[alan]

It would appear that it was Mountfield that did some tinkering with the tractors after they got them and stuck the additional stickers on including two (see photo) that say ‘G D Mountfield LTD, Reform Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire’.

So far an inventory of the tractor shows that nothing is missing and all the components are intact and I can probably clean and reuse everything which makes it a bit easier and it keeps it all original. I think I’ll restore the tractor to the specification that it was delivered to the customer as that is how it originally was.

The steel work is in good condition and the quality of the components and steel are far better than nearly every tractor I have. Even the many Wheel Horse tractors I have owned looked positively second-rate and low quality compared to the Elec-Trak.

I’m now going to have to sort out all the electrics before I can do anything with the machine – this may be a very long process!

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[alan]

I always thought it slightly odd that my Elec-Trak doesn’t actually say ‘General Electric’ on it anywhere like all the others around the world.

So today curiosity got the better of me and I decided to investigate the steering wheel which had a basic silver sticker in the middle. And to my surprise under the sticker is a red and silver General Electric logo which I photographed, below.

Also the ID plate (see photo) has been cut in two removing the General Electric logo and info. The GE logo has been removed from the front grille and replaced with a dealer sticker, and the ‘General Electric’ words and logo on the fender sides have been substituted with just ‘Elec-Trak’.

I guess that the reason is that Mountfield sold the Elec-Trak as one of their own products, it is always described in UK marketing as the ‘Mountfield Elec-Trak’ and not ‘General Electric Elec-Trak’. So all GE details have been removed from the tractors.

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[alan]

Hi Charlie

I think this branding of tyres and items is perhaps just an American thing as I’ve seen it on many of our tractors and the Elec-trak has manufacturers name, location and State stamped on nearly every individual component. The Cub Cadet is probably the most interesting as every bolt head is stamped with ‘IH’ for International Harvester!

[alan]

Not that this is very interesting but I thought I’d add this photo to the Elec-Trak thread. I always guessed that my Elec-Trak hadn’t done a lot of work and had noticed that the tyres were in remarkably good condition for 40 odd years old, on closer inspection they are the original tyres stamped with the Elec-Trak branding.

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[alan]

I’m back to try and detail some of the info about the Elec-Trak.

Thanks Mike for the post regarding the possibility that there might be other Elec-Trak tractors lurking in buildings in the country. As with anything there are probably more than we are aware of.

I have done some more research regarding the tractors in the UK. Having searched through Google Books online there’s a photo of one in Liverpool at an exhibition/trade stand. But I cannot view the picture via Google books. Sad as it may seem I would like to have a copy of the picture. It is in a copy of The Horticultural Trade journal (Gardeners Chronicle), 1976, Volume 180, Page 14 although I don’t know which issue. Does anyone have a copy of this?!

I can get a copy from the British Library but since I don’t know which issue it is in (there are 25 issues) I’m a bit stumped.

Alan

[alan]

I recall that we can view all the posts in a list with the most recent first by going to https://vhgmc.co.uk/activity

You’ll notice that in the top left corner of the ‘activity’ list that appears there is a small RSS logo, if you click on this then a list of topics appears too.

As on most up-to-date websites the content can be viewed on a phone, laptop, tablet via an RSS feed although you may need to search google for the correct app or extension. You may already have something installed already though.

The links to the feeds are something like:

All Forum: https://vhgmc.co.uk/forums/feed

News: https://vhgmc.co.uk/news/feed

I guess that all the sections and subsections of the forum and site can be made into a feed by adding either /feed or /rss at the end of the specific web page address.

[alan]

Thanks for all the info, I think the Wolseley is probably based on an MTD design as you all suggest- I’d never have thought of looking at MTD for a similar model. I did find something from a similar era badged MTD/Lawn Flite a few minutes ago.

The machine is built on a chassis and the bodyshell can be changed for another design/manufacturer/brand if so wished, so looks like it could have been a universal design.

Serial number is missing but the sticker is there partially painted over, also the gearbox number (MOD 515, Peerless 32780408) which is of little use but I’ll post the photo for anyone else’s future reference.

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[alan]

Thought I’d put a few pictures on here for reference:

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[alan]

Thanks for the offer of panels Nigel. I think all the panels on my tractor are intact and reasonably straight – I’ll have a look this week and see if there is anything I have missed.

I want to have a look at renovating the Elec-Trak this year, but don’t know when. I’ve got a busy year ahead with work and business related stuff so it may not be until autumn that I get back to the Elec-Trak. But by then I may have worked out how to make the thing work!

[alan]

Hi John,

I’ve not made any progress yet but have had a look at the new BMW i3 car as it also has the same technology. It has an optional 650cc engine that charges the batteries as it goes along.

In theory it is all possible for the Elec-Trak but my limited technical knowledge will certainly struggle with it!

[alan]

Charlie,

The Cultivator came today thank you. The packing looked really good, in particular the postal address sheet with our address on and the VHGMC logo which made it look professional.

Alan

[alan]

Emoticons (smileys) can be created by using different symbol combinations, the software then interprets the symbols and substitutes the correct smiley.

So a semi-colon : plus a closed bracket ) together make a 🙂

Semi-colon plus a P make 😛

Semi-colon plus a D make a grin 😀

There’s loads more but they might not all convert to a symbol, there’s some details on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons

[alan]

Yes you can (as S1g says) change your avatar by: Click Username > Profile > Change avatar.

If you want to save a copy of your avatar image from the old forum to upload to the new forum then go to http://www.tractorbox.co.uk/forum. Then either log into your old forum account or find a post you have made where your avatar is shown. Next click the avatar photo with the RIGHT mouse button and select ‘Save image’ or ‘Save image as..’ etc from the drop down list. This will enable you to save the image to your computer ready to upload to the new forum.

[alan]

Nigel, we also had the thought of installing a small petrol engine to run a generator to charge the batteries but haven’t progressed any further with my limited knowledge of these things.

The machine I have and I presume yours also is the E10M, the M stands for ‘mid mounted mower’. These tractors run on 6 x 6v batteries making 36 volts. But there was a smaller machine called the E8M. This has 3 x 12v batteries also making 36 volts.

For everyone who doesn’t know these machines, there’s a battery compartment under the bonnet and another under the seat as shown in the photos. Three car sized batteries fit in each. So far so good, but we thought we could perhaps install 3 x 12v under the seat (as in the E8M machine) and install a small 2 or 3hp engine under the bonnet to charge the batteries. How to get the system to work is another problem!

I know this deviates away from the tractor being as it would have been when it left the factory but it is a possible way to bring it up to modern day thinking. Possibly.

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[alan]

I’m not sure if new battery technology would tempt folk into buying an electric machine. I do wonder how Ransomes (and others) have got on recently with new technology?

I remember reading a customer survey that Elec-Trak had carried out and they asked people their views on an electric ride-on-mower. Many people said that having an electric machine was unfamiliar and if anything went wrong then they wouldn’t be able to fix it themselves – unlike a petrol machine where at least diagnosis can be far easier than trying to fumble about with so many unknown electrical components and wires etc. Also a petrol machine could be fixed by any competent mower mechanic unlike an all-electric machine.

Another point raised in the customer survey was that when a petrol mower gets low on juice then we can just top it up and go again within a couple of minutes, whereas an electric tractor such as my Elec-Trak needs at least 2 hours to recharge 40% and 5 hours to recharge 85% according to the brochure in the early 70’s.

And don’t you think that hearing a petrol engine running on a tractor sounds good?!!

At present the batteries, think they are T105’s, come in at £700 for the set. I’ve got the battery charger, but I also need to replace all the electrics, the wiring is a bit of a mess and some switches etc certainly don’t work…..think it’d be easier and cheaper to rebuild a 10hp Briggs engine!

[Author]

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