Ride-on brands

Ignoring the commercial type machines, eg Iseki and Kubota, the seem to be 2 brands in Europe (France).

These groupings were made based on photographs of the machines. In general, you can see the pattern of the basket, the protection around the deck and the seat. Controls vary, but not much.


Group 1 - American
MTD
Husqvarna
Best Green
Club Cadet
Electrolux
McCulloch
Wolf

Group 2 - Italian - GGP
Alpina
Stiga
Sabre France/SARP/Castel Garden
Univert/Sentar
Colombia


I found the GGP machines a bit plasticy and flimsy. Compare the weights. I saw a Sentar Montreal (Kawa twin) at €2590, but the bonnet is so flexible.  The never-used model in the showroom already had part of the basket seal coming away. The GTR B is a more solid machine at €2390 (B&S PB), but you'll find the Alpina AT7 version for €1900. The dealer was prepared to discount €90. You'll be better off with the Husqvarna CT138 with the B&S Intek, pressurised oil system + filter, 98cm at €2400 + del.
AT7 can tow 100kg. The larger American ones can tow 180kg, with a nose weight of 25kg.
Rear axles on them all varied between the Tuff Torq K46 or Hydrogear. Both American, both good reputation with lots of spares and repair kits.

The only other economies I found were the engines. The GGP engines are made in China I was told, but what isn't. Still reliable though. Very little on the forums, so that confirms it.
B&S do a series 3 & 4 in 2 flavours. Intek and PB (power built) It's next to impossible to get an informed explanation of the difference between Intek and PB, but a lot of GGP stuff has PB, so that tells you it's cheaper. The Kawasaki 603cc 481 is made in USA.

Alpina gear is often heavily discounted and being white, stands out a bit in the garden.

July 2017

Err. Another ride-on

The increasing number of planted items in the garden is meaning me spending more time moving 5th to reverse more often than I'm straight running. A hydrostatic box beckoned. Of course, if your going to have a hydro box, you may as well get a rear collector too, as they are also marginally narrower without the side discharge. And a bigger engine to cope with the losses in the hydro box - well, it goes without saying.
Welcome to the 3rd ride-on in 7 years. Cub Cadet CC1016 KHE. This one is ~4.5 years old and has only ever cut ~1500m2 (google maps calculates ~1100m2). There is still stacks of rubber on the tyres. The hour meter is 139 hours, but the guy told me he'd left the ignition on until the battery went flat - probably 1.5 to 2 days. If you said 80 actual hours, 20/year, that is slightly more hours than 'we' cut, but I got the impression he cuts weekly. This does tie up with the oil change intervals. He changed the oil+filter for sale as he had already bought it. He is moving house in September, but decided to sell it now. I did find an ad for his house in LBC, plus his hunting lodge.

In Feb 2013, the retail value was €4079, on offer at €3399 and the guy paid €3200. I paid €1550. He said the local dealer was sort-of a friend had offered him €1400 (if he bought a trailer from him) and he would sell it for €1800-1900 ie +30%, which seems to be the margin on new ones. My local dealer had only 1 small used ride-on for sale, and he hardly ever had ones with collectors as they are the most sought after. The other local dealer had nothing (again) and only GGF made machines (see other post on brands)


Maintenance.
I'd say it's never been to a dealer for a service as there isn't much visible grease. That and there is no service receipts. The guy is meticulous and keeps everything. He gave me the folder with manuals, spare key, receipt etc. The oil is noted as changed :-
Date        hours
12/5/13    5
1/4/14      20 oil + filter. Motul synthetic
13/7/17    139 oil + filter. Oil type? Clean. Filled to mid mark.
Oil change interval is 100 hours, 200 for the filter.
Don't screw the dip stick in to measure level.

Air filter is very clean. He said to replace it when it's black, but I'd say it's original as it's OEM.
No fuel tap
There is a voltage reg on the engine.  Will need to test it.
19Ah MTD probably original battery. Standard size 130 W, 225 L, 155 tall. Volts low compared to a 30Ah.
14/8/17 Battery still good, but swapped and sold. 'New' battery is 30Ah Yuasa 1 year old (2/5/16) from another ride-on. Terminals on the wrong side meaning the cover fits badly, but ok.
Wiring for a oil pressure gauge, but the dash has no light and no sensor on engine.


Hour meter.
Made by Delta Systems Inc. Uses a PIC16f677. Fully protected code + eeprom. User ID 7f 7f 7f 7f. Checksum 0303. 

Looking at rear of pcb, 8 pin conn at bottom, there are 5 THP not coated. Top left dat, next to the right 0V (obvious), just below clk. Bottom right +5, above to the left mclr.
Power. Rear. Top row, RHS, 0v - obvious. +12 top row LHS.
Tried 2- 10 power cycles in 5s. no reset. It counts to 800, but it's not clear if it then starts again from 0.
From the mower schematic, front of pcb, bottom row, LHS, square pin in 1. Pins count to the right to pin 4, and pin 5, 0v, is above pin 1.

Cat feeder

Iq=0.06mA, 0.37mA whne led flashes

Low battery light ~5V

~0.7A when feeder motor runs (@4.7V)

~0.16-0.21A for vibration motor

Use Casino 'tous les jour alkaline' 1.63V new, 1.615 after 2 weeks use.

Tested at 4.7V below 0C for 9 days OK.

New 2014, probably.

Li-ion batteries

Flying.
No restrictions below 100Wh.
Possibly a max of 2 per person.
Have to be in hand luggage, unless installed in the appliance in the hold.
Compulsory above 100Wh, but recommended to tape up the terminals and put in poly bag.

1 cell
3.7V nom. 4.2 charged, 3V cut-off, but 2.7V OK 
2 cell
7.4V nom. 8.4 charged, 6V cut-off, but 5.4V OK 
3 cell
11.1V nom. 12.6 charged, 9V cut-off, but 8.1V OK 

ok to constant current charge at marked capacity for 1 hour, but lower better. Cut off when current drops.

Capacities at Feb 2017

Bosch 11.1 3 cell 1.3Ah ~2008. ~1Ah.
Dell laptop 6 cell 11.3V 4700 orig. >2Ah left Charger 90W, 1 hour, so ~5A
New 'elfeland' 3.6Ah. mass too low, sound hollow. ~1Ah.

Examples. boot heater, 33 ohm each (normally 17R)
2 cell, 7.6 cut off (1.76W)
I = V/R = 7.6/33 = 0.23A each
hours run = Ah/A 
For 1.3Ah, hours = 1.3/ (.23 x 2) = 2.8h
3.8Ah = 3.8/.46 = 8.3h
2Ah = 2/.46 = ~4h, but in practice get >6 hours on pwm as the higher start voltage means a lower current draw, and in general full power not required (3/4 power ok in cold weather)

Japan 2017
Dell 12V/2Ah 17R each heater
PWM used to reduce demand. Had to re-scale software to give full power as a percentage of max - 25% - but check.
the 3/4 setting of this new max was enough

PV array low IR

PV cable went low IR. Inverter warns below 1M. Got down to 600k without shutdown.
After about 6 years in the ground a joint got water in it. 
Replaced it with one length. Just under 16m, allowing 1m at the panels.

chainsaw mini service

Having blunted off a chain cutting  a stump, in putting the sharpened chain back on I realised that I hadn't checked the clutch in a while.  Block cylinder, LH thread and off it comes.  Bell was quite oily, as was the clutch.  Removed worm drive - a slight bit of lead in thread missing and a few tiny pieces of plastic.  Turns easily and oil is being used at the correct rate.
50Nm to re-torque, except my wrench isn't left handed.
Fuel cap was leaking which turned out to be grot in the fuel tank on the seal.  Emptied and cleaned tank and replaced fuel filter.
The air filter was changed too, which largely stopped the stalling it does when started hot.

Constant current / constant volt PSU

The PCB is the standard XL4015 CC/CV board; usually it has 2 pots and 3 LEDs and sold as a li-ion charger, but there is a variant with just 2 pots. I've been using it to charge batteries and as a general lab supply for low current stuff.  It's tiny, even with the displays, but I knew it was only a matter of time before some crap on the bench shorted it out, or wires fell off.
I use it with an old 18V/5A laptop supply which is way in excess of the output power, put it means I can get to 14V ok for charging. 
I didn't need the LEDs, so I removed them and re-used the spare 1/2 of the LM358 to make a x20 DC amp for the current display.

The chip is good for 5A, but the op-amp isn't rail to rail, so current limit wont go much beyond 4.5A; the display won't read above 3.7A.  This would be an easy fix using something like LMV358. Wish I'd spotted that before removing it to modify the pcb.

I got instability on the output as the main cap is before the shunt (on the -ve rail) A 100/25 fixed this, but means the output is now limited to 25V. 

There is a biased switch to allow the current limit to be easily set, rather than starting high and winding the limit down.  Going the other way won't allow most gear to actually start.

The chip is quite efficient - say 80-90%, but it does run warm with a high input to ouput volts ratio with a few amps.  A copper tab was soldered on to the regulator to get the heat to the case. Don't be temped to put on a heatsink; it would do very little in such a large volume and fail to convect.




The case is 80 x 55 x 25.  It's a bit tight and you can see the input terminals have gone and 1 cap is on its side, out of the way. The displays are just the cheapo 70p ones off ebay, modified to improve accuracy - see other blog posts, hot glued in place.  I'd have preferred to mount them under a clear window, but I already had the box.