Have you thought about using wheelchair motors? That's what most use.

Wheel chair motors are definitely one of the alternatives, but seem to be pretty pricey for a pair. Also, note my preference for a domestic (to me) source. US sources need to be imported to Canuckland.

Windshield wiper motors are more common, and can be sourced at a local wrecker yard for cheap I would imagine!

Check out this project by @jstarn1

Ryobi 40v Robot Mower With 40v Trimmer Whiskers By Jstarne1/ Starnes

You may get some ideas from his use of cordless drill motors.

Ron

If I can make a suggestion for the driving of the lawn mower.

Forget about cordless drill motors. Only suitable for small (very small) lawns. Cordless drill motors aren't supposed to keep running 1 hours constantly... They get pretty hot...

Wheelchair motors are excellent, however expensive.

I'm testing e-bike and e-ped (e- step) motors. I believe this is the right choice when you compare price/torque/performance/endurance.

It only requires a little bit of skill to adapt the drive with sprocket and chain to the lawnmotor.

In the attachment you'll find a few pictures of motors I purchased on ebay and banggood. I use this with and ESC.

DCMotorsLawnMower.zip

@PhG

Nice find. They look like they will work well.

Ron

Thanks for the input PhG. I had looked at electric bike motors. I would prefer a domestic source, but Bangood seems to have very good pricing. I have ordered from them before with good results.

I will have to change computers to download and view your attachment. My iPad doesn't like the zip file?

Additional post, this time no ZIP file but JPEG's. For the iPad users :)

Thanks PhG.

These motors look like a very viable alternative as they have mounting holes and a sprocket already supplied. Making a final drive would be easy - just find a matching sprocket type with more teeth. Might take some juggling to get the speed sorted. I think max travel speed should be 4 mph or about 6 kph.

Did you find these on Bangood, or mfr direct? Any chance of a product # if from Bangood?

Thanks in advance. Cam

Hi Cam,

I got the lager motor from eBay. It's actually from a eBike conversion kit. They sell them in different voltage/power ranges. And these days they're quite cheap.

Here are some examples: eBay: e-Bike conversion kit

eBay: e-Bike conversion kit

I'll have to look into the details on the smaller motor. It's identical to the one Dave is showing in his video, but mine comes with a sprocket. I have another one like Dave's with the pully still attachted somewhere in my shed in the back yard. It's been harvested from an e-Ped. Now that the winter is almost over I'll spend more time in my shed and hopefully get back to you with pictures of the drive with chain and sprocket.

Greetz,

Philip