Posts tagged as:

tractor

Converting Tractor Hydraulics from engine to Electric

August 10, 2021

Tractors are mechanically complicated.Besides a transmission, there’s also the connection for the Power Take-Off (PTO) and an engine-driven pump which powers the hydraulics. Since there’s no longer an engine, we’ll have to replace the source of power for the hydraulics. Probably the easiest way to do this is with an electric motor and pump salvaged […]

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Tractor Work Resumes

June 6, 2021

After a long hiatus, I’m working on the Electric Tractor Conversion again.This past year was a bad one, with COVID, a couple of deaths in the family, and other issues. One of the most difficult for working on the tractor was probably the fact that I was cut off from my typical resources for working […]

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Massive DC Forklift Motor

December 1, 2020

Forklift motors have been popular for a long time in DIY Electric Vehicle Conversions. They tend to be Series-Wound DC motors, which offer tremendous torque at low speeds and are common enough that that can often be found at junk yards. A few years ago, my friend, Tom, and I scrapped out a 6,000 lb […]

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Welding frame rails / Rolling the Tractor

May 13, 2020

Converting this International Harvester 300 Utility tractor to electric has had a few challenges. One of them is that the engine is structural and connects the front axle (and everything connected to it) to the transmission. I found a relatively quick and easy answer when I discovered that some other tractors have frame rails that […]

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Prepping to remove the Loader

November 20, 2019

I removed the sheet metal “Hood” of the tractor to get a quick look at the engine. Pretty simple under there, but both the loader arm AND the loader frame really block working on it. Clearly the loader has to come off right away. In the front, the loader is bolted to the tractor with […]

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Tractor Arrives!

November 15, 2019

Today’s excitement is that the tractor arrived!When we went to look at the International Harvester 300 Utility tractor, one of the appealing things about it was that the seller offered to be able to deliver it.So, today, I’m waiting for the tractor to show up on a gooseneck trailer. The seller, Wayne, showed up right […]

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Ford 8N Tractor for Electric Conversion?

October 29, 2019

Today, I stopped over at a friend’s farm property to check out a couple of tractors. I’ve recently been researching which tractors might make good candidates for an electric conversion, but what I really needed to do is just go out and see some. A family friend, Linda, had two old tractors on her property. […]

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Handi-capable Solar Mower

May 6, 2018

Spring is here, and it’s time for yard work! Unfortunately, I was rather badly hurt some weeks back, including a broken wrist and multiple fractures to the leg. How was I going to do something like mow my lawn!? Fortunately, my lawn tractor is actually pretty handi-capable! To start with, the mower uses exclusively HAND […]

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Setting up the Electric Plow

December 20, 2015

Hi Friends, I’ve had an ElecTrak E15 electric lawn tractor for a couple of years now. I was fortunate enough that it came with a plow. It’s great to have some equipment like this for snowy Wisconsin winters. (This is a VERY weird “El Nino” year, so we haven’t even had any snow yet!) Unfortunately, […]

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E15 Mower Deck Rebuild

May 22, 2014

Spring is in the air, which means that the grass is really starting to grow and I need a way to mow it. Last summer, I acquired an Elec-Trak E15. It even came with a plow! Unfortunately, one of the three mowing deck blade motors was completely seized up, and the other two had a […]

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