EFFECT OF CONSTRUCTING AND OPERATING FACTORS ON THE FIELD PERFORMANCE OF THE TRACTOR

Abstract

The effect of forward speed, inflation pressure of rear wheels and soil moisture on the tractor field performance has been investigated in this study during ploughing by using moldboard plough in order to evaluate the drawbar pull, tractor wheel slippage tractive efficiency, the required power, specific energy, effective field capacity, field efficiency, and fuel consumption. The experiments were carried out using four different forward speeds (1.8, 2.33, 3.88 and 4.68 km/h) of Massey Ferguson 285s, three inflation pressures of rear wheel (50, 100, 150 kPa), the average soil moisture content Mcdb (14.67%, 24.18 %) dry basis, and the average of ploughing depths (from 10 to 20 cm). The soil texture was found to be silty clay. The results for the range of tests, showed that the maximum attractive efficiency was obtained at 3.67 km/h travelling speed, 14.67%(Mcbd) ,100 kPa inflation pressure of tractor rear wheels, while the drawbar pull, wheel slippage, effective field capacity, field efficiency, rate of fuel consumption, required power and specific energy were 10.60kN .5.58%, 1.45 fed /h, 77%, 8L/h, 25.55 kW and 17.02 kW.h/fed respectively. Key words : Tractor , inflation pressure , tractive efficiency , forward speeds