Electric top and tilt

[ddbackhoe]

As far as running time, I know people like to complain about that, but honestly, that's plenty for a tractor this size. A simple planning of the tasks can "fix" lots of the running time issues, if there is any.

A little video I found on the internet of it working:

Not a complaint, an observation on the ratio of use vs charge time.
There are places now requiring new residential to install solar. So what happens to ”the grid” when all the residential users are ”self-sufficient”? A new fee (tax) imposed to offset the losses by the utilities and public service commissions? All part of the never ending loop of life.

 

[Vigo327]

I don't agree about the electric being pushed 'too hard too fast', at least not as far as the technology goes. MAYBE on the actual companies' side of things. EV car technology will be bulletproof by the time it trickles down to tractors (given the decade lag time), but it's up to tractor manufacturers who are probably 1-2 decades behind car manufacturers in the electric propulsion game, to not screw up the implementation with their relatively tiny design budgets, staff, manufacturing operations, etc. Tesla has been making their Model S for 11 years and they have creepy backdoor datamining info that every one of them has been uploading to the mothership since day 1 showing that their batteries are barely declining by 10% after 100k+ miles (which is generally over 3000hrs of actual driving). Pretty much every durability/longevity boogeyman has been disproven other than in low-end products that were wringing their batteries for all they're worth to get the least-disappointing range number when the actual solution was spend more money and get a bigger battery and work it less hard. Buy once cry once so to speak. Now the low end electric cars do 200 miles on a charge instead of 70 and can afford to be a little more protective of their batteries.

Smaller tractors in general are not great places to hide a bunch of batteries, though. I suspect we will see some pretty funny-looking tractors as electric propulsion proliferates into tractors.

 

[Fallon]

So as one of the (as far as i know) extremely few people to have any sort of electrically-powered top link (although not tilt), i'm still basically on the side of hydraulics.

The thing about hydraulic cylinders is that when the control valve for said circuit is closed (to the cylinder), the cylinder itself is essentially a solid object, and if you did push/pull on it extremely hard it is likely that a hose or fitting between the cylinder and valve will the failure point due to a pressure spike in the fluid. The hose and fitting are replaceable and relatively cheap. Hydraulic cylinders and circuits are essentially even stronger when sitting still than they are when moving and the forces move through the fluid.

On an electric linear actuator, there is a relatively small/weak electric motor hooked through a gear reduction 'transmission' to a threaded shaft. You can make an electric actuator as strong as a hydraulic cylinder, but even if you do, any impacts to the cylinder are NOT borne by fluid. Those forces go across machine threads and gear teeth in the very compact transmission. Electric actuators are just fine at moving 'dead' loads that don't really put any dynamic forces back into the actuator, but any time a 3pt implement bumps or snags over something or even just moves the 3pt up due to the contour of the terrain and then is allowed to fall back down to the previous height, you have a bunch of dynamic 'hits/judders/etc' going through whatever parts happen to be touching at the moment in the 'drivetrain' (these few threads, these few teeth etc) and the long term durability of it is suspect unless you upsize it well beyond the equivalent hydraulic setup in both physical size and cost. If you do manage to damage the drivetrain, it will be basically unrepairable, whereas the hydraulic system repair is usually just hoses, sometimes o-rings and lip seals inside the cylinder, or the rare worst case scenario of severely bending the cylinder rod which may still be individually replaceable without the cylinder being a 'total loss'.

My electric top link is actually just a hydraulic cylinder with an on-board self-contained pump/valve unit, called an electro-hydraulic actuator (EHA). The 'plumbing' has all the ease of an electric linear actuator because all you do is flip the polarity of two wires to make it extend and retract, but the 'impact/vibration resistance' is more in line with a regular old hydraulic cylinder.

Im not saying don't try it, im just saying pushing and pulling isn't the ENTIRETY of the job of your typical hydraulic cylinder, and resisting 'external' forces turns out to be something they're exceedingly good at. Linear actuators can do the pushing and pulling, but what you gain in ease of installation you might be trading away in long-term durability.

Here's a pic where you can see the electrohydraulic top link in profile at max extension, and another picture showing the same box blade tilted all the way forward (cylinder retracted).

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I agree. I put linear actuators on first power SSQA. Worked well, but required no holding force or constant pressure. The cheap ones were really slow & the more expensive ones weren't fast.

I'd likely do a linear actuator for a power SSQA again if I didn't have a hydraulic 3rd function up there. But no way would I use one for a highly loaded & constantly stressed TnT.

 

[npalen]

A top link cylinder, for some reason, usually has some air in it which is good in some applications for allowing float but not so good in others. An electric actuator for the top link would eliminate the air issue.

 

[ericm979]

A top link cylinder, for some reason, usually has some air in it

That's good to know. I thought that was just mine. First time I used my forestry winch it moved a couple inches. I try to remember to cycle the top link every so often but sometimes I forget.

 

[npalen]

That's good to know. I thought that was just mine. First time I used my forestry winch it moved a couple inches. I try to remember to cycle the top link every so often but sometimes I forget.

I do the same and try to let it extend slowly so the weight doesn't try to overrun the pump. I've used restrictors and think that they help some.

 

[Fallon]

A top link cylinder, for some reason, usually has some air in it which is good in some applications for allowing float but not so good in others. An electric actuator for the top link would eliminate the air issue.

Never had any air in mine & can't really think of a situation that would end up really being good. I do use float on mine all the time & wouldn't ever have a toplink without it. But I want to to float on command or be solid on command. Having it float when the lever is closed isn't good & having to cycle things all the time to purge air would drive me nuts.