Supposedly if the tank is connected to the vehicle's engine, it's technically legal to bring 8 pesos/litre [$3/gallon] fuel across the border from Mexico. If the tank isn't connected, customs wil seize the diesel and maybe even the vehicle. Even if it is connected, customs may give you a hard time. Supposedly a driver can earn $100 a trip running diesel in border areas but each border crossing takes an hour or so . . .
It's a whole lot more cost effective to just electrify the #@!%&*! tractors and fields.
A 1/2 mile long wire 10 - 20 feet above the ground only needs to be on one end of a quarter square. A fast discharge battery can be relatively small as the tractor only needs to go one mile for the round trip back to the wire. An on board ICE or battery trailer could be used to relocate the tractor any distance.
As agriculture become more automated there won't be any reason for anyone to be in the tractor so no one will get bored as the tractor lingers for a minute or so charging up at the wire.
If someone wants to ride in the tractor he can bring other work to do during recharge.
I think this could also be accomplished by stringing a grid of wires over the field, and using a trolley that rides on the wires. It's not as simple as a locomotive or streetcar, where a single hot wire can bu used, and the return current through the tracks. But I think a system could be devised to provide electricity to a tractor by means of a controlled tether. It could definitely be done with a set of tracks that would move the supply line to be in-line with the movement of the tractor, and then have a trolley with a power cord that supplies the tractor. It would involve some engineering, initial investment, and maintenance, but should be about 95% efficient for energy conversion.
Well, the solid roof would block rain and sun, but a metal grid would work. However, the bottom conductive plate would not grow much corn.
That is a horror movie waiting to be put on You-Tube
They are working on geosynchronous satellites on tethers that might make that a reality someday.
If the economy deteriorates enough, people may need to go back to a simpler way of life. We may need to take lessons form the Amish. Putting more people to work doing hard physical labor would be a good thing. Not so many bored, unhealthy kids (and adults) blowing off their excess energy and frustrations by driving aggressively and playing violent computer games.
I think my idea has a chance to work. Probably more practical than batteries.
That's certainly possible -- the "trolly tractor" was last summer's idea -- but requires a lot of wire. It's actually cheaper to use a battery.
Another option is to eliminate the tractor altogether and drag the plow and other impliments off of a "super pivot," the common "crop circle" irrigation structure beefed up for the heavier load.
The impliments would move inward for a spiral furrow.
One with lots of small cells. The smaller the cells, the faster the charging time.
The grid: Coal fired plants, nukes, PV, dish Stirling, geo thermal, wind . . . whatever they got that will put out some juice. Polar bears, tropical frogs and hurricanes are not the issue.
Plug in hybrids can go 40 miles between charges. A tractor may require 20X higher hp than a Volt but a tractor only needs to go 1 mile between charges.
If a 400 hp articulated tractor moves 10 mph it's only running 6 minutes between charges and will require 3X 400 hp or ~ 1 MW -- 1/6th the juice drawn by an electric locomotive.
In 4 years diesel will be $15 / gallon and electrification will amount to hundreds of dollars/hour in savings, much more money than necessary to hire someone willing to sit at the end of the field for a few minutes reading a magazine charging up between furrows.
It's only a half mile so a fat high current low voltage wire might be desirable for safety reasons.
Regardless of the size, from the articulated tractor sucking down 22 gallons of diesel/hour [$110/hr and spiraling] to a 15 hp garden tractor, the battery + electric motor system will always have a higher specific power than any IC engine + fuel tank system.
The reason is a tractor just doesn't need to go very far to work a field.
Same as the batteries in plug in hybrids which require an even larger battery / hp.
In as little as 8 years a lot of the big wells will give out rather quickly leaving the world with 2/3rds of current production according to a recent _London Times_ interview with a former BushCo aid. On top of that China seems to have a permanent double digit growth rate while, according to Soros, the U. S. will be in a decades long recession so the size of China's economy will surpass America's in as little as 6 years. This will leave the great majority of Americans to try to get by on a couple percent of the oil we consume today.
So here are 3 plausible scenarios:
electrify the fields & tractors, or,
return to plowing fields with oxen, or,
starve.
If you cannot come up with any ideas, cheap or otherwise, for a plausible 4th scenario then I say we electrify the fields.
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