Revolution 26 Reel Mower Gas to Electric Conversion Mod!!!!

Here's how I converted my brand new Revolution 26 reel mower from Honda GX160 gas engine to a 56V 2kW Electric Powerhead I built. 👊😎

Before and After

The Revolution 26 (Rev26) is a new reel mower by ReelRollers. It is a 26inch wide 6-blade Reel Mower that comes with a Honda GX160 gas engine. This is the only engine option available to purchase with the mower as of this writing. The GX160 is a great and reliable engine but it is VERY LOUD! It is typically rated at 102dBs and that combined with the spinning reel and chains on this massive mower, IT IS LOUD!!! So I decided to create an electric Powerhead to replace the Honda while keeping everything on the mower operating as was designed. 

My goal was to create an electric "engine" and not just slap stuff on top of the mower. I was going to make a steel housing but I then saw my old Ryobi 1800psi pressure washer just sitting there in my garage and it has a nice little box housing! I ripped everything out of the housing and cutout all the excess plastics to make an open chassis. I also added a few layers of 16gauge steel to the inside bottom of the housing for additional weight and make it more rigid. 

Below is how it looked after I gutted everything out of the power washer housing and test fitting the motor and battery on top.

Test Fitting the Motor and Battery in the Ryobi Housing.

With a contained electric motor design, the Rev26 gas to electric conversion is an easy mod! Below you see how the mower looks when you take the Honda engine out. The Honda is held by four bolts. Take those out, loosen the hex screws on the 20mm to 20mm solid shaft coupling and the engine lifts right up. Only other thing to do is also disconnect the throttle cable from the Honda. The cable is held by a clip with a single screw under the air filter cover.

Rev26 with Honda GX160 Removed. Drive Shaft is self balanced and sits about
4.25inches from base of mower. This is important for knowing what height to
set the electric motor.

For the electric motor, I went with a 48V 2000W brushless motor by vevor. I got mine from eBay for $125 but it's also available on amazon under different brand names like this one. Same exact motor. This 48V motor is rated for 2.71 HP and 4.0 N.M torque and 5400rpms max. It is typically used in e-bikes and go-karts so I figured it would be plenty enough to power and move the Rev26 around. The motor comes in a kit with controller, twist throttle, and 3-speed button (if included). Below is how I fitted the motor and controller in the base of the housing. I mounted the motor through the bottom steel plates and the controller just sits snuggly in place. I added a heatsink to the motor to help dissipate the heat since It does get pretty hot! I also added a 4inch radiator fan to the exterior to move the heat out.

I chose this 48V motor partly because I already had a 56V 10AH Ego battery on hand.
I did get an additional Ego 10AH used from eBay ($299) just incase one was not enough.
Happy to say One 10AH battery is plenty enough for my 6000sqft lawn! 

Wiring this motor and controller is pretty straight forward. The image below is how wiring on the controller is typically labeled. The most important ones are the battery power connections (thick red and black wires), motor phase connections (thick yellow, green, and blue wires), motor 6-wire Hall connection, throttle 3-wire connection, 3-speed switch 3-wire connection, Power lock or controller on/off connection (the orange and red wires. These can be permanently jumped or add an on/off switch like I did to switch the controller on/off). The rest can be left unused as I did (charger, brake, reverse, light, etc). I did later add an on/off button to the reverse 2-wire connection and use this function for back-lapping the reel blades.

Note that these motors will normally spin backwards from what you want. To correct this, you need to simply swap the blue and green phase wires and the blue/yellow Hall wires. Meaning connect the the thick blue wire from controller to green wire on motor. And the green wire from motor to blue wire on the controller. Yellow connects to Yellow. And swap the Blue and Yellow wire pin positions on the 6wire Hall connector. Done. Motor will be spinning in correct forward position now.

Next is how I connected and wired everything. I added a battery ON/OFF switch and connected a 30Amp inline fuse on the positive battery line. I also added an rpm reader connected to a 48V to 12V converter. The red/black wire on the converter connects to battery and yellow and other black wire next to it supply 12v. This is how the rpm reader is powered since the rest of the system is 48V. The 4inch radiator fan is also connected to the 12v supply, and latter I added a 12v 6inch light bar too. I used a connection block to connect the motor to the controller, and all positive/negative battery connections, including the voltage converter. Make sure the nuts are tight and snug on the connection block or you risk resistance which causes heat. I also connected a battery voltmeter directly to the battery positive/negative supply lines.

Here's a quick connection diagram I put together. I forgot the 3speed switch and throttle but they both connect directly to the motor controller.

Close up of the connection block and 12v converter on top of the controller.
I used double-side tape to hold them in place.

In the middle of image below you can see the throttle cable and wire connected to the thumb throttle. I drilled a hole threw the thumb throttle lever and hooked the wire and tied off with a throttle cable end link. The thumb throttle is spring loaded so it goes back to zero when releasing the main mower throttle lever. I used this connector kit to easily make more 2/3 pin connections and this kit to join wires together and make round-end connections. A crimping tool would be handy but I simply used needle nose pliers to make the pinch connections and heat shrink to cover everything up.

How everything is wired and connected inside the Powerhead.

Here you see how the throttle cable is linked to the ebike thumb
throttle using cable end link to hold it in place.

Another close up view of how the thumb throttle is connected to the mower throttle lever.
The thumb throttle is spring loaded to return to zero position so I just need to connect it
for pushing (or pulling in this case) and it returns when I move the mower lever back.

The motor has a 12mm shaft once you take off the chain sprocket it comes with. The Rev26 comes with a 20mm drive shaft. So you need a 12mm  to 20mm coupling to connect the motor. I used a different version from automationdirect.com that needs 3 different parts (SJCB-40C-12, SJCB-40C-20, and SJC-40-RD-SLEEVE). Below you also see how the pickup and magnet for the rpm display is mounted. I drilled a wide but very shallow hole on the coupling and JB-welded the magnet. The magnet only works on one side so it's important to test the right side before permanently mounting.

Here's the powerhead mounted on the mower and in maintenance mode. I'm using these simple latch clips to keep the two parts of housing in place. The battery on top is heavy enough to push everything down and the whole thing doesn't move. But it allows me to quickly open the enclosure for cleaning and maintenance like below.

Later I wired the reverse function of the controller for back-lapping the reel with this hidden on/off switch. The switch actually came with the motor kit and I just repurposed it. The reverse is a simple on/off function so any switch would do.

 Reverse back-lapping switch from inside. 

I access the back-lapping switch from this opening on the front.

I mounted the 56V Ego 10AH battery on top of the housing. To make the top housing more rigid, I added a steel place inside and bolted some wood pieces through the top. I also added some addition mounts on the outside for extra strength. Power from the Ego battery is connected using this 3D printed part. I mounted it on top and added a strap for additional support. Below is how the battery mounting mechanism looks like. The small brown piece of wood I added afterwards to provide some tension under the battery making it sit very snug. Note that there are cheap alternative Ego batteries and plenty of used ones on eBay for much cheaper than a new one. 

Battery mount mechanism

How the battery sits snuggly on top with zero play. 

Here's short video of everything wired up in the Powerhead and some final testing before attaching to Rev26 mower. You can also see how the throttle mechanism works when pulling the mower lever and it moves the ebike thumb throttle. Simple and effective.

Next up was to figure out how to mount the powerhead on the mower. I ended up drilling 4 holes to attach the powerhead with the steel mounting plate I made. I allocated some more weight on the non-chain side and more weight direct under the housing to help balance things more. Overall, the Powerhead+ Ego 10AH battery weights about 39lbs compared to the Honda GX160+gas at 37lbs. So good on the weight distribution.

Powerhead fitted on mower. Notice the additional weight bars on non-chain side.
Again this can be done with any 12x7x8 type of enclosure like this one on amazon.
Or simply build your own. 

And that's it. I will probably take everything apart and beautify it some more with color matching paint and touch ups. I'm also still testing and fine tuning a few things but she's ready to go. Here's some more photos of the complete project and a video of a test cut. 

I added the drive Shaft shield back on with simple modifications to fit.

Handle still folds down for storage.

Here's my public amazon list with all the parts listed. I also included an optional GX160 mounting plate that I purchase and returned because it did not suite my need. But it's perfect for using the existing mounting holes on the mower and connecting any kind of housing to it. 

Thank you for reading. A detailed youtube video will follow soon too.

Ask any questions below in comments.😎😎