E-Tractor Build Log

[ohzee]

Great work MLP - I had missed this thread until now and I find it very interesting that you were able to
do so much with so little. Sounds like you are pretty skilled as well. Id love to see some video of you riding
around. I am curious what the motor and the gear box sound like or if you can even hear them.

Bet it sounds neat cutting grass when all you can hear is the blades spinning.

Kickbutt work.

[mylittlepony]

@ohzee - I think 'skilled' is going a bit far I'll have to see about video. I'd hoped it would be quiet too but in actual fact it is surprising noisy to drive - however step back a couple of feet and the noise soon tails off. It is certainly nowhere near as loud as my neighbours' various conventional garden implements. Some weekends all you can hear is the wail of a 2 stroke.

All the noise comes from the transmission. I don't think there is anything wrong with it so guess it must have straight cut gears - its quite a high pitched whine. I changed the gearbox oil so I know it has oil in it. If I run the motor really slow it's silent but the tractor is only creeping along. The motor and chain drive are silent, I know this as I've run the motor full speed with the gearbox in neutral. I suppose a noisy transaxle isn't normally noticable on a gasser.

Despite the noise what is really good about electric is the silence and zero energy consumption when you stop. When you get off an ICE tractor you always have the dilemma of 'How long am I stopping for? Is it worth stopping the engine?'. With electric you just climb off, I usually remove the key for the safety of the kids but its not as though I need to start the engine when I come back.

I'll be back home soon so I'm planning some further mods:

1) I've bought 2x 18v Bosch strimmers really cheap. I want to mount them somewhere and run them off the tractor's battery.
2) I've also got plans to make a small 3 point hitch as I want to be able to rake the driveway and lawn. I'll make the implements too.

Not sure which I'll do first but watch this space.....

[fechter]

Very nice! I used to have a 1970 International Harvester Cub Cadet that I wanted to convert, but never got around to it before letting it go. I'm surprised the motor handles the load so well. If it runs hot, adding forced-air cooling would help. You could also possibly add a second motor for twice the power.

[Xanda2260]

This thing looks awesome! You've made me want to build one!

Very nice work!

[mylittlepony]

I've been busy with the tractor, making further mods and doing a lot of work with it. This has become a proper little workhorse - not just an EV project but a working tool. Here's a video of me mowing.

http://youtu.be/vgQniLh9fEc

As for the other mods - well they're more 'tractor' mods than 'EV' mods so take a look over here for more.

[The fingers]

Love the color scheme, an electric "deer" (sic) to compliment the "electric horse". It would make the news worth watching or the paper worth reading! (you can take the boy out of Iowa but you can't take the Iowa out of the boy) My compliments for an amazing piece of machinery and a fine looking lawn!

[hillzofvalp]

I used that motor In a pocket bike at 3.2kW with bad results. It is definitely going to burn up after the 1000W continuous rating... I imagine though on your machine you level off around 1kW. Not sure about spinning a full deck of blades.
Edit: missed the second page. Good JoB! Solved the problem of powering a deck!

[Timma2500]

Thats fantastic!

It looks great and seems to punch above it's weight work wise, well done!


Paul

[grindz145]

Nice! I know you guys don't get much snow in the UK, but a it would make an excellent driveway plow machine too!

[hillzofvalp]

how cool would it be to buy a used robot mower and give it new life with some old life or lipo...