Larry Jaques wrote:

On Sat, 19 Mar 2011 12:51:58 -0700, Rich Grise
wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Karl Townsend wrote:
On Sat, 19 Mar 2011 03:27:49 -0700, "azotic"

Came across this and thought it might interest some of
the metal manglers that lurk about.

http://xlhybrids.com/products/conversion

Seems like this would be a fairly simple project for
most moderatley equiped shops. The only difficultly
would be sourcing the electric motor and inverter to run
it. An old laptop with some MCU development software
to control the motor would be intresting to experiment
with.

Seems to me an HSM type should take on a tractor. Either a garden unit
at say 10hp. or a small utility at 25hp. Weight and space aren't
serious problems with these. Makes fabrication far easier. Run time
isn't that long per charge so the battery pack doesn't need to be
huge.

My plates too full already, or I'd be on here finding a power EE type
to make it happen. I'm a bit surprised an electric garden tractor
isn't being sold. It would satisfy the yuppies need to say they are
going green.

Run your existing diesel tractor on bio or wvo and be "green" with a lot
less hassle and without getting stuck mid job in the field with a dead
battery.

From what I've read about biodiesel from used deep-fryer oil from all
the fast-food joints, has anybody jumped on that? Buy a truck, go around
and haul their used oil away - AFAIK, they currently have to pay to have
it hauled away - filter it, maybe crack it a little, and make a fortune
selling it at two bucks a gallon!

Anybody got any opinions, or, heaven forbid, actual facts about this
one way or the other? ;-)

I got curious about it and asked a handful of fast food managers. They
all said that a company comes and takes it away, prepaid from the
corporate office. You can't seem to buy it here. I'll bet the small
fast food restaurants give/sell it to their trucking buddies.

I seriously doubt any trucker is going to put straight WVO in their
$150k truck, nor will they have enough spare time at home to run a
bio-diesel processor.