Last October we showed you a video from [LiamTronix], in which he applied an electric conversion to a 1960s Massey-Ferguson 65 which had seen better days. It certainly seemed ready for light work around the farm, but it’s only now that we get his video showing the machine at work. This thing really can farm!
An MF 65 wasn’t the smallest of 1960s tractors, but by today’s standards it’s not a machine you would expect to see working a thousand acres of wheat. Instead it’s a typical size for a smaller operation, perhaps a mixed farm, a small livestock farm, or in this case a horticulture operation growing pumpkins. In these farms the tractor doesn’t often trail up and down a field for hours, instead it’s used for individual smaller tasks where its carrying or lifting capacity is needed, or for smaller implements. It’s in these applications that we see the electric 65 being tested, as well as some harder work such as hauling a trailer load of bales, or even harrowing a field.
In one sense the video isn’t a hack in itself, for that you need to look at the original build. But it’s important to see how a hack turned out in practice, and this relatively straightforward conversion with a DC motor has we think proven itself to be more than capable of small farm tasks. Its only flaw in the video is a 30 minute running time, something he says he’ll be working on by giving it a larger battery pack. We’d use it on the Hackaday ancestral acres, any time!
It looks like it could use some more weight. Might as well add some more batteries then.
This gives all new meaning to “Green Acres is the place to be!“. 🤣
I’ll just casually sort of mention that Kubota has been demonstrating their electric LX series tractor in Europe (formerly it was a “big” B, but it’s just a name change if you’re googling). They may even be showing it in the US now for all I know. Runtime is quoted as “4 hours” but I don’t know if that’s intermittent, lightly loaded, or flat out.
That isn’t to take anything away from this build. Very cool.
It’s a fun project and can indeed be useful for short tasks. Not useful for regular farm jobs, but it’s still cool. It’s a great thing is that you don’t really need to worry about the weight (within reason) as normal tractors are already pretty heavy. The old ones are basically an engine and gearbox with wheels attached to it. Often without a frame as the engine and gearbox are the frame.
I hope we can see ammonia powered tractors in the near future. Seems like a win win situation. With the large amount of new vessels using ammonia engines or prepared to run it in the future, the new ammonia cars being announced, it seems like this could work well, especially on farms. If there’s one place where there is enough ammonia, it’s on the farms. Emission free, no fuel costs, can run 24/7.
Huh. Went down the rabbit hole on liquid ammonia as fuel for cars (or anything else). Short version- has some real benefits over H2 (storage, pressure, temperature etc) and the “promise” of a “carbon free emissions.” It was kind of hard to actually find what the products of combustion are, but they will certainly include NOx products which are… not great. It also has many of the same issues as other synfuels- energy to produce it comes from somewhere and that whatever potential benefits are outweighed by inefficiencies in production, transportation, energy density compared to current fuels (gasoline, diesel) and at the end it is still an ICE. you know, stuff that we here in the HaD comments section have gone around in circles about for ages. Anyway thanks for something fun to think about with the morning coffee.
Oh right sorry. The obvious that it is toxic AF with corrosive and outright hazardous vapor, plus any sort of spill (definitely gonna happen) would be majorly bad
Ammonia is one of the options for removing NOx from exhaust with a catalyst, so worst case you need to use a little of your fuel to reduce the emissions from the rest of your fuel.
It also has the advantage that it has been produced using natural gas in a way which results in just ammonia and carbon powder, instead of CO2. I’ve forgotten how much it would cut the production rate if you used that ammonia for the heat input to the process instead of using the natural gas or grid power. Regardless, you do get more energy out of the ammonia than you put in, because you profit from the energy stored in the hydrogen part of the natural gas. And you can sell the carbon powder for various things that don’t include burning; it’s useful stuff.
I think electrification is ideal for a host of “light” heavy equipment. Virtually all the excavators in the DIY rental pool. Lots of contractors and DIYers use this equipment, but if you look around it is mostly only for short duration. These machines spend most of their time parked or static while humans do their thing. Yes there is a green thing with carbon, but i would think that the reduced maintenance of removing IC motors would be compelling for the intermittent user and renter. For contractors it would need to become habit to plug in the equipment when not in use, but this same learning curve has happened with the hand tools that are so amazing today.
Big difference is that you can carry the drill by hand to the charger when you inevitably run it out of juice accidentally on a job…. not so much with an excavator.
If it’s around a building site, you’re pretty sure to have a big high power extension cord somewhere. The only thing you need the battery for is moving it to a different position.
low battery alert and an operator with enough intelligence to drive it back to the charging station solves that