C-100 Electric Conversion (E-100?)

[ArturHawk 195]

As much as I love my Raider 10, boy is it LOUD!

 

Sometimes I need to grab firewood or move a trailer around the yard at night, and I would like to be considerate of the neighbors. So, I had the idea to make an electric wheel horse.

 

I began the hunt for a non-working tractor for this project and finally found one this weekend!

 

 

I took some time to remove the engine and almost all of the electric (wires for lights are still in place).

 

 

 

Now I have a clean slate to work with for my new build.

 

A coworker had some parts left over from an electric trike build that didn't work out too well. It consists of an 1800W 48V BLDC motor, Battery pack, controller, and the wiring to make everything work. He ended up not using everything because the 1800W motor wasn't strong enough for his application.

 

At first glance, you might thing that motor won't work for me either. But I figure it should be plenty as a drive only motor, not for PTO. These transmissions have a crazy 400:1 gear ratio at the bottom end and somewhere around a 30:1 for high speed. Supplying enough torque should be easy enough. My plan to test this is to rough mount the motor with a pulley, put the nose of the tractor against a tree, and see if I can break traction in high gear. If the motor can't do that, then I will look into a bigger motor for the job. I will also have the benefit of the motor running at 4500rpm instead of 3600rpm, so I will be using a smaller pulley. I am hoping to keep the motor as small as possible for efficiency and longer drive times.

 

My goal (subject to change) is to mount the motor underneath the seat and belt drive the transmission. The controller will go on the shelf the fuel tank used to sit on. The battery...is a triangle (remember, this was originally for a trike), so I am not sure where I want to put it that doesn't look silly. It's pretty thin, so I'm considering mounting it to the underside of the hood, which would make it practically invisible.

 

Operation will be similar to the current setup. key for on/off, throttle lever for motor RPM, and maintain use of the clutch for changing gears.

 

If everything works well, I will look into mounting a motor in the same location as the engine for all PTO implements. I want to keep the two systems on separate batteries, so I can run the PTO as much as possible, without worrying about being stuck in the yard away from the charger.

 

Stay tuned for updates!

 

P.S. While getting ready to make this post I learned about the E-141 (previously, I only knew about the Elec-Trak). When all is complete, I guess I will need an E-100 badge for the side.

 

[wallfish 18,592]

Nice project.

Personally I would skip the clutch thing since the motor doesn't need to continuously run like a gas engine does. You'll have complete control over motor speed and stopping it completely so it would still be easy to shift. I would use a chain to eliminate any possible slippage of a belt and you can adjust that speed and or torque ratio accordingly as needed with sprocket sizes. 

Looking forward to the progress as that's something I always wanted to try but never got around to it. 

[ri702bill 9,963]

31 minutes ago, wallfish said:

I would use a chain to eliminate any possible slippage of a belt

John - what about a cogged timing belt drive, like on a Harley?? No lubrication needed & quieter....

[wallfish 18,592]

7 minutes ago, ri702bill said:

John - what about a cogged timing belt drive, like on a Harley?? No lubrication needed & quieter....

Yeah, that would be the best. 

It's been a while since I was searching for that stuff but I couldn't find all the different sizes for cogs or belts. It kept bringing me back to timing belts and stuff for engines. 

Do you know of a place that sells that stuff in different sizes? I'd imagine maybe robotics or something like that

[SylvanLakeWH 29,240]

That is similar to the unit I was thinking of using for a Suburban conversion. Never materialized, but got some interesting feedback...

 

Good luck! I'll be following along!

[ri702bill 9,963]

25 minutes ago, wallfish said:

 

Do you know of a place that sells that stuff in different sizes?

I believe Mc Master has them....

[ri702bill 9,963]

9 minutes ago, SylvanLakeWH said:

was thinking of using for a Suburban conversion.

That would take the "roast" out of the Nut Roaster!!!

[SylvanLakeWH 29,240]

1 hour ago, ri702bill said:

That would take the "roast" out of the Nut Roaster!!!

Although it might add the !!!

 

[953 nut 61,910]

In the event you have not seen this thread it is a good read. May give you some information or inspiration.

 

[oldlineman 1,577]

Yes I believe a chain or a cog belt would work well, trying to get a V belt belt tight enough, and the side strain on the motor would not be good be. You could use a jack shaft with a belt to the tranny and a chain to the motor, just more parts and needs more space though.

[Handy Don 14,569]

Not counting any losses to friction, heat, etc. an 1,800 watt motor is roughly 2+ horsepower. 

[ArturHawk 195]

Thank you for your helpful comments!

 

I have been enjoying myself doing a little less planning and a lot more testing!

 

As mentioned before, 1800W is a LOT smaller than the original engine. But crunching numbers is for work, breaking things is for the garage!

On 8/27/2025 at 5:14 PM, Handy Don said:

Not counting any losses to friction, heat, etc. an 1,800 watt motor is roughly 2+ horsepower. 

To test if the motor is enough, I figured I would mount it temporarily and see what happens. Unfortunately, my original v belt broke, so I had to use another (longer) belt I had laying around, which made my setup very comical.

 

 

I did not want to drill any holes for a temporary setup, so a bunch of wood and screws did the trick. I got the alignment fairly close. The motor came with a TF8 sprocket, so I 3D printed a new pulley to go over it. I did not think the double D hole alone would give enough purchase for a printed pulley.

 

Boy was this sketchy! but it worked! I could zip around the yard in all 8 gears without much issue. There were only minor slipping problems with the v belt. I even tried putting the nose of the tractor against the wall and spinning tires in each of the gears. In gravel, I got to 2H when the motor wouldn't do the job.

 

Unfortunately, the stack of wood wasn't the best, so I decided to move the motor a bit closer and mount it directly to the frame.

 

This worked WAY better! But remember how I didn't have a belt of the right size before? I...uh..."fixed" and shortened the old one for testing.

 

 

This worked surprisingly well until it didn't.

 

SO well in fact, I learned my tractor didn't have brakes! I have ordered a new brake lining. My girlfriend got a pretty good video of me stopping like Fred Flintstone when returning into the garage. The commotion of everything also snapped my newly repaired belt.

 

With all the testing, I thought the transmission was a bit loud, so I checked the oil and realized that should have been my first to do item. Maybe second after checking the brakes.

 

 

With all that squared away, I stopped and decided to actually plan something. As was mentioned before, The V-belts put a lot of side force on the motor and I do not think the bearings would appreciate that. I decided to go with a chain drive. While it will be louder and require oil, it gives me freedom to add/remove links if I need to change any of my geometry. When I think everything is pretty finalized, I will probably 3D print a shroud to help keep some dirt away from everything.

 

With a new drive in mind, I started cutting!

 

This is where the project currently sits. Next steps are:

1) make a mounting block for the motor

2) make/install a chain tensioner

3) experiment with a different motor controller

 

I have read online that the motor controllers that come with these motors are particularly terrible and some aftermarket ones (Fardriver) have given people 20-30% increase in power. Fortunately, I have a buddy with one of these controllers I can borrow, so we will see how much of a difference it makes before spending the money. The current setup will be ok for my purposes (moving garden carts and trailers around the yard) as I hardly ever move anything of significant weight in any of the higher gears, but I will always appreciate more power.

 

Once the drive system is complete, I will move onto controls/batteries/etc.

 

As always, stay tuned!

 

Edited September 25 by ArturHawk
removed duplicate picture

[953 nut 61,910]

Not having a clutch will you be adding a motor kill switch to the brake linkage?                 

[SylvanLakeWH 29,240]

Great job so far!!! 

[ArturHawk 195]

13 hours ago, 953 nut said:

Not having a clutch will you be adding a motor kill switch to the brake linkage?                 

There is a low-level brake plug on the controller I am going to attempt to use. I will probably try to hook it up so when I bottom out the brake pedal, it will signal to the motor to turn off.

 

If it doesn't work out, I am not severely worried about it as this motor is way weaker than the original engine. With a brand-new brake lining, I should be able to simply overpower the motor by applying the brake in an emergency.

[953 nut 61,910]

8 minutes ago, ArturHawk said:

I should be able to simply overpower the motor by applying the brake in an emergency.

              If not we want to see the live action video.