Effect of Operating Conditions of an Agricultural Tractor on Fuel Consumption (Part 2)

——Rotary Tilling Tests——

Abstract

We investigated the effect of operating conditions such as traveling speed gears, Power Take-Off (PTO) gears and engine speed of a 24kW agricultural tractor on fuel consumption in rotary tilling with three to four graded operating conditions and a constant tilling pitch. Fuel consumption was reduced by shifting to a higher traveling speed gear and PTO gear and by lowering engine speed. At constant traveling speed, the reduction rates when compared with fuel consumption at full throttle are 15 to 30% with PTO power at 55% of maximum PTO output (traveling at 0.5m/s) and 30 to 40% with PTO power at 30% of maximum engine output (traveling at 0.2m/s).