Hey, fellow EV enthusiasts! Thought I’d share a project I’ve been working on for the past year. If you want to see how I built it, [check out my full video here!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iEUp5Z1aNw)
My friend who owns a farm asked if I’d be interested in converting their old Massey Ferguson 65 to electric, as they’re also big EV fans (I built a portable 1kW solar setup for them as well). I removed the engine and swapped it out for a 28kW brushed DC motor, and I built a 3kWh battery pack using second-hand li-ion cells from Battery Hookup. The motor controller is an Alltrax 400A one, and I designed a custom throttle and electronic clutch pedal situation to make it intuitive for those who are used to driving ICE tractors. This certainly isn’t suitable for spending 8 hours a day plowing fields or anything like that, but that wasn’t the requirement. We simply wanted to give new life to an old tractor that wasn’t being used. It works great for hauling trailers and wagons through the fields while workers harvest tomatoes, pumpkins, etc.
I’m currently working on a custom screen to display the power consumption, speed, and remaining battery percentage. From my initial tests, it lasts about 2 hours driving around on dirt and gravel, which is perfect for ~90% of the use cases. For the times when this tractor is unsuitable, they can bring out the diesel tractor.
I’m planning to do some more EV conversions in the future. I’d love to do a larger tractor with an enclosed cab and put a Nissan Leaf motor in. I also want to design a better battery because this one was a nightmare to assemble. It all looked fine in CAD but trying to install threaded rods with multiple nuts spaced along them was so tedious and finicky.
![GM teases next-gen Chevy Bolt EV: faster charging, multiple models [The Verge]](https://www.evshift.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Edd71buTacObw7IWVzQdLhBLw1Sgao8CXKYkmO0-cSA-770x515.jpg "GM teases next-gen Chevy Bolt EV: faster charging, multiple models [The Verge]")
3 Comments
Hey, fellow EV enthusiasts! Thought I’d share a project I’ve been working on for the past year. If you want to see how I built it, [check out my full video here!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iEUp5Z1aNw)
My friend who owns a farm asked if I’d be interested in converting their old Massey Ferguson 65 to electric, as they’re also big EV fans (I built a portable 1kW solar setup for them as well). I removed the engine and swapped it out for a 28kW brushed DC motor, and I built a 3kWh battery pack using second-hand li-ion cells from Battery Hookup. The motor controller is an Alltrax 400A one, and I designed a custom throttle and electronic clutch pedal situation to make it intuitive for those who are used to driving ICE tractors. This certainly isn’t suitable for spending 8 hours a day plowing fields or anything like that, but that wasn’t the requirement. We simply wanted to give new life to an old tractor that wasn’t being used. It works great for hauling trailers and wagons through the fields while workers harvest tomatoes, pumpkins, etc.
I’m currently working on a custom screen to display the power consumption, speed, and remaining battery percentage. From my initial tests, it lasts about 2 hours driving around on dirt and gravel, which is perfect for ~90% of the use cases. For the times when this tractor is unsuitable, they can bring out the diesel tractor.
I’m planning to do some more EV conversions in the future. I’d love to do a larger tractor with an enclosed cab and put a Nissan Leaf motor in. I also want to design a better battery because this one was a nightmare to assemble. It all looked fine in CAD but trying to install threaded rods with multiple nuts spaced along them was so tedious and finicky.
That is so cool.
Nice work! Thanks for sharing!