Effect of Operating Conditions of an Agricultural Tractor on Fuel Consumption (Part 4)

——Fertilizing, Cultivating and Road Traveling 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 fertilizing, cultivating and road traveling. Fuel consumption was reduced by shifting to a higher traveling speed gear and PTO gear (the latter was not used in road traveling) and by lowering engine speed. At constant traveling speed, the reduction rates when compared with fuel consumption at full throttle are 30 to 45% for fertilizing (traveling at 1.6m/s) with working power at 20% of maximum PTO output, 40 to 50% for cultivating (traveling at 0.5m/s) with working power at 15% of maximum engine output, 30 to 50% for road traveling at 10km/h, and 20 to 35% for road traveling at 15km/h.