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Electric Tractors again

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504

Well-known Member
Just to poke a little :) Ten years ago we never thought an electric car or truck would ever find a highway near us, but they are on the road. Back in the 1970s GE built a riding lawn mower with the standard acid cell batteries. I know they sold it off to someone else, but the people I have talked to that had them liked them. One motor to drive the mower,when they first came out they used a motor for the power lift and the decks had one motor on each blade.The Massey dealer in town sponsored one as a puller in the carden tractor class(his son). It had to be a wiring nightmare with the mechanical relays,and the acid batteries. No I do not think electricity is free or even good for the air,the fact is most electricity still comes from coal. My 18V drill will charge in 15 minutes. Yes I think 200 hp will be in the fields in less than ten years.(pulling 220 horsepower generators) Fuel cells are close but not ready yet for free power.
 
JD built an electric riding mower years ago. I still have parts and piece of one. Had 2 motors on the deck which I still have plus one motor t drive the machine around
 
The rare earth magnet motors and lithium ion cells are making them more practical. I am not a proponent of an electric vehicle that does solid duty, but believe ones that do a lot of idling are feasible.
 

Motor efficiency was maxed out decades ago.
Unless the Almighty adds something new to the periodic table. Lithium is the best battery there is ever going to be .
There are certain hard limits in physics etc. For example aircraft flying faster than sound are not practical outside of a few niche applications . And even then super sonic is only for brief sprints .
Those people using the "tractor will never replace the horse" argument do not understand .
 
Back in the late 1970's I worked in an auto plant that used electric, gasoline and LPG powered forklifts side by side, they all made it through 8 hour sifts without needing to refuel/recharge. As David G. mentioned, duty cycle makes a big difference. A tractor pulling a plow might easily have an 80 percent or higher duty cycle while a loader tractor might only have 5 to 40 percent depending on the task.
 
I seen On the twilight zone about these robbers that stole a
whole truck load of gold and then took some gas that made
them sleep 100 years when they woke we had figured out
how to manufacture gold and it was worthless
 
Well if its such a good idea and the technology is so good these days where are all these electric tractors? I'd like to go to the dealership and drive one.Problem is they are not
being produced because they are not feasible at this time and no amount of talking them up is going to change that fact.If and when they become ECONOMICALLY feasible they will have more than enough buyers.Most people aren't 'against' them because they are electric or 'different' they wouldn't buy because there are alternates that are far more economical to own and use.
 
think smaller. autonomous tractors are close, and when that becomes a reality small tractors and small planters can be driven by electricity or fuel cells hybrid or ??

The autonomous tractors probably wont be much more than a 60-70 horse Kubota tractor and 4 or 5 row planter.
 
The problem with electric anything, cars or tractors, that no one ever talks about is end of life. Hybrids and electrics have not been around long enough to fill landfills with their non-recyclable bits. If the whole US fleet went electric like some dream, we will be hip deep in worn out NiMH and LiIon batteries, which are toxic waste once they reach their end off life. They are not currently recyclable. Green needs to take into account the entire life cycle of all parts, not just how a vehicle is fueled while in service.
 
If electric tractors come and I need a tractor still, I’ll probably get one. I can’t live in the past or live in the future, only the current time. No point in getting all worked up about something that may not happen, or happen 25 years after we are dead for that matter. If all tractors ceased to exist and we had to go back to horses, guess I’d get a team. I know I’d sure be busy putting fences back up, because I would be letting livestock go pick there own, rather than haul feed to them as much as possible.
 
GE Elec-Trak. Friend of mine has been collecting them for several years and uses them all the time. He's an engineer, so....a little crazy.
 
Elon Musk announced yesterday that when his cars start to get out in numbers that there is no where enough electricity fuel them. Many more (coal plants) would need built to keep up with the needs. So add tractors that will till 30 or more feet wide 24 hours a day as they do here in dry enough weather and the cars will not get out of the drive way and you most likely will not have many comforts of life you now take for grantiid.
Think of the size of battery to farm 8 hours and then it would have to be switched out rather than have the tractor out of service while it was charged.

In my opinion the low consumption yard tractors are here and will be expanded in use but the (farm tractors) will not make it on the farm with the call to reduce the coal power plants.
 
I have watched this thread pretty close. I have to be carful what I say because of an agreement we made but let me just say this we have had what is called 46 hp utility unit here on the farm since October 18. Use it right along side of the same brand diesel for pretty much the same use. Performance is compared quite often. With 6 hr of running each day then charged. I think the thing would pretty much run 10 hrs full power before recharging. Seems to take about and hour and half to charge. Can,t comment on when the thing will be in production but tractors need weight and batteries work well there. Not sure the other poster was right about them all having one central motor.
 
I saw that episode and immediately thought about the truck.

But, hey, it was The Twilight Zone.

Dean
 
The FFA camp at Little River, SC had an experimental electric lawn tractor in use back in the 60's.
I think it was an AC.
I remember seeing it mowing the grass.
Richard
 
Freight trains. Electric motors but they carry the generator with them.
Solar would not be feasible unless you were willing to till at night and let the tractor charge during the day.
Ultimately we have two choices for power, nukes and solar. You, yes you, are solar powered. Your fuel comes directly or indirectly from plants which grew thanks to the sun. That coal? Processed by time and compression from plants and animals that populated earth before Noah built his ark.
In reality though, the sun is a big nuclear reactor controlled by GOD.
 
True, but then should the same responsibility apply to what happens and who pays to clean up the under-utilized nitrogen, phosphorous, Atrazine and glyphosate that leach into the water supply after each and every crop year. LI-ion batteries are a drop in the bucket compared to those problems that are happening now, not just in the future, and they have been for happening two going on three generations now with no useful solutions yet.

Mexico is now looking at phasing out glyphosate by 2025. IMHO, if we want to keep it legal here we need to find an effective way to control the runoff and clean it up, FAST.
 
nothing is truely "green" from the electric to make them go to building them.

what i ready is the current teslas will take 8 years to break even on "carbon emissions". but i don't believe we (man) is the cause of "climate change".

we would have to eliminate 1/2 to 2/3 of the population of the plant to go 100% green as we could not produce enough food or enough heat for the north to feed people or keep them warm.

but if practical, from use benefits or $ i'm all for electric whatever. I know wheel horse had a version of the all electric lawn mower as well. pretty much just like the GE
 
Despite all the "electric" controversy, I did enjoy my electric Lionel's 65-70 years ago, even if they were coal powered from far away. :D
 
(quoted from post at 00:34:58 12/16/20)
Motor efficiency was maxed out decades ago.
Unless the Almighty adds something new to the periodic table. Lithium is the best battery there is ever going to be .
There are certain hard limits in physics etc. For example aircraft flying faster than sound are not practical outside of a few niche applications . And even then super sonic is only for brief sprints .
Those people using the "tractor will never replace the horse" argument do not understand .
Click to expand...

So the use of lithium for batteries came about because it's use was already known to exist??
How come we were still using D cells 20 years ago???
The rest of you post is logical, but the lithium battery may or may not be the last nor best battery invented.
Unless maybe you have traveled into the future and returned?
 
(quoted from post at 12:50:09 12/16/20)
(quoted from post at 00:34:58 12/16/20)
Motor efficiency was maxed out decades ago.
Unless the Almighty adds something new to the periodic table. Lithium is the best battery there is ever going to be .
There are certain hard limits in physics etc. For example aircraft flying faster than sound are not practical outside of a few niche applications . And even then super sonic is only for brief sprints .
Those people using the "tractor will never replace the horse" argument do not understand .
Click to expand...

So the use of lithium for batteries came about because it's use was already known to exist??
How come we were still using D cells 20 years ago???
The rest of you post is logical, but the lithium battery may or may not be the last nor best battery invented.
Unless maybe you have traveled into the future and returned?
Click to expand...

Optimism and hope does not change the laws of physics , chemistry and electricity . Lets stick to facts .

Do tell us what a better battery can be made of . Has to be rechargeable , operate at room temperature and at atmospheric pressure .

.
 
I still do. (;>))
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They packed em all in cosmoline now if they tried to do that today the the corn squeezins would have gummed the carb up so bad it would have never started two weeks later
 

No Mr. B & D,
Your the one telling us that there will not be a better battery invented than the lithium battery.

So onus is on you since you seem so confident, you must be able to see the future.

Prior to 1970 nobody had or imagined the viability of a lithium battery.

So how is that no other combination of materials will ever be better??
 
(quoted from post at 20:57:28 12/16/20)
No Mr. B & D,
Your the one telling us that there will not be a better battery invented than the lithium battery.

So onus is on you since you seem so confident, you must be able to see the future.

Prior to 1970 nobody had or imagined the viability of a lithium battery.

So how is that no other combination of materials will ever be better??
Click to expand...

There are only 92 elements on the periodic table . Which one is going to make a better battery at room temperature , at atmospheric pressure and be rechargeable .
Do tell us what material has better valance electron orbit .
Problem is that you do not realize that your question and suggestion are not valid .
Lithium was first isolated in 1821 . However it is in the same family of highly reactive light weight metals as sodium, potassium and phosphorus . Most of those in the pure form burst into flame when exposed to air or water .
Nobody bothered to make a battery out of the stuff until the 1970s . It was done just to prove that they could do it . Every chemist knew lithium had the ideal electron orbit but it was not worth messing with in that era .
Do tell us what other element has a better electron orbit to make a battery out of ?
Lithium was considered too costly , too toxic , too volatile and too dangerous to make batteries out of . Until cell phones and laptops appeared there was no pressing demand for higher energy density in a lightweight battery .
Google lithium battery fires if you think lithium is a ho-hum benign material .
You want something even more chemically reactive in your pocket ? Fluoride is a contender however it is trading one set of problems for another .
 
And at one point conventional wisdom had it that the Earth was the center of the solar system, and everything including the Sun orbited around it. Funny how science has moved on from that point, isn't it?

I can't debate you on a chemistry level, as my chemistry training extends to water treatment and nothing further. I will say though, it is interesting reading about breakthroughs involving existing elements. Just read this morning about battery chemistry using carbon and sodium. 19% improved energy density over lithium ion. Whether it can be scaled remains to be seen, but the science is evolving.

I really am surprised though that someone of your background is such a stick-in-the-mud about new technology. Very disappointing.
 
Wha, ah jus red that that feller, Elon Musk, was a cummin out with a million mile battry that'd charge rat up in 8 minutes. What could be wrong bout that? H'mmm?
 
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