electric powered logging skidder idea.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by Ryland

20 6v batteries are going to be needed to reach highway speeds, my electric car tops out at 35mph and has a 40 mile range with 8 6v batteries.

And I would guess that your car is much lighter than mine. With the amount of weight he has to haul (machine and batteries) and the fact that he has to move up substantial grades, I think that the pack that he would be able to install on the skidder would be exhausted or close to it by the time he arrived at the work area or shortly thereafter.

Unfortunately it's very hard to compete with the energy storage capacity inherent in fossil fuels.

Now if he could drop a 220V power line down into the work area . . .

[trooper Tdiesel]

Originally Posted by jakobnev

How much down hill? Do you need to apply power or brakes?

seldom need brakes, i only use brakes on the 20%+ grades with logs behind me.
granted im in a VERY low gear to keep every thing under control.....
there's quite a bit of drag pulling a large log or many small logs. even when its muddy, best is dry. next best is when every thing is frozen but that seldom happens around hear. the other 9 to 11 months of the year its muddy.....from getting about 6ft of rain a year..


the lowest place is 850ft the highest spot is just shy of 1,200ft

its a small valley with a small county road at the bottom. power is only available on the east side of the road, the other side has no dwellings or power of any type, well there's some power polls on that side of the road but that's it.

the A and B on the map are the north and south points of are property on the main road...
cook rd is are south line and where it swings north is are east line.
the hay fields to the west, are not are property.
you can see on the map there's some places that are VERY steep.....
that should give a ball park on the terrain.


Fern Hill Rd to Fern Hill Rd - Google Maps

[trooper Tdiesel]

so if i did the plug-in ICE\electric

where to put the gen\motor with the stock drive system.
i don't think being mounted to the belts would do much good.....
nore do i think there's space to mount it to the front of the engine crank. i don't even know how that could be done and keep the engine from vibrating its self apart.
all the drive lines are real short......like under 3' or less


maybe from the trans to T-case space, that's about the straightest drive line.
but to do that, ICE power would be going though it.

to make it even feasible i figure a lot of BATs are still needed. like over 20 of them....

[dcb]

if you are logging, perhaps you have renewable wood handy. Reconsider a steam engine

A bunch of batteries, drug through the mud, and powered by a homebrew genset is going to suck the juice anyway. I can't watch...

[trooper Tdiesel]

well how much space would be needed?

water? 100gal, less or more?

having the wood and water on the place is not the issue. we have pot loads of it... that's the two things we have blowing out are ear drums is water and wood......

trouble is where to carry it.
seems like locs go thru a "LOT" of water, wood or coal.

i guess the question is how much is needed to move hmmm ok
ill over estimate, that will cover big loads 25,000LBs

how much steam power is needed to move 25,000LBs on a 20% grade, at less than 5 miles per hour.
would a 1\4 of a cord of wood take me a mile
1\4 of a cord is 32cub feet of wood.

[dcb]

I'm not really serious about the steam thing, just noting what you have available to work with.

But you can switch to renewables trivially by fetching a few drums of biodiesel or veggie oil, probably a price similiar to regular diesel. There is a refueling station near me that has b100 which is sometimes cheaper than dino diesel.

Maybe I misunderstand the problem though. Can you retain a diesel for one of these skidders? Or are you trying to figure out what to do with the frame/wheels after removing the diesel and other components? Are you processing a number of skidders?

[dcb]

Originally Posted by Ryland

...
Queen's University's John Deere 755

Conversion Cost ~$13000 for a 20 mile range?!?

[trooper Tdiesel]

we have a grand total of 4 of them.

the running gas logger (only one in service)

non running gas loader model, we found a crate engine for this one. it will need the T-case from the parts as well to make it run.

diesel logger model. we only have one diesel every thing else is gas fired.

and the parts one. it has a seized gas engine in it. all the drive train parts from it are needed to keep the other three running.

after every thing is salvaged off it to keep the others running, it will be a frame on axils, well maybe not even axils.


hmm maybe the loader around the mill would be much better for electric.
there's 220V power there.

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by dcb

Conversion Cost ~$13000 for a 20 mile range?!?

They did data logging gauges, a fancy DC to DC converter, a carbon fiber hood! their motor is a $1,200 motor (get a used one from a salvage yard fork lift) and they have $1,600 in fancy AGM batteries leaving $10,000 for things like data logging for the school that built it to call it an educational project and things like the carbon fiber hood so the parents that are in to nascar think it's a cool project.

[123]

Why not do wood gas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF_zFimqTXw

I have seen more compact and better designed systems. No need for water or high pressures like steam. Uses wood as fuel source.

Here is a company that sells kits and has run cars on wood gas

Gasifier Systems and Kits « Gasifier Experimenters Kit