A little test

I have a bunch of sod I need to pull up and level out. I was thinking I could do it all with a shovel, or I could use this super powerful handy lawn tractor that I have! I have still not made the cutting deck work, but it can pull stuff. I think I can make a sod cutter attachment to pull up my lawn. First I wanted to see if I could produce enough pulling power for that, so I did a little experiment.

I build a little sled from some 3/4" plywood I had sitting around. I loaded it up with the heaviest things I had, a couple buckets of dirt and decorative bricks.







I couldn't move the sled with my own strength, I'm guessing it was about 1000lbs. I pulled it around my yard several times. The tractor slowed down a bit, pulling about 50A in the lowest speed. I was impressed! It lost traction (particularly when trying to turn) and dug up some grass in a few spots. I think I could pull more if I had more weight on the tractor. I think this means I will have plenty of power for cutting sod, or pushing/pulling plows! Now I just need to finish the snow plow attachment, build a sod cutting attachment, and get the cutting deck working.

I'd like to change it somehow to stop the motor faster. When I adjust the belts to where they should be, it grabs when I try to stop, and the momentum of the motor forces the tractor to roll forward another 6". Bad when trying to get close to something and not hit it. Either better brakes, some way to make sure the belt doesnt grab the pulley, or just make the motor stop. Being series wound I think if I add a diode backward across the field and short the armature, if I switch fast enough from on to off it will plug brake itself. Not sure on that yet though.