Here’s the major issue for a tractor….. when the battery depletes and I’m at the farm with no electricity then I’m done for the day. If I have a diesel motor all I need is a few five gallon cans, five minutes, and I’m back to work. But everyone needs to understand this tractor has intended applications and owners. Case in point is what I stated above, farm use with no electricity is not good. But maybe a city that uses it at a local park?
I feel like this is a homeowner tractor. Spend an hour tilling the garden, an hour brushing a field, off and on all day doing light loader work. Maybe pulling some logs out of a forest. If you are running it like a farmer or a contractor doing 12+ hours of work, you'll want a diesel for the endurance.
Definitely could be useful to someone with 2-5 acres. I love my little 1025R but I’m sure this could do everything I need it to do. I rarely am running my tractor for over an hour on 5 acres.
I thought that was really entertaining when he said he's lugging the tractor very hard and I'm thinking the grass you're mowing is maybe only 3 to 4 in on average a like I've never cut grass that short anytime I'm actually working a tractor it's much harder than that really was just basically driving it I mean there was not enough 5 ft of brush there wasn't 6ft brush what he was doing there with that tractor to me was just super easy wasn't working as an actual tractor
@David Pennington Fair enough. I didn’t say the task was huge, I said it was lugging the tractor. I stated that the manual says only 12-13 PTO hp which corresponds to what I felt. Your comment seems to insinuate that I do not know what I am doing. I do not see why you would insult or ‘shoot’ the messenger in this case.
Tim really enjoying the videos with the Solectrac. Definitely still a way to go, but I think for many of us who just have the occasional garden or homestead task this is the future we're looking at. I will say, I am disappointed with only 12-13 hp at PTO. I don't know if a 4' rotary cutter would even work with it...and down here in the South with 90+ degree days for much of the year, I'd be concerned about that overheating. Keep 'em coming...still watching intently!
Tim, I operate my tractor exactly as you demonstrated today when I'm running my rough cutter. No less than 2 hrs. So a true life test for me. I'd be interested in battery degradation over time as it wears out. I'm excited about the future of EV tractors, just not this one or others at this time for my 10 acres hobby farm. These electric tractors are either underpowered or overpriced to justify. Thanks a bunch for running this one for us. As usual, you are most helpful. I've been following you for seven yrs now. I've owned my tractor for six. You've been my mentor from day one, as I didn't know anybody with a tractor when I started out! Many thanks!
Very interesting and well done, Tim and Christy. At that extreme usage, it gives a good point of reference for someone considering the electric option based on their uses. Blessings.
My TYM25 will pull a 60" finish mower for 2 solid hours and only use a 1/4 tank of diesel. Maybe when version 3.0 comes out it will bear consideration.
Excellent demonstration. I was quite impressed and initially did not think you would cover that much area. For many folks a 2.5-3 acre cutting area would be sufficient and you showed it could be done. I cut 3-4 times that on any given day so looks like I'll stick with good'ole diesel power.
This certainly has its purpose. Think of a homeowner who owns around 3 acres and wants to keep a finished cut. Pull a 5-6’ finishing mower and you shouldn’t really have any issues cutting the entire property with one charge. Like someone else said, it’s perfect for someone who doesn’t really need a tractor.
Good unbiased test to just put out there and let people decide for themselves. Seems like the tractor performing like that would be a decent option then for a lot of people if they were so inclined to electric versus fuel use.
I appreciate your time and devotion to your viewers Tim, this is exactly what the public deserves from these people making/pushing new innovative products that one day we might be forced to live with. It is a crime they are not making all this real world knowledge available to us all!
Sometimes that's what's necessary for innovation, 100 years ago, a lot of people didn't want to give up horses for tractors so companies made a tractor that was steered by reins to transition them to driving it, same as transitional hand planes, craftsmen didn't want to give up their coffin planes for the new bailey patent metal plane, so they made the wooden transitional plane, a wood plane with the bailey patent adjuster.
Yes except your missing one HUGE difference- those inovations weren’t forced on people by law. ThTs not how the free market works If the product is truly most cost effective and more useful you don’t need laws to push it- if it completely sucks ass and is more expensive , like electric is, they have to force it by law The irony is here east of the Mississippi where nearly the whole us population lives, 80% of the electricity is generated by fossil fuel. Just shows you how brainwashed the public is
This was something I was curious to see on how the Solectrac did. Since discovering they're developing a hydrostatic version, I want to guess that the battery life would be better while running a smaller flail mower. Seeing as this tractor is the first version, my hope is the battery technology gets better over time.
I want a flail mower. Edit: My 25hp LS goes a full day on a 7 gallon tank of diesel. That's bush-hog or finish mower work at full throttle to operate the PTO. Loader work, plow dragging, box blade work all last even longer.
Honestly went about how I imagined it would maybe a little better. Honestly I could see the average person get about a weeks use out of it on a full charge not a week worth of projects. Just here and their stuff. However personally I would have no use for something like that. I have no idea on the cost of the tractor but to me the cost of the tractor and the performance you get from it would never be worth it. Thanks for doing this test and showing us as you always do.
2 hours isn't terrible, but could be better. Between work and family obligations, 2-3 hours on the brush hog a day is about all I can squeeze in most days, if I'm able to get on it at all
Yes I would agree. I’ve got a diesel tractor that would probably run for 8-10 hours on a tank. But I’m never gonna run it like that. Usually my max is about 2 hours of non stop use. So yeah for a homeowner or small property owner. Which I would wager is 75% of small tractor sales. An electric tractor would work great. Another good comparison is battery tools used to be such garbage you couldn’t really use them for much other than homeowner use. Now I challenge you to not see almost every trade using them exclusively. Yes it may be early stages for electric tractors and cars but diesel over electric is already exclusive for large machines and I imagine it will take over and all battery will power smaller tractors especially as the tech is scaled up.
Tim, It would be interesting to see; If you let the grass grow back to about the same conditions, and you re-mowed that same area in the same method/pattern but in low speed range. Would the longer run time, but slower speed, cover more area mowed, or would it cover less area mowed? Faster for less time versus slower for more time, would be fun to see what method gets more acres.
I fully agree with this retesting option. I think it’s the rabbit/turtle debate and I feel you would cover just a bit more area, just taking more time to do it. I could not see this a a viable option for my circumstances but if you needed an occasional or inside use (to avoid emission) this would be an excellent choice.
@@TractorTimewithTim Interesting, so that efficiency gains of running in low gear, does not seem to outweigh the slower ground speed, and by twice as much. I would have never guessed that
@@inlinesix1187 That is because a big part of the energy use of a car is due to aerodynamic drag. That simply isn’t a significant factor when traveling at 2-6 MPH. I would expect very little gain in efficiency by going slower at tractor speeds.
So at 3% it becomes a very large paper weight. At 2 hours of hard use its about done till charged. For some people that buy a tractor for looks & to make a statement this is their tractor. I actually work my tractor, 60 inch cut 3 cylinder diesel I can run all day on 1/2 tank of fuel & cut a lot of grass. Tim a BIG THANK YOU for this information. Thank you for being honest.
My thoughts are the battery time needs to be longer to cut at least 5 acres a charge. The tractor isn’t for everyone but a good alternative for someone with three acres who wants/needs a tractor. In the winter pushing or using the loader in snow the temps and the work would probably have a significant effect on run time. That might be a subject for a winter video…Always enjoy the Bible verse at the end!!
An Electric tractor, though interesting, does not have the run time for me. Too when using implements, this too, cuts the run time. Someone with small acreage is a hobbyist this would work well enough. One this is certain innovation is one of America's hallmarks, so it won't be long before engineers develop a charging system and longer-lasting batteries.
This is perfect for someone that lives in an HOA Community and doesn’t use their tractor a lot. If you have an 2 maybe 3 acre plot that is on level ground then you are good. The more variables you throw at it the more you should choose a diesel powered vehicle for your duties
Insight as to why the over temp lights turned on towards the end of the test. Obviously you have things like heat soak but more so it's because as battery voltage goes down you actually need to use more amps to produce the same amount of watts. More amps generates more heat. Knowledge is power.
Thanks Tim but lord 2 hours? and extreme conditions? That is normal tractor work for most and forget doing a side hustle with that machine. I just do not see benefit even if they would get the life doubled I still could not use one. I love to see your honest tests. I think it provides clarity for the masses.....
Thanks for these videos, they're a great contribution to the discussion! So two hours doesn't sound bad. But -- that's with a pretty new battery, in warm weather. These batteries experience diminished capacity as they age, and when they operate in colder weather. There's lots of information out there about this.
I'm not sold on electric tractors but like hand held equipment it's fine. The issue is long term reliability and price on replacing the battery and would a new battery be as good as the first one.
Good job explaining Tim. Work done = horsepower with a time element involved. For big mowing jobs like that I think battery isn't practical. Sometimes we all just want to use available horsepower to get the job done. Very real- world test.
I would like to see how this does on a dyno, which is a consistent load and would find an independent horsepower rating. I can see this machine having its place in the market for sure, once the bugs are worked out.
Even in my Kubota Lx2610, I find myself mowing in low most of the time. It takes a little longer, but I enjoy the look much better then when I’m in medium range. Not to mention most of my property is hills and medium range tends to be to bumpy and rough of a ride for my bad back. (FYI, I find this to be a problem on most tractors that I use on the farm, so it’s not just limited to my little LX. I have the same issues on our big Massey and JD AG tractors). Bonus: The longer I’m on the mower, the more time I get to enjoy the peace,serenity and solitude that I enjoy so much. Nothing clears my head better then a set of headphones and a day of mowing, only in my case mowing takes up 50% of my time on the farm. I prefer my farm and neighboring family farms to look like a golf course. It really brings in boarders for my cousins horse business. They call my farm, Shangri-La and prefer to trail ride on my corner of the family farm.
@@donaldstrishock3923 , the LX is the first tractor that I actually own, so I prefer to use it to mow with. I agree about the bailer part, but the family got out of the hay business years ago and converted most of their land to pastures for horses and corn and soybeans. We still have about 50 acres of hayfields, but that’s on my uncles side. I prefer to grow tea and berries, so all I’m really mowing are grass lanes between rows and all the grass paths on the exterior that the boarder’s like to ride on. On a side note, I’d pay good money to watch someone try to cut and bail some of these hills, we have a hard enough time getting in with our custom combine and planters with insane independent wheel and track controls. My grandfather was Pennsylvania Dutch and he brought his skills his family attained farming the highlands of the Swiss alps in Leestal, Switzerland. He created some insane farm machinery after he retired as the head in the Engineering department at Westinghouse in the 70’s and bought a farm on the foothills of the Appalachian mountains and put those skills to work.
That was a great test. It gives people exactly what they need to know. Strange that the tractor at some point of low battery percentage would not of automatically shut off the pto. And maybe the loader function. Being so high tech, the tractor should maybe not let the charger start charging the battery until it was cooled to a certain temperature. Even with the charger plugged in. Great video. I sure like comparison or testing videos. Have a great day.
Truthfully I think this is not bad considering this is the blackberry of electric tractors. I have a small hobby farm and i seldom use my tractor for more than an hour at a time. Although im not in the market for a new tractor, this wouldn't be a bad option for me
I'm the same, we were called "truckdriver farmers" back in the day. I have a cordless chainsaw,blower, and string trimmer around an hour of run time, that works for me. That tractor would be perfectly fine 💡great video
This is a good test because though extreme, this is where the tractor shines for cost reduction. This is where you use the burn the most $$ in fuel and where electric shines. I have an expensive electric zero turn and this is what I like about it. I can't cut as much in a day as my gas mowers, but I just needed to change my mowing behavior to grab 30-60 minutes of free time to run out, hop on the mower and mow some. These short jaunts are good because I have a few solar panels powering a portable power station that I use to charge the mower even more cheaply (if you ignore how much I spent for the battery :) ) I also find that its good to do large mows with my tractor, and then maintain the grass with the electric zero turn because if I crank up the movement speed I can cover a lot if the grass is not tall.
I am all for new technology being derived in the agriculture community, new equipment is always fun and exciting to see. As time goes on yes, I understand things will change, solectrac has the right idea, but in order for it to be feasible for somebody like me that runtime would have to be drastically higher. I have an older John Deere tractor that I drive just about daily and I have put over 100 hours on it in the past year. The next thing I would like to see is how really functional is that loader on that tractor? Being electric, I would want to know if it can do the same as a diesel. It sure is quiet, that is something I like. Great Video Tim!
You have mowed the property using Johnny5, how much fuel and how long did that take vs the Solectrac? It would seem that the Solectrac isn't ready for primetime and it has a real limit of 1 hour 45 minutes of hard runtime.
It does a pretty good job. My fear would be 2 years from now. Does 2 hours run time turn into 1 hour and so on. My leaf blowers and weed eaters perform well out of the box....but with each use the battery loses a little something. Now my leaf blower is good for about 3 minutes.
You're using it almost exactly my normal use case. Sad the the Solectrac isn't there yet. Hopefully soon. Why do you suppose they choose 25 HP??? don't have the emissions issue, and I want ~ 25-40Hp at the PTO.
Great video and it good info on an electric tractor. Maybe it me, but when I mow with my B tractor and use a mower behind me, I always run my tire outside of the grass to be cut. You left a lot of rows of uncut grass that will extend your mowing time. A little over lap saves time in the long run. I realize mowing techniques are the purpose, just gotta say.
So cutting the typical "front yard" pasture (3-6 acres of kept field) around here would take 2 days with that tractor? That looked like finish mower hight/thickness if it was flat, at least on video. I'm impressed with the idea, but that's a deal killer when I could do it with a 25hp diesel and use 1/4 tank of fuel in one afternoon. That's based on my opinion of what a typical tractor owner would use it for around my area. They'd have at least 3 acres to mow, along with all the other chores to complete in the day.
It seems like that tractor struggles with extended PTO work. Is there a way that you could do a similar test with loader work and pulling that doesn't require PTO? It may give better battery life that way. 12 - 13 PTO HP is pretty low, even the BX 1880 has better PTO hp than that. This tractor has it's place for the right user but I suspect it will be a couple more generational improvements before electric tractors are entering the market to compete for the majority of buyers.
To get an idea of runtime vs. acreage in different gears, how about you finish the job in low gear. It would be interesting to see how much battery you would have left. Cheers
That’s a lot of weight and moving mass an to be able to do it for 2 hours pretty much none stop. That’s really expressive an even more expressive for a first gen electric tractor.
For overall battery life, the battery should not be run down to minimum. Lithium batteries last longest if you operate them between 20% and 80% - that is, at 20% you recharge to 80%... if you run min to max all the time, battery life will be shortened.
Interesting video Folks. They have a long way to go if they're going replace a diesel power tractor. A 36 degree long retracting extension cord off that electric pole next to the building. You could've finished the job!
One important distinction that I think should be made here is that flail mowers take a LOT more power to run than rotary cutters (IE: bush hog, brush cutter, etc). I have a Mahindra 2638 HST with both a 5ft rotary cutter and a 5.5ft flail mower. I can run at max speed (IE: HST pedal all the way to the floor) in mid range with the rotary cutter and my engine RPM's don't drop even 100 RPM in the tallest/thickest grass. My flail mower on the other hand pulls the engine down substantially in much lighter grass even when I slow down to about half the speed of what I run with the rotary cutter. It's a MASSIVE difference. I can fly with the rotary cutter but have to really watch my speed on the flail mower. But the flail mower is doing a lot more work: It's not just cutting the grass, it's cutting it and re-cutting it over and over (mulching) If you're running a rotary cutter in these conditions I would expect the Solectrac would run 2-4 times longer (And cut 2-4 times more acreage) I second the notion of doing a dyno test on the PTO. There's no way it's only 12-14 HP. The spec sheet on the Solectrac website says the motor is 25 HP. There's no way there's that much loss to the PTO.
First time viewer here Tim. Really appreciate the video is of seeing a lot of stuff lately getting released as a battery only option such as the tractor you test today and even one of the newer all-electric Bobcat skid steers. I really like that headset and microphone setup that you have. By chance could you tell me what the manufacturer is and the model by chance? Thanks again for the great video, I've also subscribed so I won't miss any more of your content.
We don’t record from that headset. We use a separate mic for recording. The headset for intercom is a Stihl Advance Procomm. I think identical to SENA TuffTalk M. Welcome to our channel! Please check out some of our other videos!
Not disappointed. It is sold for small farms, probably by not American standards :) I would say 10-15 acres. I have experience with e-bike. Pulling back the horses does justice for the range. I know, with the tractor the mower using more energy if we slow down. Still, my guess is more area is done! The cost most be low. I think, You used some 17 kW. How much is it? A gallon of diesel? How much would a diesel tractor use on this track? 4-5 gallons? I ask.
I'd have to say I'm disappointed in the range and how much it struggled with that flail mower. This video shows the absolute best case scenario for this machine under full load where a comparable diesel machine would be burning the most fuel. Excellent job. Now, I'm not a tractor expert by any means. I also don't care about electric vs diesel or any of that mess. I'm not a green tractor man, but green and orange are on similar price points so just a comparison: Usage per dollar is where I really have a problem with this tractor. They post right on their own website they want $29,000 for that tractor. That is $10,000+ more than a competing tractor. If your comparing to Kubota, an lx2610su would be the most fair comparison and thats the price difference. The gap opens up even wider for an L series. Or more yet on a B. For the money, you could damn near skip all the way up to an M60 for an open cab. Or keep the same size and have a cab tractor for the money. Few thousand more and you get a big bump in hp to go with it. Sure it's quiet, but that sure is alot of diesel to run through just to pay off the cost difference alone. Which at that short of a run time coupled with charge time I'm not sure it would be possible. Of course the caveat to this is that is just a comparison from one of the two most popular, and expensive brands on the market. When you start looking at othet brands like Kioti, TYM, and the rest that gap opens up even wider.
Interesting. I do know the both of you put in a lot of before and after work to produce these videos. Thanks! We are 100 years ago when the Model T came out. Long way to go. No one is coming to your farm and taking your tractor from your cold dead hands LOL Relax everyone. Gas will be around for a long time yet, 100 years. Roger Penske remarked a couple months back on this. I've had my 2032R for 2 years 2 months. I have 98 hours on it. I get called all kinds of names for not being a true "farmer" or true "working my land and getting my hands dirty" and etc. Whatever on that nonsense. It's a tool, that's all it is and Tim and Christy provide data and real world examples. I am interested in the EV Zero Turn and Gator next! Quiet and no fumes is what I am after while using equipment :-) Don't let the turkeys get you down :-)
Thank you for taking the time and effort to document an excellent data point for all. Question - do you think there will be severe performance loss if the tractor is operated in cold weather (pushing snow with the loader)?
Being here in North Dakota, i don't think an electric tractors for large scale ag would be practical, in the current state of our agriculture industry, lot of farmers dont farm land near their houses, and pulling a large air seeder takes a lot of energy, a charger would have to be at the field especially since you wouldn't want to pull the equipment from the field anyway, weather depending, you would want to get your planting done as fast as you can, stopping to charge would be a hindrance. This test is a great model for what that might look like
So my take is it's good for limited indoor and outdoor use and not something like shredding or heavy long-run use, if you need to to run all day the electric tractors and not ready for it, if you use them part-time just to move stuff around like a trailer then your probably ok but any real all day work not yet.
Many of my tasks are ~90 minutes, but then I have mowing jobs like you just did of ~3hr duration and a long way from a power source. I couldn't make the switch yet as much as I'd like to
It seems like that particular model of electric tractor would be good for more casual work around the property, a little mowing here and there, maybe a decent size garden or even running a stationary grain auger if only for a little while at a time.
They need to do Like EGO Zero turn mowers . You have a bunch of smaller batteries you can take in an out easy. That way you could keep on working while the other set of batteries charge. You may want suggest that to Solectrac.
Tim 74 degrees OAT during this test and 1.75 hours of continuous use fully load cutting 2.5 acres seems reasonable. I wonder how a properly sized flail mower would have faired?
I ran some numbers last year and in order to have a 100hp actual farm tractor you'd need to swap out an 8 ton battery every 40 minutes... with safe recharge times you'd need to have 15 batteries just to get 10 hours of work done and would likely want 20. This doesn't include the fuel cost of bringing the batteries out into the field with a truck strong enough to mount and dismount 8 ton batteries (includes housing and frame weight) and the fuel cost of charging those batteries. The infrastructure and batteries alone necessary to run a 100hp tractor 10 hours a day would cost more than the fuel necessary to run a 200hp tractor 14 hours a day _not including damage, losses, repair, maintenance and filtration_ the latter being one of the reasons electric tractors just aren't an actual option. The amount of power the filtration and blowers for COOLING the motors in a tractor consume is about 12% of the battery capacity itself. These aren't cars that can be made stupid efficient to travel at speed, these are tractors that are going to be running in the Plaid zone hour on hour every day. What a lot of people don't realize about tractors is they spend 75% of their life sitting so idle that you have to install battery cut-off switches just to keep the batteries from going dead-short flat. 80% of the lifespan of any set of battery modules you'd make for a tractor would be expended sitting idle decaying. So what are the options? Draglines are out because there's simply no way for a power plant to operate "only" for tractors with it going to hundreds of megawatts at 5am then tapering off to nill at 2am again and after transmission and conversion losses a tractor would draw more than a kilowatt per horsepower. Basically we'd be back to synthetic diesel fuel again because it's cheaper, more reliable and better for the environment.
I enjoy the concept and would jump at the chance to ditch diesel, but in central Indiana the dealer support is lacking for a lot of equipment and Solectrac unfortunately is in that category. Thank you for sharing!
I try and do 1.5 hours before work - with some solar panels this would be effectively be free all week. Big weekends would be a pain but just changing up the schedule and running 80/20 instead of 100/10 for battery would get more hours out of it with less charge time. We divide our paddocks up so there is long and short grass for the animals to move around so I rarely have to mow the lot at once. But compared to 6-8 hours with a flail on diesel it is way shorter and I can run a way bigger flail on it.
I believe the tractor has a 22kWh battery .., SOLECTRAC would option a 44kWh battery you are looking at 4 hours of straight work ..then take lunch and charge it back up for 30 minutes and that gets you a full day. They simply need to add different battery options .. great looking tractor, very very low maintence, no oil changes no diesel to deal with
I’ll throw in my .02 here. I ran pretty large electric mining machines in an underground setting. One thing you had to watch was a formula displayed that was a measurement of temperature over time. If the machine ran too hot for too long it would trip the breaker and you would need to wait for it to cool off, so you would need to take it easy on occasion to keep it running cool. I think you may have kept the tractor a little over taxed a little too long and sacrificed some run time due to the heat and strain you were placing on the electric motor based on the temperatures you were talking about. Let me give you an analogy to describe what I’m talking about. If you want to cover 5 miles walking you can do it. It takes you a long time, but possible. If you try to run it in a sprint, you’ll likely get tired and need to stop to rest. A jog is a compromise, but the most efficient way is to run for short periods with a period of less efficient walking, but you’re still covering ground. Electric motor temp works the same way. In your video of you mowing, you may find you run medium range for a few passes, and as temp rises you run a pass or 2 in low to keep the temp in check.
So it seems like the HST version (as long as it doesn't eat all of the power by itself) might be the way to go? Its kind of disappointing that they didn't just add a few extra gears to the manual....
A battery has a fixed amount of energy just like a reservoir. If you use power faster (higher speed) it won't last as long, but you will get there faster! If you ran slower more of your power would have gone to the mower (better cut quality) and so you may not have travelled as far. And it would have obviously lasted longer.
And while Tim was charging his mower back up, Christy was still going with Johnny,,, lol,,, great video Tim and Christy, as usual,,, but I still think Johnny is going to come out on top…
wonder if (unsure of filming ) you could after charging use it in lower gear for he rest of the mowing if it would complete it or run out of "juice" just slower ?
Tim, for e25G owners it's worth gold to know what attachments are a good fit - the Land Pride QH15 is featured but is discontinued ; Do you suppose the Land Pride QH16 that replaces it would also be a fit? What ROPS-mount attachments etc. have you found to be a good fit and complement (is that a cooler holder?) what the e25G is most useful for? Have you ballasted the tires on the e25G? Great video, good data and presentation, thank you.
What would be running the other half at reduced speed, longer run time, acreage covered? Also your Thoughts on pto load using a 60 finish mower vrs the flail mower. I have never used a flail mower.
Hey Sir 👋 I believe they created batteries lasting 50 Years! Happened in China, so Hopefully mass production will begin soon... So that shouldn't be a problem I quess...
This could be considered a 'recreational vehicle' if 2hrs is all it has for duty. I thought Tractors were a tool that in the end provides profit as a outcome of usage. Well, the future doesn't look like anyone will be getting a full 40 hr paycheck. I have been grading my 1 acre ural home landscape for the last two days and running My Honda 6522 loader with a 5 ft. rake and working it hard(brutal winter washout). A 1/4 tank of fuel with a 5 gallon capacity, 6.5 hrs total run time in two days, diesel was $4.33/gal. which comes out to .98c/hr. I never heard a charge time and I doubt a fast charger system is being used(they cost around $30-$40,000 if service panel capacity is even possible). The last one I saw installed in a home was a 60 amp circuit also! Thats a huge load, more than two modern Central AC's operating! The irony is the charging station is fed by either Natural Gas or Coal Power Plants with Millions of Horsepower capabilities to drive generators to sustain the basic grid. This electric tractor couldn't even do a clean job, that was a horrible cut with limited gear/speed/hp ratio. I guess one could always pull a diesel generator behind for reliability! Haah ha, Lol.
I don't know about electric vehicles. But I do know when it comes to cordless power tools that if the battery pack is too hot the charger will not charge the battery until it has cooled off for a bit. Putting a hot battery pack directly onto the charger after using it puts the charger into a protect mode and it will flash with the led lights the signal for a over heated battery pack. If this Solectrac and electric cars all use lithium battery packs like power tools do the chargers probably have a protect mode as well if they get too hot. The last thing you want is your expensive tractor exploding or catching fire due to stressed batteries. :)
I'm just really wondering what really powering this tractor to charge when it's getting charged? Something got to make that electricity. Do you know where your power comes from?
Great video Tim. I’ve been looking into these tractors and how they work. It’s obviously a “proof of concept” type machine. They are definitely not optimized for electric. But that’s ok because it’s a machine in its infancy you might say. I will say that the battery is a little disappointing, but I also think you’re right that the mower may be a touch too big for the machine. However I think if it was providing the 18+ HP a normal 25/26HP tractor puts out the PTO. It would probably be a nonissue. That 12-13HP PTO is incredibly disappointing. That’s less than a BX1880. Which is only an 18HP tractor. And I think we’d all like to see it on a dyno to get some numbers.
First off let me say, I was never a fan of electric vehicles, and now tractors. But I have changed over the last year to being more, maybe not excepting with open arms, but more willing to research the possibilities. I look back 30 years ago at my first cordless drill. Porter Cable 12v. I used that for everything, even a hammer at times, probably been 10 years ago now, the batteries would not take or hold a charge any more, broke my heart to throw it away. But with the technology today with my new Milwaukee cordless tools, I would probably not use it even if it were still working. So this is how I am looking at the EV's, as the technology progresses, and I am sure they are working very hard at better run times more power at peak performance ect. With that being said, I am sure the EV market will grow over the next 20 years to a point that may surprise us all. You must remember 25-30 years ago you would be hard pressed to find any trades person with cordless tools, now you may not find any that use corded tools, and if so very rarely use them. Electric Tractors may at this time not be suitable for an all out commercial operation that requires hours of run time at max HP, with minimal refueling/charging times. But for a home owner that has a few acres to maintain, could be a very useful tool. Most sub compact tractor owners do not use them for anymore rhan an hour at a time, so could be a very good fit for them. Also for many to haul the cord out and plug it in, far out weighs going to get fuel, bring it back dump it in, store it. So it will be interesting in 20 years to see what improvements come along, hopefully I am still around to see them.
maybe you could put a couple markers where you mowed this time and try the tractor in low range next time in the same spot to see if there is much difference of size of cut field
It would be interesting to see once the tractor is recharged go back to the tower property and mow in low gear and see how much longer it takes versus how much more you can cut. Would you be able to finish what you've already started or would you be able to do about the same amount of acreage
I think it would be interesting for him to run the same test just in low gear next time it needs cutting. That way it would be an apples to apples comparison and very easy to see the difference based on after drone footage
2 hours of hard work is woefully inadequate for most of us😮. Especially given the recharge down time. I could do that work on about 2-3 gallons of diesel and had more PTO Hp.
Pretty cool for someone who doesn't use a tractor everyday and or have a smaller property. I'm actually pretty impressed.
Here’s the major issue for a tractor….. when the battery depletes and I’m at the farm with no electricity then I’m done for the day. If I have a diesel motor all I need is a few five gallon cans, five minutes, and I’m back to work.
But everyone needs to understand this tractor has intended applications and owners. Case in point is what I stated above, farm use with no electricity is not good. But maybe a city that uses it at a local park?
I feel like this is a homeowner tractor. Spend an hour tilling the garden, an hour brushing a field, off and on all day doing light loader work. Maybe pulling some logs out of a forest. If you are running it like a farmer or a contractor doing 12+ hours of work, you'll want a diesel for the endurance.
@@Jeremy-fy1sz Yep, but as a occasional use tractor this will probably fine. With the barn or other building roof full of solar panels.
Definitely could be useful to someone with 2-5 acres. I love my little 1025R but I’m sure this could do everything I need it to do. I rarely am running my tractor for over an hour on 5 acres.
I agree
Electric tractor is perfect for a guy that doesn't really need a tractor.
I thought that was really entertaining when he said he's lugging the tractor very hard and I'm thinking the grass you're mowing is maybe only 3 to 4 in on average a like I've never cut grass that short anytime I'm actually working a tractor it's much harder than that really was just basically driving it I mean there was not enough 5 ft of brush there wasn't 6ft brush what he was doing there with that tractor to me was just super easy wasn't working as an actual tractor
Or under 1 acre of land
Same goes for electric trucks...
@David Pennington Fair enough. I didn’t say the task was huge, I said it was lugging the tractor. I stated that the manual says only 12-13 PTO hp which corresponds to what I felt.
Your comment seems to insinuate that I do not know what I am doing. I do not see why you would insult or ‘shoot’ the messenger in this case.
Lol, but to be fair, it is a first Gen. Machine
Tim really enjoying the videos with the Solectrac. Definitely still a way to go, but I think for many of us who just have the occasional garden or homestead task this is the future we're looking at. I will say, I am disappointed with only 12-13 hp at PTO. I don't know if a 4' rotary cutter would even work with it...and down here in the South with 90+ degree days for much of the year, I'd be concerned about that overheating.
Keep 'em coming...still watching intently!
Tim, I operate my tractor exactly as you demonstrated today when I'm running my rough cutter. No less than 2 hrs. So a true life test for me. I'd be interested in battery degradation over time as it wears out. I'm excited about the future of EV tractors, just not this one or others at this time for my 10 acres hobby farm. These electric tractors are either underpowered or overpriced to justify. Thanks a bunch for running this one for us. As usual, you are most helpful. I've been following you for seven yrs now. I've owned my tractor for six. You've been my mentor from day one, as I didn't know anybody with a tractor when I started out! Many thanks!
Thanks Denise! Always enjoy hearing from you.
Very interesting and well done, Tim and Christy. At that extreme usage, it gives a good point of reference for someone considering the electric option based on their uses. Blessings.
My TYM25 will pull a 60" finish mower for 2 solid hours and only use a 1/4 tank of diesel. Maybe when version 3.0 comes out it will bear consideration.
Excellent demonstration. I was quite impressed and initially did not think you would cover that much area. For many folks a 2.5-3 acre cutting area would be sufficient and you showed it could be done. I cut 3-4 times that on any given day so looks like I'll stick with good'ole diesel power.
Thanks Tim. About what I expected. Electric technology is only suitable for certain applications at this time. May be fine for some.
Let's face it Tim diesel is king when it comes to farming and mowing like you do. It ain't gona work.
This certainly has its purpose. Think of a homeowner who owns around 3 acres and wants to keep a finished cut. Pull a 5-6’ finishing mower and you shouldn’t really have any issues cutting the entire property with one charge. Like someone else said, it’s perfect for someone who doesn’t really need a tractor.
Good unbiased test to just put out there and let people decide for themselves. Seems like the tractor performing like that would be a decent option then for a lot of people if they were so inclined to electric versus fuel use.
I believe you are absolutely fair in your evaluation. Thanks for sharing.
I appreciate your time and devotion to your viewers Tim, this is exactly what the public deserves from these people making/pushing new innovative products that one day we might be forced to live with. It is a crime they are not making all this real world knowledge available to us all!
Welcome to the New World Order.........global warming is simply a money-making scam.
Sometimes that's what's necessary for innovation, 100 years ago, a lot of people didn't want to give up horses for tractors so companies made a tractor that was steered by reins to transition them to driving it, same as transitional hand planes, craftsmen didn't want to give up their coffin planes for the new bailey patent metal plane, so they made the wooden transitional plane, a wood plane with the bailey patent adjuster.
Yes except your missing one HUGE difference- those inovations weren’t forced on people by law. ThTs not how the free market works
If the product is truly most cost effective and more useful you don’t need laws to push it- if it completely sucks ass and is more expensive , like electric is, they have to force it by law
The irony is here east of the Mississippi where nearly the whole us population lives, 80% of the electricity is generated by fossil fuel. Just shows you how brainwashed the public is
This was something I was curious to see on how the Solectrac did. Since discovering they're developing a hydrostatic version, I want to guess that the battery life would be better while running a smaller flail mower. Seeing as this tractor is the first version, my hope is the battery technology gets better over time.
I've been involved with ebikes and EVs for 6-8 years now. Batteries are getting a little better/cheaper/durable every year.
I want a flail mower.
Edit: My 25hp LS goes a full day on a 7 gallon tank of diesel. That's bush-hog or finish mower work at full throttle to operate the PTO.
Loader work, plow dragging, box blade work all last even longer.
Tim, This is a perfect tractor for me! I'lm almost 81 years old and a 2hr. day sound better to me all the time.
Honestly went about how I imagined it would maybe a little better. Honestly I could see the average person get about a weeks use out of it on a full charge not a week worth of projects. Just here and their stuff. However personally I would have no use for something like that. I have no idea on the cost of the tractor but to me the cost of the tractor and the performance you get from it would never be worth it. Thanks for doing this test and showing us as you always do.
2 hours isn't terrible, but could be better. Between work and family obligations, 2-3 hours on the brush hog a day is about all I can squeeze in most days, if I'm able to get on it at all
Yes I would agree. I’ve got a diesel tractor that would probably run for 8-10 hours on a tank. But I’m never gonna run it like that. Usually my max is about 2 hours of non stop use. So yeah for a homeowner or small property owner. Which I would wager is 75% of small tractor sales. An electric tractor would work great. Another good comparison is battery tools used to be such garbage you couldn’t really use them for much other than homeowner use. Now I challenge you to not see almost every trade using them exclusively. Yes it may be early stages for electric tractors and cars but diesel over electric is already exclusive for large machines and I imagine it will take over and all battery will power smaller tractors especially as the tech is scaled up.
Tim, It would be interesting to see; If you let the grass grow back to about the same conditions, and you re-mowed that same area in the same method/pattern but in low speed range. Would the longer run time, but slower speed, cover more area mowed, or would it cover less area mowed? Faster for less time versus slower for more time, would be fun to see what method gets more acres.
I fully agree with this retesting option. I think it’s the rabbit/turtle debate and I feel you would cover just a bit more area, just taking more time to do it.
I could not see this a a viable option for my circumstances but if you needed an occasional or inside use (to avoid emission) this would be an excellent choice.
I want to see this also cause for electric cars you can actually cover more miles by driving slower.
Failed to mention…I did one of the three perimeter rounds in low gear. It took rice the amount of battery percentage as a round in mid gear.
@@TractorTimewithTim Interesting, so that efficiency gains of running in low gear, does not seem to outweigh the slower ground speed, and by twice as much. I would have never guessed that
@@inlinesix1187 That is because a big part of the energy use of a car is due to aerodynamic drag. That simply isn’t a significant factor when traveling at 2-6 MPH. I would expect very little gain in efficiency by going slower at tractor speeds.
So at 3% it becomes a very large paper weight. At 2 hours of hard use its about done till charged. For some people that buy a tractor for looks & to make a statement this is their tractor. I actually work my tractor, 60 inch cut 3 cylinder diesel I can run all day on 1/2 tank of fuel & cut a lot of grass. Tim a BIG THANK YOU for this information. Thank you for being honest.
A Full Charge Let’s get started. Thanks for another video Tim
My thoughts are the battery time needs to be longer to cut at least 5 acres a charge. The tractor isn’t for everyone but a good alternative for someone with three acres who wants/needs a tractor. In the winter pushing or using the loader in snow the temps and the work would probably have a significant effect on run time. That might be a subject for a winter video…Always enjoy the Bible verse at the end!!
To be honest, if you're cutting 5 acres, you need a dedicated mower with a 72" deck that goes 7+mph
The problem is adding run time adds significant weight, which limits how much work the tractor is capable of doing.
An Electric tractor, though interesting, does not have the run time for me. Too when using implements, this too, cuts the run time. Someone with small acreage is a hobbyist this would work well enough. One this is certain innovation is one of America's hallmarks, so it won't be long before engineers develop a charging system and longer-lasting batteries.
Takeaway for me is that a few more years of development is needed.
This is perfect for someone that lives in an HOA Community and doesn’t use their tractor a lot. If you have an 2 maybe 3 acre plot that is on level ground then you are good. The more variables you throw at it the more you should choose a diesel powered vehicle for your duties
Insight as to why the over temp lights turned on towards the end of the test. Obviously you have things like heat soak but more so it's because as battery voltage goes down you actually need to use more amps to produce the same amount of watts. More amps generates more heat. Knowledge is power.
Thanks Tim but lord 2 hours? and extreme conditions? That is normal tractor work for most and forget doing a side hustle with that machine. I just do not see benefit even if they would get the life doubled I still could not use one. I love to see your honest tests. I think it provides clarity for the masses.....
Thanks for these videos, they're a great contribution to the discussion! So two hours doesn't sound bad. But -- that's with a pretty new battery, in warm weather. These batteries experience diminished capacity as they age, and when they operate in colder weather. There's lots of information out there about this.
I'm not sold on electric tractors but like hand held equipment it's fine. The issue is long term reliability and price on replacing the battery and would a new battery be as good as the first one.
couldnt give me that tractor on a bet!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It seems like the best option for a compact tractor would be separate motors for the drive, pto, and hydraulics.
Good job explaining Tim. Work done = horsepower with a time element involved. For big mowing jobs like that I think battery isn't practical. Sometimes we all just want to use available horsepower to get the job done. Very real- world test.
I would like to see how this does on a dyno, which is a consistent load and would find an independent horsepower rating. I can see this machine having its place in the market for sure, once the bugs are worked out.
Even in my Kubota Lx2610, I find myself mowing in low most of the time. It takes a little longer, but I enjoy the look much better then when I’m in medium range. Not to mention most of my property is hills and medium range tends to be to bumpy and rough of a ride for my bad back. (FYI, I find this to be a problem on most tractors that I use on the farm, so it’s not just limited to my little LX. I have the same issues on our big Massey and JD AG tractors).
Bonus: The longer I’m on the mower, the more time I get to enjoy the peace,serenity and solitude that I enjoy so much. Nothing clears my head better then a set of headphones and a day of mowing, only in my case mowing takes up 50% of my time on the farm. I prefer my farm and neighboring family farms to look like a golf course. It really brings in boarders for my cousins horse business. They call my farm, Shangri-La and prefer to trail ride on my corner of the family farm.
Sounds like you need "ANOTHER" Bailer. Just cutting more than 2 acre of GRASS is a TOTAL Waste of Resources & Time.
@@donaldstrishock3923 , the LX is the first tractor that I actually own, so I prefer to use it to mow with. I agree about the bailer part, but the family got out of the hay business years ago and converted most of their land to pastures for horses and corn and soybeans. We still have about 50 acres of hayfields, but that’s on my uncles side. I prefer to grow tea and berries, so all I’m really mowing are grass lanes between rows and all the grass paths on the exterior that the boarder’s like to ride on.
On a side note, I’d pay good money to watch someone try to cut and bail some of these hills, we have a hard enough time getting in with our custom combine and planters with insane independent wheel and track controls. My grandfather was Pennsylvania Dutch and he brought his skills his family attained farming the highlands of the Swiss alps in Leestal, Switzerland. He created some insane farm machinery after he retired as the head in the Engineering department at Westinghouse in the 70’s and bought a farm on the foothills of the Appalachian mountains and put those skills to work.
Yep,Tim you look better on the John Deere,have a blessed evening
That was a great test. It gives people exactly what they need to know. Strange that the tractor at some point of low battery percentage would not of automatically shut off the pto. And maybe the loader function.
Being so high tech, the tractor should maybe not let the charger start charging the battery until it was cooled to a certain temperature. Even with the charger plugged in.
Great video. I sure like comparison or testing videos.
Have a great day.
I think it did there at 10%. I flipped the switch …but you can tell by listening that it was already off. I shoulda said that.
@@TractorTimewithTim no troubles. Great video.
Truthfully I think this is not bad considering this is the blackberry of electric tractors. I have a small hobby farm and i seldom use my tractor for more than an hour at a time. Although im not in the market for a new tractor, this wouldn't be a bad option for me
I'm the same, we were called "truckdriver farmers" back in the day. I have a cordless chainsaw,blower, and string trimmer around an hour of run time, that works for me. That tractor would be perfectly fine 💡great video
Lovely Tractor 👍
You keep this up and solectrac will be knocking on your door to pick up their little electric toy..lol..
This is a good test because though extreme, this is where the tractor shines for cost reduction. This is where you use the burn the most $$ in fuel and where electric shines. I have an expensive electric zero turn and this is what I like about it. I can't cut as much in a day as my gas mowers, but I just needed to change my mowing behavior to grab 30-60 minutes of free time to run out, hop on the mower and mow some. These short jaunts are good because I have a few solar panels powering a portable power station that I use to charge the mower even more cheaply (if you ignore how much I spent for the battery :) )
I also find that its good to do large mows with my tractor, and then maintain the grass with the electric zero turn because if I crank up the movement speed I can cover a lot if the grass is not tall.
I am all for new technology being derived in the agriculture community, new equipment is always fun and exciting to see. As time goes on yes, I understand things will change, solectrac has the right idea, but in order for it to be feasible for somebody like me that runtime would have to be drastically higher. I have an older John Deere tractor that I drive just about daily and I have put over 100 hours on it in the past year. The next thing I would like to see is how really functional is that loader on that tractor? Being electric, I would want to know if it can do the same as a diesel. It sure is quiet, that is something I like. Great Video Tim!
Do you think it would be better if you removed the loader? Is that even an option?
I wonder if it would help if you removed the loader while mowing? Weight reduction.
You have mowed the property using Johnny5, how much fuel and how long did that take vs the Solectrac? It would seem that the Solectrac isn't ready for primetime and it has a real limit of 1 hour 45 minutes of hard runtime.
It does a pretty good job. My fear would be 2 years from now. Does 2 hours run time turn into 1 hour and so on. My leaf blowers and weed eaters perform well out of the box....but with each use the battery loses a little something. Now my leaf blower is good for about 3 minutes.
You're using it almost exactly my normal use case. Sad the the Solectrac isn't there yet. Hopefully soon. Why do you suppose they choose 25 HP??? don't have the emissions issue, and I want ~ 25-40Hp at the PTO.
Nice presentation and thanks always for the true and honest videos. Not ready for prime time yet or suitable for extreme northern climates.
Great video and it good info on an electric tractor. Maybe it me, but when I mow with my B tractor and use a mower behind me, I always run my tire outside of the grass to be cut. You left a lot of rows of uncut grass that will extend your mowing time. A little over lap saves time in the long run. I realize mowing techniques are the purpose, just gotta say.
If I had done so, I would have been roughly half way overlapping. Too much in this case.
So cutting the typical "front yard" pasture (3-6 acres of kept field) around here would take 2 days with that tractor? That looked like finish mower hight/thickness if it was flat, at least on video. I'm impressed with the idea, but that's a deal killer when I could do it with a 25hp diesel and use 1/4 tank of fuel in one afternoon. That's based on my opinion of what a typical tractor owner would use it for around my area. They'd have at least 3 acres to mow, along with all the other chores to complete in the day.
It seems like that tractor struggles with extended PTO work. Is there a way that you could do a similar test with loader work and pulling that doesn't require PTO? It may give better battery life that way. 12 - 13 PTO HP is pretty low, even the BX 1880 has better PTO hp than that.
This tractor has it's place for the right user but I suspect it will be a couple more generational improvements before electric tractors are entering the market to compete for the majority of buyers.
To get an idea of runtime vs. acreage in different gears, how about you finish the job in low gear. It would be interesting to see how much battery you would have left. Cheers
That’s a lot of weight and moving mass an to be able to do it for 2 hours pretty much none stop. That’s really expressive an even more expressive for a first gen electric tractor.
For overall battery life, the battery should not be run down to minimum. Lithium batteries last longest if you operate them between 20% and 80% - that is, at 20% you recharge to 80%... if you run min to max all the time, battery life will be shortened.
I gotta say... knowing how much power a flail mower uses, it hung in there pretty good.
Interesting video Folks. They have a long way to go if they're going replace a diesel power tractor. A 36 degree long retracting extension cord off that electric pole next to the building. You could've finished the job!
One important distinction that I think should be made here is that flail mowers take a LOT more power to run than rotary cutters (IE: bush hog, brush cutter, etc).
I have a Mahindra 2638 HST with both a 5ft rotary cutter and a 5.5ft flail mower. I can run at max speed (IE: HST pedal all the way to the floor) in mid range with the rotary cutter and my engine RPM's don't drop even 100 RPM in the tallest/thickest grass. My flail mower on the other hand pulls the engine down substantially in much lighter grass even when I slow down to about half the speed of what I run with the rotary cutter. It's a MASSIVE difference. I can fly with the rotary cutter but have to really watch my speed on the flail mower. But the flail mower is doing a lot more work: It's not just cutting the grass, it's cutting it and re-cutting it over and over (mulching)
If you're running a rotary cutter in these conditions I would expect the Solectrac would run 2-4 times longer (And cut 2-4 times more acreage)
I second the notion of doing a dyno test on the PTO. There's no way it's only 12-14 HP. The spec sheet on the Solectrac website says the motor is 25 HP. There's no way there's that much loss to the PTO.
First time viewer here Tim. Really appreciate the video is of seeing a lot of stuff lately getting released as a battery only option such as the tractor you test today and even one of the newer all-electric Bobcat skid steers.
I really like that headset and microphone setup that you have. By chance could you tell me what the manufacturer is and the model by chance?
Thanks again for the great video, I've also subscribed so I won't miss any more of your content.
We don’t record from that headset. We use a separate mic for recording.
The headset for intercom is a Stihl Advance Procomm. I think identical to SENA TuffTalk M.
Welcome to our channel! Please check out some of our other videos!
Not disappointed. It is sold for small farms, probably by not American standards :)
I would say 10-15 acres. I have experience with e-bike. Pulling back the horses does justice for the range. I know, with the tractor the mower using more energy if we slow down. Still, my guess is more area is done!
The cost most be low. I think, You used some 17 kW. How much is it? A gallon of diesel? How much would a diesel tractor use on this track? 4-5 gallons? I ask.
I'd have to say I'm disappointed in the range and how much it struggled with that flail mower. This video shows the absolute best case scenario for this machine under full load where a comparable diesel machine would be burning the most fuel. Excellent job.
Now, I'm not a tractor expert by any means. I also don't care about electric vs diesel or any of that mess. I'm not a green tractor man, but green and orange are on similar price points so just a comparison:
Usage per dollar is where I really have a problem with this tractor. They post right on their own website they want $29,000 for that tractor. That is $10,000+ more than a competing tractor. If your comparing to Kubota, an lx2610su would be the most fair comparison and thats the price difference. The gap opens up even wider for an L series. Or more yet on a B.
For the money, you could damn near skip all the way up to an M60 for an open cab. Or keep the same size and have a cab tractor for the money. Few thousand more and you get a big bump in hp to go with it.
Sure it's quiet, but that sure is alot of diesel to run through just to pay off the cost difference alone. Which at that short of a run time coupled with charge time I'm not sure it would be possible.
Of course the caveat to this is that is just a comparison from one of the two most popular, and expensive brands on the market. When you start looking at othet brands like Kioti, TYM, and the rest that gap opens up even wider.
Interesting. I do know the both of you put in a lot of before and after work to produce these videos. Thanks! We are 100 years ago when the Model T came out. Long way to go. No one is coming to your farm and taking your tractor from your cold dead hands LOL Relax everyone. Gas will be around for a long time yet, 100 years. Roger Penske remarked a couple months back on this. I've had my 2032R for 2 years 2 months. I have 98 hours on it. I get called all kinds of names for not being a true "farmer" or true "working my land and getting my hands dirty" and etc. Whatever on that nonsense. It's a tool, that's all it is and Tim and Christy provide data and real world examples. I am interested in the EV Zero Turn and Gator next! Quiet and no fumes is what I am after while using equipment :-) Don't let the turkeys get you down :-)
If you time it out correctly you will have to plug it in just as the ballgame starts. Would be great for indoor use no fumes
Hey Tammy right there by the electrical towers plug it in LOL thanks from Gary
Thank you for taking the time and effort to document an excellent data point for all. Question - do you think there will be severe performance loss if the tractor is operated in cold weather (pushing snow with the loader)?
Yes. However, if stored/charged in warm conditions, it can be operated in cold weather successfully.
Charging/storing cold is not recommended.
Being here in North Dakota, i don't think an electric tractors for large scale ag would be practical, in the current state of our agriculture industry, lot of farmers dont farm land near their houses, and pulling a large air seeder takes a lot of energy, a charger would have to be at the field especially since you wouldn't want to pull the equipment from the field anyway, weather depending, you would want to get your planting done as fast as you can, stopping to charge would be a hindrance. This test is a great model for what that might look like
So my take is it's good for limited indoor and outdoor use and not something like shredding or heavy long-run use, if you need to to run all day the electric tractors and not ready for it, if you use them part-time just to move stuff around like a trailer then your probably ok but any real all day work not yet.
About time they made an electric flail mower to go with the electric tractor, that would help💡
Yes, it would!
Thanks for the video Tim& Christy ... Next time take Johnny out on a full tank and run him as hard as you did today. Be interested in the comparison
Many of my tasks are ~90 minutes, but then I have mowing jobs like you just did of ~3hr duration and a long way from a power source. I couldn't make the switch yet as much as I'd like to
It seems like that particular model of electric tractor would be good for more casual work around the property, a little mowing here and there, maybe a decent size garden or even running a stationary grain auger if only for a little while at a time.
They need to do Like EGO Zero turn mowers . You have a bunch of smaller batteries you can take in an out easy. That way you could keep on working while the other set of batteries charge. You may want suggest that to Solectrac.
Tim 74 degrees OAT during this test and 1.75 hours of continuous use fully load cutting 2.5 acres seems reasonable. I wonder how a properly sized flail mower would have faired?
As we mentioned in video…about 72f. Wonderful day.
I ran some numbers last year and in order to have a 100hp actual farm tractor you'd need to swap out an 8 ton battery every 40 minutes... with safe recharge times you'd need to have 15 batteries just to get 10 hours of work done and would likely want 20. This doesn't include the fuel cost of bringing the batteries out into the field with a truck strong enough to mount and dismount 8 ton batteries (includes housing and frame weight) and the fuel cost of charging those batteries. The infrastructure and batteries alone necessary to run a 100hp tractor 10 hours a day would cost more than the fuel necessary to run a 200hp tractor 14 hours a day _not including damage, losses, repair, maintenance and filtration_ the latter being one of the reasons electric tractors just aren't an actual option. The amount of power the filtration and blowers for COOLING the motors in a tractor consume is about 12% of the battery capacity itself. These aren't cars that can be made stupid efficient to travel at speed, these are tractors that are going to be running in the Plaid zone hour on hour every day.
What a lot of people don't realize about tractors is they spend 75% of their life sitting so idle that you have to install battery cut-off switches just to keep the batteries from going dead-short flat. 80% of the lifespan of any set of battery modules you'd make for a tractor would be expended sitting idle decaying.
So what are the options? Draglines are out because there's simply no way for a power plant to operate "only" for tractors with it going to hundreds of megawatts at 5am then tapering off to nill at 2am again and after transmission and conversion losses a tractor would draw more than a kilowatt per horsepower. Basically we'd be back to synthetic diesel fuel again because it's cheaper, more reliable and better for the environment.
I enjoy the concept and would jump at the chance to ditch diesel, but in central Indiana the dealer support is lacking for a lot of equipment and Solectrac unfortunately is in that category. Thank you for sharing!
I try and do 1.5 hours before work - with some solar panels this would be effectively be free all week. Big weekends would be a pain but just changing up the schedule and running 80/20 instead of 100/10 for battery would get more hours out of it with less charge time. We divide our paddocks up so there is long and short grass for the animals to move around so I rarely have to mow the lot at once. But compared to 6-8 hours with a flail on diesel it is way shorter and I can run a way bigger flail on it.
I believe the tractor has a 22kWh battery .., SOLECTRAC would option a 44kWh battery you are looking at 4 hours of straight work ..then take lunch and charge it back up for 30 minutes and that gets you a full day. They simply need to add different battery options .. great looking tractor, very very low maintence, no oil changes no diesel to deal with
Thanks to the CA Voucher I'm hoping to be picking one of these up for half the cost of a similarly spac'd Kubota.
I’ll throw in my .02 here. I ran pretty large electric mining machines in an underground setting. One thing you had to watch was a formula displayed that was a measurement of temperature over time. If the machine ran too hot for too long it would trip the breaker and you would need to wait for it to cool off, so you would need to take it easy on occasion to keep it running cool. I think you may have kept the tractor a little over taxed a little too long and sacrificed some run time due to the heat and strain you were placing on the electric motor based on the temperatures you were talking about. Let me give you an analogy to describe what I’m talking about. If you want to cover 5 miles walking you can do it. It takes you a long time, but possible. If you try to run it in a sprint, you’ll likely get tired and need to stop to rest. A jog is a compromise, but the most efficient way is to run for short periods with a period of less efficient walking, but you’re still covering ground. Electric motor temp works the same way. In your video of you mowing, you may find you run medium range for a few passes, and as temp rises you run a pass or 2 in low to keep the temp in check.
0:33 Side note: Tim or Christy take time to edit the color of the logo to match the tractor in the video.
Nice touch.
What if you run the 2nd half the field in low gear to compare battery usage, temperature compared what has been completed already.
So it seems like the HST version (as long as it doesn't eat all of the power by itself) might be the way to go? Its kind of disappointing that they didn't just add a few extra gears to the manual....
A battery has a fixed amount of energy just like a reservoir. If you use power faster (higher speed) it won't last as long, but you will get there faster! If you ran slower more of your power would have gone to the mower (better cut quality) and so you may not have travelled as far. And it would have obviously lasted longer.
Yep, no way I would have one,or buy one.
And while Tim was charging his mower back up, Christy was still going with Johnny,,, lol,,, great video Tim and Christy, as usual,,, but I still think Johnny is going to come out on top…
wonder if (unsure of filming ) you could after charging use it in lower gear for he rest of the mowing if it would complete it or run out of "juice" just slower ?
Tim, for e25G owners it's worth gold to know what attachments are a good fit - the Land Pride QH15 is featured but is discontinued ; Do you suppose the Land Pride QH16 that replaces it would also be a fit? What ROPS-mount attachments etc. have you found to be a good fit and complement (is that a cooler holder?) what the e25G is most useful for? Have you ballasted the tires on the e25G? Great video, good data and presentation, thank you.
Artillian ROPS mount system shown.
What would be running the other half at reduced speed, longer run time, acreage covered? Also your
Thoughts on pto load using a 60 finish mower vrs the flail mower. I have never used a flail mower.
Hey Sir 👋 I believe they created batteries lasting 50 Years! Happened in China, so Hopefully mass production will begin soon... So that shouldn't be a problem I quess...
This could be considered a 'recreational vehicle' if 2hrs is all it has for duty. I thought Tractors were a tool that in the end provides profit as a outcome of usage. Well, the future doesn't look like anyone will be getting a full 40 hr paycheck. I have been grading my 1 acre ural home landscape for the last two days and running My Honda 6522 loader with a 5 ft. rake and working it hard(brutal winter washout). A 1/4 tank of fuel with a 5 gallon capacity, 6.5 hrs total run time in two days, diesel was $4.33/gal. which comes out to .98c/hr. I never heard a charge time and I doubt a fast charger system is being used(they cost around $30-$40,000 if service panel capacity is even possible). The last one I saw installed in a home was a 60 amp circuit also! Thats a huge load, more than two modern Central AC's operating! The irony is the charging station is fed by either Natural Gas or Coal Power Plants with Millions of Horsepower capabilities to drive generators to sustain the basic grid. This electric tractor couldn't even do a clean job, that was a horrible cut with limited gear/speed/hp ratio. I guess one could always pull a diesel generator behind for reliability! Haah ha, Lol.
I definitely see a segment for this
I don't know about electric vehicles. But I do know when it comes to cordless power tools that if the battery pack is too hot the charger will not charge the battery until it has cooled off for a bit. Putting a hot battery pack directly onto the charger after using it puts the charger into a protect mode and it will flash with the led lights the signal for a over heated battery pack. If this Solectrac and electric cars all use lithium battery packs like power tools do the chargers probably have a protect mode as well if they get too hot. The last thing you want is your expensive tractor exploding or catching fire due to stressed batteries. :)
One thing I will say is "VOTE, PEOPLE, VOTE" We must stop this insanity! Too much, too quick.
Unfortunately, not sure that will help. Both sides in Washington seem to hate us.
@@TractorTimewithTim Both sides in Washington, DC have been bought by the communist Chinese.
How hot did the motor get when it was being push to go faster?
It sounds like you are working with professor Tim Dell at Pittsburg state.
I'm just really wondering what really powering this tractor to charge when it's getting charged? Something got to make that electricity. Do you know where your power comes from?
Great video Tim. I’ve been looking into these tractors and how they work. It’s obviously a “proof of concept” type machine. They are definitely not optimized for electric. But that’s ok because it’s a machine in its infancy you might say.
I will say that the battery is a little disappointing, but I also think you’re right that the mower may be a touch too big for the machine. However I think if it was providing the 18+ HP a normal 25/26HP tractor puts out the PTO. It would probably be a nonissue. That 12-13HP PTO is incredibly disappointing. That’s less than a BX1880. Which is only an 18HP tractor. And I think we’d all like to see it on a dyno to get some numbers.
First off let me say, I was never a fan of electric vehicles, and now tractors.
But I have changed over the last year to being more, maybe not excepting with open arms, but more willing to research the possibilities.
I look back 30 years ago at my first cordless drill. Porter Cable 12v. I used that for everything, even a hammer at times, probably been 10 years ago now, the batteries would not take or hold a charge any more, broke my heart to throw it away. But with the technology today with my new Milwaukee cordless tools, I would probably not use it even if it were still working.
So this is how I am looking at the EV's, as the technology progresses, and I am sure they are working very hard at better run times more power at peak performance ect. With that being said, I am sure the EV market will grow over the next 20 years to a point that may surprise us all.
You must remember 25-30 years ago you would be hard pressed to find any trades person with cordless tools, now you may not find any that use corded tools, and if so very rarely use them. Electric Tractors may at this time not be suitable for an all out commercial operation that requires hours of run time at max HP, with minimal refueling/charging times. But for a home owner that has a few acres to maintain, could be a very useful tool. Most sub compact tractor owners do not use them for anymore rhan an hour at a time, so could be a very good fit for them. Also for many to haul the cord out and plug it in, far out weighs going to get fuel, bring it back dump it in, store it.
So it will be interesting in 20 years to see what improvements come along, hopefully I am still around to see them.
Will you put them through dirt and mud for 8 hours? The Reliable key isn't there?
maybe you could put a couple markers where you mowed this time and try the tractor in low range next time in the same spot to see if there is much difference of size of cut field
It would be interesting to see once the tractor is recharged go back to the tower property and mow in low gear and see how much longer it takes versus how much more you can cut. Would you be able to finish what you've already started or would you be able to do about the same amount of acreage
I think it would be interesting for him to run the same test just in low gear next time it needs cutting. That way it would be an apples to apples comparison and very easy to see the difference based on after drone footage
2 hours of hard work is woefully inadequate for most of us😮. Especially given the recharge down time. I could do that work on about 2-3 gallons of diesel and had more PTO Hp.