CANON CITY, Colo.—John Deere tractors are known for being green, but the one sitting in the automotive service technology garage at Canon City High School is growing a little greener every day, as students, teachers and a community volunteer convert the gas-powered machine to electric. “We started this project right after the first of the year,” Pueblo Community College instructor Frank Nosal said. “Our project idea was to take a combustible engine like a traditional car and take all the combustible internal components out and then convert it to an electric vehicle.”
Nosal, who has been helping PCC instructor John Duston with the dual credit CCHS course, bought the tractor specifically for the conversion project. He also enlisted the help of volunteer Werner Windbergs. The three men have been working with five students on the project. Two of the students will graduate tomorrow, while the other three continue the conversion during the 2010-11 school year.
“It’s the way things are going now,” Nosal said. “Almost every car company is coming out with an electric car. With students in this program, that’s probably what their future will be—working with these type of vehicles.”
CCHS senior Ty Windham has been working on the tractor since February.
“It’s a great opportunity to learn something new,” Windham said. “Automotive fields are trying to go more electric. If we continue to pursue an automotive technician career, we’re going to have being able to work on these.”
Long range, the goal is to have the students convert a gas-powered car to electric.
“We didn’t want to take on a full car until we understood all the components,” Nosal said. “There’s a lot of electrical components that we’re still working on as far as how to configure those in with the project we’re working on. It all fits in with what Mr. Duston teaches here with the electronics part.”
A few weeks ago, Nosal attended the EV Smartt Challenge in North Carolina. The acronym stands for Students Making Advancements in Renewable Transportation Technology, and the 16-year program recently included an expanded curriculum of additional alternative transportation fuels and technologies. The electric vehicle challenge is geared toward both middle and high school students, who have come from North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, Rhode Island and Florida. Nosal hopes to encourage the SMARTT Challenge to motor this way.
“The reason I went to it was I spoke to the director and asked them to bring it out west, and maybe the south, the north and east, so that it can be more of a project for the whole nation,” Nosal said. “There’s no government funding. It’s done by volunteers. It’s been going on for 16 years, but there’s only a smattering of schools doing this.”
Nosal said one of the greatest obstacles for an electric car conversion is the expense.
“You have to get a car,” he said. “You have buy things for it—maybe $10,000 on the start to get you going. You do have to buy components like the motor, the batteries. Those can be expensive because you have to use about 12 to 14 batteries.”
The educators are considering an initiative program, such as Adopt-a-Battery, to get the CCHS students the materials needed for an electric car conversion.
Eventually, Nosal would like to teach the students how to partially recharge the batteries using solar power, eliminating even more fossil fuel usage.
“The students have been doing the majority of the work as far as preparing the vehicle,” Nosal said. “They had to take everything out that was internal combustion.”
Windbergs, a prototype machinist, drew up and designed the motor mount, which was passed on to the machine shop. Students in that class created the brackets needed for the 4-horse-power DC motor.
“This project is a wholesome program because it involves other classes,” Nosal said. “Machine and welding both have done some work. It’s turning out to be a community project.
“I just believe in this. I think we need to show our students it’s possible. It really is their future.”
