electric tractors, why haven't they taken off?
Discussion
When you have a 3 phase power socket fitted to every field in the UK, i suggest you'll make an absolute killing out of this idea.............
(hint, a tractor, pulling a typical large modern plough, is using approx 75 to 90% of the engines power for somthing like 8hrs a day (and somtimes more like 20hrs/day!). To store that quanity of energy in batteries would be impractical. (say, 250kW for 8hrs = 2000kWh, best current battery tech is approx 0.2kWh/hg, so batteries alone would weigh 10 tonnes !!)
(as usual, the electric motor part of your plan is fine, they are great devices, only matched by the compete and utter crock of s**t that is current battery tech !! ;-)
And you will still need a transmission system! (just because a "theoretical" electric motor can make peak torque at zero speed doesn't mean a real one can. And you still need you tractor to be able to go different speeds depending on what it is doing, and for an electrical motor, torque = current (amps), and losses are the square of current, so the higher torque, the higher losses. So you want to make high torque at the wheels by using a high speed low torque motor and a gearbox. hey ho, just like an IC engine then..........)
(hint, a tractor, pulling a typical large modern plough, is using approx 75 to 90% of the engines power for somthing like 8hrs a day (and somtimes more like 20hrs/day!). To store that quanity of energy in batteries would be impractical. (say, 250kW for 8hrs = 2000kWh, best current battery tech is approx 0.2kWh/hg, so batteries alone would weigh 10 tonnes !!)
(as usual, the electric motor part of your plan is fine, they are great devices, only matched by the compete and utter crock of s**t that is current battery tech !! ;-)
And you will still need a transmission system! (just because a "theoretical" electric motor can make peak torque at zero speed doesn't mean a real one can. And you still need you tractor to be able to go different speeds depending on what it is doing, and for an electrical motor, torque = current (amps), and losses are the square of current, so the higher torque, the higher losses. So you want to make high torque at the wheels by using a high speed low torque motor and a gearbox. hey ho, just like an IC engine then..........)
Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 17th September 11:27
thinfourth2 said:
Battery powered tractors
s
t idea and i am a huge fan of electric cars
However electrically powered heavy plant is very common in open cast mines as they don't move much and they have a giant flexy lead following around like some giant mutant flymow
Then how about "bumper car tractors" you know with a wire mesh suspended above the field and a nice whippy aerial on the back!s
t idea and i am a huge fan of electric carsHowever electrically powered heavy plant is very common in open cast mines as they don't move much and they have a giant flexy lead following around like some giant mutant flymow
thinfourth2 said:
Battery powered tractors
st idea and i am a huge fan of electric cars
However electrically powered heavy plant is very common in open cast mines as they don't move much and they have a giant flexy lead following around like some giant mutant flymow
That's an odd reaction from someone who's pro EV, most of the arguments centre around EVs being fine in certain applications but not others.s
t idea and i am a huge fan of electric carsHowever electrically powered heavy plant is very common in open cast mines as they don't move much and they have a giant flexy lead following around like some giant mutant flymow
It didn't take much of a google to find this
http://www.eeevee.com/tractors/index.html
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff