Would you buy an electric tractor?

[MossRoad]

So they couldn't work 24/7.

Nope. But neither can you.

A fleet would be required, just as multiple employees would be required. And we all know that people are one of the most expensive things to have around.

 

[MossRoad]

At my last employer, we had electric clamp trucks for moving 2000# rolls of paper. They had no problem lifting one roll stacked on top of another roll up 16' high. They'd run about 4 hours max. When charge got low, they'd run over and plug it in, and grab another truck and go. They weighed about 12,000#. In a warehouse environment, it was great, because no emissions indoors. No gas motors to maintain. Did have to do lead acid battery maintenance weekly, which was just inspections and topping off with water. I can't see that transitioning to field work. Too short of time between charging.

One could talk about diesel electric, but that's not an all-electric tractor and I think that's what this discussion is pertaining to.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Of course, electric tractors are a good idea, but unfortunately they find it difficult to do their job all day without recharging, and also with a high load. Perhaps in the future they will replace diesel tractors, but now is not their time.

I agree with you but I think based on your posted tractor usage you would be a better fit for an all electric tractor than about anyone posting here. Welcome to the world of tractors. Now that Lithium Ion battery packs are 1/20th to cost of 20 years ago meaningful electric tractors are starting to gain traction in Europe and especially China due to the shear high tech companies they have working on electric tractors, cars, buses, etc.

 

[ruffdog]

Another electric tractor:

Electric Tractors Can Revolutionize Agriculture

 

[Doug62]

I'm with the guys who think this isn't happening real soon. It will work for some places but not others. You'd need to pay close attention to the charge to determine if you could finish your job. Once they get where they can run all day on one charge, then you might see a big switch over.

My guess is that the electrical grid will move to micro grids sooner rather than later. It's way faster to deal with those after a hurricane, etc. and the mirco grids provide much more stability over a larger area.

 

[ZJ_HR]

I like electric motors, 3 phase on 400V grid. They can overcome any combustion engine. Even on brushless battery hand tools.

On vehicles, like cars and especially tractors - no. Problem is battery and efficiency in general. They can just relocate emissions and pollution from high populated area, but they produce more pollution than ordinary vehicles.
A guy from Slovenia converted old IMT tractor to electric. I'd say, just for fun and light work. You can find more details here:
Borut Lesjak - YouTube

Only hybrid car I like is that
The Diesel Prius—It’s Cooler than It Sounds

 

[Gale Hawkins]

In my search for wrecked Leafs I saw one video of a guy hauling home a Leaf in the back of his Prius.

 

[Industrial Toys]

The focus should have been more on cutting down emissions, like millions of ICE vehicles not idling in traffic jams, rather than pretending electric isn't polluting. Government just never gets anything right. It's always a misapplied effort. Of course, someone always gets RICH. That's number one priority!

Anything with a continuous running requirement like a PTO or mower, is a tough requirement. So many battery operated devices and tools have a duty cycle which can lead one into a false sense of their capacity.

 

[Grumpycat]

The focus should have been more on cutting down emissions, like millions of ICE vehicles not idling in traffic jams, rather than pretending electric isn't polluting. Government just never gets anything right. It's always a misapplied effort. Of course, someone always gets RICH. That's number one priority!.

Yes. Government erects traffic lights, out of sync forcing stop/go traffic doing everything to increase fuel consumption then demands automakers improve MPG.

Traffic lights should have been networked decades ago with a backdoor for emergency vehicles.

 

[MossRoad]

Timed stoplights kill businesses in downtowns, especially on one-way streets. They don't give people time to parallel park, and people are more likely to zip through town VS stopping and visiting businesses in town. Parallel parking on the left side of a one-way street is a lot harder as well. And it's more dangerous and uninviting for pedestrians to have traffic zipping by VS slowed by lights.

As much as I was against the "smart streets" initiative implemented in our town a few years ago, now that I'm used to it, I don't miss the timed lights and one-way streets all that much. I've found side streets that get me where I want to go almost as fast. Downtown is thriving again VS the death of it 30+ years ago. People are walking around and there's lots of eateries and events (pre-virus, unfortunately).

Yes, it increases fuel consumption. No one has done a study here as to how much. My commute used to be 7 minutes. Now it's 11 minutes. So while that seems ridiculously small, it's 4/7 longer. My car is moving slower and idling more, which are both efficiency killers. So let's just call it 50% increase in the time my engine is using fuel. Pollution and fuel consumption both rise.

So business thrives at the expense of automobile efficiency with non-timed lights. At least that's my conclusion. Is it worth it? Hard to say.