Oil & Fuel Fuel expensive? convert your tractor to electric

[Oldchuck]

I would love to own an electric tractor and expect to somehow acquire one before too long. The one in looknlearn's link above looks great but it's too expensive.

We have a 2KW PV set up at our woods cabin and it works very well, produces power even on cloudy days. Doesn't work at night or covered with snow. The cabin is off-grid. The PV set up cost about $18,000 with all the whistles and bells. This was considerably cheaper than the $30,000 or so it would have cost to bring in grid power. So we're saving money from day one and now all the energy is free.

The thing that is annoying me most about the system right now is our lack of a dump load. We sized the system for probable peak load and have yet to max it out. That means that on a sunny day with the batteries at full charge the charge controller shuts off the PV power and we are essentially wasting the energy. I hate wasting energy, even free energy.

Hopefully, this year we'll be adding a tractor barn with an attached solar greenhouse plus three or four more KW of PV panels. That will mean even more excess energy.

I need a dump load to soak up the surplus. My current thinking is a vehicle charging station. I'm not real keen on electric cars right now but I suppose I'll want one eventually. I am pretty hot to get an electric tractor and an electric UTV. Maybe I can get some local guy to build one.

Anybody with more ideas or links please post.

 

[jeffgreef]

Hi Oldchuck-

Don't have any brilliant words of wisdom except the obvious, which is that any elec. vehicle functions both as a dump and a backup reserve. I guess they are the same thing.

I'm very encouraged by the real effort in industry to scale up production of components for converting existing vehicles. The reason the new tractor is so expensive is because you are buying a whole new machine, obviously, whereas if you could take an existing with a slightly ailing engine, rip out the engine and replace with an electric motor, the savings are very significant.

But, it requires a few custom manufactured parts to fit the motor to the transmission, and a complete integrated system of wiring etc. Once large companies start to specialize in this, perhaps the price will come within reach.

JG

 

[Don87]

200 gallons of diesel per acre...................I'm not a 'large scale' farmer by any means.............but that don't sound right.


I dunno, maybe i'm wrong............can anyone verify the 200 gallons of diesel per acre that 'looknlearn's' link is saying is true?

 

[boggen]

it would be interesting to see a fully electrical tractor.

if you look at large dump trucks in coal mines and like. the have a very large generator. and all tires have electrical motors. and no drive shafts or transmissions.

if the technology only shrunk to SCUT, CUTS, and Utility tractors.

on other hand. batteries hold less charge the colder they are. and for me, i would most likely be in trouble along with many other folks. when it came to jobs in late fall / early spring and during winter. though battery warmers, might be ideal vs oil pan heaters, coolant heaters and block heaters.

 

[Don87]

it would be interesting to see a fully electrical tractor.

if you look at large dump trucks in coal mines and like. the have a very large generator. and all tires have electrical motors. and no drive shafts or transmissions.

if the technology only shrunk to SCUT, CUTS, and Utility tractors.

on other hand. batteries hold less charge the colder they are. and for me, i would most likely be in trouble along with many other folks. when it came to jobs in late fall / early spring and during winter. though battery warmers, might be ideal vs oil pan heaters, coolant heaters and block heaters.

That's the problem they haven't been able to overcome yet with batteries.

Maybe someday they will, but it ain't here yet and (as of yet) is not feasible for northern climates.

I'm not opposed to the idea............but I'm extremely skeptical,and until someone has a viable solution to the 'cold weather problems'.............I personally don't want to hear about it on here or anywhere else.

Give me 8 hours at 10 to 20 below zero on your inventions................or don't bother mentioning them is my idea!


Your wasting my time otherwise!

 

[Raspy]

That's the problem they haven't been able to overcome yet with batteries.
Give me 8 hours at 10 to 20 below zero on your inventions................or don't bother mentioning them is my idea!

The batteries are the obvious problem. We ned to get cars working in a practical way and then move to tractors. Cars can have a much better defined and lower energy requirement, say, a commute to the store and back at five miles once a week, or a commute to work at 10 miles each way 5 times a week. Much easier than to accomplish than plowing for hours.

But even with cars, people compare electrics to gas driven and are resistant because of range. Often the range is not the issue sat all, but just that someone can imagine a farther trip and discount the electric because they can think of a situation where it can't perform well enough.

Modern, practical electrics will not look anything like the conversions where a motor replaces the gas engine and still drives through the transmission with lead acid batteries. That is ridiculous, old fashioned, back yard project technology. Modern nickel batteries driving AC pancake motors in the wheels with efficient controllers, is more like it, but still a battery problem.

Hybrid technology is more about shutting off the engine as much as possible than it is about reducing any other inefficiency. Good for a commuter car, but bad for a working tractor. The battery powers the car away from the stoplight before the engine starts. The engine shuts off when the throttle is reduced or anytime the car is coasting. In the Prius, it's mainly about finding times the engine can be shutoff, and that leads to savings, mainly in the city. Plug in hybrids with bigger battery banks are better because they can run on the battery longer. The ideal Prius would have this feature and a way to keep the engine off for short trips. Then it becomes a practical electric car that can also be used for long trips. In the city it might use no gas at all.

 

[crazyal]

I could see the day when large flat fields have wires overhead and the tractors have pantographs on them. It's a little trickier because bumper cars have a steel plate they run on and trains have steel rails. Your farming would be done by lining yourself up with the wires and then going in straight lines and the tractor would need enough battery power or a small engine to change directions at each end and make it back to the barn.

As for solar panels, I wouldn't count on them getting too much cheaper until they move away from the silicon wafer.

 

[boggen]

I could see the day when large flat fields have wires overhead and the tractors have pantographs on them. It's a little trickier because bumper cars have a steel plate they run on and trains have steel rails. Your farming would be done by lining yourself up with the wires and then going in straight lines and the tractor would need enough battery power or a small engine to change directions at each end and make it back to the barn.

As for solar panels, I wouldn't count on them getting too much cheaper until they move away from the silicon wafer.

wires hanging over head like bumper cars? na GPS. with live feed back wireless cameras and sensors. that all feed back to some armchair farmer!:laughing:

wait! we already have armchair drivers in there fancy 200+ hp new tractors. they press keys, and browse internet, and look up once and a while making sure they didn't plow over a house through the extra cameras placed around the tractor.:drool:

 

[jeffgreef]

Modern, practical electrics will not look anything like the conversions where a motor replaces the gas engine and still drives through the transmission with lead acid batteries. That is ridiculous, old fashioned, back yard project technology. Modern nickel batteries driving AC pancake motors in the wheels with efficient controllers, is more like it, but still a battery problem.

QUOTE]

Not sure I agree, Raspy. Vehicles designed to be electric will be more efficient than conversions, but that doesn't mean conversions have to be impractical. They also don't have to be back yard project technology. Check out the top links in my original post on this thread, and you'll find a large company which is tooling up to convert existing fleet vehicles like F150s etc.

Converting existing vehicles is very important, because of how long it would take to turn over the worlds one billion vehicles with new ones. You don't need a new vehicle, you need a new power source. But, I agree that it's probably best to start with cars, which do short trips, and move on to tractors etc. later, since tractors need much more working time between charges.

I just don't want to get stuck with a beautiful diesel tractor that I can't operate cause they don't have diesel at the local station this week, and when they do, it's $10/gallon.

JG

 

[houstonscott]

Electric is not the fuel of the future. It's one of the most inefficient things you could do with your fuel, would be to turn it into electricity. Wow...didn't think I would see this on TBN where people understand these things first hand. Electric cars and hybrids are some of the biggest polluters and wasteful machines on the road. If you want I will explain but please do some research on your own first before you declare things that are clearly not true, like electric cars don't pollute.

HS