Critique of LifeTrac

=Critique=

This from Mutualist:

The Life Trac is trying to do too much in one machine, and should have been split among different devices. Also, they should not have gone for hydraulics, as it is too high technology for convenient construction and maintenance under field conditions. They should have taken interwar tractors like Ford's as their guide. There is no mention of the power unit or how biomass would be used as fuel. The only rational fuel approach in those circumstances is gasifying with a simple device like Georges Imbert's or the FEMA gasifier (see Gengas), so I hope they weren't thinking of fermenting and distilling liquids or making biodiesel. The only rational approach to power units is to use scavenged engines that can be adapted to the fuel and can be maintained (which means older style petrol engines, not diesel), or two stroke split piston engines which can be made and maintained at that scale.

=Response=

Interesting critique.

'The Life Trac is trying to do too much in one machine' - Please be more specific. LifeTrac combines all functions of agriculture, construction, and utility into one by virtue of plug-and-play hydraulics. If one reduces functionality, one will need 3-100 different other machines to do its work. Thus, the price would be 30-300 times higher, as LifeTrac is already approximately a factor of 10 cost reduction.

'and should have been split among different devices.' - that's contrary to the basic principle of multipurpose mahchinery. It is possible for a small community to maintain one tractor as such. It becomes an overbearing burden to support a large pool of machinery.

'Also, they should not have gone for hydraulics, as it is too high technology for convenient construction and maintenance under field conditions.' - Quick disconnect motors allow immediate repair/replacement in the field. This is not possible with the other option, or geared transmission. Geared transmission is the number one failure mode of mechanical devices, from the standpoint of lifetime design. We eliminate the transmission, clutch, and differential and braking system by design - as hydraulics accomplish all these functions. As such, LifeTrac has proven to be readily self-serviceable, and we no longer have to 'take the tractor to the shop' for repairs. This allows us much higher control of our lives.

'They should have taken interwar tractors like Ford's as their guide.' - We did. After we learned first hand that they break and require parts that are not available everywhere, we decided to build our own tractor. In particular, the transmission went out, we paid $2k, and a month later it failed again. This happened for our Allis and Massey Ferguson. The key is to use modern technology by moving away from mechanical transmission.

'There is no mention of the power unit or how biomass would be used as fuel.' - We aim to build a steam engine power unit in the second half of 2010. We're currently tooling up for this.

'The only rational fuel approach in those circumstances is gasifying with a simple device like Georges Imbert's or the FEMA gasifier (see Gengas),'- sure, if you favor ICEs. We favor pelletized biomass in ECEs (external combustion engines), such as the steam engine.

'so I hope they weren't thinking of fermenting and distilling liquids or making biodiesel.' - Eactly. I think pelletized biomass is abou 10 times simpler to implement in practice, and it will have energy density approximately half of liquid fuels per volume.

'The only rational approach to power units is to use scavenged engines that can be adapted to the fuel and can be maintained (which means older style petrol engines, not diesel), or two stroke split piston engines which can be made and maintained at that scale.' - This is applicable if one insists on relying on ICE paleotechnology choices- whose complexity does not meet the criteria for creating lifetime, post-scarcity design. Our opinion is that the post-scarcity economy goes to multiple-fuel engines such as the modern, high performance steam engine. This engine can be fabricated locally, and we are working on a modular, scalable Steam Engine Construction Set. This engine choice is compatible with solar power applications, combined heat and power applications, stationary power generation of all types, as well as automotive and other mobile applications.