I ripped the tractor down the the frame and removed most parts. Got $40 Ryobi walk behind mower motors (42V which is really 36V), some scooter controllers, and pulleys. I used two scooter Li ion batteries but I should have just gotten three large lead acid 12V batteries for more capacity. Still, I can mow for an hour or so and get almost an acre done which includes some hills per charge. It took about 8 total days to build and about $800.

The way I set it up is that I have one motor drive the wheels and two more motors on the deck directly driving the blades. The belt system the ICE motor version had was insanely inefficient. This system has like 20% of the power but mowed better and is way more reliable. For $150 I could get a solar array and controller to charge the batteries and never pay for anything but belt and blade replacements for life.

The hardest part of the build was lining up the mounting of the drive motor and wiring up all the safety systems (brake sensor, seat sensor, etc). The kicker is that this is a way better product than what I can buy commercially unless I get into the $5k+ territory and is completely user serviceable. No part here is more than $100 and they all readily available. The tractor has enough torque to push my huge picnic table around while I am riding it. I might try seeing if I can plow snow with it next winter.

Granted, I understand that the purpose of a project like this isn't just in the end result. Depends what crafts you want to practice and what's just necessary work around them. There's still quite a bit of fun project left in converting an existing mower to electric and refinishing it to look more like a classic tractor.

Other interesting Story about tractors:

"In the heartland of American agriculture, a quiet revolution is underway. Farmers, long frustrated by the high costs and restrictive repair policies of leading tractor manufacturers like John Deere, are increasingly turning to simpler, more affordable alternatives from an unlikely source: Belarus. These rugged, no-frills machines from Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ) are gaining traction not just for their price tag, but for their deliberate avoidance of the complex electronics and subscription models that have become the bane of modern farming."

Got two questions: 1. How fast it can ride ? If I good estimate (based on max 2750 RPMs for electric motor MY1016 350W 36V, gear ratio ~100:1 and height of rear wheel ~0.5m) it should got about 0.8 m/sec. So really safe for kids and dad :)

2. How long does the battery last ?

Fun stuff!

source: I'm a terrible amateur welder

Is this “best” project I’ve seen? In terms of tech,quality,etc No. Neither are mine. This guy built a really fun project for his kids.

I love this. As AI slop gets increased, I hope that content like this starts to get filtered up to the world.

I also learned about a web-ring from his website. I think this is an artifact from the early Internet. I hope this gets more popular for website discovery reasons

https://webring.stavros.io/

You might be amazed at how little power you can get away with in an actual tractor. 20HP is close to the upper limit of practicality unless you are running a large commercial operation.

I'm a farmer, I know what working vehicles are subjected to over time, and I know that when plywood gets wet, it swells, warps differentially, splits at its layer boundaries, and starts to twist. Tractors are for driving over land that is often at least damp. This is not a recipe for durability.

Literally children die from riding on such things.

Keep your children safe a well and alive, dont let them on anything like this or near one being driven by someone else.