Can the E maxx help mow the lawn?
 

Ok, here's another brainchild of mine.

After tieing for MT Build of the year for 2008, I have to come up with something unique for this year also.

Here are the first pictures. I'll add more pictures as things begin to evolve more into the build.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07538.jpg

Here we have mounted rails on the body posts, and designed a battery box in the back to help balast the weight of the attachment that will be going in the front. The shocks have been beefed up some, but I have a feeling they will need replaced with much stiffer versions.

The Truck itself is setup on 10,000mah 4S Lipo with a MM modded with a Cap and a CC BEC. The Motor is an AXI 2826/10 12 pole outrunner. Making 920kv, it has a fan mounted that pulls air through the motor to keep it cool. Being geared 20/68, it shouldn't have a problem pulling this, even with the huge tires.

I have a 52 tooth Mod 1 spur on it's way. I may choose to go 12/52 with the gearing. Top Speed is not a priority with this build. In fact, this will be geared in the 10mph to 15 mph range.

Noticed the 4"x4"x 1/8" aluminum angle hanging off the front?

Well here's the rest of the deck that will be hinged from that.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07539.jpg

This will form the mowing deck. Trial and error will come into play I'm sure.

Now for the power plants:

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07541.jpg

The Blue motor will not be used. Instead, let's go with the gold motors. They are a pair of AXI 4130/16 outrunner motors. On 4S, they will spin the weed cutters at over 6000rpms. They will be powered by a pair of 80amp airplane esc's.

Each motor is capable of about 1.5 hp. I'll mount the AXI cooler fans to the motors to control temps.

The plan is:

Hang the mower deck from hinges, then mount two 200oz servos to raise and lower it. In the up position, it will be turned off. In the down position, it will be powered.

How might this be accomplished you wonder?

Well, since servo's and esc's alike are both controlled by pulse width modulation, I discovered something.

The 3rd channel can turn off, and also turn on at full throttle, airplane esc's. This third channel will raise and lower the deck, and also turn on and off the motors. All accomplished by the thumb trigger on a 3 channel tq3 radio. :yes:

I'm using 3/16" aluminum pop rivits to hold everything together. It has a long way to go, but I'll keep you updated as progress develops.

Rc weedeater, I love it!

Great idea!

Fun...
 

Looks like a fun project for sure. You can mow your lawn and have fun doing it this way as long as you can keep things up and running. Good luck with that.:lol:

if you get good at making these, im sure you can sell it as a kit haha

That's cool.

Do you ever post anything that has value to it?


Will the mover have height adjustments?


something like a winch servo that compresses the suspension so that it lowers the cutting deck?

Also, I'd be looking at rear-wheel steering to get a sharper turn radius. Or, implement something that allows 0-turn radius like "tank mode" or something like that. Otherwise, looks neat.

Thinking.
 

Come to think of it a mower usually does not have any kind of cushy suspension, so you will have to limit your suspension travel or you will just jam the blades into the lawn as it goes over bumps and such. The zero turn radious is another good idea for sure. Nice idea though. If you install a video camera for driving you could also mow your lawn from the comfort of your eazy chair while watching the NBA playoff games. Go Orlando, Go Denver, Booooooo LAL.

This thing is going to be sweet! I can imagine it now..

http://www.spoonersturf.co.uk/Images/StripedLawn.jpg

I almost forgot: Make sure you have a good radio! Since this thing has potentially fatal blades spinning at high rpm, you don't want to have a runaway or glitches and possibly run over someone's pet, or worse, a kid.

Depends???
 

That really depends on wheather or not he likes his neighbors, or their kids & pets???? I use those same blades on my weedwacker and I can tell you that they are deadly if used in the wrong situation. Plastic or not they can really do some damage, but man can they cut through the crapp.:lol:

The suspension will be pretty rigid to make for a smoother cut. The blades should remain at the same height throughout the ride. LOL

The mower will have some height adjustments in the body post adjustments.

About 1" or a little over of adjustment there.

I plan on trying the rear wheel steering a different way.

Reverse the Throttle channel, reverse the steering channel, then it will drive normally, backwards. Only the steering will be in the rear.

I've tried this before just playing around and it makes for a wild "feel".

Another thought is, guide rails along the sides to hold the blades just off that thing that you wanna trim close to. Or maybe a guide wheel on each side of the mowing deck.

Thanks Jerry,

The Camera idea did cross my mind. In fact, I have a wireless camera here that is up to the job.

I'll get the mower working first and possibly move onto playing around with that also.

I remember hooking up a bumper cam to an E maxx and driving all the way around the house while watching the cam on TV from my living room.

I know the cam idea will work and it does get pretty hot out there. :yes:

I've often wondered what Dogs/Cats think when they see things like this out in the yard? They always look at it like "WHAT THE HELL?" :lol: