Is it time to consider electric?

[CliffordK]

I’d have no problem with a battery zero turn for use around the home.
If it’s for commercial work, it’ll have to have a lot more battery life and power

24kWh 60 Inch Commercial Ride-On Mower | Greenworks Commercial

OptimusZ Zero Turn Ride-On Mower: Unleash the power of 24kWh battery & 60-inch deck for efficient, eco-friendly, and fast mowing. Get yours today!

www.greenworkscommercial.com

Not super cheap, but they're supposed to be good for about 8 hours a day worth of work, and mowing 21 acres. And the equivalent of a 65 HP engine.

That should be plenty to mow many parks, schools, rest areas, etc. Perhaps a couple of days or nights to mow some golf courses.

If you have more mowing than that, then you need to look for a different solution than a small zero turn.

Greenworks may be a bit optimistic, but they claim that the fuel savings with the electric mowers will pay for themselves.

 

[CliffordK]

I couldn't access your link. Can it run 24/7 without charging?

It may well have to charge every once in a while. But, then again most diesel trucks on the road also have to refuel.

Give it 5 or 10 years, and the Teslas will be running 24/7 without drivers, while the diesels will be stuck idling all night in rest areas.

 

[Rockbadchild]

If they implement electric haul truck with today technology it will be a disaster mine as well move out we will starve. For limited distance and time travel sure but long haul you better shoot yourself in the foot it will hurt less.

 

[Hay Dude]

24kWh 60 Inch Commercial Ride-On Mower | Greenworks Commercial

OptimusZ Zero Turn Ride-On Mower: Unleash the power of 24kWh battery & 60-inch deck for efficient, eco-friendly, and fast mowing. Get yours today!

www.greenworkscommercial.com

Not super cheap, but they're supposed to be good for about 8 hours a day worth of work, and mowing 21 acres. And the equivalent of a 65 HP engine.

That should be plenty to mow many parks, schools, rest areas, etc. Perhaps a couple of days or nights to mow some golf courses.

If you have more mowing than that, then you need to look for a different solution than a small zero turn.

Greenworks may be a bit optimistic, but they claim that the fuel savings with the electric mowers will pay for themselves.

Yeah I don’t know about those claims or “Greenworks” being a commercial grade machine, but after they get some time on them and work the bugs out, it’ll be a competitor, especially with the way the gubmit keeps handicapping ICE powered equipment.

Not my way of changing things, because you treat the ICE competition unfairly with impossible emissions standards, but right now these wackos are in control and steering us into all chinese/electric culture and nation.

 

[Hay Dude]

It may well have to charge every once in a while. But, then again most diesel trucks on the road also have to refuel.

Which would take several hours because of the battery size, while a diesel truck can refuel in 20 minutes. That puts diesel 100‘s of miles ahead for faster delivery.

Also, it’s been shown electric road tractors can’t handle the same payload because the batteries weigh so much.

Give it 5 or 10 years, and the Teslas will be running 24/7 without drivers, while the diesels will be stuck idling all night in rest areas.

Hmmm, I guess you’ve never heard of driver teams? One drives while the other sleeps?

Come on, we aren’t stupid. lol

 

[David in KY]

Is it time to consider electric?


NOPE



It's a solution looking for a problem. Thanks for playing.

 

[CliffordK]

Not my way of changing things, because you treat the ICE competition unfairly with impossible emissions standards, but right now these wackos are in control and steering us into all chinese/electric culture and nation.

You can complain about emissions all you want. When I was younger, many of the major metro areas in the USA including LA and St. Louis had major smog issues. And likely other areas had problems, and we just weren't paying attention to it. I think our sunsets when I was young were much more reddish-orange, likely due to smog, and I just didn't know it.

Why the heck did they put lead in gasoline... yes, I know about cushioning valve seats, but didn't somebody think that was a bad idea?

I prefer clean air.

Is there a time when it is good enough? Perhaps there is.

Now, surely the air quality problems don't apply to rural communities, does it? And to some extent that may be true. And, I have mixed feelings about going overboard, although it is the farmers that are driving around all day with a diesel exhaust pipe in their faces.

Not long ago field burning was a big thing around here. Beautiful summer day, and smoke everywhere. Of course now we have forest fires to blame the smoke on.

One of the worst local areas for air pollution is a rural logging community. Although that could be blamed on everybody having wood stoves and fireplaces. And, yes, I do like cleaner burning wood stoves too.

Now, there is the NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) approach. Except that one person's smoke is the air the next person is breathing.

 

[Hay Dude]

You can complain about emissions all you want. When I was younger, many of the major metro areas in the USA including LA and St. Louis had major smog issues. And likely other areas had problems, and we just weren't paying attention to it. I think our sunsets when I was young were much more reddish-orange, likely due to smog, and I just didn't know it.

Why the heck did they put lead in gasoline... yes, I know about cushioning valve seats, but didn't somebody think that was a bad idea?

I prefer clean air.

Is there a time when it is good enough? Perhaps there is.

Now, surely the air quality problems don't apply to rural communities, does it? And to some extent that may be true. And, I have mixed feelings about going overboard, although it is the farmers that are driving around all day with a diesel exhaust pipe in their faces.

Not long ago field burning was a big thing around here. Beautiful summer day, and smoke everywhere. Of course now we have forest fires to blame the smoke on.

One of the worst local areas for air pollution is a rural logging community. Although that could be blamed on everybody having wood stoves and fireplaces. And, yes, I do like cleaner burning wood stoves too.

Now, there is the NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) approach. Except that one person's smoke is the air the next person is breathing.

NOBODY here on TBN wants smog, lead in the atmosphere, dirty air, dirty water or dirty soil.
In the last 40 years, we have made unimaginable strides in cleaning that up with some costs related to extra pollution equipment, loss in reliability and extra complexity in repairs, but even that has improved in many ways. Before EV’s or electric equipment, we had cleaned up tremendously.

Now we are throwing that all away to be mostly chinese electric everything? And as was said before, even the chinese don’t use the electric vehicles & equipment we are guilted into using.

Stupid is as stupid does.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

24kWh 60 Inch Commercial Ride-On Mower | Greenworks Commercial

OptimusZ Zero Turn Ride-On Mower: Unleash the power of 24kWh battery & 60-inch deck for efficient, eco-friendly, and fast mowing. Get yours today!

www.greenworkscommercial.com

Not super cheap, but they're supposed to be good for about 8 hours a day worth of work, and mowing 21 acres. And the equivalent of a 65 HP engine.

That should be plenty to mow many parks, schools, rest areas, etc. Perhaps a couple of days or nights to mow some golf courses.

If you have more mowing than that, then you need to look for a different solution than a small zero turn.

Greenworks may be a bit optimistic, but they claim that the fuel savings with the electric mowers will pay for themselves.

Not cheap??? $28,000 not cheap! Compare that to an $11,000 61" Ferris!!!
People that believe that $17,000 more difference will "pay for itself" has their head up their......CORNPOP!

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Insanity...pure insanity like most things today. No rational thought or actual proof of anything. Plant more trees!

 

[ponytug]

At one point Tesla had a battery pack swap going on for their semis 20 minutes start to finish. I think that the idea lost out to DC high speed charging that can go 20-80% in about 20 minutes.

FritoLay has been using electric trucks since 2010, slowly moving from e-transit vans to semis. The nearest distribution center uses the electric semis. I saw another article that said that the 3-4 hour range worked well with their depot based drivers and trucks.

https://insideevs.com/news/633419/tesla-semi-details-frito-lay-visit/

Not everybody can use or wants a 700HP Case Quad-track, and not everybody wants a CubCadet. Different tools for different jobs in my book. I have corded tools, battery powered tools, and ICE tools, each does what I need. I thought that the early cordless screwdrivers were useless, but with other folks using them, the tools evolved, and I love my cordless drills now. While I would not presume to tell someone else to that they had to use, say, a K&R brand drill press, I might mention how great it was for my use, but that's different.

I saw John Deere working on precision at Stanford in 1993 or 1992. (They were endlessly harrowing the same two or three acres. It was pretty funny. The lab that invented GPS was a couple hundred feet away.) GPS took awhile to move into the mainstream, but I now know a bunch of row crop farmers that use it to track everything from planting rates through final yield and they say it helps them manage costs and profits. My point being that I think electric tractors are in their early early days, and while they make some sense for some applications (e.g. mowing around schools), it is going to be awhile before they move out to more mainstream use.

"If the shoe fits, wear it..." (and if it doesn't don't sweat it!)

All the best,

Peter

 

[CliffordK]

It turns out Tesla is an American company. Ford is an American company. GM is an American company. Rivian is an American company. There are startups building electric vehicles and vehicle parts around the world. Dana is a big international company getting into EV components.

The tax incentives have stipulations on where the vehicles and batteries are made. And, I believe some of that is happening here in the USA. There are some new Lithium mines that are opening, although at least one is still having issues with mining rights and Native Americans, I think.

We'll be hearing more about Sodium and other battery chemistries in the near future. Some will go into things like solar and backup batteries. Some will go into cars.

 

[Hay Dude]

I AM all for American made EV cutting edge technology.
I am NOT for importing this replacement technology, especially if it is forced on us at the cost of what little manufacturing we have left.

Tesla is fine, but don’t treat people like they’re stupid and think all the parts are made HERE. The others have less American content.

 

[Coffee drinker]

It may well have to charge every once in a while. But, then again most diesel trucks on the road also have to refuel.

Give it 5 or 10 years, and the Teslas will be running 24/7 without drivers, while the diesels will be stuck idling all night in rest areas.

Make no mistake, if an electric tractor comes along that has the capabilities of a ICE and make economical sense, farmers will start buying them.
Operating a big ICE 24/7 runs into a lot of dollars worth of fuel. With the newest theory saying oil is actually a renewable resource, at least we don't have to worry about running out of that till electric tractors take of. Mine guess is it will be a while.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Insanity...pure insanity like most things today. No rational thought or actual proof of anything. Plant more trees!

no one is rational nowadays Kanasta is already beyond net zero with all our trees and low emissions but we still need to drive co2 out of existence through tax despite our harsh winter and high electricity price.

 

[Hay Dude]

Make no mistake, if an electric tractor comes along that has the capabilities of a ICE and make economical sense, farmers will start buying them.
Operating a big ICE 24/7 runs into a lot of dollars worth of fuel. With the newest theory saying oil is actually a renewable resource, at least we don't have to worry about running out of that till electric tractors take of. Mine guess is it will be a while.

I would buy one, IF it’s cheaper to run, has enough domestic content and not forced on me.

 

[Coffee drinker]

no one is rational nowadays Kanasta is already beyond net zero with all our trees and low emissions but we still need to drive co2 out of existence through tax despite our harsh winter and high electricity price.

Think about the cost to the consumer if fuel used in every step of food production is taxed. From when the seed is placed in the ground until it is food on consumer's plates, we have multiple steps requiring fuel, all of them being taxed.

 

[CliffordK]

Not cheap??? $28,000 not cheap! Compare that to an $11,000 61" Ferris!!!
People that believe that $17,000 more difference will "pay for itself" has their head up their......CORNPOP!

I thought I had reposted a chart on the Greenworks mowers somewhere, but I can't seem to locate it at the moment.

However, you can calculate fuel/electric cost differences here:

Calculate your savings

STEP 1: We've prepopulated this form with national averages for cost of electric and gasoline. Select your State Gas Price / Gallon Price/kWh: Gas and electricity prices sourced from eia.gov STEP 2: Choose the equivalent Greenworks Tools™ and equipment by category Equipment Category: ANY...

www.greenworkscommercial.com

The question is about how much you're using it. If you're mowing your lawn for 15 minutes every two weeks, then the commercial grade mower is probably not the one for you.

If you are doing commercial mowing with it, then it may be worth it.

They're supposed to be quite a bit quieter which would be nice.

Say you're mowing for 700 hours a year at 1.5 gallons per hour and $4 a gallon, and you're up to over $4000 a year in gas or diesel. And if electricity rates are reasonable, it might be a couple hundred in electricity. I don't know how the maintenance costs add up, but you have the periodic oil and filters to change for the gas/diesel engines.

Anyway, if you save $4000 a year in operating costs, then over the period of a few years it will save the capital cost difference.

Each business will have to determine if it meets their goals.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Think about the cost to the consumer if fuel used in every step of food production is taxed. From when the seed is placed in the ground until it is food on consumer's plates, we have multiple steps requiring fuel, all of them being taxed.

I experience it every time i hit the pump or the grocery store any store for that matter… just close my eyes and swipe the card.

 

[MossRoad]

...

They're supposed to be quite a bit quieter which would be nice.

...

Guy across the street has a battery powered zero turn. It IS very, very quiet. You still hear the swoosh of the air from the blades and the grass, but just a little noise from the motors.