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Electric tractor anyone?
I've had this idea for a while now, anyone have any experience in building your own electric utility tractor? It's something I've always had simmering in the back of my head since I went Farmer John a ways back. Our current tractor is a 3 Series John Deere with the baby turbocharged dizzle engine, and it works great! That said, you spend a LOT of time idling when working, and that's just fuel out the exhaust.
I've been wanting to build my own smaller version for a while now, something I can drag my pastures with, tug the feed trailer around, etc. It doesn't need to be anything real fancy, will have standalone divorced axles and an automotive automatic transmission and transfer case...
So instead of the 22HP industrial 2 cylinder I was planning, why not throw in a forklift motor or two? One or two to drive the axles (scrap the transmission/t-case, won't need them anymore), and one motor dedicated to run the hydraulic pump? It's a big heavy platform anyway and weight is traction, so besides the $$$ in batteries I don't see a real downside for my purposes other than $$$.
It's obviously not a financially practical idea, this would be a strictly 'green' project, plus it's a fabrication project I've not tried yet and I like doing new things, lol
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