FUD Electric farm tractors and combines (2023 Update)

Deere said there isn't a partner program and they're not going to have large electric combines any time soon. As for the rest, 10,000 acres is a little small :)

It's certainly in line for an operation in Iowa, say. Might be corn. That's the annual crap shoot. Corn? Beans? Wheat? Let it lie fallow and take the insurance? Combines are usually rated by bushels per hour for corn, acres per hour for wheat. Depending on the dryness etc, 20 acres an hour would be a good guess for a 12 row combine. You can do the math. Harvesting isn't a 9 to 5 job. Even the hay operation down the road cuts until the job is done. The same with baling.

5 combines? Sure.

If you've got a spare million you can go big:

The 16 row head puts you up to 27 acres an hour. fwiw, the sun goes down at about 12 minutes in and the lights go on.

So, there's enough there to be credible except for the EV propaganda. You could say that about most 'reporting' today.

I expect my Toyota will be getting broken in at 100,000. My '86 F150 has about 200,000 miles. I've replaced the u joints, tie rod ends, fuel pump, throwout bearing and rebuilt the carburetor. I replaced the clutch pressure plate and disk when I did the throwout but they didn't really need it. The tailpipe is a little ratty; should replace it one of these days.

I bought a well used Geo for 2K as an experiment to see if I could live with a little car. It had a little over 100,000 and as far as I could tell ran as well as it ever did. It got me to AZ and back although I had to drop a gear on some of the grades in Utah. I replaced the serpentine belt since it was an interference engine and I assumed it never had been replaced. iirc the belt was $45. It was still going strong when I traded it in on my first Yaris.

Fortunately I don't have to worry about smog tests. My brother had an elderly Tercel but after it failed the CA test it would have cost a lot more than it was worth to fix it. He gave it to one of those car donation organizations so it may still be happily polluting in South America or wherever.

Kenya doesn't make the cut for prosperous and educated. For that matter neither does the segment of the US population that reproduces freely.

It's the 'confined' that's the difference. The forklifts, for example, are plugged into the charging station at the end of shift. I assume it's the same for mining equipment.

Wasn't the whole point of the email to bash EVs?

Are the folks reading these sorts of emails so lazy that they don't challenge anything that is fed to them?

[You'd be amused at how many specious claims folks make -- and stubbornly defend. "solar flares", "sun cycles", etc. (sigh) And folks worry about KIDS not having a grasp on science and math... <frown> ]

See my comments (Bob) re: Trump being a russian spy. The same lack of critical thinking SHOULD lead the same people to come to that same conclusion: "enough there to be credible..."

Is it a lack of scientific training? Stupidity? Or, just confirmation bias?

I hear someone make this sort of faulty argument and it effectively rules out any further "contributions" from that person, going forward (he clearly can't think things out so why bother doing his thinking FOR him -- or, in spite of him?)

(sigh) SWMBO wants to replace her vehicle at 10 years. At this rate, that will be just about 50K miles.

"Huh?"

SWMBOs vehicle sees so little use (mine sees even LESS!) that I now let the dealer do routine maintenance. An oil change every *year* (~4500 miles) sets us back $80.

Exhaust systems were an issue living in New England and midwest. Snow and salt. No such problem, here.

Just discovered the rear wiper on SWMBOs vehicle needs replacing. Its been so long since I've done so that I was surprised to see they no longer sell "wiper inserts" (you have to replace the whole blade assy?)

Tires and batteries are the bane, here. About 3.5 years for a battery (so, pull it and return it for full replacement cost at 3 years CLAIMING it to be bad instead of waiting for it to go flat!). Tires last about

35K (7 years for SWMBO who still doesn't seem to understand "only turn the steering wheel while car is in motion")

They usually just trade it to a reseller who may get $500 for it. Some places you have to be careful about the size of the write-off you take for things like cars. *You* (and Kelly) may think it's worth $X but the IRS may look at the typical recovered value (e.g., from that wholesaler) and limit your deduction, accordingly.

[If you want to donate something, donate cash (which has an undisputable value) or time (which likely has no value)]

I'm not sure what the rule is, here. SWMBO (newer vehicle) seems to only have to go in for a test every other (or third?) year. And, all they seem to do is check gas cap and ask OBDII if there is anything to report.

My car has to take a trip on the dyno. But, has never failed, despite age (I suspect they lower the requirements to allow vehicles to remain on the road)

~150Kg battery banks are loaded/unloaded into traction equipment,as required,. The equipment itself never needs to actually see a charging station.

RL

So build their infrastructure and agriculture. Educate them.

US population increase lately is immigration driven.

I assume you don't include yourself in the "reproduces freely" category.

I hadn't planned on replacing the 2013 Yaris, which had 65,000 miles, but when I took it in for the airbag replacement I saw a 2018 as I wandered around. Considering it was 2020 I figured they were sick of looking at it. It was also the last year for the Yaris hatchback. Even at that time the Yaris sedans were rebranded Mazda 2's.

It was the first day of the lockdown when I finalized the deal. I called ahead and they said they were considered essential services and would be open. I was the only person in the showroom. There were three or four salesmen sitting around watching what they thought might be the last care sale in a long time going down.

Barring another snowplow or similar incident I do not plan on a replacement.

I just started seeing the check engine light flashing on startup to indicate the 15,000 mile oil change is coming up. I've always done them myself. It takes a half hour overall and most of that time I'm doing something else while waiting for the last drips to drop. I do it at my convenience, no appointment, no waiting. The timing is right too, although doing the change in the winter isn't a problem.

A few years back I was buying an assembly and the clerk asked me why I didn't just change the insert. 'Huh? You still have inserts?' The current car has 1 beam wiper, 28" iirc. CostCo had them on sale so I bought two. I think I have one for the rear someplace. The little ones are hard to find.

The 2007 Toyota died an untimely death in 2013 with the OEM battery. The

2013 was the trade in in 2020 with the OEM battery. Winter cranking is nothing compared to living in an oven.

The tires on the first two lasted about 25,000. They were LRR tires to perk up the fleet mileage figures. Low on resistance and low on durability.

I doubt the deduction had anything to do with it. He hated to see a perfectly good car scrapped. I felt the same with Obama's cash for clunkers. So you're going to destroy a perfectly good engine? It wasn't even a consideration but my pickup, which may have a little less than pristine emissions,was too old to qualify.

I was AZ plates for a couple of years. iirc Tucson had smog tests but Ajo was exempt.

Good luck with that.

That would be correct as I have no offspring.

All of the above... If people will but the story that the Russians are shelling a nuclear plant they control for the general hell of it I guess anything is fair game.

If I really cared I would have been plunged into despair over the last few years. It's not that A is right and B is wrong; it's both A and B's arguments contain glaring logical inconsistencies.

Each of hers have been at ~4500 miles. Presumably, the car notices how it is driven (entirely city driving -- only been on the highway twice and just for short runs) and adjust the service interval accordingly.

Indicator displays "oil life remaining" (percent). Dealer wants you to come in when it gets to 15%. Yeah, right. If the car wanted me to get service at 15%, don't you think it would have said so? (we can drive for ~3 months AFTER the 15% point).

It's not just the oil but check all fluids, give the brakes a once-over, see how tires are faring, battery load test, etc. These are things that I would rationalize not doing until I "felt" they needed to be checked. As I can't count on her to notice when something is awry, its easier to just have someone look at it annually.

(they're the ones who spotted the rear wiper needing replacement; who bothers checking wipers when it rarely rains??!)

Google didn't show anything when I looked. I will make a project out of it once I clear some of the more immediate stuff off my list (replacing a sidewalk, presently).

Cold makes engine "seem" larger and battery output lower. But, doesn't

*eat* the batteries like the heat does!

Original battery was replaced by dealer "under (original car's) warranty" at ~3 years. Replacement started acting up at the 6 year mark so I replaced it (Costco). At 9 years, I'll pull that one and claim it's failed.

She's at ~35K now. Tires *could* eek out a few K more but I don't like her running low on rubber. Winter rains will make driving slick (she'll be driving more in winter as she reengages with all of the activities associated with that season).

There are many who think of vehicles as fashion statements -- "What's the new crop look like?" The types whose pickup beds are pristine with factory paint!

I prefer to run a car hard and long.

Dunno about Ajo -- too far west! Also not sure how much is state/county/city regulation.

I would like to think (hope?) that the people on which I will rely "in my declining years" were marginally competent thinkers lest they not act in ways that put me in jeopardy!

Instead, it looks like they're easily distracted by shiny things and loud noises...

"Oh, look! A butterfly!"

Presumably John Larkin doesn't either. IIRR he has two kids, which is fewer than the 2.3 required to sustain the population.

It's happening, and will continue. World literacy rate has doubled since 1960.

Actually, hardly anybody reproduces freely. Brats are expensive.

Who is paying for them? Baby mommas see brats as an income source.

[snip] [snip]

It has already got a doubling in the pipeline. Making corn flakes is energy intensive and UK gas prices are 4x what they were.

Actually in the UK it would be completely disastrous to try and run the combine harvesters from electricity. Most rural farms near me do not have sufficient electric grid supply to meet their peak needs at harvest time to begin with and so have diesel generators on site to cope.

Also to handle unreliability of electricity supply in winter - you can't not milk the cows just because the mains has failed again.

Northern Powergrid charges usurious sums to provide 3 phase supply to farms so most are on biphase as are most smaller villages. That way they only run two hot wires to each local transformer on the E-W runs spurred off full 3-phase running N-S. Towns are typically full 3 phase.

Actually in this instance I think that they have it right at least in the UK. All electric combines would result in losing half the crop to weather or needing at least double or triple the number of working units so that one or two could be on charge whilst the other was working.

You can refuel a combine PDQ - it takes a long time to charge a battery (even if the local mains distribution was up to the stress that would impose).

Moving combine harvesters around on our narrow roads is also something of a fraught operation. I honestly don't see how it could be done!

At the moment. Some people have already noticed that electricity generated by solar cells and wind turbines is cheaper than energy generated by burning fossil carbon, and as this fact becomes move widely known, more people will move over to the cheaper energy sources.

It's not resource. If you conserve it, you can't use it.

Not because it couldn't be done, but because the upper-class twit element can't do anything right.

They might try to negotiate a better grid connection, but negotiating with upper class twits takes a lot of effort, and the twits rarely remember what they've agreed to do in enough detail to deliver what they promised.

Again, the upper class twit effect gets between what is commercially necessary and what gets delivered.

UK upper class twits think that their social inferiors are also their intellectual inferiors. This is a flattering self-delusion.

So swap the batteries so that you can have two charging while one is keeping the machine working. It's not rocket science.

Quick change battery packs aren't all that hard to design. You do have to think of the possibility at the design stage, and if you have an upper class twit running the design team this is unlikely to happen,

Making the narrow roads a bit wider is probably an option. Using heavy lift helicopters to move them around would upset the upper class twits less.

The combined harvesters have been moved between farms since the British started using them, so somebody has worked out how to do it, even if the techniques involved aren't widely known - as in not published in the Daily Telegraph. Perhaps in the The Guardian.

Use of electric traction equipment in a rural setting requires some rethinking, both on energy sourcing and energy use.

Perhaps local sourcing makes the most sense here, given the relative availability of real estate and costs of imported grid energy.

Employing standard battery replacement techniques should cover intense power-on hours, but I think it will also encourage the use of multiple smaller traction devicss, possibly in concert, with synchronized robotic elements.

Farm mechanization has always been imported from centers of engineering (the city) to the rural environment. This may change as decentralized education and rates-avoiding manufacturers populate the countryside.

As it is, the actual machinery has a good chance of being imported from China, or other areas where new technology and volume manufacturing leads the way in both practical use and economical availability, for whatever dirty reasons.

RL