Electric Cub

I have one of these Farmall Cub tractors sitting in the barn:

I have a full set of cultivator hoes for this thing. I'm thinking it would be a great electric small plot tractor. The engine is 10hp at 1600rpm. i believe that I can break it apart and put a PMSM motor in it and have a really great little market garden tractor.

Wow this thing is beautiful. As much as I like conversions that would be a bit of a shame to remove its ICE...
Also it looks like the engine is a structural part of the frame, I don't think this would be an easy conversion at all.

Anyway,whatever you choose, good luck on your project!

I would fabricate a structure that would fit where the engine sits and bolt it in to carry the load. Then a chain-drive reduction powered by a 10kwh motor into the transmission. It wouldn't need a clutch, just a motor shutdown for shifting. It shouldn't be overly complicated, from what I've seen of other projects here on endless sphere. I'll break the tractor apart sometime this summer and see. The ICE will be able to be refitted, if so desired.

There are a lot of Cub museum pieces out there, so the world won't miss one by me trying to make a working tractor out of it.

I have the younger brother to yours - a mid-70's Cub Lo-Boy. Unlike your Cub, it has a frame and the engine & trans are separated by the driveshaft, making it very easy to convert. No intentions of converting it.

That would make the tractor useful again.

I've always thought that tractors and some other heavy equipment would make great EV candidates. Yeah, they have to move heavy things, but they don't need to do it quickly, and excess battery weight rarely is an issue.

My tractor is a 1948, and the engine is tired from it's 50 years of use. Being a 6v system with a magneto for spark it was always a bit touchy to get started. My use would be doing row crop cultivation for a limited amount of time. At least that's my rationale for it.

I watched a parade last weekend and several small tractors were pulling floats, and some floats had an ICE buried in them. All those uses would be great for battery electric.

harrisonpatm said:

I've always thought that tractors and some other heavy equipment would make great EV candidates.

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Some tractors yes.. others no. I reside above the 45th parallel, and we typically have 24-45" of snow with temps periodically dropping into the single digits. Also, my Lo-Boy has a frontend loader and sees only occasional summer use (but the cat's meow for snow removal). Need I say more? Not to mention... the cost of the conversion would be prohibitively expensive for me. I have given serious thought to propane conversion tho.

gromike said:

....the engine is tired from it's 50 years of use...

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I'm not going to link all the research on Boric Acid basically reconditioning old worn engines here.
It was 'invented' by Argon National Labs if you want to look up all the research.

Basically:
It does NOT do anything to to 'mod' the oil. It just forms an emulsion that is carried around to all the bearing surfaces and pistons, rings and cylinders etc where it reacts with the metal/s to form an extremely slippery ~0.5 micron layer.
So in a bearing or piston you 'lose' 2 microns of wear.

The bottom layer is a ceramic with 85% the hardness of diamond, with the subsequent layers are akin to a deck of micro sized playing cards easily sliding over each other.

You want around 20% by weight of the oil of Boric oxide/acid. (As Boric Oxide absorbs moisture out the air turning it into acid they are basically the same thing.
NB: Boric Acid/Oxide NOT!!! Boracic etc which is another chemical all-together..!!

You want to add this powder to around half a std coffee mug of boiling water.
Pre heat the cup with boiling water; pour that water out and then add more boiling water before stirring in the powder:
The hotter the water; the more of the Boric will dissolve in it, but you wont get it all dissolved and that's fine as long as you get most of the undissolved powder into the oil.

Add that to the engine after making sure the oil level is at or just below full and the engine is hot, then run the engine immediately.

After around 10 minutes you will notice/feel the difference and be amazed by the 'better than newness' and economy etc of the engine.
It will also swing over on the starter much faster/easier, resolving some of your 6V starting issues.

Leave it in for a day or so of use, during which time it will get in under any sludge, loosening it, then change the oil and filter.
You can add a tiny bit of said mixture to the new oil if you like but basically the engine is good for another 100 years before needing another treatment.

NB that most gearboxes rely on the friction of the syncro rings to get your gears spinning at the same speed to avoid grating, so be careful there.
Similarly limited slip differentials become way less limited if you treat them. Great for mpg and all, but...

(A similar thing can be done to bicycle bearings etc guys for that 'role on' and on and on feeling)


If you really still want to electrify it after the above; I would strip out the crankshaft and pistons etc and then fit the motor to the clutch/gearbox inside the empty engine crank housing to preserve its structural integrity and its look.
A water cooled motor then might be best, as has been done and discussed here.

DONT toss said internals: If you ever want to sell it to a collector or someone; the option to take it back to original is very important!
Be sure to preserve said internals, packed away in oil/ oily cloths etc.

Thanks, I'll check on the boron.

I was going to completely pull out the engine, and build an iron box to fit in there. The electric motor would be in that box geared down and drive an input shaft into the clutch like the installed engine does. I have spare shafts, etc., from a wrecked cub. So all the original parts would be preserved.
Though, in realty she sits in the barn still awaiting a new life.

Too many projects for this old man.

nicobie said:

That would make the tractor useful again.

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Careful not to underestimate those old things, there's lots of those and many other ancient tractors still in everyday use. They're tough as nails (the ones that have lasted this long anyway) and often irreplaceable, for example there's no modern equivalent with the same track as the OPs that doesn't weigh considerably more and that results in more soil compaction (not good).

I've a little 70's Kubota here I've often thought of converting, mostly all it gets used for is pulling a small tipping trailer around and electric would be ideal in that case but it also gets used for topping and harrowing, both reasonably high constant load applications and an EV conversion would struggle with those, more batteries needed than would conveniently fit anywhere or be cost effective. Conversion wise it would be fairly simple, a cheap electric forklift with dead batteries would work fine as would something like a 3kw QS midmotor but I'd suggest carefully considering requirements beforehand, if you're ever using that full 10hp for hours on end then it may not be viable.

An Electric Cub is another image to some of us - heh!

Diggs said:

An Electric Cub is another image to some of us - heh!

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I was thinking an electric Honda Super Cub, myself