Electric yard tractor built from plans

[jeff_jeff]

I finally completed my electric yard tractor project, built from plans as discussed in this prior thread:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/113439-electric-tractor.html

I think its gonna work out great as a all purpose vehicle on my small farm, great for hauling dirt, making multiple start and stop trips, etc. It doesn't take the place of my tractor, skid loader, or riding mower, but does replace an atv, golf cart, or other similar vehicle and, important to me, its narrow enough to go between the rows of my trees. Its geared down enough to have plenty of power, with a rated 2 hour run time. I modified it to have a removable hood, which I can replace with a dumper, or leave off to move a trash can 24V with four 38 amp batteries, running two 1000 watt motors (at 660 watts each at 24V). It should give me better drive traction than my mower, with both rear wheels powered separately.

The biggest downside is it was expensive: the controller alone was $450, another $200 for the motors, $200 for tires, $250 for batteries, it added up quickly...

But it was a fun project. Ian designed it to be built with no welding, mostly out of plywood, with some bolt together metal. I cheated and welded most of the metal parts, using a more traditional keyed axle setup.

Here's where I bought the plans:

Plans for 1300W Yard Tractor - Page 1.

Pictures of mine:

 

[KubotainNH]

Very cool. I don't think welding is cheating, just using the resources at hand. You could have made it a bit cheaper if you could have found a dead rider to scavenge wheels off. I have some in my back yard

 

[simplicityguy92]

thats cool i bin thinkin about building an electric tractor with car starter motors

 

[Semipro]

I want one! Now I've got to add that to my already-too-long list of things to do.

 

[Taylortractornut]

My 74 year old neighbor is a forkklift mechanic,and was schooled on all the older electric ones. He has 2 old Raymond pallet stackers that he is storing behind my shop. I was talking to him the other day and he told me if I wanted to build an electric car or a midsized tractor he would help me. He told me about all the parts that are on the 2 lifts was enough to make 2 machines, minus the batteries. Ive been thinking of making an electric car for a while. Good job on your yard tractor.

 

[JoelD]

Do a search on and check out the GE electrac tractors. I had one a while back, picked it from a lady who was mad at her husband for running of with another woman to greece. Anyway, she was getting rid of all of his stuff. It had sat in their yard for over 10 years, the wheels were half burried in dirt.

the machine weighed close to 1000 lbs with the batteries, that by the way had all frozen and cracked. I pulled out the tractor, the front mount mower deck and the front mount snowblower attachment.

The thing was run off of deep cycle batteries putting out 36 volt DC in total, and about a billion amps.

I never got it to work, a guy bought it from me for 1600 sight unseen, he rebuilt completely and was tickled pink to have an eco friendly way to maintain his property.

PS, Great job on your tractor!!! and thanks for sharing.


Joel

 

[Tig]

Great job! Very cool.

 

[Bedlam]

http://www.kansaswindpower.net/GE ElecTrak Electric Garden Tractors.htm

 

[bandaidsrcool]

for small tasks, you could get a power wheels at thrift store for $50 and make that better.

 

[kebo]

Very nice! But.... You REALLY need to get a small box to enclose that controller PCB!! It will not last long sitting exposed like that with all the moisture in your area. Besides, all you have to do is drop anything metal across the top and start shorting out traces and it's all over with then. You'll be paying another $450 for a new one!