Home Solar power:
(or I bought a WHAT ???)
So I'm sitting on Ebay one evening doing random searches for tractor parts. On a lark I popped in "Electric Tractor".
What came up was a General Electric E-20 Elec-Trak. These were electric tractors designed in the 1970's as the solution to lawn work. Instead of being powered by a gas engine, they were powered by six golf cart batteries and a 20 horsepower electric motor.
Doing a bit of research at the elec-trak web site, I found that they made mowers, snow plows, snow blowers, tillers, and just about everything under the sun for these devices. I just had to have it.
Five hundred dollars and a 6 hour drive later it's in my backyard. It's actually in really good shape; very little rust on the body and I think the electronics are working. All the batteries were totally shot, but I have a line on six used batteries that will work (hint: check with golf cart stores; they usually have good used batteries for sale).
The big plan here is to attach it to my solar shed infrastructure and run the tractor off the sun. At first I thought this wouldn't work, but with a third MSX-120 panel on the roof, I can rig panel to work with either the tractor or the shed.
If I put the panel in 12 volt mode and put it in series with the two other panels running in 24 volt mode, I will have 36 volts at about 5-6 amps. That's enough to charge 100amps of power in a week, which is all I basically need. Then if the tractor is fully charged, I can switch the panel to work in 24 volt mode and tie it into the shed's main solar supply (to charge the shed batteries).
36 volts is an odd voltage though; most solar equipment is set up for either 24 or 48 volts. However Solarex made a line of charge controllers that were designed to support 12, 24, 36, and 48 volts. They were sold in Australia, not the US, so you might have to special order one. However they do exist, and will work with T-105 batteries.
The ultimate goal here is to replace my existing lawn tractor (which requires gas, and emits a lot of heat, pollution & noise) with something that is quiet, cool to operate, and doesn't pollute at all.
That's what the solar shed project is all about :-)