Feb 05, 2026 19:00:00

A brave man who made his own electric tractor for children appeared, and made it himself over six months

James Stanley , whose hobbies include software development and crafting using 3D printers and CAD, is building his own electric tractor so his children can run around in the garden.

James Stanley - Tractor
https://incoherency.co.uk/blog/stories/tractor.html

The chassis and wheels of Stanley's electric tractor look like this: It has two front and two rear wheels, and the sizes of the front and rear wheels are different.

Here's the rear view. The chassis is made of plywood.

The steering was apparently modeled after that of

the Ferguson TE20 small tractor. The Ferguson TE20's steering wheel extends to the gearbox located right next to the driver's seat, with shafts extending from both sides. One side of the shaft rotates clockwise and the other side counterclockwise, and an arm extending from the shaft holds one end of a track rod , the other end of which is connected to the arm of the kingpin on the stub axle .

To recreate this, a steering gearbox was created using gears from

an angle grinder .

One of the problems with the steering gearbox was that it couldn't be attached to the chassis because the shaft protruded from the side. The solution was to assemble the parts inside the chassis. However, Stanley wrote, 'This was very inconvenient, and if I could do it again, I would like it to be removable.'

The handle is completely handmade. It consists of two aluminum parts: one is a ring and the other is a three-pronged part in the center of the wheel.

The rear wheels are those of a riding lawn mower, and

the sprocket is mounted inside the chassis.

Stanley thought it would work if the motor directly drove the rear axle using only a chain and sprocket, but he overlooked the coefficient of pi in his calculations. After correcting his calculations, he found that directly driving the rear axle would require a reduction ratio of about 30:1. This was too extreme, meaning a rear sprocket with about 300 teeth would be needed. So Stanley added

a countershaft .

The motor Stanley installed in his electric tractor did not have a reverse rotation function, so he attached

a DPDT switch to the wiring to the motor. The power source is a 36V lithium-ion battery. The output is 350W, so the speed is slow, but since this is a toy for a three-year-old, 'the slowness is a built-in feature,' he says.

The switch protruding from the bottom of the chassis.

Additionally, a lever for switching the switch has been added next to the handle. The lever does not have a bearing, it just fits into a hole drilled in the wood.

The brakes are from a minibike: a pedal on the left side of the chassis (right in the photo) pulls a cable, which in turn pulls a lever on the caliper, pressing the pads against the disc.

Like the gear lever, the shaft is not fixed by anything like a bearing, but simply rotates in a hole drilled in the wood. The force on the brake pedal is much greater than that of the gear lever, but since the brakes are not used very often, 'this structure is not a problem,' Stanley wrote.

Because the throttle response was so poor, Stanley created a throttle conditioner using

Arduino to output the throttle position. The throttle conditioner is housed in the yellow box inside the chassis shown in the photo below. However, using this throttle conditioner caused the throttle to never reach 100%. 'I didn't feel like fixing it, and I realized it was just unnecessary complexity, so I removed the electronics,' Stanley wrote.

While he was thinking about what to make the hood of the tractor, his child got a toy tractor, so he decided to use it as inspiration to create the hood.

All completed parts are disassembled and the chassis is painted pure white.

Then spray with grey

primer .

Then color the remaining parts to complete the piece.

The two rear wheels always rotate together, while the two front wheels rotate on a central pin, ensuring all four wheels are in contact with the ground when riding on uneven terrain. The rear wheels are equipped with disc brakes, but their effectiveness is said to be quite low.

The seat position is adjustable, and it is possible to create enough space for an adult to sit. However, since all of the body weight is placed on the rear wheels, it is said to be very difficult for adults to maneuver. Therefore, to steer, adults need to lean forward and put their weight on the front wheels as well.

In addition, someone who had similarly created a homemade tractor described their experience on Hacker News.