ELECTRICAL FARM VEHICLES

REO has a strong background in supplying drive peripheral components for use in arduous applications, for example Railway Traction.

However one of our latest projects to provide braking capacity for a newly developed hybrid farm vehicle is perhaps the most interesting yet.

The vehicle utilises 4 x 33 kW motors to drive each wheel separately with active slip control on each. This combined with 4 wheel steering means that the unit combines great manoeuvrability with controlled torque to reduce soil and crop disruption.
In addition to the usual functions associated with agricultural vehicles, the unit is able to supply connected equipment with a variety of AC or DC voltages up to a maximum power of 80 kW, to allow remote working in all but the most challenging weather conditions.

As with most electrical and hybrid vehicles, the braking is a combination of conventional friction brakes and regenerative braking, with a REO water cooled braking resistor to handle emergency conditions.

For this project not only did REO had to ensure that the water cooled resistor was able to dissipate the required electrical power in all conditions but that the mechanical construction of the resistor was robust enough to withstand the environmental aspects of being mounted on a moving vehicle. Of course REO’s experience in dealing with similar components in the Automobile and Railway Traction industries meant that the requirements were easily met.