The Effect Of Some Operating Parameters On Field Performance Of A 2WD Tractor

(The secret behind the seal of God Abouda, Hassan)

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Abstract

The research study was carried out for two consecutive seasons (1997/1998 and 1998/1999) at the farm of Tamboul testing and training center (Gezira State, Sudan) where the soil is heavy cracking clay (5.6% moisture content). The effect of three rear wheel track width settings (140 cm, 160 cm and 180 cm) and four levels of water ballast ( zero%, 25%, 50% and 75%) on a two- wheel drive agricultural tractor field performance were evaluated. Engine fuel consumption, rear wheel slippage and effective field capacity were measured when the tractor was linked with either mounted disc plough or trailed offset disc harrow. It was found that generally wider track widths and higher levels of water ballasting and their interactions improved tractor field performance. Significant decrease (at 1% level) in fuel consumption was observed when using disc plough. Combining track width 180 cm with 25% and 50% water ballast levels gave a reduction of 28% fuel consumption when tractor was mounted with the disc plough. The trailed disc harrow showed no significant differences (at 5% level) between such combinations. The wheel slippage decreased from 21% at zero% water ballast to 9.04% at 75% ballast level when using disc plough. The disc harrow decreased the slippage by 26.7% when the water ballast level was increased from zero% to 75%. Combining the two factors significantly decreased the slippage (at 1% level) when wider track width and higher levels of water ballast were used with the mounted implement only. The field capacity of the tractor with mounted disc plough was increased from 0.64 ha/hr to 0.71 ha/hr when the track width was increased from 140 cm to 180 cm. Combining the track width 180 cm with 25% and 50% water ballast levels gave the highest effective field capacity of 0.74 ha /hr (15% average increase) for the mounted disc plough whereas when the trailed disc harrow was used, the highest field capacity was 2.17 ha/hr (21.7% increase ) which was obtained from the combined effect of 180 cm track width and 50% water ballast level.
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