IH 300 Utility Electric Farm Tractor Conversion

[bennelson]

The tractor engine is a structural component of the tractor.

So, without the engine, how do I hold the front and the back of the tractor together?!?!?

Some tractors, like those in the Farmall brand, use frame rails that bolt from the transmission to the front end.

Farmall was its own brand, but was bought by International Harvester, and then carried on as a brand-name after that.

I figure that the Farmall 300 is the sister tractor to the International Harvester 300 Utility, but it has a frame.

I found a Craigslist ad for some Farmall parts, so I headed over to see if the parts are interchangeable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p_Aohte0H4

[bennelson]

I picked up the frame rails.
Will they actually fit and do what I want?
I test fit them to my tractor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljU6FfXDuEM

[oil pan 4]

If you know nothing about tractors just know they're designed to kill you. The biggest Hazzard is tip over..
You definitely want weight up front, but not up high.
The second biggest hazard is the PTO. It's designed to rip your arms off and beat you to death with them before you have a chance bleed out.
The third hazard is your attachments. Anything goes here, wood chipper? Brush shredder?
Wood chipper would be a 100hp meat grinder, need I say more?
The brush shredder can cut some one in half from 100 feet away if it throws a blade.

Well yes, the first problem in your plan. A tractor engine is not like a car engine where it's structural part that helps hold the front axle on.
You could always rebuild that sub frame, if those won't work as is.

[redpoint5]

Interested to see how this goes, but my first question is how do you get enough juice in the thing? It looks almost the size of our Alice Chalmers One Ninety, which has a 60 gallon diesel fuel tank.

Is it just the diesel motor that's getting replaced with electric, with all other systems running their original pumps?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Considering that IH has tried with electric attachments in some tractors before, makes me wonder if it would be possible to try a comparable approach resorting to an auxiliary electric drive for the hydraulics. When it comes to the motor, since Nissan is trying with a single motor for its entire EV range, and has already fitted it to some trucks, it may suffice for a farm tractor too.

[oil pan 4]

That tractor is so old the hydraulic PTOs are powered down range of the clutch. Push in the clutch and hydraulics go dead.
My Kubota that was first sold in 1978 is space age compared to those things. The hydraulics are driven straight off the engine, so when you push in the clutch all the hydraulics keep going.

[Piotrsko]

I'm aware of several conversions over at DIYELECTRICCAR, but each one is considerably one off. Battery life depends on how fast you drain them and most tractors I have seen are rated really low for horse power. A 9" golfcart motor would probably be big enough you surely dont need my 13" unless you want to do wheelies off idle.

[redpoint5]

I guess this is a bit smaller than my AC. This International appears to have a 45 HP motor and an 11 gal fuel tank. There's no way you could do useful work with a golf cart motor.

The Leaf motor will be 3x more powerful.

TractorData.com International Harvester 300 tractor information

[oil pan 4]

The only time I use all 18 horsepower from my Kubota is with the brush shredder.
So using it like a tractor with a good leaf 24kwh batt you get an hour to 2 hours of run time.

[thingstodo]

Interesting build! Subscribed!

I want one, but maybe not badly enough to go through all of this one-of work