Electric tractor conversion when oil is $200

[jeffgreef]

So they say, the price of oil will top $200 a barrel within 10 years.

The president of Toyota says their company is anticipating the day that the cost of gasoline for autos will be prohibitive, so they are investing in alternative drive trains.

So, if I buy a tractor today that I want to fulfill my needs for the next 30 years, stands to reason that I'd want to do one of two things-

1-Get the cheapest, smallest I can to do the work I need to do now, and expect that I will replace it with an electric tractor in 10-20 years.

2-Get a tractor that I can most easily convert to electric at a later date.

If I get a tractor that I plan to convert, makes sense not to get a hydrostatic. Hydro is basically compensating for the problems of an internal combustion engine- the fact that you must run it at a constant rpm. With an electric motor on a gear drive, you don't need to clutch to stop and start. You have infinite speed in any gear. If the PTO runs off a separate motor, the implement stays at a constant speed no matter the tractor speed, just like hydro.

Are we all going to be talking amperage and battery capacity in a few years, rather than gear versus hydro?

Look at these electric tractors on youtube:

YouTube - Electric Tractor Development.wmv

JG

 

[Bedlam]

Interesting and remember for a tractor the weight of the batteries can be beneficial.
dont forget the side videos also like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-8i8UHc60M&feature=related

 

[ModMech]

GE was almost 50 years ahead of the times.

Electrak

I already own one with almost every attachment one would need. I'm working on turning our old JD 826 snow blower into a 36v tiller

 

[bdog]

When oil was $100 diesel was around $2.75 a gallon, so lets guess with $200 oil diesel will be around $5.50 a gallon. How much do you plan to use your tractor? I would guess fuel consumption on a compact tractor to be between 1/2 and 3/4 gallon per hour. How many hours will you realistically use your tractor? I would guess the average owner puts 100 hours or less per year.

 

[RoyJackson]

Even if oil got to $200/barrel, I don't expect it would affect CUT owners much as far as their tractor usage. These things sip fuel.
Where we will be affected is the reduction of disposable income steming from those fuel costs...we may not be able to afford these expensive toys. For those of you with short memories, grocery prices skyrocketed when fuel prices jumped to $100/barrel, and they'll do it again.
However, I do see hydrogen (the most plentiful element in the universe) becoming more prevalent as a fuel source.

 

[SPYDERLK]

I have an electric golf cart. It has a battery pack about 1/2 as big as the pack used for the demo equipment. Just pulling itself - no other work - the cart will die in a couple miles of hilly trails. An eight hour day? ... sure, just so you spend most of the time sitting. An hr of real work and you better be at the electric outlet.
larry

 

[Aqualize]

I would go with the first option.
You see the batteries takes quite a lot of space from the video. I think that when the CUT manufacturers do launch production models they would not be built as the same internal design as today (e.g. no clutch or gearbox), they would place batteries in all different places and make new places (like where the gearbox is). So I doubt it will be very practical to just remove the engine and put in a few batteries and electric motors. Your tractor would have to be custom modified to encompass these parts. Handyman people would of course try to do it but I think it will be more than just swapping combustion engine to electrical engine.

I think electric tractors with chemical batteries are feasible for SCUTs and CUTs. Reasons why are that they often stay close to where they can be resupplied (charged) and that MOST owners do not use them at their maximum for a whole day's work.
Looking at agricultural big tractors I don't see any indication of using battery backed electric motors, the chemical batteries wouldn't suffice from morning to evening. Remember they weight a lot. The agricultural tractors are heavy enough as they are. Carrying a enormous battery pack wouldn't help. For CUTs people seem often to have problem with them weighting to little, filling the tires with liquid, rim weights and ballast weights in the back. Here extra weight can be more useful but stuffing batteries everywhere in the tractor.

New Holland has made a concept agricultural tractor driven by hydrogen fuel cells and electric motors. Other options for big tractors are to still use combustion engines but with other fuel than petroleum diesel. Biogas or biodiesel (pure or mix with petroleum diesel).

New Holland's NH2 tractor
NOW IN VIDEO: New Holland's fuel cell tractor - 12/02/2009 - Farmers Weekly
A video while test driving it.
YouTube - New Holland fuel cell tractor NH2

Their independent farm concept:
YouTube - New Holland's Energy Independent Farm concept

 

[ModMech]

Out Elec-Trak E-12 will cut at least 2Ac between charges and till for an hour to an hour and a half. That's a LOT, in fact the Snapper we have will only run for 2 hours on a tank of fuel.

LPG may be a good alternative, there are PLENTY LP tractors around here that no one is using right now.

 

[newbury]

I'd prefer to run on my own natural gas, But I imagine the seat modification for the fuel tube will be tricky.

 

[RoyJackson]

I'd prefer to run on my own natural gas, But I imagine the seat modification for the fuel tube will be tricky.

Spoken like true Vermonter in VA moving to Mississippi