Oil & Fuel Fuel expensive? convert your tractor to electric

[Raspy]

A Tesla hydrocarbon burning disc turbine running a generator.:thumbsup:

Ahhhh! Nikola. Sorry, I was thinking of the other Tesla. :ashamed:

 

[jeffgreef]

Houston-

I just researched sales of Leafs and Volts. The Leaf has sold over 9,000 units. Volt sales have been around 1/4 of that. The Volt costs more.

Do you have hard numbers on exactly how efficient an electric vehicle is over a gas/piston engine? Electric transmission is not 100% efficient, but gas cars are only 20% efficient, not the best way to use fuel.

Do you want to keep buying fuel from the Saudis and Venezuela, and sending our brave sons and daughters over there to die for our access to their resource?

I want a tractor that uses a cheap, domestically produced fuel that is always available, and I want that tractor to do everything it needs to do. Rather than complaining that the technology isn't there yet, I want to prod JD, NH and Kubota to get their b***s in gear and produce that tractor.

JG

 

[Oldchuck]

Jeff, I appreciate your attitude but I wouldn't go holding my breath that the big guys will do anything cutting edge. They are still dragging their feet on biodiesel.

Probably the only way to go about it, at least for a few years, is to build your own. I'm no electrical guy and wouldn't figure to actually do the engineering but I think in just about any area there are guys who have played around with electrical conversions. I know some people have made some real nice one-off electric cars. There is an active electric vehicle forum with some pretty heavy technical experience. Very few though seem to be thinking in terms of tractors. It's time there was.

Now where can I find a tractor in fairly good shape with a blown engine?

 

[Raspy]

Houston-

I just researched sales of Leafs and Volts. The Leaf has sold over 9,000 units. Volt sales have been around 1/4 of that. The Volt costs more.

Do you have hard numbers on exactly how efficient an electric vehicle is over a gas/piston engine? Electric transmission is not 100% efficient, but gas cars are only 20% efficient, not the best way to use fuel.

Do you want to keep buying fuel from the Saudis and Venezuela, and sending our brave sons and daughters over there to die for our access to their resource?

I want a tractor that uses a cheap, domestically produced fuel that is always available, and I want that tractor to do everything it needs to do. Rather than complaining that the technology isn't there yet, I want to prod JD, NH and Kubota to get their b***s in gear and produce that tractor.

JG

When you try to factor in the real inefficiencies of oil, it really looks terrible. Consider the tanker that transports it thousands of miles running on oil, the refining process that wastes some, the trucking industry that transports the finished product all over the country running on internal combustion, the building and maintenance of all the gas stations that require cars and trucks to be driven there, the pollution control parts and maintenance industry that overseas gas and diesel engine emissions with all of it's transportation and bureaucratic infrastructure, etc. It goes on and on. It's just laughable when some folks try to ignore all that and declare that electric is inefficient, so no good. Sure it's inefficient, but in many ways it can be far more efficient than oil. But again, as you mentioned, getting the war machine out of the picture is a gigantic benefit. Plus we just can't afford to keep sending so much money overseas. Sooner or later the naysayers that insist on living in the past will have to move forward a bit and at least take a look at what we might do next. But to be affective we have to give alternatives an honest look. We have to give them a chance to be developed with the hope that we can find another way to satisfy our interests that might do away with the significant problems associated with oil.

Oil is great, it has been great and it will continue to be great. That's what lead to it being such a problem. It gives so much. But it's time is beginning to pass. If nothing else, it's simply a cost issue. If it was 50 cents a gallon and infinite in it's volume from a US source, great, but it's not.

I hate big brother and the over reaching pollution controls we have on vehicles these days, for a number of reasons, but I also grew up in Los Angeles and remember my eyes watering, not seeing the mountains and having to breath carefully to avoid choking. Later, I spent some time in Shanghai China and found out what real air pollution was! Sheesh. It makes LA seem tame. Burning oil as fast as they can and living in the exhaust stream.

If we had a better battery, we'd have more electric cars right now. I hope the price of oil drops soon. But even if it does, I hope we continue to research and develop electrics in spite of being able to point out their shortcomings. I suppose there were a lot of folks that didn't want one of those newfangled Model Ts when they had a perfectly good horse.

 

[jeffgreef]

John-
I think you're right on track. An interesting battery technology to keep an eye on is ceramic capacitors. There's a Texas company (EEstor) that claims to have one that will store 10 times the power of a lead acid for the weight. Quite a claim, and they have not produced a prototype yet. Maybe just a dream, but fascinating none the less. It would make elec tractors work.

Another aspect that is not in the public discussion is the simple fact that world oil production cannot increase much if at all in the next ten years, and then will have to decline. No one wants to talk about this inconvenient truth, if you'll pardon the expression. World energy demand will increase as China and India grow, so oil prices must increase, even if not astronomically. For that reason, I think elec conversions of anything with an internal combustion engine in it must be looked at seriously, as soon as possible.

JG