I am building a hydraulic skid steer loader from scratch. It will weigh in about 3k lbs. I have been planning to power it with a small diesel motor, but have an opportunity to buy a 125hp electric motor and hydraulic pump, so I’m thinking of using this instead. However, I don’t have any idea where to start with powering the motor. I think there must be forklifts etc are already doing this, but don’t know what factors I need to look at when selecting the battery. Can anyone help get me oriented here?
First question, does it make sense to do this if the motor is AC? I figure I can convert DC batteries to AC simply enough, but expect some loss in that.
Second, what kind of battery is ideal for this, and how can I tell how much battery is enough to power this motor for a given period (I would like to get 2+ hours per charge.
Third, I’m so new to batteries that “I don’t know what I don’t know”. Any suggestions or tips to a newb who wants to investigate this option?
Thanks,
Paul
