I ripped the tractor down the the frame and removed most parts. Got $40 Ryobi walk behind mower motors (42V which is really 36V), some scooter controllers, and pulleys. I used two scooter Li ion batteries but I should have just gotten three large lead acid 12V batteries for more capacity. Still, I can mow for an hour or so and get almost an acre done which includes some hills per charge. It took about 8 total days to build and about $800.
The way I set it up is that I have one motor drive the wheels and two more motors on the deck directly driving the blades. The belt system the ICE motor version had was insanely inefficient. This system has like 20% of the power but mowed better and is way more reliable. For $150 I could get a solar array and controller to charge the batteries and never pay for anything but belt and blade replacements for life.
The hardest part of the build was lining up the mounting of the drive motor and wiring up all the safety systems (brake sensor, seat sensor, etc). The kicker is that this is a way better product than what I can buy commercially unless I get into the $5k+ territory and is completely user serviceable. No part here is more than $100 and they all readily available. The tractor has enough torque to push my huge picnic table around while I am riding it. I might try seeing if I can plow snow with it next winter.
Granted, I understand that the purpose of a project like this isn't just in the end result. Depends what crafts you want to practice and what's just necessary work around them. There's still quite a bit of fun project left in converting an existing mower to electric and refinishing it to look more like a classic tractor.
I'd rather have my kid ingrained with the idea that electricity is the future even if it's an amazing achievement to be able to tame explosions to move around
Though the goal was a kids toy, and those mowers are too large for that use.
They're constantly sold dirt cheap in my area with very minor problems, like old gas. People don't know how to fix it, so they buy a new one and sell the old.
I bought four working mowers. $500, $250, $220, and $200. One was missing a deck, one was running rough. Otherwise complete.
They're all craftsman, one vintage from the 80s.
We use one to mow, one to move the trailer, the old one mows but it mostly sits, and the last was a gift for my wonderful neighbors who are old and were still using a walk behind.
Stuff goes straight to permanent memory at that age so by giving them a "real" tractor there's a lot of potential to learn good lifelong lessons prompt them to ask the kind of questions that result in good teaching.
Other interesting Story about tractors:
"In the heartland of American agriculture, a quiet revolution is underway. Farmers, long frustrated by the high costs and restrictive repair policies of leading tractor manufacturers like John Deere, are increasingly turning to simpler, more affordable alternatives from an unlikely source: Belarus. These rugged, no-frills machines from Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ) are gaining traction not just for their price tag, but for their deliberate avoidance of the complex electronics and subscription models that have become the bane of modern farming."
Got two questions: 1. How fast it can ride ? If I good estimate (based on max 2750 RPMs for electric motor MY1016 350W 36V, gear ratio ~100:1 and height of rear wheel ~0.5m) it should got about 0.8 m/sec. So really safe for kids and dad :)
2. How long does the battery last ?
Fun stuff!
source: I'm a terrible amateur welder
Is this “best” project I’ve seen? In terms of tech,quality,etc No. Neither are mine. This guy built a really fun project for his kids.
I love this. As AI slop gets increased, I hope that content like this starts to get filtered up to the world.
I also learned about a web-ring from his website. I think this is an artifact from the early Internet. I hope this gets more popular for website discovery reasons