Would you buy an electric tractor?

[DieselBound]

Batteries are STORAGE containers, they're NOT "energy."

"Efficiency" means increased consumption. See Jevons Paradox.

I'd welcome not having to do oil changes. Electrical motors are great. I don't, however, believe that we have the debt capacity to get our existing fossil-fuel-based world switched to a renewable-energy-based one. Most here operate with the mindset of the first world; most of the world isn't first-world.

As a guy I know found out, we're not going to be able to replace our current energy demands with renewables (let alone also provide for "growth"). He was calculating his electrical requirements for taking his house off-grid. He couldn't make the numbers come out for also meeting the needs of his EV (I think he'd went from a Prius to a Leaf; he realized he'd have to revert back to a Prius).

Three things needed to make things happen: Physical resources; energy; and, a "plan" (technology). Even IF we had an infinite amount of energy AND we had an infinite amount of brain-power to create tech/plans, we do NOT have an infinite amount of physical resources (a planet, which we're living on, is by definition a finite thing- it's not possible for a finite physical thing to contain infinite physical stuff).

It's fun thinking about all this stuff, though

 

[Qapla]

I'm not sure if using electric drive motors for each operation is the way to go or just use a hydraulic pump and have an electric fully HST.

My wife drives an electric clamp-truck There are days when she spends most of the day unloading and stacking rolls of paper. She has never had the lift die on her. She plugs is in at night and it is good-to-go the next day. The rolls of paper are heavy and she can lift some of them two at a time.

They do need a lift/hoist of some sort to remove the battery pack if it needs service ... the added weight of the batteries is a benefit since the lift needs counterweight.

After seeing how well one of these works - I would not be opposed to an electric tractor if I could get a full day of work from a charge.

 

[Snobdds]

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Do you realize that cartoon electric car is only a hybrid because it still has a fuel cap?

 

[MossRoad]

I'm not sure if using electric drive motors for each operation is the way to go or just use a hydraulic pump and have an electric fully HST.

My wife drives an electric clamp-truck There are days when she spends most of the day unloading and stacking rolls of paper. She has never had the lift die on her. She plugs is in at night and it is good-to-go the next day. The rolls of paper are heavy and she can lift some of them two at a time.

They do need a lift/hoist of some sort to remove the battery pack if it needs service ... the added weight of the batteries is a benefit since the lift needs counterweight.

After seeing how well one of these works - I would not be opposed to an electric tractor if I could get a full day of work from a charge.

I worked at a newspaper for 30 years. We had probably 10-12 of them, 2 at a time, over 30 years. Read that to mean, we always had 2 running, but went through 10-12 of them in 30 years. 5-6 years out of one of them was considered pretty good. The biggest issues were batteries and controllers, followed by hydraulics. They didn't have a good track record for longevity. All had lead acid batteries. And they didn't run 8 hours a day at our facility. Maybe 3 at best.

Compared to our propane fork lifts, they took less maintenance, but when they broke, took more expensive repairs. If a battery pack failed, it was ridiculously expensive, to the point that they'd trade in the machine and get a different one.

 

[/pine]

Don稚 fool yourself with the assumption of consumer grade! You have no clue the extent of my business endeavors or the different machines I have had experiance with weather it was first hand or from one of my business partners.

Spell checker buddy, it sometimes even changes the entire word on me. Again a computer doing what ever it wants to just more to prove my point!

Gee! that's funny...maybe you should get a new spell checker....because it completely missed correcting the word experiance[/} [SIC] in the former cited post...! :laughing:

 

[ultrarunner]

Hired underground excitation contractor to extend sewer laterals inside warehouse with 8" slab and 36 inch wide doors...

Getting in and exhaust would create problems.

Contractor did the job with hydraulic tractor... designed to be broken down to fit through 35" opening.

It was a powerful TLB feathered to several hundred feet of hydraulic line connected to truck mounted hydraulic power-pak...

Owner said he built it and lets him bid competitively for this type of work... amazingly powerful...

 

[ultrarunner]

Unless you recharge from your own solar as one of our Docs...

Both his home and office are full solar both electric and water heating... he bought his Leaf sight unseen and Nissan said we will give it too you for research...

For his needs it was a triple win... again all powered from his arrays...

 

[dragoneggs]

Way too much of a hypothetical question to answer other than 'it depends'.

 

[grsthegreat]

i guess i can get a 1,200 foot long extension cord. that way if i run out of power on my property i can plug it in. oh wait. that wont reach the 10 acres across the street. ill have to re figure it. than allow for voltage drop.