Re: (ET) Fall, blowers, and load bearing rust....

["Stewart Wells" <toews wells sasktel net>]

Hi all, is there a comprehensive list of all the attachments that were
available for these tractors?  I have the mower, front end loader, handheld
roto-weeder, and pull behind roto-tiller.  Depending on price and
transportation distance I would be interested in a front-mount blade and
snow blower.

Thanks to everyone who contributes to this thread.

All for now, Stewart Wells, Swift Current, Saskatchewan

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Zach via Elec-trak [mailto:elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu] 
Sent: October 31, 2026 2:38 PM
To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Subject: (ET) Fall, blowers, and load bearing rust....

Well, it's fall and the mighty E-20 has been reconfigured into a massive
leaf vacuum. This year I got the deck replaced with my last new shell, and
it's been working great.

So I hooked up the new(er) vacuum blower and got myself to work. First I
drilled some holes and mounted a golf cart contactor on the blower so I
could turn it on and off using the signal wire from the mower deck
contactor. I used to have this on the old blower, but the kid threw that 
out
by accident, so I modified this one and now it's working great!

Running the tractor, blower, and deck is a lot of power, but it does pick 
up
the leaves well and turns them into seriously shredded stuff. I got a new 
10
foot section of flexible tubing as the old stuff was rock hard and flat in
places. Pretty cheap on Amazon, clear so I can see clogs, and quite
flexible.

I'm using the rusted elec-trak trailer to hold the leaf bag, that works but
I backed it into a tree and freed the tailgate from the rear of the 
trailer.
It had been rusted to the floor panel and when it broke free I was thinking
"oh dear, that is LOAD BEARING rust..." but it turns out there are two 
large
frame box girders under there so all will be well.

I drilled two holes in the Deere seat mounting side so I could use zit ties
and hose clamps to hold the hose on the rear fender, over the wheel. This
keeps the hose from dragging on the ground and also away from the rear
wheels and chains.

Wile mowing I found that the lift strap had broken. Not a big issue, I have
a spare, however the wire clamp had frozen to the shaft and I realized it's
been about 25 years since I last replaced it. So I took the whole lift 
apart
and found that the shaft had literally rotted under the strap and it's
pretty much shot. The most annoying thing is that the cotter pins that hold
the side guides had also rotted, and it is impossible to drill/tap them 
out.

I finally gave up and swapped a spare lift onto the tractor to get going
again. But yeah these things are starting to be consumable after 50+ years.

Everything's done, tractor is charging away, tomorrow I may mount the dozer
blade on the other tractor and start working on moving the dirt and junk 
out
of the driveway gutters. Nice to have the tractors, they do their jobs
well.....

How is everyone else doing?

Chris


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