Michigan Solar & Wind Power Solutions

Solar Tractor - The Community Farm of Ann Arbor 11/30/2008

Posted by Mark Hagerty

The Community Farm of Ann Arbor has taken an old Allis-Chalmers G Cultivating tractor and converted it to a modern solar tractor.  It has a 48vdc 100ah battery pack that is charged by a stationary array mounted on the barn.  At $4.00 a gallon for gasoline, this tractor used to consume $3.20 worth of gas an hour.  At .10 cents a kwh for electricity, it consumes 3.3 kwh of electricity an hour costing just .33 cents an hour to operate.
Visit - www.communityfarmofaa.org for more information.  Also checkout:
http://ev-america.com/ . This is the site that supplies all of the electrical components in one large kit! That’s the motor, controller, cables, cable ends, and even instructions.
http://www.niekampinc.com/index.htm/ . This is the company that supplies that “adaptor kit” to mount the motor to the tractor. YOU CAN NOT BUILD THIS ADAPTOR FOR AS CHEAP AS THEY WILL SELL IT TO YOU! The adaptor was a perfect fit to the transmission of the tractor and to the motor. The kit even includes the mounting bolts! 
http://www.flyingbeet.com/electricg/ . This was the original guy that did the conversion! Please read the whole site, and you’ll see that this is not hard.