The Electric Tractor How-To

I took my first ride on the electric tractor recently – so cool! It’s so quiet and not smelly, unlike the bigger diesel tractor that Bill has. It’s working just perfectly for Bill. He uses it primarily for cultivation, hilling, and marking the rows, but he is working on setting it up to lay plastic mulch, next year he will also use it to plant three rows of seeds in one pass.

For people interested in a few more technical details, I’ll do my best to give the highlights as I understood them. (Keep in mind that I’m an urban planner with a journalism degree – not exactly a technical expert!!) Our friend Dave Kennell converted a 20-horse power Tuff Bilt tractor to an all-electric cultivating tractor. I believe the company had a rough plan for doing the conversion while keeping the hydrostatic drive, but Dave removed the hydrostatic drive. Email us for a copy of the plans.

The original Tuff Bilt had a hydrostatic drive, which was part of its gas-powered design. Dave converted all the hydraulics over to electric and built a little box for them. Dave removed the gas-powered engine and replaced it with an electric engine. The original engine and hydrostatic pump were located behind the seat. Dave put the four batteries in their place. The batteries were a marine deep cycle type. With this 5kWhr battery pack, we’ll spend about 35¢/hour versus the $7/hour he’d be spending on 2 gallons of gas per hour. Over the course of a year, Dave estimates that we’ll be able to charge the batteries for about $10!!

Dave also rearranged the brakes and pedals so that the brakes are now on the left and the accelerator is on the right. (Why they had it reversed is beyond me.)

In regard to durability, Dave said the first thing to wear out in an electric engine is typically the brushes, which are fairly easy to replace. That’s provided, of course, you haven’t burned out the engine by misuse first!! What would qualify as misuse? Towing it in gear, running it at a high RPM while not in gear, etc.

Dave added an AWESOME safety feature. There has to be weight (i.e. Bill’s rear end) in the seat of the tractor for it to move. That means it will be much harder for a child standing next to the tractor to press on the pedal and start the tractor moving, which wouldn’t make enough noise to scare the kid out of the way. I didn’t even think about the danger until the safety mechanism had been installed – way to go Dave!

So what qualifications should you have before attempting this tractor conversion? Aside from befriending Dave, you really need to have experience with electrical work, such as wiring relay switches and reading electrical diagrams. Welding experience is also helpful.

If some of this doesn’t make sense to you, it’s probably my explanation!