LifeTrac III/Research Development

Goals

• Lifetime design
• Scalable
• Modular
• Easy to maintain

General design goals

• Skid loader concept
• Articulated steering
• 4 wheel drive
• 2 wheel drive for doubled speed
• Front-end loader
• Backhoe attachment available
• Well-drilling attachment available
• CEB attachment available
• Hybrid between a skid loader, agricultural tractor, and construction tractor

Maintenance

• Yearly maintenance costs designed to be no more than $100 with heavy duty usage

What are the key points in a maintenance check?

What are the skill sets required to perform a systems check accurately?

Wanted: Brief description about the highest version of the LifeTrac

Theory

Wanted: Brief paragraph regarding the reasoning behind adding this tool to the GVCS

Relevant Links

Wanted: Sources for information regarding relevant technology

Conceptual Notes

Wanted: Ifs, ands and buts.

Development

For us at Factor e Farm, LifeTrac will be the backbone of our agricultural, agroforestry, and land stewardship operations. It will also be used in construction, power generation, and possibly other workshop tools. Interestingly, hybrid hydraulic drive also applies to cars - here's an example [1]. The identical hydraulic design, minus agricultural implement features - can be used with a car - simply by using faster, lower-torque wheel motors.

The basic drive is all hydraulic, and all implements are run hydraulically as well. Three hydraulic motors - PTO motor, high torque motor, and winch motor are used for accessory power applications. These can drive the following devices which we are also building contemporaneously:

• Tilt-blade sawmill
• Rototiller
• Post-hole digger/tree planter
• Mixer
• Winch
• Well-drilling rig (future work)

Other implements that we are preparing are:

• CEB Press
• Backhoe
• Trencher

The unique feature is that the motors can be mounted on the front-end laoder quick-connect plate - which serves, in effect, as an implement attachment mechanism that is much more versatile than a tractor 3 point hitch. All implements may be mounted on the quick-connect

As of 5.24.08, the current working program surrounding LifeTrac is:

Cost Comparisons to Industrial Counterparts

• NOTE: Industrial prices are taken largely from Northern Tool catologue - [2] - your local, global supply chain.
• Commercial hydraulic rotary well drilling rig quote - [3]
• Note: Tractor and Bulldozer add up to $9k, for an infrastructure that shares wheel motors, controls, and Power Cubes. Power Cubes are $1750 each for 27 hp using off-shelf components. For about 100 hp of drive, this is $7k.
• Note: Since Power Cubes are not included here, the real cost of the package should be closer to $40k for the GVCS implementation prior to the ability to melt steel into virgin metal. This ability, combined with advanced CNC machining, will bring the cost down to about $5000 for 50,000 lbs of steel obtained from scrap sources.
• Note: Each device takes on average 1 week to fabricate after optimization to digital fabrication. This implies a total labor time of about 20 weeks for the devices above, or only $15/hour at the labor cost given. This may be acceptable for DIY value, but is a low rate for market production.

Design

The concept was inspired initially by CADTrac, a set of plans that you can buy:

But it is redesigned thoroughly by enlarging the size and making construction simpler, to fulfill OSE Specifications for Post-Scarcity Economics.

• Requirements
• Speed
• Throughput
• Weight
• Size Constraints
• Feed stock
• Design Description
• Calculations
• Drawings and Diagrams
• Concept and Alternatives
• Full Design Views
• Cut-away Views
• Exploded Parts View
• 3D Renders
• Decisions
• Project Team

Industry Standards

Industry Standard	LifeTrac

Funding

Wanted: List of expenses for prototyping and documenting LifeTrac

Peer Reviews

Wanted: Peer reviews from the scientific community regarding the R&D of LifeTrac

Experiments and Prototypes

Wanted: Empirical data on performance