Electric?
 

Sorry to start yet another thread, but "95" is too short of a word to search. Anyone want to talk electric tractors?

Here on the half acre homestead, I can't start up a tractor before 7 AM, and out of respect for the neighbors would prefer to wait until at least 8 AM, but it sure would have been nice to be able to plow the driveway at 4:30 AM and had it cleared out before the city trucks came out.

I see there's a plow for the 95 electric, and I do have an aging orange rear engine rider in the fleet, as I can only mow with a 32" deck. Frankly, a plow about 2" narrower than big brother on a tight turning machine would be really handy. Now that I've got the yellow fever, I'd really like to learn about these tractors in case I can ever actually get my hands on one. With all those batteries over the rear, I'm guessing a set of chains will give traction for days when pushing snow. I'm looking for someone to confirm or disprove that theory.

Now, looking around the empire of dirt, I see a sad and lonely 127 in the corner of the garage, and the only thing left under the hood is a K301 with a broken rod. With all the amazing builds I've seen here, someone has to have found the right combination of electric motor, starter, and batteries to push the Hydro. For my needs, an hour or so of run time per charge would be more than sufficient.

Key salvage items to seek in search of components included but certainly not limited to electric golf carts, floor scrubbers, fork lifts, trolling motors, and treadmills.

Why not mount a plow on a golf cart and save yourself a lot of work. Oh, and better get a rubber edge for the blade, don't want to disturb the neighbors with that scraping noise. :Shhhh:

IMO, What your thinking of doing would be a cool project. However, If I were planning such a project it would be after I already owned a combination of tractors, yard tools, and equipment that already did everything I want them to do. In other words, I would not be building such a project out of necessity. It would be very involved and time consuming. So what would I do in the mean time if I'm in your shoes? I would fix the 127 to operate as intended. Next with time on my hands I would find a shell of a tractor for next to nothing "cheaper the better". After that I would take my sweet time building my electric machine.

If you wanted, say, 5hp, that's about 4500 watts (746watts/hp).

4500 watts at 12 volts is 375 amps. Let's say that's peak, and more like 2 hp average. That's 1500 watts, or 125 amps at 12v. Running that for an hour, that would use 125 amp hours. Rule of thumb is don't discharge a lead acid battery more than 50%, so need a 250ah battery bank. A golf cart battery is about 200ah capacity at 6v, so a pair would suffice. A 5000watt inverter, a 3 or 4 hp 3450 rpm motor, with soft start capacitors, and you might be in business.

You might need to double up the batteries to reduce the draw down rate. Most batteries are rated at a 20hr discharge rate. At a higher discharge rate, you'd have less capacity.

I think it's a neat idea. Inverters are getting more reasonable, just need one that will start a motor that large. Once the motor is started, it can just run, and the hydro can control speed and direction. You'll have some losses in the hydro, of course, and the inverter, and the motor. So you'd have to add a bit of a fudge factor, maybe 20% to allow for that.

On the other hand, a plow on a golf cart is not a bad idea, either. Or steal the motor and controls from a wrecked golf cart. Avoids the inverter starting the motor problem.

This might give you some ideas. It is a Massey Ferguson that was converted to electric.
https://youtu.be/rKaGGe4NQGc

They do make electric snow blowers. Plug it in and go!

I have a 106 and a 149 that run just fine, and the accumulation of yard tools is coming along as planned, slowly but surely.

Meanwhile, that 127 is pretty much exactly what you mentioned, a shell of a tractor that cost me a whole $30. Going electric is probably way better than the other butchery I had in mind for it.

We rebuild quite a few electric aircraft pushback tractors here. LEKTRO is the primary brand. What we have found is the higher voltage unit the better. The early models were 24 VDC now they are coming out with 96 volts DC. the higher voltage requires less amperage. The batteries have gotten way better over the years also. If you could find a 36 volt motor the result would be more torque and longer run times pound for pound of batteries VS lower voltage motors.

From what I gather, a cap start motor should be fine with the hydrostat, just flip the switch to on and the factory controls do the rest. Save the complicated stuff for a gear drive, and I can run one of the other tractors for the PTO. This would be even more handy on a ported pump unit with a loader, hydraulic PTO, etc.

GE built an ElecTrac garden tractor that competed with the IH vintage Cubs and it was really capable. There are a few new electric tractor manufacturers popping up and Kubota has launched an electric line. Modern technology is getting really efficient, and repowering some old iron sure seems better than gardening with a plastic tractor.

As for electric snowblowers, they made one for the ElecTrac and it is no slouch. It looks like folks doing conversions put electric motors directly onto the blades of their mower decks.

While that is an awesome machine, I'm almost certain that it's much more complicated than neccessary to run the hydrostat. Theres a lot of that tractor on t
YouTube.

Yikes! What if you get a ton of snow overnight and have to leave for work before 7 am?

I'm in a small city, population 3500, and our street department rocks. They just don't do a great job on the level streets in the residential neighborhoods like mine until the crew starts their regular shift at 6 AM, and all the plow truck routes go to the bad spots first. If we get a particularly bad storm, the guys will be out in force. It's never a problem to get out of my town, our city road crew is the best in the valley hands down.

I'm in a neighborhood where the houses are next to eachother and most have on street parking, I just happen to have a driveway goingto a garage and parking area in the back. It's 10 steps from the front door to the sidewalk and I have 4 wheel drive, stranded isn't the problem. It would, however, be really nice to get the snow from my driveway plowed across the street and the on street parking spaces cleaned up before the city comes and does their pass, spreading salt.

Just as a point of information, back in the early 70s General Electric introduced a line of 36 volt electric garden tractors. They were ahead of their time, but they were quite popular and something like 33,000 were produced. The models were the E12, E15 and E20 and were equivalent to 12 to 15 horsepower gas models. You can still find them around, and they were about the size of a conventional Cub Cadet garden tractor. Do a Google search on "Electrak" (that was the GE name) and check them out. It might be easier to use one of them to convert with a Cub Cadet and end up with an electric tractor. They were manufactured in Schenectady NY and it's easier to find them in the Northeast than in other parts of the country.

My Grandfather had a GE tractor. I couldn't remember for the life of me who made it. It was about 38 years ago. Thank you for the reminder of what he had. BTW he lived in Syracuse NY so maybe that's why he got it. Im quite certain his was a a GE now that I have seen the pictures however his had a belly mower if I remember correctly. The ones I see online are front mount mowers. :bigthink:

Notable facts about the GE Elec-Trac, from what I gather it has a gear drive with a shunt wound drive motor, eliminating the need for a lot of complicated motor controllers. The "20 hp" equivalent ElecTrac had a 36v 30w motor, and I'm told that's equivalent to 1.9 HP. The division of GE was also later purchased by Wheel Horse and they were sold as Wheel Horse and White/New Idea tractors until 1983. They are very high quality garden tractors and pretty pricey little units without a lot of parts availability.

Personally, if I were to look to spend big money on a factory built electric tractor, the only choice would be a small one that mows with a 32" or smaller deck and a super tight turning radius, like a Cadet 95, which has an available snow plow. I currently mow with a Homelite Jacobsen JR1030 rear engine rider 30" deck. It fits in tight places and does most of the work I'd like to do more quietly already. The Jake does the job well, but it's certainly a cheaply made stamped steel lawn tractor built for the entry level market.

Cheesdawg, your in luck. GE made an electrak in the RER size!

https://screenshots.firefox.com/Q8ZH...elec-traks.com

Looking at more stuff, I've gathered that a 100 ft lb trolling motor is 36v @ 50a, roughly 2.3 hp, which is a lot more powerful than the Elec Trac's drive motor and they come with pretty nice controllers. It does not look like it would be difficult to make a coupler to attach the hydro's drive shaft to a prop shaft, either. The whole power head might even tuck up inside of the tunnel, too. One might even find a configuration so compact as to hide the batteries under the hood of a 1x50 for the quietest line ever.

I'm going to have to pick my fishing buddies' brains now.

Really can't believe that nobody's put an electric motor on a Hydrostatic tractor, considering so many became donors of engines and other parts for gear drive pullers.

Replacing 125 lbs of Kohler cast iron with 250 lbs of lead battery sounds like a good thing, too.

Does the trolling motor require water immersion for cooling?

I'd imagine you'd find out in the first 15 minutes or so.

I'd imagine that you could build a big heat sink from aluminum angle iron pretty easily, and fit it all into a piece of ductwork that matches the factory Cub fan, and I picture it fitting neatly inside of the flywheel guard that's already in place.

Another option is to build a box around the motor that's accessible from the top of the trans tunnel, with some sort of guard over the shaft and coupler. You could then fill the box with ice or snow, keeping the motor cold. Having a little access door to an icebox right there at arms reach could have other uses too.

This does not sound like a good solution.. I doubt the motor makes much heat anyway. The winding itself is sealed in those types of units. Maybe some air vents could be added to allow for air flow

You're obviously overlooking the potential for beer storage here.

I think you underestimate the heat generated. It's a physically small motor. At 36 volts, it's drawing over 40 amps. Heat dissipation would be about 400 watts. Not an insignificant amount of heat. The motor will overheat unless a heat sink is created for it. Remember, it was designed to be run underwater.

As far as I know none of the elec-traks were hydro.I have seen a few of those GE ones around here, almost bought one, but the batteries are pricey.
Sound like a good project so keep us posted on your progress.

The progress is all in my head so far, and it's probably going to stay that way for a while, at least until I get a few other projects together. I'd love to see more ideas though, and if someone would like to hijack the thread and build the tractor, that would be awesome.

Yeah, I get that. Thats why I said rather than packing in snow or ice. Maybe some vents could be added to the case. Trolling motors I have seen are sealed so water does not get in the case. The surrounding water keeps it cool. I was suggesting vents be cut into the case and I should have added that a fan be attached to shaft to draw air past the case. All above water electric motors I have ever seen have some type of cooling fan and case ventilation. I have added ventilation to motors But I never packed one in snow.

That whole ice and beer thing was more of a joke than anything, but I'll bet it would work.

ice or snow packed around the motor would surely work to cool the motor.

I don't think there is any practical way to ventilate what is built as a sealed, waterproof motor. I'd wrap it in aluminum heat sinks and put a fan on it. Or pick a different motor.

Still think it's a neat idea.

I think putting that heat sink in a tube with the factory fan would keep it super cool, but noise may be an issue.

A different motor is very possible. Frankly, nearly any motor over 1.5 hp that I can find for as close to free as possible has potential to be "the one." I've got all summer and most of the fall at the very least to see what the empire of dirt may provide, who knows what might get built.

I think putting that heat sink in a tube with the factory fan would keep it super cool, but noise may be an issue.

A different motor is very possible. Frankly, nearly any motor over 1.5 hp that I can find for as close to free as possible has potential to be "the one." I've got all summer and most of the fall at the very least to see what the empire of dirt may provide, who knows what might get built.