Texas Ag Students Create Battery-Powered 8N

Texas Ag Students Create Battery-Powered 8N TRACTORS Antiques 34-4-31 When Bonham, Texas, ag mechanics students take their tractor project out in public, they get puzzled looks. The 8N Ford looks like a beautiful restoration, but it doesn't sound right, and it has an unusual canopy. Puzzlement turns to approval upon learning the tractor is electrically powered by a solar panel on the canopy and five batteries under the hood. Teacher Clint Minnick, along with his junior and senior students, modified the donated tractor over the winter. It's the ag mechanic class's second electric conversion project. The year before, Minnick's students converted a pickup to run on electricity. They got information from the North Texas Electric Auto Association (www.nteaa.org). Students removed the tractor's engine and fabricated a frame with 3/8-in. angle iron to hold a 60 hp electric motor salvaged from a large forklift. The motor is just a little smaller and similar in weight to the original engine. "It has more torque and power than it did before," Minnick says. The original tractor had four cylinders and 20 hp. As an all-electric drive tractor, there is no clutch. The tractor operates like a golf cart. "The electric motor links directly to the input shaft of the transmission," Minnick explains. Professionals at a machine shop balanced the clutch disc assembly before it was welded to the adapter on the electric motor. It was crucial to have the balance perfect, Minnick says. The instructor and his students did all the rest of the work ù installing the motor, fabricating a frame for the batteries above it, hooking up the controller of electronic components to regulate the electric flow from the batteries to the motor, building the solar panel canopy and general restoration and painting the tractor. "It was a clean conversion," Minnick says. "All you hear is gear noise from the rear end. When we drove it 2 miles to a banquet hall, we passed several people who stared at it because it was so quiet." The tractor runs for two hours on full charge with traditional acid batteries. That could be upgraded with higher tech (Lithium) batteries, Minnick notes. In addition to being charged by the solar panel, the tractor can be plugged in and charged in about two hours. The school plans to use the tractor for students' driving tests for safe driving certification, as well as operating a box blade and disc on school district property. The E-tractor also caught the attention of area organic farmers who have old tractors they could convert. Farmers who are mechanically inclined could easily convert their tractors in a couple of weeks, Minnick says. For additional information, he suggested reading the book, "Build Your Own Electric Vehicle." Thanks to donations including the tractor, motor, solar panelsáand batteries, the cost for the E-Tractor was minimal. Main costs were for the $600 controller and $300 for other minor electronic support components. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Clint Minnick, 1002 Warpath Dr., Bonham Texas 75418 (ph 903 640-5773; clint.minnick@bonhamisd.org).

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