Electric tractors

[The Artful Bodger]

Perhaps no one looked at the tractors in my opening post...........but if you did.

The tractors are a pair of several built by our local electrical supply organization in 1930 or so utilizing Hart Parr tractor frames adapted to take advantage of the then recently installed rural power distribution networks.

The tractors were successful enough that most clocked up several thousand hours of work and were still being in use during the fuel shortages of WWII. However they must have been quite inconvenient requiring to lay and wind up the supply cable and not shown in the picture is the transformer truck that clipped on to the overhead power lines. Presumably they had to be towed to where they were needed to work.

For all their disadvantages they might have been as step in the right direction versus a team of heavy horses.

[RB211]

Perhaps no one looked at the tractors in my opening post...........but if you did.

The tractors are a pair of several built by our local electrical supply organization in 1930 or so utilizing Hart Parr tractor frames adapted to take advantage of the then recently installed rural power distribution networks.

The tractors were successful enough that most clocked up several thousand hours of work and were still being in use during the fuel shortages of WWII. However they must have been quite inconvenient requiring to lay and wind up the supply cable and not shown in the picture is the transformer truck that clipped on to the overhead power lines. Presumably they had to be towed to where they were needed to work.

For all their disadvantages they might have been as step in the right direction versus a team of heavy horses.

Looks like they have reels for the power cord

[psomero]

Yes, that is all very much true. Since I've started to make my own Li-ion packs for my R/C hobbies, I wouldn't feel too put out to make replacement packs, especially if the protection circuit was not part of the pack. With ownership, I'm sure they put circuits in place to prevent the end user for doing such stuff which would mean gutting the entire system of their garbage electronics and wiring the mower up like it was an R/C airplane with open hardware and open software, which I am a huge proponent of.

IMO you want the BMS/PCM integrated into the pack. We're headed towards an age of the general purpose battery, where lithium is as dumb and user friendly as lead or other chemistries. If it's a thoughtfully designed unit with two terminals for B+/B- and optionally a dry pair of contacts for activating the internal protection circuit, you've now made a unit that would work with anything within reason for charge/discharge. If the pack takes a dump, you replace it. If you had a bunch of tools/equipment/appliances that used the same interface, you could have a few. If the BMS/PCM is integrated but only protects the pack and doesn't do DRM ****, all it's doing is not burning your house down. That's the ONLY thing it should be doing. Full stop.

Ideally, we'll get over the stupid proprietary lock-in BS and a pack will be a pack will be a pack. Any 5s lithium will be an 18V (or 20 or 21, F the marketing guys) and you'll plug it in and it'll work.

Abstracting the BMS/PCM out of the device prevents vendor lock-in on replacements. Any good tool will simply plug in and work, which is how they work today save for the proprietary dovetail and terminal arrangements on all of them. I wish the industry would get their heads out of their asses and come up with a standard battery interface, like the computing industry did with USB, and do us end users a favor for once.

[plunger]

Electric tractors wont work in S Africa.We have load shedding for ten hours a day. Its becoming a big problem. Hard to believe we went from the best most effecient and cheapest award winning power supply in the world (1994)to one of the most expensive and unreliable power suppliers in the world

We are getting very nervous. If the grid collapses their could be a slaughter on a grand scale..

[The Artful Bodger]

Electric tractors wont work in S Africa.We have load shedding for ten hours a day. Its becoming a big problem.

Things were different, in fact somewhat the opposite when those tractors were made in NZ. The power grid had been extended to rural areas and hydro power was in abundance but the take up was slow so these tractors were built to increase the demand.

[J Tiers]

IMO you want the BMS/PCM integrated into the pack. We're headed towards an age of the general purpose battery, where lithium is as dumb and user friendly as lead or other chemistries. If it's a thoughtfully designed unit with two terminals for B+/B- and optionally a dry pair of contacts for activating the internal protection circuit, you've now made a unit that would work with anything within reason for charge/discharge. If the pack takes a dump, you replace it. If you had a bunch of tools/equipment/appliances that used the same interface, you could have a few. If the BMS/PCM is integrated but only protects the pack and doesn't do DRM ****, all it's doing is not burning your house down. That's the ONLY thing it should be doing. Full stop.

Ideally, we'll get over the stupid proprietary lock-in BS and a pack will be a pack will be a pack. Any 5s lithium will be an 18V (or 20 or 21, F the marketing guys) and you'll plug it in and it'll work.

Abstracting the BMS/PCM out of the device prevents vendor lock-in on replacements. Any good tool will simply plug in and work, which is how they work today save for the proprietary dovetail and terminal arrangements on all of them. I wish the industry would get their heads out of their asses and come up with a standard battery interface, like the computing industry did with USB, and do us end users a favor for once.

That standardization would be a very good idea for electric cars as well. All are presently designed with "special" batteries..... the car industry runs on "N.I.H." syndrome.... "If we didn't do it, it must be no good at all".

Not likely, for either power tools or cars. For power tools, replacement batteries are a revenue product. A generic pack would kill that. For cars, well, it's because <car company X> is "special".

[The Artful Bodger]

A somewhat better picture...

[The Artful Bodger]

There were a number of attempts at mains powered electric tractors and Russia claimed at one time to have a highly successful programme. Earlier attempts were made in Europe but none survived.

Cable handling was always a challenge and in the picture we can see how cumbersome the power operated reel was although not all systems used this style of reel.

[PStechPaul]

Actually, for tractors and similar equipment, lead-acid is still a viable option. The extra weight is usually advantageous, the components are largely recyclable, charging circuits are simple, and they are generally much safer. NiMH is another viable option where light weight and fast charging are not driving factors.

I think a good option for universal rechargeable battery packs would be self-contained units with integral charger, and consisting of 48-56 volt packs with a boost converter to provide 300 to 800 VDC for high power VFDs for motors (particularly vehicles and larger equipment). In case of accident or major failure, the high voltage would be automatically shut down and rescue personnel would only need to contend with relatively safe voltage levels and individual elements rather than a complete battery pack. Having such high DC voltages would allow the use of relatively standard three phase VFDs and inexpensive, reliable induction motors instead of BLDCs with expensive rare earth magnets.

[Baz]

Apart from teh moving items electricity makes sense and is used on a lot of other stationary farm activities - milking parlours, grain elevators etc Now if they can get a mirror array to heat us some water they can bring back steam for some of this

[Black Forest]

The sound of a big Detroit or Cummins engine firing up is reason enough to use them! One of my favorite things to do was start up our big 1000cfm compressors. When those big diesels would rev up was music for my soul. Pure power. Earth shaking power. I loved it.

[The Artful Bodger]

The sound of a big Detroit or Cummins engine firing up is reason enough to use them! One of my favorite things to do was start up our big 1000cfm compressors. When those big diesels would rev up was music for my soul. Pure power. Earth shaking power. I loved it.

I can imagine that some may get pleasure from having the loudest tractor in the entire state but I, personally, may find that would get a bit stale after a few long days ploughing.

[RB211]

At work I get to control two of the world's largest gas turbines ever created, each producing over 110,000 lbs of thrust and converted to HP, some godly high number. On start up, the low frequency growl resonates for a couple of miles. Whoopy doo? The spinny spin thing spins that spins another spinny spin thing while sucking and blowing, turning money into hot air, just don't stand in front of it or behind it.

[polaraligned]

We do not see many of these..

https://imgbox.com/sELWXwag

Why deal with the tether and the hassle of using electric instead of gas/diesel? There had to be a reason for using electric back then.

[J Tiers]

Actually, for tractors and similar equipment, lead-acid is still a viable option. The extra weight is usually advantageous, the components are largely recyclable, charging circuits are simple, and they are generally much safer. NiMH is another viable option where light weight and fast charging are not driving factors.

I think a good option for universal rechargeable battery packs would be self-contained units with integral charger, and consisting of 48-56 volt packs with a boost converter to provide 300 to 800 VDC for high power VFDs for motors (particularly vehicles and larger equipment). In case of accident or major failure, the high voltage would be automatically shut down and rescue personnel would only need to contend with relatively safe voltage levels and individual elements rather than a complete battery pack. Having such high DC voltages would allow the use of relatively standard three phase VFDs and inexpensive, reliable induction motors instead of BLDCs with expensive rare earth magnets.

Stop making sense....... People don't like it..........😉