Electric lawn mower conversion
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- This is a retrospective of my conversion of a Craftsman DYT4000 riding lawn mower from a gas engine to electric. I walk through the different aspects of the conversion including the custom mounting plate for the motor, the controller and various connections, the deep cycle batteries, and the simple interface for using the mower.
Pardon the shakiness. Video taken on an iPad.
UPDATE: Although the mower still "works" (as in the motor spins and moves the mower), the load of cutting grass and propelling the mower proved too much for the 3.2HP electric motor. So, be sure to use a larger electric motor (8-10HP) to do the job right.
Finally a real conversion instead of an outright rebuild with a new trans axle setup.
Good job on the conversion. GE sold Electrak lawn tractors about 35 years ago during the gas crisis. Some are still running today.
Great Project more people should try
Converting to battery power is a great idea for a garden tractor I converted one 15yrs ago, I used the 3 separate motor design and it is still cutting grass on a daily basis, it is amazing how it never breaks down and needs almost no maintenance, I renew the batteries every 7 yrs I am just on my 3rd set now, my design will cut up to 2 acres on a 50cent charge there are no belts or pulleys and no oil on the entire tractor, it can pull a trailer for about 8hrs on a charge, because battery run time is the most important aspect of most conversions I paid particular attention to the most efficient design, I used 3 separate small motors one for the drive with electronic speed control and two smaller with a cutter blade mounted on the shaft of each cutter motor ,total amperage when cutting grass is approx 40amps, (2000watts) this design only uses the battery power req to do the job, very little wasted battery power, it uses magnetic breaking of both tractor and cutter blades and automatically applies parking brake when you stop or get off the seat, an amazing tractor.
electrictractor.net
Is this set up using both 48v and 12v ? Is that why you need the convertor? Nice project!
Yeah, I needed to maintain the normal 12v system in the mower that ran the lights and the electric clutch that controls the blades.
that electric motor would make a kickass windmill generator motor......
Brian Edmond
Converting to battery power is a great idea for a garden tractor I converted one 15yrs ago and it is still cutting grass on a daily basis, I have had to renew the batteries every 7 yrs I am just on my 3rd set now, my design will cut up to 2 acres on a 50cent charge there are no belts or pulleys and no oil on the entire tractor, it can pull a trailer for about 8hrs on a charge, because battery run time is the most important aspect of most conversions I paid particular attention to the most efficient design I could up with, I used 3 separate small motors one for the drive with electronic speed control and two smaller with a cutter blade mounted on the shaft for each cutter, this design only uses the battery power req to do the job, very little wasted battery power, it uses magnetic breaking of both tractor and cutter blades and automatically applies parking brake when you stop or get off the seat.
Brian Edmond,
Edmond Electric
Website: Electrictractor.net
Can you cut the 2 acres of grass on a charge? do the front wheels get stuck with the weight of all the batteries and motor over the none driving wheels?
read description, it was no go
Interesting video but I'd like to make one suggestion; several times your voice dropped so low I couldn't hear what you were saying. It may be because you turned away from your microphone or something but it made viewing a bit frustrating. All in all, nice job!
LOL, spend all that Money + Time + Coffee :(((((((((((((( - Might as well kept it " AS IS " and buy Gas with it! I know, some of you would say...... It's a DIY and FUN Conversion! But I guess more money for Gas would also be FUN :).
This is a fantastic project I’m thinking of doing the same
Nice one! So, how long did it run on one charge and how big an area could you mow before it died? I am looking to mow about 2 acres and convert my John Deere GT245 to do so.
We were mowing about 0.75 acres. With those 4 deep cycle batteries we were able to do the whole thing without any issues, but the motor I used was too small for the job and would heat up pretty quickly.
Hey, can you provide details on where to get the motor and electronic to control it?
Have you looked for a rebuilt kit or changed the fluid. I have a Dixon 38" and the hydro's are lifetime fill but I changed the fluid to mobile 1 10w-30 but i had to drop the whole hydro system and remove it. I then let it sit for a few days upside down then refilled. I think it was about a quart each and it was filled all the way up with the vent tubes as air space.
How much grass can you cut with that? I am building a mower too and I want to run a 48v system made of deep cycle golf cart batteries. I need to be able to cut 2 acres. Will this work? Thanks
read description, it was no go
Could you please tell me what contactor did you use?
Thanks
hey, for our school project we're making an electric lawn mower, we're going to use a forklift engine but we're not sure how to wire everything up, do you have any schematics on how you did it?
+siannopollo thanks! Thats gonne help alot I think :D
Hey Apollo no tripod ? Will be watching more
Can this be done to any yard tractor? And whats your opinion on using Batteries from say an electric power chair?
Great work! Nice to see you mowing with it.
Hopefully you'll have many good years out of it?
Well, minus the batteries. They'll go out eventually. Hopefully by that time.
ion will be so cheap, you'll be able to have several banks of them in the total
space that your lead acid occupies. So you'll get more runtime.
Hello from the future! LiFePO4 batteries are cheap-ish now.
You should convert your car to all electric.
The batteries are each 12V and the controller requires 48V, so the batteries are hooked up negative to positive (in series).
Great vid. Thanks. How are the batteries wired up. Negative to negative or negative to positive?
nice job on the build. were did you
What kind of run times do you get out of it under a decent load?
get the motor
which motor did you use?
I used a 36/48V golf cart motor. I believe it was a ClubCar, but the brand doesn't really seem to matter since all 36/48V of that type seem to be the same.
Great vid. Is the electric motor you are using a DC or AC MOTOR.
Dc
How long will it run for?
read description, it was no go
Thanks for posting the video!
It's not clear to me from the video, but did you wire up the batteries in series to get 48v? The inverter 48v to 12v can be bypassed if you parallel the batteries to get 12V in the first place and run the motor directly. For a ride on - on/off is probably all the speed control you need. Good inverters are around 80 - 90% efficient, so you are losing at least 10% if not a fifth of the power to losses in the inverter with this design. Also you would want to run sufficiently heavy cables to supply the current to the motor when demand gets high.
Perhaps the result would have been different if you had used a more direct approach to powering the motor? Not saying this would have made it a good electric conversion, but certainly better. Also, didn't see the battery types, but you can't use cranking batteries - they need to be deep cycle types.
Again, I'm not sure from the video, perhaps you did what I am suggesting. In any case, just offering some advice and hopefully we'll see you build a more successful machine soon!
Cheers,
BB
Depending on the weight of the ZTR, perhaps look into wheel chair motors with a speed controller.