged, I set out to finish mowing the area where I had left off. From there, I figured I would take as much advantage as possible and mow any area overdue for a trim. A short time later, the PTO shut down with the return of the error code.
I had not fixed the problem. Only bought a little time between failures. However, the error code had changed, following the motor that had been moved from the right side to the left. The problem has been narrowed down to the (formerly, right) blade motor.
I’m expecting a call back from a designated service provider in St. Paul this morning with information on ordering a replacement motor (since the manufacturer shows little interest in offering support after the run-time hours have exceeded their warranty period).
The best part of working on the battery-powered riding tractor is that my hands hardly got dirty. No gas smell, engine oil, or grease. Just turning screws, pulling connectors, and attaching wires to clean, dry electronic components.
It was a real treat to be working in my preferred element.
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Rolling Again
The ground hadn’t dried out all that much but the grass was growing so thick and tall along the driveway, with more rain due to arrive soon, I decided to take a chance with the heavy zero-turn riding mower yesterday afternoon. The experience I gained driving the machine throughout last year’s mowing season appears to have carried over nicely. I successfully avoided getting stuck or making muddy skid marks despite needing to drive over slippery grassless spots and navigate the challenging slope along the road.
To warm up my skills, I started with the area behind the barn where it is drier, the grass is well-established, and closer to flat than most of the rest of our grass areas.
From there, I set off for the muddy slopes along the driveway. The thick, wet grass presented the perfect conditions for sticking to the mower deck and plugging things up. I was already prepared to deal with that situation because I made ramps last year that hook on the loader bucket of the diesel tractor. It was a sturdy surface that provided just the right height.
A clean mower deck makes for a happy mowing guy. The unfortunate thing about the task is that I get to see how abused the blades are. Okay, that is a good thing. I just don’t like seeing it.
At about the same time that darkness arrived at the end of the day, it began to rain hard enough and long enough that I felt really happy to have gotten out to mow when I did. Based on the seven-day forecast, it doesn’t look like it’s gonna get any drier around here anytime soon.
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Didn’t Happen
We somehow got missed by the passing snowstorm overnight Monday. Looking at the radar map from the comfort of our bed had me suspecting we were getting a fair dose of flakes. I figured there would be some shoveling to do at the very least when we headed out to feed the horses.
Much to my surprise, the number of flakes on our front steps was so paltry, there was open space between each one. It was like a cloud had sneezed and that’s all there was to show for it.
That’s okay. With no real foundation amount of snow this year, an occasional few inches ends up being more of a nuisance than anything fun. Plus, since snow didn’t happen, it gave me more time to prepare the ATV for eventual plowing. In my post yesterday, I mentioned that the electric lawn tractor was blocking the ATV and wouldn’t move due to some fault revealed by an error code. I couldn’t even get the drive wheels to release by the manual override that would allow me to simply muscle it out of the way.
Well, a second try proved to be the charm. I’m not aware of having done anything different, but when I tried again to pull the two levers that stretch a spring disengaging each drive wheel yesterday, it worked on my first try. I pushed the lawn tractor out of the way and drove the ATV out.
That success allowed me to hook up the trailer and finish hauling away all the branches I’ve trimmed off in the last month. The north loop pine tree project is officially completed for the season.
And, the ATV is now front and center in the shop garage.
You can see by the photo I took yesterday how much snow cover we have after receiving virtually none from the storm that passed just to our southeast. Weather forecasters suggest a plowable amount of snow is on the way for Friday.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
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Relative Something 