FARM SHOW - How To Convert A Gas Lawn Tractor To Be Electric Powered

How To Convert A Gas Lawn Tractor To Be Electric Powered
You can mow a 2-acre lawn for pennies with an all-electric lawn tractor. Brian Edmond's DIY Electric Tractor Conversion Kit lets you take a lawn tractor headed for the scrap heap and make it mow again.
"I put together a complete kit for converting a 38 to 42-in., gas-powered lawn tractor to 24-volt all electric drive," says Edmond. “You can convert almost any lawn tractor of that size."
Edmond recommends checking with local repair shops for tractors headed for the scrap heap. He advises looking for tractors with 18-in. rims to match the gear ratio of his transaxle. Deck size is also important, as he has sized the electric motors to 19 to 21-in. blades.
Once it has been stripped down and parts resold or discarded, the frame should be power washed. He estimates the repower could take as long as 40 hrs., depending on experience levels. He provides complete plans, including videos and diagrams.
"Standard hand tools and basic electrical skills stripping and wrapping wires are all that are needed, aside from a small amount of welding," says Edmond. "A local welding shop can easily handle that."
With the exception of batteries, the kit contains the most difficult-to-get parts. The transaxle with brake and drive motor come in one unit. The kit also includes individual motors with mounting flanges for blade drives, electronic motor controller, control relays, digital amp/volt meter, circuit breakers and more.
Edmond selected components for their energy efficiency. "Other conversion kits are out there that will run for 15 to 20 min., but my kit will cut as much as 2 acres of grass on one 50-cent charge," he says. "Another difference is battery placement. Instead of under the hood, I put the batteries under the driver's seat for traction. Without the extra weight over the drive wheels, you can spin out on wet grass."
Safety is a big feature with Edmond's kit. He focused his 41 years of experience with electric motors and instrumentation on making his kit not only efficient, but also safe.
"Take your foot off the accelerator pedal, and the tractor slows in 1/2 a second, stops and applies the parking brake," explains Edmond. "Without a mechanical drive, the cutter blades stop within 2 seconds. You could fall off, and the tractor will come to a standstill and the blades will stop before they could hit you."
Other safety features include the mower deck itself. In order to activate the blades, the deck has to be lowered and the tractor has to be at rest with the operator's foot on the brake pedal.
"You can't activate the blades when the tractor is moving," says Edmond.
Stopping and restarting on a hillside is also safer than with a mechanical drive. Stop on a slope, and the parking brake engages. Step on the accelerator pedal, and the parking brake disengages. The tractor begins moving within 1/10 of a second.
"With a mechanical drive, release the brake, and the tractor will begin to roll as you let out the clutch," says Edmond. "With my kit, the mower won't roll back more than an inch."
Minimal maintenance is an attractive feature of Edmond's converted tractors. Not only are there no oil or gas levels to check, but there are also no filters, belts or pulleys to replace.
Removing the entire mower deck can be done by pulling 2 pins and a steel bar at the front. Even the blades are easy to maintain. Remove 4 pins to pull the blades for sharpening or replacement. Again, safety is paramount.
"Power to the motors on each blade is delivered via a plug-in cable," explains Edmond.
The kit is available at an introductory 22 percent discount of $1,247 U.S. or $1,597 Canadian. It uses standard 6-volt golf cart batteries and can be recharged with a standard battery charger in 4 to 5 hrs.
"You can go on eBay and find a battery charger from an electric wheelchair. They are all smart chargers," suggests Edmond. "They will shut off automatically, extending battery life."
Edmond estimates annual operating cost for cutting 2 acres 22 times a year with his repowered mower at about $11 plus $57 towards replacing $400 batteries every 7 years. He compares that with the $366 estimated cost of operating a gas tractor (fuel and service) the same amount of time.
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[@jimsworthow531]

brilliant; keeping it simple even down to off the shelf lead acid batteries;excellent work; thank you for sharing.

[@WorkingTimbersCo]

Cool conversion but next time tell the camera person to quit zooming in and out every second. I couldn’t finish watching due to the constant zoom clicking sound. Hard to watch.

[@TopDedCenter]

Just an idea for the future, maybe you should convert the deck back to a belt system. The reason being that, if you happen to run over any large objects, the bearings in the blade pulleys are taking the impact of the damage and will save your electric motors from premature failure.

[@randallblake1213]

Or, use blades that swivel when something is hit.

[@rogermarksmith1870]

@@randallblake1213 good idea just like the ones i have on my honda push mower

[@SM-wv7iu]

I would like to make a hybrid. Battery power for the drivetrain and the blades but a small motor to generate charging system to the batteries. Is that reasonable?

[@thomasg4324]

*What motors are those on the deck?* What kind of RPM do they spin those blades?

[@bobjones1131]

Plot twist : I still don't have any idea how he built this or where to buy the parts !

[@1QKGLH]

Yeah, no actual information. I'd like to know more about that electric transaxle.

[@joelbruneski6486]

Awesome job, I have been thinking about doing that. Well done

[@greggiordano8362]

could you share the horsepower or watts from each motor ? The drive motors for the cutting blades ? The propulsion motor ? Brushless or no ? Motor controller.

[@kevinpunter7960]

Well done. I've been thinking of doing something similar with a 3 cutter deck zero turn ... ideally targeting 5 acre session mowing.

[@c0c0asauce]

Same here. We have a good investment in solar so it just makes sense to explore this as an option.

[@chriswf]

Are those 2 blade motors running at 24volts too? Curious to know if they need to spin faster....

[@randyeller8139]

I like the idea of using a plug to disconnect the mowing deck motors for servicing but I probably want a twist lock connector. What size motors are the deck motors and drive motor?

[@ElectricTractor]

Total 2HP Plow soil / gravel kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKHJgZ5_j792lZY

[@Mark-m9z4q]

Well done, Brian. Very good information should I decide to convert a tractor. God Bless.

[@kameljoe21]

Pretty cool. I have a Marty J mower which is a zero turn mower and the deck sits out front to which I can mount one single motor to run the deck. the drive system is 2 separate hydraulic motors that runs a shaft between them to which I can either belt it or run 2 smaller electric motors as direct drive to each one of them. These would have to run all the time which I think is fine. I have quite a bit of space to place in about 4 deep cycle batteries or lithium batteries. I have about 4 acres that I can mow once a week. Colin Fuze did a garden shed for his electric mower to which he can charge his during the week. pretty cool

[@rogermarksmith1870]

Hi could you tell me how much it will cost for all the parts to convert to electric minus the batteries thanks im interested in buying an old mower and doing this. if its not too much i will buy all the plans thanks

[@stumpingrimy1686]

I'm skeptic, but looks awesome.

[@Momcat6]

This is great! I wish I had the skill set and non arthritic hands to do this. I ended up buying a small Ryobi battery riding mower and discovered it's not the dream machine I'd hoped it would be. Their batteries die fast and it's hundreds of $$ to replace them.

[@Howie47]

Good job. Makes sense to use electric for tractors. I would put two drive motors so both rear wheels would drive at their own speed. For use as garden tracor. 6 new 6 volt golf cart batteries will cost about 1,000 dollars where I live. That would be the down side. Needing replaced every 7 yrs.

[@ElectricTractor]

I have found that used 6v golf-cart batteries about $30ea have been working great for the last 3 yrs, you can also use 2 x 12v batteries for up to 1 acre grass, Plow soil / gravel kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKHJgZ5_j792lZY

[@billa9954]

Don't the two blades overlap and could hit each other?

[@smokeyandtheboxer231]

They do not overlap

[@emrythompson]

Why do you still need the parking brake lever still? It goes so slow, it doesn’t hardly cut the leaves, does the power steering work?

[@ElectricTractor]

We don't use the parking brake lever, parking brake is applied automatically when you stop.

[@buddyclem7328]

None of the lawnmowers I ever used have power steering. They're lighter than a subcompact car, so they're too light to need it.

[@kevchard5214]

I like this idea and with lithium technology you can probably double you run time and triple battery life just a little more expensive.

[@Likeomgitznich]

Lol not even. Lithium is ALOT more expensive. You'd have to run ~14 batteries in series JUST to get it up to the 48V that the motors need. At ~$5 per battery, you're looking at $70 for just 2Ah. You are going to minimum want 50Ah (this this tractor looks like it uses 3 induction motors so 75Ah would be more reasonable) $1.4K - $1.75K in batteries! Now you have to take all 350 of those batteries, TIG weld them in series and parallel, wire up a charge controller, preferable some type of cooling system and safety coating. OR you can get 4 12v 50Ah lead acid batteries @ $100 a piece, wire them in series and use the saved ~$1K and days of work to relax.

[@ElectricTractor]

The design is very efficient, uses very little power, ex, 4x6v golf cart batteries can cut up to 3 acres, or I have been using 4 used batteries last 3 yrs, $30ea, 24v kit cutting grass kzbin.info/www/bejne/bqWvoGSZgbaWmas

[@morticae]

@@Likeomgitznich what are you even talking about? They aren't talking about using laptop batteries. There are 12, 24 and even 48v lithium batteries in similar form factors to car batteries. No welding, no series unless you want to. Literally drop in replacements for these batteries. They're more expensive yeah but not like you're talking.

[@bantiroy3596]

Can you plz tell me about breaking system in electrical tractor

[@rich.trails]

You don't need to replace the transaxle. Get a tractor with a gear drive transaxle. NO hydro (inefficient). Simply replace the engine with an electric motor. Pulley size should be similar as the rpms are usually around 3500 for both at full throttle. I prefer a throttle and only running the motor when needed, so I got rid of the clutch, just have a direct drive belt. The hardest part is getting pulleys to match the motor shaft. You can get ev grade lithium batteries for $100 per kilowatt hour, even cheaper than sla. There's really no reason to be using gas engines unless you are mowing overgrown fields for 8 hours straight, or farming 24 hour days during harvest.

[@theodricaethelfrith]

Where do you get EV grade lithium for $100/kWh? I'm paying around $1000/kWh for LiFePo4.

[@jameswright-2024]

👍

[@icecoldusa]

Is it me or it seems like the deck is 2 low to the ground?

[@buddyclem7328]

I think so too. Eliminating the springs makes for an uneven cut too. I'd keep mine as stock as possible, but I'd look for a simple belt drive transmission, so it's easy to service.

[@plat2k334]

Barely shows how to do anything just shows the end result of each part.

[@Mike_Greene]

This is n no how to lol. More like a look what I did video