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replacing gas motor with battery in robot mower

OldSurferDude

New here
Joined
Aug 19, 2025
Messages
6
Location
USA
I've order this mower (AWS-550) with the plan to electrify it. I already have a battery (my spare for my Rad City bike) with carrier. My purpose is to haul stuff around my hilly property.

The mower has two brushless motors (2 x 375W? or 2 x 750W? you never know with AliExpress). There is a remote controller, too. The idea is to take the output of the battery and put it where the generator output of the motor is plugged in. I don't know anything about the generator yet. Hopefully it's just bolted to the output shaft of the gas motor and I can read its nameplate. Worst case, it's a built in AC alternator which is rectified somewhere. I'd like not to fire up the motor to figure that out. (anyone want to buy a new 224cc gas motor? ;) )

Right now I'm trying to get ideas on how to get the energy out of the battery (yeah, short the leads ... ha, ha). My eBike requires pushing one of the controller buttons to turn on the battery. I assume that's some combination of the 3 pins on the carrier. Best case is that I can just connect it straight up to the existing controller board.

Any thoughts? More questions when I get the mower on Oct 5 (so says AliExpress)
 
First thought is that the ad is a scam. It claims it's already electric right there in the item title / description:
Customized remote-controlled lawn mower with 750W brushless motor, factory direct sales, featuring powerful climbing capability.

The specifcations state conflicting things (at end of post, due to length).

But one of them claims two 750w "walking" motors, presumably to drive the wheels. Says it has a 24v 24Ah battery, probably to run these.

I'd guess the 224cc gas motor it claims to have directly drives the blade on it's output shaft like any common push mower.

Doesn't indicate that it has a generator of any kind. If it did, it could use that as a starter...but it has an obvious pullstart handle on top, so, doesn't do that either.



It also says the mower itself weighs >330lbs, which seems far too heavy. My heavy heavy-cargo SB Cruiser trike might weigh that much with everything on it. I have an old B&D mower I put batteries on, and together they weigh probably more than twice what the mower itself does, and they're about 35lbs each; if they were all equal that's still only just over 100lbs.

If it actually does weigh that much, it's going to take significant power to climb hills jsut on it's own, much less trying to haul stuff up them for you. You can calculate the actual power required with various internet calculators based on total weight being moved, worst-case slope, and speed required.


A quick google shows that a harborfreigth 224cc engine (same cc as claimed in the specs) is about 38lbs, or something like one of the batteries I have. Even if it's "24v 24Ah" battery is lead-acid, and weighed say, 50lbs or more, that's still another 200+lbs of junk they must have on there to get up to 330lbs+ total weight.


Supposedly track width is only 150mm, yet it says it's cutting width is 550mm. I don't see any blades waving or spinning around outside the mower, which it would require to do this, since the track (wheels) is the widest part of this mower. The photos indicate completely different numbers for this, saying it's almsot a meter wide and long, and half a meter high. But this same image *also* restates the same specs that are in text form in the ad, of the 150mm width.
1755667438496.png



I would basically not trust that you will get what you expect (well, maybe you're not expecting much...).


that all said, the remote indicates that you could just drive it around, and since the cutting is a gas motor, you could rip that whole engine ane cutting stuff out, and just use it as a remote tractor, exactly as it already is, without electrifying anything else.

If you need to use the battery off your bike to run it...keep in mind that your battery is the wrong voltage, and probably can't supply enough current to run the motors going up a hill by itself, much less having it pull loads for you.

You'd need to test it with a wattmeter installed between ti's original batteyr adn the rest of the system, without any load, going up your hills, to see how much power it takes that way. Then do the same with your worst-case load. Then pick a battery that can supply that power for the amount of time you have to operate it before recharging it.

Make sure the battery you pick is capable of *more* current (A Amps, not Ah Amp-hour) than the wattmeter shows it takes, so that it can handle overloads and will still do the job as it ages.

Make sure it has more Ah / Wh than the wattmeter shows it uses up to do the job you need done for the amount of time you need it to operate. (if the existing battery doesn't run long enough, multiply the readings you do get proportional to the extra time you need).

Monitor motor temperatures to be sure they don't get too hot pulling hte extra weight of your loads; the ad claims they'll work fine up to 130C, but motors can begin to fail (demagnetize, overheat, etc) below that temperature depending on their design.



1755667688784.png




Specifications​

  • Hign-concerned Chemical
    None
    Core Components
    engine
  • Warranty of Core Components
    1
    Video outgoing-inspection
    Available
  • Machinery Test Report
    Available
    Marketing Type
    lawn mower
  • Warranty
    1
    Use
    lawn mover
  • Showroom Location
    China
    Applicable Industries
    home
  • Origin
    Mainland China
    Brand Name
    NoEnName_Null
  • Place Of Origin
    China
    Model
    AWY-550
  • Overall Size
    960*930*560MM
    Package Size
    1000*980*710MM
  • Total Weight
    150KG
    Package Weight
    185KG
  • Cutting width
    550MM
    Cutting Height
    20-150MM
  • Starting Method
    Remote start and stop
    Walking Speed
    4KM/H
  • Gradeability
    45°
    Walking Motor
    750W*2
  • Engine Brand
    LONCIN
    Fuel Tank Capacity
    1.2L
  • Power
    224CC
    Oil Capacity
    0.6L
  • Fuel Consumption
    1.2L/H
    Track Width
    150MM
  • Mowing Efficiency
    1500M²/H
    Lifting Method
    Remote control electric lift
  • Lighting
    Remote control light
    Voltage/Battery Capacity
    24V/24AH
 
Right now I'm trying to get ideas on how to get the energy out of the battery (yeah, short the leads ... ha, ha). My eBike requires pushing one of the controller buttons to turn on the battery. I assume that's some combination of the 3 pins on the carrier. Best case is that I can just connect it straight up to the existing controller board.
Measure your battery with a voltmeter. Do you get a voltage on it (the one you'd expect from a full charge)? Connect up an old incandescent lamp to it so it lights up. Still get that voltage on the battery? Light stays on? No need to fiddle with anything then. :)

If you don't get anything out of the battery until you have it on the bike and the bike turns on, then you can't use that battery on anything but that bike. THere are plenty of such proprietary systems out there. I doubt the radbike is like that, none of the ones I've seen are, but yours could be an exception.

If it is, the safe way you could use the battery is to repalce the proprietary communications-requiring BMS with a standard one, but you ahve to pick one that is the right one for your cell chemistry, and that has the right current limit to protect them (and the interconnects and wiring) from damage, etc. Then you ahve to wire that in, preferably in place of the old one. Now it may not work on your bike anymore.

If the amoutn of current it can support isn't enough for the mower, then it wont' work on that either....
 
you're not expecting much
You're right, I'm not expecting much. After all, it's AliExpress.

This is an experiment. Because the purpose of an experiment is to gain knowledge, experiments never fail. When I fail, I am usually devastated. Therefore, I always do experiments. It's also an adventure.

Yes, I saw most of the the red flags you noted (not the 24V 24Ah battery), particularly the 185kg! (maybe they're human trafficking two or three small people? :eek: )

My hope is a frame with two motors with gearboxes and the treads and rollers, all functional with enough documentation (pdf) to figure it out. (I have used Google to translate Chinese pdf's). Anything that works after that is gravy. I do not expect any kind of a blade.

And thank you for responding! You're welcome to join me on this adventure. I'll keep you posted. (Should I post my screen captures of communication with the seller?)
 
You're right, I'm not expecting much. After all, it's AliExpress.

This is an experiment. Because the purpose of an experiment is to gain knowledge, experiments never fail. When I fail, I am usually devastated. Therefore, I always do experiments. It's also an adventure.
That's probably a good attitude for this sort of thing.

(most things in my life are "experiments"...from electronics to "music" to ebikes to "landscaping" to dog rescue, etc)



Yes, I saw most of the the red flags you noted (not the 24V 24Ah battery), particularly the 185kg! (maybe they're human trafficking two or three small people? :eek: )
:lol:

More likely they're using it to ship packages around the tariffs. Order one of these, then the declared weight covers a bunch of other little valuable stuff, which is hidden inside the mower (if not it's packaging). The shipping receiver, post-customs, pulls all the bits out and then sends it on to you, much lighter.... ;)


My hope is a frame with two motors with gearboxes and the treads and rollers, all functional with enough documentation (pdf) to figure it out. (I have used Google to translate Chinese pdf's). Anything that works after that is gravy. I do not expect any kind of a blade.
Well, I wouldn't really hold out much hope of any documentation. :lol: Much less anything truly useful. Sometimes that does happen, but it's so very rare.


And thank you for responding! You're welcome to join me on this adventure. I'll keep you posted. (Should I post my screen captures of communication with the seller?)
That might be hilarious, depressing, or informative, depending on what, if anything, goes wrong.

Of all the things I have tried out from ali* and similar shops (including amazon, ebay, etc), luck has been good on a significant percentage, but I am not certain there is even a majority that I would call a complete success, as many don't completely match their advertising, and some simply don't work at all.

Some exceeded my expectations by quite a bit, but like useful documentation, that's very rare.

(getting both at the same time...I think that's happened once).
 
Man, this is a nice little tank.
Let us know when it arrives, if it's as good as it looks
At least looks real in the video - recently i'm seeing more and more AI-generated products on Aliexpress that probably never existed.
BTW there are lots of such mowers on Ali, all at ridiculously low prices. Like 10% of what it costs elsewhere. I suppose this is far too good to be real, even for Aliexpress.
 
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Funny, today when I went to check something I thought I'd missed above, their prices shows
$520.16 Save $3,195.29 for the mower itself. Yesterday when I was looking up the stuff above, it was a similar price, but the "save" was only a few hundred dollars. (it default to show you only the price for hte blade, which is a ridiculous $220, so you have to chose AWY-550 to get the mower price....but even the blade "savings" is far higher today than yesterday; it's over 1300 today, and yesterday was less than a tenth of that). It's still on the same "back to school" sale....
 
I'm sure this will surprise you ... the unit cannot be shipped to the USA because it doesn't meet EPA standards. (But the exact same motor is sold in the USA.) I was offered a similar one that is shipped from the USA that meets the standards for USD$1720. One might suspect that this is bait-and-switch.

I declined this offer and responded with "I understand the problem. If you ship without the motor, it will meet standards. I would propose that you remove the motor and send the rest, reducing the price by $200. If possible, disconnect the generator from the motor and send that, too."

(I certainly have a strange idea of what is entertainment!)
 
:lol: worth a shot; should be funny to see what happens.

I'd just about bet they remove the *electric* motors instead of the gasoline engine....and since it doesn't appear to have a generator that I could find anywhere in it's info, they also remove the batteries and charger....

Wouldn't want it to arrive with anything *useful* still attached, would we? ;)
 
Screenshot 2025-08-23 061329 cancel order because seller raised the price.jpg
The fact that they have this reason as an option to cancel is confirmation that AliExpress knows that its sellers often use bait-and-switch.
 
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Post Script: I received my refund today. This is one thing I like about AliExpress; the company is fair and prompt concerning transactions and sellers pay attention to this. On the consumer end, one should promptly acknowledge receipt so that the sellers get paid promptly. As @amberwolf noted, there were many red flags with the seller, but careful attention resulted in an acceptable conclusion. caveat emptor!
 
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