Electric Drive Motor Retrofit

[JD-Beach]

I have begun the research to replace a Robin 25 HP gas engine in a PT-425 with an electric motor and battery system. I remember that this was discussed many years ago in this forum. Has anyone done this?

I知 interested in this project for a few reasons. ...

1. Battery technology has improved greatly in recent years.
2. The old Gas engine is sometimes hard to start.
3. My use is intermittent, perhaps 4 hours per month with sometimes 2 or 3 months between projects.
4. I知 recently retired from a career in electrical engineering and have a bit more time for fun projects.

All ideas, suggestions and guidance are welcomed.

I致e seen the 溺ean Green zero turn mowers use electric drives very successfully. I致e also enjoyed driving a GEM electric vehicle through the streets of Key West for a 4-hour afternoon with plenty of capacity left. And I owned an SUV hybrid for 4 years and loved the quiet, smooth operation.

 

[MossRoad]

Long time no hear. You have the big wheel machine, correct? :laughing:

Sounds like an interesting project. Maybe look at golf cart batteries and charging systems and see what kind of power they put out? :confused3:

Or if you want to go high tech, start looking at crashed Prius for motors and figure out how to get a battery pack adapted to fit in your available space.

I guess you'd have to look at how much torque and HP the current gas engine puts out and try and duplicate that with an electric motor. It's going to have to get to about 3600RPMs while supplying the power to all three pumps.

Just some thoughts....

 

[MossRoad]

The one thing about the current design, though, is it's stupidly simple.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

Unless you score a motor cheap, it's not going to be cheap. Also studied EE and have looked at doing an electric mini truck. To find a motor with 40 or so HP but also light enough was a a couple grand alone

Batteries are cheap. Get old 18650 cells and build a pack

There are lots of cheap 3 phase squirrel cage motors but 2 disadvantages. Weight and efficiency but you can wire some VFD's to be fed straight D.C.

 

[MossRoad]

Golf cart is probably out.... not nearly enough power.
Golf Cart Links and Resources - Diversified Golf Cars, Inc. - Orlando, Florida

 

[MossRoad]

What about electric forklifts?

 

[MossRoad]

Electric Forklift Motor | eBay

 

[cqaigy2]

You might want to check out Rich Rebuilds on youtube. He finds broken tesla's and works on them.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

I skimmed thru and the biggest I saw was 5.6KW. About 7.5 HP. They are traction motors so they do have some torque. If you could run a single motor for each wheel and maybe single reduction gear it would be so able.

Rich rebuilds is awesome but he is in the big boy budget buying salvages for 10s of thousands

 

[CobyRupert]

The one thing about the current design, though, is it's stupidly simple.

As in today's "present" designs, or in a design for an "ampacity"?

As an EE, one thing I learned was not to use the word current to mean "presently".
Granted, in your sentence it's easy to figure out from the context, but not always.

E.G. "Why did you spend $2000 on CT's, and transducers to install an amp meter on the control panel?" "You said you needed to know the current status of the motor" "All I wanted was an ON/OFF light!!"