A pickup truck is a light motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area.
In North America, the word pickup generally refers to a small or medium sized truck. This light commercial vehicle features:
a separate cabin
and rear load area or compartment (separate cargo bed).
Instead of a well-type bed (short rigid sides) with an opening rear gate, some pickups have a flat tray back (a.k.a. flatbed). Others may have a specialty body mounted behind the cabin.
Three North American vehicles, the Chevrolet El Camino, Pontiac G8 (also available as a 4-door sedan), and Ford Ranchero are not technically trucks[citation needed]. This is because they have a spot welded sheet steel monocoque (unit-body) chassis in the same style as modern passenger cars. Trucks on the other hand usually have a heavy 'C' section rail chassis with a fully floating cab and separate cargo section[citation needed]. The sheet steel in both of these sections is not a stressed member. A combination of the two styles, monocoque cab and engine bay welded to a 'c' section chassis rear is offered in Australia. It is known as the 'one tonner' because it is rated to carry some 250 kg (551 lb) more than the all monocoque style.
A vehicle like the Holden Ute and FPV Pursuit, colloquially called a ute or utility (from "Coupe utility"), in Australia and New Zealand, is known in South Africa as a bakkie (pronounced "bucky"), in Egypt as "half truck", and in Israel as a tender. Panel vans, popular in Australia during the 1970s, were based on ute chassis; known in Egypt as "box".
The design details of such vehicles vary significantly, and different nationalities seem to specialise in different styles and sizes of vehicles. For instance, North American pickups come in full-size (large, heavy vehicles often with V8 or six-cylinder engines), mid-size, and compact (smaller trucks generally equipped with inline 4 engines).
History
The first factory-assembled pickup debuted in 1925 and sold for $281. Henry Ford billed it as the "Ford Model T Runabout with Pickup Body." The 34,000 built that first year featured a cargo box, adjustable tailgate, four stake pockets and heavy-duty rear springs.[citation needed]
In 1928, the Model A replaced the Model T, becoming the first closed-cab pickup and sporting innovations like a safety glass windshield, roll-up side windows and three-speed transmission. It was powered by a four-cylinder L-head engine capable of 40 horsepower (30 kW).[citation needed]
1931 was the first year for a factory-built Chevrolet pickup, known as the "Independence Series".[citation needed]
In 1932, the 65 horsepower (48 kW) Ford flathead V8 engine was offered as an option in the truck. By 1936, Ford had already produced 3 million trucks and led the industry in sales.[citation needed]
For 1933, a vehicle debuted in Australia known as the utility or "ute".
Main article: Coupe Utility
During the Great Depression, money was very tight. Farmers could not afford both a car for their families and a truck for their farms. Banks would not lend money to farmers to buy a luxury like a car, but would lend money for a working vehicle like a truck. So a farmer (or his wife) wrote a letter to the managing director of Ford, saying, "Why don't you build people like me a vehicle in which I can take my family to church on Sunday, and my pigs to town on Monday?"
In response, Lewis Bandt, the body designer at Ford Australia, created the first ute. He married the front of the car with the back of a truck. It was called a coupe utility- coupe, because it was designed to carry two people, and utility because the farmer could use the back section to carry stock or other things.
This Australian-made utility was the first to offer a fully-sealed passenger compartment, made of metal. It was based on the front of the new Ford V-8 sedan. It had metal doors, a metal roof, and glass windows. The cargo section, side panels, and rear of the cab were all pressed from a single piece of metal. The cargo section (capable of carrying half a tonne, 1100 pounds) was totally separate, and could be covered with a tonneau or hard cover, if required. The suspension had been specially designed to suit the ute.
By October 1933, Ford Australia had built two prototypes of the utility. They were immediately sent to farms; the banks would lend farmers the money to buy them, because they could be considered a work vehicle.
In 1935, Bandt took two of his coupe utilities to America and showed them to Henry Ford, who called them "kangaroo chasers". In most of America it was called a "pick-up truck"- because it was like a small truck, and they could pick up loads with it. The Texans called them "rancheros" because they used them on their ranches. The utility was a worldwide success.[1]
Types of pickups
Compact pickups
The compact pickup (or simply "pickup", without qualifier) is the most widespread form of pickup truck worldwide. It is built like a mini version of a two-axle heavy truck, with a frame providing structure, a conventional cab, a leaf spring suspension on the rear wheels and a small I4,I5, I6 or V6 engine, generally using gasoline.
The compact pickup was introduced to North America in the 1960s by Japanese manufacturers. Datsun (Nissan 1959) and Toyota dominated under their own nameplates through the end of the 1970s. Other Japanese manufacturers built pickups for the American "Big Three": Isuzu built the Luv for Chevrolet, Mazda built the Courier for Ford and Mitsubishi built the Ram 50 for Dodge. It wasn't until the 1980s that Mazda introduced their own B-Series, Isuzu their P'up and Mitsubishi their Mighty Max.
Compact trucks sold in the US market in 2008 include:
Ford Ranger
Mazda B-Series
Toyota Tacoma
In Europe, compact pickups dominate the pickup market, although they are popular mostly in rural areas. There are few entries by European manufacturers, the most notable of which is perhaps the Peugeot 504 Pick-Up, which continued to be sold in Mediterranean Europe and Africa long after the original 504 ceased production. Eastern European manufacturers such as ARO or UAZ have served their home markets faithfully for decades, but are now disappearing. The near-majority of compact pickups sold in Europe use Diesel engines.
North American full-size pickups
A full-size pickup is a large truck suitable for hauling heavy loads and performing other functions. Most full-size trucks can carry at least 1,000 lb (450 kg) in the rear bed, with some capable of over five times that much. The bed is usually constructed so as to accommodate a 4 ft (1.2 m) x 8 ft (2.4 m) sheet of plywood. Most are front-engine and rear-wheel drive with four-wheel drive optional, and most use a live axle with leaf springs in the rear. They are commonly found with an I6, V6, V8, V10, or Diesel engines. The largest full-size pickups feature doubled rear tires (two on each side on one axle). These are colloquially referred to as "duallies" (DOOL-eez), or dual-wheeled pickup trucks, and are often equipped with a fifth wheel for towing heavy trailers.
Full-size pickups in North America are sold in four size ranges - ½ Ton, ¾ Ton, 1 Ton, and now 1 1/2 ton. These size ranges originally indicated the maximum payload of the vehicle, however modern pickups can typically carry far more than that. For example, the 2006 model Ford F-150 (a "½ Ton" pickup) has a payload of between 1,400 lb (640 kg) and 3,060 lb (1,390 kg), depending on configuration. Likewise, the 2006 model F-350 (a "1 Ton" pickup) has a payload of between 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) and 5,800 lb (2,600 kg) depending on configuration.
Full-size trucks are often used in North America for general passenger use, usually those with ½ ton ratings. For a number of years, the ½ ton full-size Ford F150 has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States, outselling all other trucks and all passenger car models.
Until recently, only the "Big Three" American automakers (Ford, GM and Chrysler) built full-size pickups. Toyota introduced the T100 pickup truck in 1993, but sales were poor due to high prices and a lack of a V8 engine. Some call the T100 a full- size pickup, but due to the frame, payload, lack of a V8, and size, it was officially classified as a mid-size. However, the introduction of the Tundra and Nissan Titan marked the proper entry of Japanese makers in the market. Originally the Tundra was still only classified as a 7/8 scale pickup, however, with the new design for 2007 it is now a full-size, along with the Titan. Both of these trucks are assembled in North America.
As of 2007, seven pick-ups are sold as full-size in North America:
Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra
Dodge Ram
Ford F-Series/Lincoln Mark LT
Nissan Titan
Toyota Tundra
Muscle trucks
Several high performance versions of trucks have been produced over the years. Besides the obvious big block equipped trucks, other notable models include:
Dodge: Warlock (1976–1979), Li'l Red Express (1978–1979), Midnite Express (1978), Macho Power Wagon, Shelby Dakota (1989), Ram VTS (1996–2001), SRT 10 (2004–2006), and even the regular Hemi powered Ram which also includes the Rumble Bee, GTX and Hemi Sport (2004–2005), Daytona (2005 only), and the Night Runner (2006 only).
Holden: Commodore SS Ute (1990–present), (HSV) Maloo (1990–present).
Ford: 5.8 HO F-150 (1985–1986), Lightning (1993–1995 and 1999–2004), Nascar edition F-150 (1998 only), Harley Davidson Edition F-series.
Ford (Australia): Falcon XR8 (2001–present), (FPV) Pursuit (2003–present), (FPV) Super Pursuit (2004–present), (FPV) F6 Tornado (2004–present).
General Motors: Chevrolet 454 SS (1990–1993), GMC Syclone, Chevrolet Silverado SS, Joe Gibbs Silverado (2004–2006) GMC Sierra Denali.
Of all these, the HSV Maloo is currently the official holder of the "world's fastest production standard utility/pick up truck" record, achieving an average of 271.44 km/h (168.66 mph) to oust the Dodge RAM SRT-10 equipped with a 8.3-litre V10 (248.783 km/h (154.59 mph)) from top position.
Mid-size pickups
In North America, pickup trucks were commonly used as general purpose passenger cars. They were popular not only with construction workers, but also with housewives and office workers. Thus arose the need for a pickup that was bigger than a compact and smaller and more fuel efficient than the full-size pickup.
The first mid-size pickup was the Dodge Dakota, introduced in 1987 with V6 engine availability to distinguish it from the smaller compact trucks which generally offered only four cylinder engines. Its hallmark was the ability to carry the archetypical 4x8 sheet of plywood (4 feet by 8 feet) flat in the cargo bed, something which compact pickups could only carry at an angle. While the Frontier, the Tacoma, and the Ridgeline are only available with I-4s or V-6s, since 1991 the Dakota has utilized various V-8 motors. New for 2006, the Mitsubishi Raider was a rebadged Dakota and it used the same V-6 and V-8 motors.
In 2006, mid-size and large pickups dominate the US market. Mid-size models include:
Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon
Dodge Dakota/Mitsubishi Raider
Ford Sport Trac
Nissan Frontier
Toyota Tacoma
Honda Ridgeline
Coupé utilities
The coupé utility body style is a light-duty truck, based on an automobile platform — frequently but not necessarily a unibody platform — with a two-door passenger cabin and an integral cargo bed. They often share sheet metal and instruments panels from their passenger car antecedants — and are more carlike in appearance and performance than pickups trucks. This type of car-based truck is commonly known in Australia formally as a utility and colloquially as a ute, and in South Africa as a Bakkie. In the USA, popular coupé utilities — although not commonly known by this term — were the Ford Ranchero and the Chevrolet El Camino. The recent Subaru Baja resembled a coupé utility but with four doors.
The coupé utility body style is especially popular in Australia. The ute had its origins in Australia from the open top passenger car models of the mid 1920s. The ute body type was first available in Australian Chevrolet then Dodge models, the bodies of which were made by Holden under contract. Australia has developed a culture around utes, particularly in rural areas with events known as Ute musters. Many young drivers customise their utes and are not willing to scratch the paintwork doing anything utilitarian[citation needed]. Other drivers[who?] customise their utes in the B&S style[citation needed][vague] with roobars, spotlights, oversized mudflaps, exhaust pipe flaps and UHF aerials. The ute culture has been romanticised by country singers such as Lee Kernaghan, who has written odes to the ute such as She's My Ute, Scrubbabashin, Baptise The Ute and Love Shack.
The two current Australian-built utilities — Holden Ute and the Ford Falcon ute — derive from currently marketed passenger cars.
Latin American pickups
In Latin America, single cab pickups which are based on superminis, are fairly popular. They are called "compact," in contrast with "mid-size" (Ranger, S10, Hilux) and "full-size" (Ram, Avalanche, F150), and also nicknamed "picápinhas" in Brazil. Best-sellers are models such as the Chevrolet Montana, Volkswagen Saveiro and Fiat Strada.
European pickups
Over the past few decades, nearly all pickups from European manufacturers are coupe utility pickups. Manufacturers from both western and eastern Europe have produced coupe utility pickups.
Citroën 2CV Pickup
Citroën Méhari
Dacia Pickup
Fiat Strada
Fiat 125P
Ford Sierra P100
Lada Niva
Opel Corsa Pickup
Peugeot 504/404
Talbot Rancho découvrable
SEAT Inca
Škoda Felicia Fun
Volkswagen Caddy
One of the smallest pickups to be produced in commercial quantities was the British Austin/Morris Mini Pickup. At a little over 3 meters in length, it was nonetheless quite popular as a practical, working truck, selling 58,000 vehicles between 1961 and 1983. (Another mini pickup was the Japanese 1985-1988 3-cylinder 550 cc Suzuki Mighty Boy.)
African pickups
Pickups are popular in South Africa, including the Ford Bantam, originally a locally designed model based on the Ford Escort and later the Mazda 323, but now a Brazilian-designed Ford Fiesta. The Ford P100, a pickup version of the Ford Cortina (and later Ford Sierra), was exported to the UK until 1993.
Toyota, Mazda and Nissan have popular ranges, while Tata and Mahindra are just entering the market.
Visitors to South Africa will often hear pickups referred to as 'Bakkies'. This is dervided from the Afrikaans term 'Bak' - literally a baking bin, such as those used for baking loaves of bread. Early pickups dating from the 1940s were sedans with a cargo carrier bin added almost as an afterthought - which gave rise to the term, and its widespread use.
Pickup cab styles
Pickup trucks have been produced with a number of different configurations or body styles.
Standard cab
A standard cab pickup has a single row of seats and a single set of doors, one on each side. Most pickups have a front bench seat that can be used by three people, however within the last few decades, various manufacturers have begun to offer individual seats as standard equipment.
Extended cab
Extended or super cab pickups add an extra space behind the main seat. This is normally accessed by reclining the front bench back, but recent extended cab pickups have featured suicide doors on one or both sides for access. The original extended cab trucks used simple side-facing "jump seats" that could fold into the walls, but modern super cab trucks usually have a full bench in the back. Dodge introduced the Club Cab in 1973. Ford followed with the SuperCab concept on their 1974 F-100. In 1977 Datsun introduced the first minitruck with extended cab, their King Cab. GM, oddly enough, didn't offer one on their full-size pickups until 1988. The S-Series(Chevrolet S-10/GMC S-15) pickups has extended cab models in 1983.
Crew cab
Main article: Crew cab
A true four-door pickup is a crew cab, double cab or quad cab. It features seating for up to five or six people on two full benches and full-size front-hinged doors on both sides. Most crew cab pickups have a shorter bed or box to reduce their overall length.
International was the first to introduce a crew cab pickup in 1957, followed by Ford with their 1965 F-250 (short bed) and F-350 (long bed), Dodge in the same era, and Chevrolet followed with their 1973 C/K. Japanese makes offered crew cab versions of their pick-ups from the mid-80s.
Four-door compact pickup trucks are quite in vogue outside North America, due to their increased passenger space and versatility in carrying non-rugged cargo. In the United States and Canada, however, four-door compact trucks have been very slow to catch on and are still quite rare. In recent years seat belt laws, requirements of insurance companies and fear of litigation have increased the demand for four door trucks which provide a safety belt for each passenger. Mexican four-door compact pickups are quite popular.
Cab-forward
A cab-forward pickup is derived from a cab-forward van; a van where the driver sits atop the front axle. The first cab-forward pickup was the Volkswagen Transporter which was introduced in 1952. It had a drop-side bed which aided in loading and unloading. American, British, and Japanese manufacturers followed in the late 1950s and 1960s. American manufacturers adopted this design only later, most notably on the 1956-1965 Jeep Forward Control and the first generation Ford Econoline, Chevrolet Corvair Rampside and Loadside pickups, and Dodge A-100.
The Japanese, however, embraced this design because of its high maneuverability on narrow streets and fields. The smallest ones are 360/550/660cc Kei trucks based on microvans from Daihatsu, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and Suzuki where the statutory limitation on length makes a short cab necessary. The British also continued this design on the Ford Transit.
While this configuration remains popular for large commercial trucks and buses, it is largely regarded as unsafe in smaller vehicles due to the lack of a crumple zone. In the event of a frontal impact, there is nothing in front of the passenger cabin to absorb the force of impact, thus crushing the entire front of the vehicle, occupants included. There have been many accidents in Europe involving large trucks where the cabin was crushed when rear-ending another truck at high speed in conditions with heavy fog. They remain popular due to unimpeded forward visibility and flexible maneuverability, but have largely fallen into disuse in the United States with the exception of purpose-built school and transit buses, as well as garbage and fire trucks.
Pickup bed styles
Full-size pickup trucks are generally available with several different types of beds attached. The provided lengths typically specify the distance between the inside of the front end of the bed and the closed tailgate; note that these values are approximate and different manufacturers produce beds of slightly varying length.
Most compact truck beds are approximately 50 in (1,270 mm) wide, and most full-size are between 60 in (1,524 mm) and 70 in (1,778 mm) wide, generally 48 in (1,219 mm) or slightly over between the wheel wells (minimum width).
Short bed
The short bed is by far the most popular type of pickup truck bed. Compact truck short beds are generally 6 ft (1.8 m) long and full-size beds are generally 6.5 ft (2.0 m) long. These beds offer significant load-hauling versatility, but are not long enough to be difficult to drive or park.
Long bed
The long bed is usually a foot or two longer than the short bed and is more popular on trucks of primarily utilitarian employ (for example, commercial work trucks or farm trucks). Compact long beds are generally 7 ft (2.1 m) long and full-size long beds are generally 8 ft (2.4 m) long. Full-size long beds offer the advantage of carrying a standard-size 4 ft×8 ft sheet of plywood with the tailgate closed. In the United States and Canada, long beds are not very popular on compact trucks because of the easy availability of full-size pickup trucks.
Step-side
Most pickup truck beds have side panels positioned outside the wheel wells. Conversely, step-side truck beds have side panels inside the wheel wells. Pickup trucks were commonly equipped with step-side beds until the 1950s, when General Motors (Chevrolet Cameo Carrier and GMC Suburban Carrier) and Chrysler (Dodge Sweptside) introduced smooth-side pickup beds as expensive, low-production options. These smooth side panels were cosmetic additions over a narrow step-side bed interior. In 1957, Ford offered a purpose-built "Styleside" bed with smooth sides and a full-width interior at little extra cost. Most manufacturers followed and switched to a straight bed, which offer slightly more interior space than step-side beds, and due to better aerodynamics, tend to produce less wind noise at highway speeds. Step-side beds do have the added advantage of a completely rectangular interior, although most modern trucks with a step-side bed are that way purely for styling.
General Motors calls the step-side option sportside, while Ford Motor Company dubs it flareside. Another common designation until recently was "thriftside," so named for its lower cost.
Very short bed
As mentioned above, some compact four-door pickup trucks are equipped with very short beds or super short beds. They are usually based on sport utility vehicles, and the bed is attached behind the rear seats. The Ford Explorer Sport Trac is an example of this, as is the Ssangyong Musso Sport. Early very short bed trucks had only a regular cab.
No bed (cab chassis)
In some cases, commercial pickup trucks can be purchased without a bed at all; the fuel tank and driveline are visible and easily accessible through the top of the frame rails until a proper bed (many times customized to fit a particular business' needs) is attached by the customer. These are called "Cab & Chassis" models, and are usually finished by the customer to use a flatbed (flat deck) cargo carrier, stake bed, or specialized fixtures such as tow rigs, glass sheet carriers or other types. A common type is the "utility body" which in the US is usually of metal and has many lockable cabinet compartments (a type of large tradesman's tool box)
Other varieties of commercial pickups without beds are called "Cowl & Chassis" models and "Cowl & Windshield" models. Both are similar to cab & chassis models, but have incomplete cabs, most of which are replaced with the commercial bodies themselves. Ice cream vending trucks were commonly built on cowl & windshield pickups until the 1970s, while walk-in delivery bodies and even some Class C motor homes were often attached to cowl & chassis pickups.
The cultural significance of the pickup
The pickup in American culture
Americans have a special fondness for the pickup truck, and it has developed a mythos that is similar to that of the horse in the American Old West. In the United States, pickups tend to be portrayed as symbols of male virility. They figure prominently in "tough guy" and neo-Western motion pictures, such as Hud, Urban Cowboy, The Fall Guy and Every Which Way But Loose. They are also a fixture in American politics, as in the famous campaign speech by Fred Thompson, who explained his opponent's shortcomings by saying "He hasn't spent enough time in a pickup truck." In 2004, Democratic Senate candidate Ken Salazar campaigned with his green pickup truck; Salazar later won the election.[1] Even President George W. Bush has been seen cruising around his Crawford, Texas ranch in a white Ford F-250 while vacationing, sometimes with foreign heads of state riding shotgun, such as Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The term "Texas Cadillac" is a euphemism referring to the pickup truck of a cowboy or someone into the cowboy/country music culture, especially if the truck is large and has been customized rather opulently. Texas is sometimes called the "land of pickup trucks," even going so far as to offer lower taxation on vehicle registration compared to other vehicle types.[2]
Pickups in China
The People's Republic of China has the third largest first-hand pickup truck market in the world. In the year of 2006, 145,836 units had been sold.
Pickups in Thailand
As the world's second largest manufacturer of pickup trucks, aided by punitive excise taxes on passenger cars, pickup trucks have long been extremely popular in Thailand: between 1987 and 1996, 58% of all cars sold in the country were pickup trucks.
[2] Pickups are used extensively for shipping and transport, notably the converted songthaew (lit. "two row") minibus that forms the backbone of public transportation in and between many smaller cities.
Thailand is also the world's second largest market for pickup trucks, after the United States; 490,000 pickups were sold there in 2005.
Pickups in Europe
In Europe, pickups are considered light commercial vehicles for farmers. Until the 1990s, pickups were preferred mainly as individual vehicles in rural areas, while vans and large trucks were the preferred method of transportation for cargo.
The largest pickup market in Europe is Portugal, where crew cab 4WD pickups have somewhat replaced SUVs as offroad vehicles, after a change in taxation removed light commercial vehicle status from SUVs. The introduction of more powerful engines in pickups, benefiting from variable vane turbochargers and common rail direct injection technology, have made these cars interesting prospects in the eyes of the public.
In France, Spain and Germany, pickups carry little cultural significance. In the United Kingdom on the other hand, pickups are gaining popularity fast; they are the UK's fastest growing vehicle sector. Through 2006 pick up sales have increased by 14 per cent to reach a total topping 36,000, where overall new car sales are down by 4.2 per cent. The biggest sellers in the UK are mid size trucks like the Nissan Navara, the Mitsubishi L200 and the Isuzu D-Max. These are often seen as a lifestyle statement associated with surfing or other extreme sports.
Military use
Pickup trucks have been used as troop carriers in many parts of the world, especially in countries with few civilian roads or areas of very rough terrain. Pickup trucks have also been used as fighting vehicles, often equipped with a machine-gun mounted in the bed. These are known as technicals.
Other uses
Whilst pickups are commonly used by tradespeople all over the world, they are popular as personal transport in Australia, the United States, and Canada, where they share some of the image of the SUV and are commonly criticised on similar grounds.
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Mower
A mower is a machine for cutting crops or plants that grow on the ground. A smaller mower used for lawns and sports grounds (playing fields) is called a lawn mower or grounds mower, which is often self-powered, or may also be small enough to be pushed by the operator. Grounds mowers have rotary or reel cutters. Larger mowers are used to cut hay or other crops and place the cut material into rows, which are referred to as windrows. Often, such mowers are called windrowers or mower-conditioners. Swathers are also used to cut hay and grain crops.
Larger mowers are usually ganged (equipped with a number or gang of similar cutting units), so they can adapt individually to ground contours. They may be powered and drawn by a tractor or draft animals. The cutting units can be mounted underneath the tractor between the front and rear wheels, mounted on the back with a three-point hitch or pulled behind the tractor as a trailer. There are also dedicated self propelled cutting machines, which often have the mower units mounted at the front and sides for easy visibility by the driver.
Prior to the invention and adoption of mechanized movers, (and today in places where use of a mower is impractical or uneconomical), hay and grain was cut by hand using scythe or sickle.
Boom or side-arm mowers are mounted on long hydraulic arms, similar to a backhoe arm, which allows the tractor to mow steep banks or around objects while remaining on a safer surface.
The cutting mechanism in a mower may be one of several different designs—
Sickle mowers, also called reciprocating mowers, bar mowers, or finger-bar mowers, have a long (typically six to seven and a half feet) bar on which is mounted fingers with stationary guardplates. In a channel on the bar there is a reciprocating sickle with very sharp sickle sections (triangular blades). The sickle bar is driven back and forth along the channel. The grass, or other plant matter, is cut between the sharp edges of the sickle sections and the finger-plates (this action can be likened to an electric hair clipper). The bar rides on the ground, supported on a skid at the inner end, and it can be tilted to adjust the height of the cut. A springloaded board at the outer end of the bar guides the cut hay away from the uncut hay. The so-formed channel, between cut and uncut material, allows the mower skid to ride in the channel and cut only uncut grass cleanly on the next swath. These were the first successful horse-drawn mowers on farms and the general principles still guide the design of modern mowers.
Rotary mowers, also called drum mowers, have a rapidly rotating bar, or disks mounted on a bar, with sharpened edges that cut the crop. When these mowers are tractor-mounted they are easily capable of mowing grass at up to 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) in good conditions. Some models are designed to be mounted in double and triple sets on a tractor, one in the front and one at each side, thus able to cut up to 20 foot (6 metre) swaths. In rough cutting conditions the blades attached to the disks are swivelled to absorb blows from obstructions. Mostly these are rear-mounted units and in some countries are called scrub cutters. Self-powered mowers of this type are used for rougher grass in gardening and other land maintenance.
Reel mowers, also called cylinder mowers (familiar as the hand-pushed or self-powered cylinder lawn mower), have a horizontally rotating cylindrical reel composed of helical blades, each of which in turn runs past a horizontal cutter-bar, producing a continuous scissor action. The bar is held at an adjustable level just above the ground and the reel runs at a speed dependent on the forward movement speed of the machine, driven by wheels running on the ground (or in self-powered applications by a motor). The cut grass may be gathered in a collection bin. This type of mower is used to produce consistently short and even grass on bowling greens, lawns, parks and sports grounds. When pulled by a tractor (or formerly by a horse), these mowers are often ganged into sets of three, five or more, to form a gang mower. A well-designed reel mower can cut quite tangled and thick tall grass, but this type works best on fairly short, upright vegetation, as taller vegetation tends to be rolled flat rather than cut.
Flail mowers have a number of small blades on the end of chains attached to a horizontal axis. The cutting is carried out by the ax-like heads striking the grass at speed. These types are used on rough ground, where the blades may frequently be fouled by other objects, or on tougher vegetation than grass, such as brush (scrub). Due to the length of the chains and the higher weight of the blades, they are better at cutting thick brush than other mowers, because of the relatively high inertia of the blades. In some types the cut material may be gathered in a collection bin. As a boom mower (see above), a flail mower may be used in an upright position for trimming the sides of hedges, when it is often called a hedge-cutter.
Larger mowers are usually ganged (equipped with a number or gang of similar cutting units), so they can adapt individually to ground contours. They may be powered and drawn by a tractor or draft animals. The cutting units can be mounted underneath the tractor between the front and rear wheels, mounted on the back with a three-point hitch or pulled behind the tractor as a trailer. There are also dedicated self propelled cutting machines, which often have the mower units mounted at the front and sides for easy visibility by the driver.
Prior to the invention and adoption of mechanized movers, (and today in places where use of a mower is impractical or uneconomical), hay and grain was cut by hand using scythe or sickle.
Boom or side-arm mowers are mounted on long hydraulic arms, similar to a backhoe arm, which allows the tractor to mow steep banks or around objects while remaining on a safer surface.
The cutting mechanism in a mower may be one of several different designs—
Sickle mowers, also called reciprocating mowers, bar mowers, or finger-bar mowers, have a long (typically six to seven and a half feet) bar on which is mounted fingers with stationary guardplates. In a channel on the bar there is a reciprocating sickle with very sharp sickle sections (triangular blades). The sickle bar is driven back and forth along the channel. The grass, or other plant matter, is cut between the sharp edges of the sickle sections and the finger-plates (this action can be likened to an electric hair clipper). The bar rides on the ground, supported on a skid at the inner end, and it can be tilted to adjust the height of the cut. A springloaded board at the outer end of the bar guides the cut hay away from the uncut hay. The so-formed channel, between cut and uncut material, allows the mower skid to ride in the channel and cut only uncut grass cleanly on the next swath. These were the first successful horse-drawn mowers on farms and the general principles still guide the design of modern mowers.
Rotary mowers, also called drum mowers, have a rapidly rotating bar, or disks mounted on a bar, with sharpened edges that cut the crop. When these mowers are tractor-mounted they are easily capable of mowing grass at up to 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) in good conditions. Some models are designed to be mounted in double and triple sets on a tractor, one in the front and one at each side, thus able to cut up to 20 foot (6 metre) swaths. In rough cutting conditions the blades attached to the disks are swivelled to absorb blows from obstructions. Mostly these are rear-mounted units and in some countries are called scrub cutters. Self-powered mowers of this type are used for rougher grass in gardening and other land maintenance.
Reel mowers, also called cylinder mowers (familiar as the hand-pushed or self-powered cylinder lawn mower), have a horizontally rotating cylindrical reel composed of helical blades, each of which in turn runs past a horizontal cutter-bar, producing a continuous scissor action. The bar is held at an adjustable level just above the ground and the reel runs at a speed dependent on the forward movement speed of the machine, driven by wheels running on the ground (or in self-powered applications by a motor). The cut grass may be gathered in a collection bin. This type of mower is used to produce consistently short and even grass on bowling greens, lawns, parks and sports grounds. When pulled by a tractor (or formerly by a horse), these mowers are often ganged into sets of three, five or more, to form a gang mower. A well-designed reel mower can cut quite tangled and thick tall grass, but this type works best on fairly short, upright vegetation, as taller vegetation tends to be rolled flat rather than cut.
Flail mowers have a number of small blades on the end of chains attached to a horizontal axis. The cutting is carried out by the ax-like heads striking the grass at speed. These types are used on rough ground, where the blades may frequently be fouled by other objects, or on tougher vegetation than grass, such as brush (scrub). Due to the length of the chains and the higher weight of the blades, they are better at cutting thick brush than other mowers, because of the relatively high inertia of the blades. In some types the cut material may be gathered in a collection bin. As a boom mower (see above), a flail mower may be used in an upright position for trimming the sides of hedges, when it is often called a hedge-cutter.
Tractor
A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction. Most commonly, the term is used to describe the distinctive farm vehicle: agricultural implements may be towed behind or mounted on the tractor, and the tractor may also provide a source of power if the implement is mechanised. Another common use of the term is for the power unit of a semi-trailer truck.
The word tractor was taken from Latin, being the agent noun of trahere "to pull". [1],[2]. The first recorded use of the word meaning "an engine or vehicle for pulling wagons or ploughs" occurred in 1901, from the earlier term traction engine (1859).[3]
The first tractors were steam-powered ploughing engines. They were used in pairs either side of a field to haul a plough back and forth between them using a wire cable.
National variations
In Britain, Ireland, Australia, India, Spain, and Poland the word "tractor" usually means "farm tractor", and the use of the word "tractor" to mean other types of vehicles is familiar to the vehicle trade but unfamiliar to much of the general public. In Canada and the US the word is also used to refer to a road tractor.
History
The first powered farm implements in the early 1800s were portable engines – steam engines on wheels that could be used to drive mechanical farm machinery by way of a flexible belt. Around 1850, the first traction engines were developed from these, and were widely adopted for agricultural use. Where soil conditions permitted, like the US, steam tractors were used to direct-haul ploughs, but in the UK and elsewhere, ploughing engines were used for cable-hauled ploughing instead. Steam-powered agricultural engines remained in use well into the 20th century, until reliable internal combustion engines had been developed.[4]
In 1892, John Froelich built the first practical gasoline-powered tractor in Clayton County, Iowa. Only two were sold, and it was not until 1911, when the Twin City Traction Engine Company developed the design, that it became successful.
In Britain, the first recorded tractor sale was the oil-burning Hornsby-Ackroyd Patent Safety Oil Traction engine, in 1897. However, the first commercially successful design was Dan Albone's three-wheel Ivel tractor of 1902. In 1908, the Saunderson Tractor and Implement Co. of Bedford introduced a four-wheel design, and went on to become the largest tractor manufacturer outside the USA at that time.
While unpopular at first, these gasoline-powered machines began to catch on in the 1910s when they became smaller and more affordable. Henry Ford introduced the Fordson, the first mass-produced tractor in 1917. They were built in the U.S., Ireland, England and Russia and by 1923, Fordson had 77% of the U.S. market. The Fordson dispensed with a frame, using the strength of the engine block to hold the machine together. By the 1920s, tractors with a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine had become the norm.
The classic farm tractor is a simple open vehicle, with two very large driving wheels on an axle below and slightly behind a single seat (the seat and steering wheel consequently are in the center), and the engine in front of the driver, with two steerable wheels below the engine compartment. This basic design has remained unchanged for a number of years, but enclosed cabs are fitted on almost all modern models, for reasons of operator safety and comfort.
Originally, plows and other equipment were connected via a draw-bar, or a proprietary connecting system; prior to Harry Ferguson patenting the three-point hitch. Recently, Bobcat's patent on its front loader connection has expired; and compact tractors are now being outfitted with quick-connect attachments for their front-end loaders.
There are also lawn tractors. Cub Cadet, Husqvarna, John Deere, Massey Ferguson and Toro are some of the better-known brands.
Operation
Modern farm tractors usually have five foot-pedals for the operator on the floor of the tractor. The pedal on the left is the clutch. The operator presses on this pedal to disengage the transmission for either shifting gears or stopping the tractor. Two of the pedals on the right are the brakes. The left brake pedal stops the left rear wheel and the right brake pedal does the same with the right side. This independent left and right wheel braking augments the steering of the tractor when only the two rear wheels are driven. This is usually done when it is necessary to make a tight turn. The split brake pedal is also used in mud or soft dirt to control a tire that spins due to loss of traction. The operator presses both pedals together to stop the tractor. For tractors with additional front-wheel drive, this operation often engages the 4-wheel locking differential to help stop the tractor when travelling at road speeds.
A fifth pedal just in front of the seat operates the rear differential lock (diff lock) which prevents wheelslip. The differential allows the outside wheel to travel faster than the inside one during a turn. However, in traction conditions on a soft surface the same mechanism could allow one wheel to slip, thus preventing traction to the other wheel. The diff lock overrides this, causing both wheels to supply equal traction. Care must be taken to unlock the differential, usually by hitting the pedal a second time, before turning, since the tractor cannot perform a turn with the diff lock engaged.
The pedal furthest to the right is the foot throttle. Unlike in automobiles, it can also be controlled from a hand-operated lever ("hand throttle"). This helps provide a constant speed in field work. It also helps provide continuous power for stationary tractors that are operating an implement by shaft or belt. The foot throttle gives the operator more automobile-like control over the speed of the tractor for road work. This is a feature of more recent tractors; older tractors often did not have this feature. In the UK it is mandatory to use the foot pedal to control engine speed while travelling on the road. Some tractors, especially those designed for row-crop work, have a 'de-accelerator' pedal, which operates in the reverse fashion to an automobile throttle, in that the pedal is pushed down to slow the engine. This is to allow fine control over the speed of the tractor when manoeuvring at the end of crop rows in fields- the operating speed of the engine is set using the hand throttle, and if the operator wishes to slow the tractor to turn, he simply has to press the pedal, turn and release it once the turn is completed, rather than having to alter the setting of the hand throttle twice during the maneuver.
Power and transmission
Modern farm tractors employ large diesel engines, which range in power output from 18 to 575 horsepower (15 to 480 kW). Tractors can be generally classified as two-wheel drive, two-wheel drive with front wheel assist, four-wheel drive (often with articulated steering), or track tractors (with either two or four powered rubber tracks). Variations of the classic style include the diminutive lawn tractors and their more capable and ruggedly constructed cousins, garden tractors, that range from about 10 to 25 horsepower (7.5-18.6 kW) and are used for smaller farm tasks and mowing grass and landscaping. Their size—especially with modern tractors—and the slower speeds are reasons motorists are urged to use caution when encountering a tractor on the roads.
Most tractors have a means to transfer power to another machine such as a baler, slasher or mower. Early tractors used belts wrapped around a flywheel to power stationary equipment. Modern tractors use a power take-off (PTO) shaft to provide rotary power to machinery that may be stationary or pulled. Almost all modern tractors can also provide external hydraulic fluid and electrical power.
Most farm tractors use a manual transmission. They have several sets of gear ratios divided into speeds. In order to change the ratio, it is usually necessary to stop the tractor. Between them they provide a range of speeds from less than one mile per hour suitable for working the land, up to about 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) for road use. Furthermore it is usually not necessary to change gear in order to reverse, one simply selects a lever. Older tractors usually require that the operator depress the clutch in order to shift between gears (a limitation of straight-cut gears in the gearbox), but many modern tractors have eliminated this requirement with the introduction of technologies such as power shifting in the 1960s and more modern continuously variable transmissions. This allows the operator more and easier control over working speed than the throttle alone could provide.
Slow, controllable speeds are necessary for most operations that are performed with a tractor. They help give the farmer a larger degree of control in certain situations, such as field work. However, when travelling on public roads, the slow operating speeds can cause problems, such as long queues or tailbacks, which can delay or aggravate other road users. To alleviate conditions, some countries (for example the Netherlands) employ a road sign on some roads that means "no farm tractors". Some modern tractors, such as the JCB Fastrac, are now capable of much more tolerable road speeds of around 50 mph (80 km/h).
Backhoe loader
The most common variation of the classic farm tractor is the hoe, also called a hoe-loader. As the name implies, it has a loader assembly on the front and a backhoe on the back. Backhoes attach to a 3 point hitch on farm or industrial tractors. Industrial tractors are often heavier in construction particularly with regards to the use of steel grill for protection from rocks and the use of construction tires. When the backhoe is permanently attached, the machine usually has a seat that can swivel to the rear to face the hoe controls. Removable backhoe attachments almost always have a separate seat on the attachment.
Backhoe-loaders are very common and can be used for a wide variety of tasks: construction, small demolitions, light transportation of building materials, powering building equipment, digging holes,loading trucks, breaking asphalt and paving roads. Some buckets have a retractable bottom, enabling them to empty their load more quickly and efficiently. Buckets with retractable bottoms are also often used for grading and scratching off sand. The front assembly may be a removable attachment or permanently mounted. Often the bucket can be replaced with other devices or tools.
Their relatively small frame and precise control make backhoe-loaders very useful and common in urban engineering projects such as construction and repairs in areas too small for larger equipment. Their versatility and compact size makes them one of the most popular urban construction vehicles.
In the UK, the word "JCB" is sometimes used colloquially as a genericized trademark for any such type of engineering vehicle. The term JCB now appears in the Oxford English Dictionary, although it is still legally a trademark of J. C. Bamford Ltd.
Safety
Agriculture in the United States is one of the most hazardous industries, only surpassed by mining and construction. No other farm machine is so identified with the hazards of production agriculture as the tractor.[5] Tractor related injuries account for approximately 32% of the fatalities and 6% of the non-fatal injuries in agriculture. Over 50% is attributed to tractor overturns.[6]
The roll over protection structure(ROPS) and seat belt, when worn, are the two most important safety devices to protect operators from death during tractor overturns.[7]
Modern tractors have rollover protection systems (ROPS) to prevent an operator from being crushed if the tractor overturns. It is important to remember that the ROPS does not prevent tractor overturns. Rather, it prevents the operator from being crushed during an overturn. This is especially important in open-air tractors, where the ROPS is a steel beam that extends above the operator's seat. For tractors with operator cabs, the ROPS is part of the frame of the cab. A ROPS with enclosed cab further reduces the likelihood of serious injury because the operator is protected by the sides and windows of the cab.
ROPS were first required by legislation in Sweden in 1959. Before ROPS were required, some farmers died when their tractors rolled on top of them. Row-crop tractors, before ROPS, were particularly dangerous because of their 'tricycle' design with the two front wheels spaced close together and angled inward toward the ground. Some farmers were killed by rollovers while operating tractors along steep slopes. Others have been killed while attempting to tow or pull an excessive load from above axle height, or when cold weather caused the tires to freeze down, in both cases causing the tractor to pivot around the rear axle.
For the ROPS to work as designed, the operator must stay within the protective frame of the ROPS. This means the operator must wear the seat belt. Not wearing the seat belt may defeat the primary purpose of the ROPS.
Applications
For farming
The most common use of the term is for the vehicles used on farms. The farm tractor is used for pulling or pushing agricultural machinery or trailers, for plowing, tilling, disking, harrowing, planting, and similar tasks. Charles City, Iowa is the birthplace of the farm tractor in the early 1900s by the Hart-Parr Company,[citation needed] Later sold to White Tractor.
Farm implements can be attached to the rear of the tractor by either a drawbar or a three-point hitch. The three-point hitch was invented by Harry Ferguson and has been standard since the 1960s. Equipment attached to the three-point hitch can be raised or lowered hydraulically with a control lever. The equipment attached to the three-point hitch is usually completely supported by the tractor. Another way to attach an implement is via a Quick Hitch, which is attached to the three-point hitch. This enables a single person to attach an implement quicker and put the person in less danger when attaching the implement.
Some farm-type tractors are found elsewhere than on farms: with large universities' gardening departments, in public parks, or for highway workman use with blowtorch cylinders strapped to its sides and a pneumatic drill air compressor permanently fastened over its power take-off. These are often fitted with grass (turf) tyres which are less damaging to soft surfaces than agricultural tires.
Supposedly, I4 [8] (industrial bar tires) are less damaging to lawns and soft surfaces than agricultural tires, but provide similar traction, and have the benefit of being self-cleaning. Often, these can be seen on road construction backhoes.
Precision agriculture
Space technology has found its way down to agriculture in the form of GPS devices, and robust on-board computers installed as optional features on farm tractors. These technologies are used in modern, precision farming techniques. The spin-offs from the space race have actually facilitated automation in plowing and the use of autosteer systems drone on tractors that are manned but only steered at the end of a row, the idea being to neither overlap and use more fuel nor leave streaks when performing jobs such as cultivating.
Other types of tractors
Engineering tractors
The durability and engine power of tractors made them very suitable for engineering tasks. Tractors can be fitted with engineering tools such as dozer blade, bucket, hoe, ripper, and so on. The most common attachments for the front of a tractor are dozer blade or a bucket. When attached with engineering tools the tractor is called an engineering vehicle.
A bulldozer is a track-type tractor attached with blade in the front and a rope-winch behind. Bulldozers are very powerful tractors and have excellent ground-hold, as their main tasks are to push or drag things.
Bulldozers have been further modified over time to evolve into new machines which are capable of working in ways that the original bulldozer can not. One example is that loader tractors were created by removing the blade and substituting a large volume bucket and hydraulic arms which can raise and lower the bucket, thus making it useful for scooping up earth, rock and similar loose material to load it into trucks.
A front-loader or loader is a tractor with an engineering tool which consists of two hydraulic powered arms on either side of the front engine compartment and a tilting implement. This is usually a wide open box called a bucket but other common attachments are a pallet fork and a bale grappler.
Other modifications to the original bulldozer include making the machine smaller to let it operate in small work areas where movement is limited. There are also tiny wheeled loaders, officially called Skid-steer loaders but nicknamed "Bobcat" after the original manufacturer, which are particularly suited for small excavation projects in confined areas.
Compact Utility Tractor
A Compact Utility Tractor, also called a CUT is a smaller version of an agricultural tractor but designed primarily for landscaping and estate management type tasks rather than for planting and harvesting on a commercial scale. Typical CUTs range in from 20 to 50 horsepower (15-37 kW) with available power take off (PTO) horsepower ranging from 15 to 45 hp (11-34 kW). CUTs are often equipped with both a mid-mounted PTO and a standard rear PTO, especially those below 40 horsepower (30 kW). The mid-mount PTO shaft typically rotates at/near 2000 rpms and is typically used to power such implements as mid-mount finish mower, a front mounted snow blower or front mounted rotary broom. The rear PTO is standardized at 540 rpms for the North American markets, but in some parts of the world a dual 540/1000 rpm PTO is standard and implements are available for either standard in those markets.
One of the most common attachment for a Compact Utility Tractor is the front end loader or FEL. Like the larger agricultural tractors, a CUT will have an adjustable three-point hitch that is hydraulically controlled. Typically a CUT will have four wheel drive, or more correctly 4 wheel assist. Modern Compact Utility Tractors often feature a Hydrostatic transmission, but many variants of gear drive transmissions are also offered from low priced simple gear transmissions to synchronized transmissions to advanced glide-shift transmissions. All modern CUTs feature a government mandated roll over protection structure (ROPS) just like agricultural tractors. The most well known brands in North America include Kubota, John Deere Tractor, New Holland Ag, Case-Farmall and Massey-Ferguson. Although less common, compact backhoes are often attached to compact utility tractors.
Compact Utility Tractors require special smaller implements than full size agricultural tractors. Very common implements include the box blade, the grader blade, the landscape rake, the post hole digger (or post hole auger), the rotary cutter (also called a slasher or a brush hog), a mid or rear mount finish mower, broadcast seeder, subsoiler and the rototiller (also rotary tiller). In northern climates, a rear mounted snow blower is very common, on smaller CUTs some models are available with front mounted snow blowers that are powered by a mid-PTO shaft. There are many more implement brands than there are tractor brands offering CUT owners a wide selection of choice.
For small scale farming or large scale gardening, there are some planting and harvesting implements sized for CUTs. One and two row planting units are commonly available as are cultivators, sprayers and different types of seeders (slit, rotary and drop).
Garden Tractors
Garden Tractors (also called Mini Tractors) are small, light and simple tractors designed for use in domestic gardens. Garden Tractors are usually designed primarily for cutting grass, being fitted with horizontal rotary cutting decks. The distinction between a garden tractor and a ride-on lawnmower is often hard to make- generally Garden Tractors are more sturdily built, with stronger frames, axles and transmissions. Garden Tractors are generally capable of mounting other implements such as harrows, cultivators/rotavators, sweepers, rollers and dozer-blades. Like ride-on mowers, Garden Tractors generally have a horizontally-mounted engine with a belt-drive to a transaxle-type transmission (usually of 4- or 5-speeds, although some my also have two-speed reduction gearboxes or hydraulic gearboxes). However, Wheel Horse (now part of Toro) garden tractors have vertically-mounted engines with belt-drive, whilst Allen/Gutbrod tractors had an automotive-type clutch and gearbox. The engines are generally 1- or 2-cylinder petrol (gasoline) engine, although diesel engine models are also available, especially in Europe.
In the U.S., the term riding lawn mower today refers to mid or rear engined machines. Front-engined tractor layout machines designed primarily for cutting grass and light towing are called lawn tractors, and heavy duty lawn tractors, often shaft driven, are garden tractors. The primary difference between a lawn tractor and a garden tractor are the frame weight, the rear wheels (garden tractors almost always have multiple mounting bolts, while most lawn tractors have a single bolt or clip on the hub.), and the ability to use ground engaging equipment such as plows or disk-harrows. Craftsman, MTD,Snapper and other major mowing equipment manufacturers use these terms.
As well as dedicated manufacturers, many makers of agricultural tractors have made (or continue to make) ranges of garden tractors, such as Case, Massey-Ferguson, International Harvester and John Deere.
EPA tractor
During World War II there was a shortage of tractors in Sweden and this led to the invention of a new type of tractor called the EPA tractor (EPA was a chain of discount stores and it was often used to signify something lacking in quality). An EPA tractor was simply an automobile, truck or lorry, with the passenger space cut off behind the front seats, equipped with two gearboxes in a row. When done to an older car with a ladder frame, the result was not dissimilar to a tractor and could be used as one.
After the war it remained popular, now not as a farm vehicle, but as a way for young people without a driver's license to own something similar to a car. Since it was legally seen as a tractor it could be driven from 16 years of age and only required a tractor license. Eventually the legal loophole was closed and no new EPA tractors were allowed to be made, but the remaining were still legal, something that led to inflated prices and many protests from people that preferred EPA tractors to ordinary cars.
In March 31, 1975 a similar type of vehicle was introduced, the A tractor [from arbetstraktor (work tractor)]. The main difference is that an A tractor has a top speed of 30 km/h. This is usually done by fitting two gearboxes in a row and not using one of them. Volvo Duett was for a long time the primary choice for conversion to an EPA or A tractor, but, since supplies have dried up, other cars have been used, in most cases a Volvo.
The term tractor (US & Canada) or tractor unit (UK) is also applied to:
Road tractors, tractor units or traction heads, familiar as the front end of an articulated lorry / semi-trailer truck. They are heavy-duty vehicles with large engines and several axles.
The majority of these tractors are designed to pull long semi-trailers, most often to transport freight of some kind over a significant distance, and is connected to the trailer with a fifth wheel coupling. In England this type of "tractor" is often called an "artic cab".
A minority is the ballast tractor, whose load is hauled from a drawbar.
Locomotive tractors (engines) or Rail car movers
The amalgamation of machines, electrical generators, controls and devices that comprise the traction component of railway vehicles
Artillery tractors
Vehicles used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights.
NASA and other space agencies use very large tractors to ferry launch vehicles such as booster rockets and space shuttles from their hangars to (and, in rare cases, from) the launchpad.
The word tractor was taken from Latin, being the agent noun of trahere "to pull". [1],[2]. The first recorded use of the word meaning "an engine or vehicle for pulling wagons or ploughs" occurred in 1901, from the earlier term traction engine (1859).[3]
The first tractors were steam-powered ploughing engines. They were used in pairs either side of a field to haul a plough back and forth between them using a wire cable.
National variations
In Britain, Ireland, Australia, India, Spain, and Poland the word "tractor" usually means "farm tractor", and the use of the word "tractor" to mean other types of vehicles is familiar to the vehicle trade but unfamiliar to much of the general public. In Canada and the US the word is also used to refer to a road tractor.
History
The first powered farm implements in the early 1800s were portable engines – steam engines on wheels that could be used to drive mechanical farm machinery by way of a flexible belt. Around 1850, the first traction engines were developed from these, and were widely adopted for agricultural use. Where soil conditions permitted, like the US, steam tractors were used to direct-haul ploughs, but in the UK and elsewhere, ploughing engines were used for cable-hauled ploughing instead. Steam-powered agricultural engines remained in use well into the 20th century, until reliable internal combustion engines had been developed.[4]
In 1892, John Froelich built the first practical gasoline-powered tractor in Clayton County, Iowa. Only two were sold, and it was not until 1911, when the Twin City Traction Engine Company developed the design, that it became successful.
In Britain, the first recorded tractor sale was the oil-burning Hornsby-Ackroyd Patent Safety Oil Traction engine, in 1897. However, the first commercially successful design was Dan Albone's three-wheel Ivel tractor of 1902. In 1908, the Saunderson Tractor and Implement Co. of Bedford introduced a four-wheel design, and went on to become the largest tractor manufacturer outside the USA at that time.
While unpopular at first, these gasoline-powered machines began to catch on in the 1910s when they became smaller and more affordable. Henry Ford introduced the Fordson, the first mass-produced tractor in 1917. They were built in the U.S., Ireland, England and Russia and by 1923, Fordson had 77% of the U.S. market. The Fordson dispensed with a frame, using the strength of the engine block to hold the machine together. By the 1920s, tractors with a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine had become the norm.
The classic farm tractor is a simple open vehicle, with two very large driving wheels on an axle below and slightly behind a single seat (the seat and steering wheel consequently are in the center), and the engine in front of the driver, with two steerable wheels below the engine compartment. This basic design has remained unchanged for a number of years, but enclosed cabs are fitted on almost all modern models, for reasons of operator safety and comfort.
Originally, plows and other equipment were connected via a draw-bar, or a proprietary connecting system; prior to Harry Ferguson patenting the three-point hitch. Recently, Bobcat's patent on its front loader connection has expired; and compact tractors are now being outfitted with quick-connect attachments for their front-end loaders.
There are also lawn tractors. Cub Cadet, Husqvarna, John Deere, Massey Ferguson and Toro are some of the better-known brands.
Operation
Modern farm tractors usually have five foot-pedals for the operator on the floor of the tractor. The pedal on the left is the clutch. The operator presses on this pedal to disengage the transmission for either shifting gears or stopping the tractor. Two of the pedals on the right are the brakes. The left brake pedal stops the left rear wheel and the right brake pedal does the same with the right side. This independent left and right wheel braking augments the steering of the tractor when only the two rear wheels are driven. This is usually done when it is necessary to make a tight turn. The split brake pedal is also used in mud or soft dirt to control a tire that spins due to loss of traction. The operator presses both pedals together to stop the tractor. For tractors with additional front-wheel drive, this operation often engages the 4-wheel locking differential to help stop the tractor when travelling at road speeds.
A fifth pedal just in front of the seat operates the rear differential lock (diff lock) which prevents wheelslip. The differential allows the outside wheel to travel faster than the inside one during a turn. However, in traction conditions on a soft surface the same mechanism could allow one wheel to slip, thus preventing traction to the other wheel. The diff lock overrides this, causing both wheels to supply equal traction. Care must be taken to unlock the differential, usually by hitting the pedal a second time, before turning, since the tractor cannot perform a turn with the diff lock engaged.
The pedal furthest to the right is the foot throttle. Unlike in automobiles, it can also be controlled from a hand-operated lever ("hand throttle"). This helps provide a constant speed in field work. It also helps provide continuous power for stationary tractors that are operating an implement by shaft or belt. The foot throttle gives the operator more automobile-like control over the speed of the tractor for road work. This is a feature of more recent tractors; older tractors often did not have this feature. In the UK it is mandatory to use the foot pedal to control engine speed while travelling on the road. Some tractors, especially those designed for row-crop work, have a 'de-accelerator' pedal, which operates in the reverse fashion to an automobile throttle, in that the pedal is pushed down to slow the engine. This is to allow fine control over the speed of the tractor when manoeuvring at the end of crop rows in fields- the operating speed of the engine is set using the hand throttle, and if the operator wishes to slow the tractor to turn, he simply has to press the pedal, turn and release it once the turn is completed, rather than having to alter the setting of the hand throttle twice during the maneuver.
Power and transmission
Modern farm tractors employ large diesel engines, which range in power output from 18 to 575 horsepower (15 to 480 kW). Tractors can be generally classified as two-wheel drive, two-wheel drive with front wheel assist, four-wheel drive (often with articulated steering), or track tractors (with either two or four powered rubber tracks). Variations of the classic style include the diminutive lawn tractors and their more capable and ruggedly constructed cousins, garden tractors, that range from about 10 to 25 horsepower (7.5-18.6 kW) and are used for smaller farm tasks and mowing grass and landscaping. Their size—especially with modern tractors—and the slower speeds are reasons motorists are urged to use caution when encountering a tractor on the roads.
Most tractors have a means to transfer power to another machine such as a baler, slasher or mower. Early tractors used belts wrapped around a flywheel to power stationary equipment. Modern tractors use a power take-off (PTO) shaft to provide rotary power to machinery that may be stationary or pulled. Almost all modern tractors can also provide external hydraulic fluid and electrical power.
Most farm tractors use a manual transmission. They have several sets of gear ratios divided into speeds. In order to change the ratio, it is usually necessary to stop the tractor. Between them they provide a range of speeds from less than one mile per hour suitable for working the land, up to about 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) for road use. Furthermore it is usually not necessary to change gear in order to reverse, one simply selects a lever. Older tractors usually require that the operator depress the clutch in order to shift between gears (a limitation of straight-cut gears in the gearbox), but many modern tractors have eliminated this requirement with the introduction of technologies such as power shifting in the 1960s and more modern continuously variable transmissions. This allows the operator more and easier control over working speed than the throttle alone could provide.
Slow, controllable speeds are necessary for most operations that are performed with a tractor. They help give the farmer a larger degree of control in certain situations, such as field work. However, when travelling on public roads, the slow operating speeds can cause problems, such as long queues or tailbacks, which can delay or aggravate other road users. To alleviate conditions, some countries (for example the Netherlands) employ a road sign on some roads that means "no farm tractors". Some modern tractors, such as the JCB Fastrac, are now capable of much more tolerable road speeds of around 50 mph (80 km/h).
Backhoe loader
The most common variation of the classic farm tractor is the hoe, also called a hoe-loader. As the name implies, it has a loader assembly on the front and a backhoe on the back. Backhoes attach to a 3 point hitch on farm or industrial tractors. Industrial tractors are often heavier in construction particularly with regards to the use of steel grill for protection from rocks and the use of construction tires. When the backhoe is permanently attached, the machine usually has a seat that can swivel to the rear to face the hoe controls. Removable backhoe attachments almost always have a separate seat on the attachment.
Backhoe-loaders are very common and can be used for a wide variety of tasks: construction, small demolitions, light transportation of building materials, powering building equipment, digging holes,loading trucks, breaking asphalt and paving roads. Some buckets have a retractable bottom, enabling them to empty their load more quickly and efficiently. Buckets with retractable bottoms are also often used for grading and scratching off sand. The front assembly may be a removable attachment or permanently mounted. Often the bucket can be replaced with other devices or tools.
Their relatively small frame and precise control make backhoe-loaders very useful and common in urban engineering projects such as construction and repairs in areas too small for larger equipment. Their versatility and compact size makes them one of the most popular urban construction vehicles.
In the UK, the word "JCB" is sometimes used colloquially as a genericized trademark for any such type of engineering vehicle. The term JCB now appears in the Oxford English Dictionary, although it is still legally a trademark of J. C. Bamford Ltd.
Safety
Agriculture in the United States is one of the most hazardous industries, only surpassed by mining and construction. No other farm machine is so identified with the hazards of production agriculture as the tractor.[5] Tractor related injuries account for approximately 32% of the fatalities and 6% of the non-fatal injuries in agriculture. Over 50% is attributed to tractor overturns.[6]
The roll over protection structure(ROPS) and seat belt, when worn, are the two most important safety devices to protect operators from death during tractor overturns.[7]
Modern tractors have rollover protection systems (ROPS) to prevent an operator from being crushed if the tractor overturns. It is important to remember that the ROPS does not prevent tractor overturns. Rather, it prevents the operator from being crushed during an overturn. This is especially important in open-air tractors, where the ROPS is a steel beam that extends above the operator's seat. For tractors with operator cabs, the ROPS is part of the frame of the cab. A ROPS with enclosed cab further reduces the likelihood of serious injury because the operator is protected by the sides and windows of the cab.
ROPS were first required by legislation in Sweden in 1959. Before ROPS were required, some farmers died when their tractors rolled on top of them. Row-crop tractors, before ROPS, were particularly dangerous because of their 'tricycle' design with the two front wheels spaced close together and angled inward toward the ground. Some farmers were killed by rollovers while operating tractors along steep slopes. Others have been killed while attempting to tow or pull an excessive load from above axle height, or when cold weather caused the tires to freeze down, in both cases causing the tractor to pivot around the rear axle.
For the ROPS to work as designed, the operator must stay within the protective frame of the ROPS. This means the operator must wear the seat belt. Not wearing the seat belt may defeat the primary purpose of the ROPS.
Applications
For farming
The most common use of the term is for the vehicles used on farms. The farm tractor is used for pulling or pushing agricultural machinery or trailers, for plowing, tilling, disking, harrowing, planting, and similar tasks. Charles City, Iowa is the birthplace of the farm tractor in the early 1900s by the Hart-Parr Company,[citation needed] Later sold to White Tractor.
Farm implements can be attached to the rear of the tractor by either a drawbar or a three-point hitch. The three-point hitch was invented by Harry Ferguson and has been standard since the 1960s. Equipment attached to the three-point hitch can be raised or lowered hydraulically with a control lever. The equipment attached to the three-point hitch is usually completely supported by the tractor. Another way to attach an implement is via a Quick Hitch, which is attached to the three-point hitch. This enables a single person to attach an implement quicker and put the person in less danger when attaching the implement.
Some farm-type tractors are found elsewhere than on farms: with large universities' gardening departments, in public parks, or for highway workman use with blowtorch cylinders strapped to its sides and a pneumatic drill air compressor permanently fastened over its power take-off. These are often fitted with grass (turf) tyres which are less damaging to soft surfaces than agricultural tires.
Supposedly, I4 [8] (industrial bar tires) are less damaging to lawns and soft surfaces than agricultural tires, but provide similar traction, and have the benefit of being self-cleaning. Often, these can be seen on road construction backhoes.
Precision agriculture
Space technology has found its way down to agriculture in the form of GPS devices, and robust on-board computers installed as optional features on farm tractors. These technologies are used in modern, precision farming techniques. The spin-offs from the space race have actually facilitated automation in plowing and the use of autosteer systems drone on tractors that are manned but only steered at the end of a row, the idea being to neither overlap and use more fuel nor leave streaks when performing jobs such as cultivating.
Other types of tractors
Engineering tractors
The durability and engine power of tractors made them very suitable for engineering tasks. Tractors can be fitted with engineering tools such as dozer blade, bucket, hoe, ripper, and so on. The most common attachments for the front of a tractor are dozer blade or a bucket. When attached with engineering tools the tractor is called an engineering vehicle.
A bulldozer is a track-type tractor attached with blade in the front and a rope-winch behind. Bulldozers are very powerful tractors and have excellent ground-hold, as their main tasks are to push or drag things.
Bulldozers have been further modified over time to evolve into new machines which are capable of working in ways that the original bulldozer can not. One example is that loader tractors were created by removing the blade and substituting a large volume bucket and hydraulic arms which can raise and lower the bucket, thus making it useful for scooping up earth, rock and similar loose material to load it into trucks.
A front-loader or loader is a tractor with an engineering tool which consists of two hydraulic powered arms on either side of the front engine compartment and a tilting implement. This is usually a wide open box called a bucket but other common attachments are a pallet fork and a bale grappler.
Other modifications to the original bulldozer include making the machine smaller to let it operate in small work areas where movement is limited. There are also tiny wheeled loaders, officially called Skid-steer loaders but nicknamed "Bobcat" after the original manufacturer, which are particularly suited for small excavation projects in confined areas.
Compact Utility Tractor
A Compact Utility Tractor, also called a CUT is a smaller version of an agricultural tractor but designed primarily for landscaping and estate management type tasks rather than for planting and harvesting on a commercial scale. Typical CUTs range in from 20 to 50 horsepower (15-37 kW) with available power take off (PTO) horsepower ranging from 15 to 45 hp (11-34 kW). CUTs are often equipped with both a mid-mounted PTO and a standard rear PTO, especially those below 40 horsepower (30 kW). The mid-mount PTO shaft typically rotates at/near 2000 rpms and is typically used to power such implements as mid-mount finish mower, a front mounted snow blower or front mounted rotary broom. The rear PTO is standardized at 540 rpms for the North American markets, but in some parts of the world a dual 540/1000 rpm PTO is standard and implements are available for either standard in those markets.
One of the most common attachment for a Compact Utility Tractor is the front end loader or FEL. Like the larger agricultural tractors, a CUT will have an adjustable three-point hitch that is hydraulically controlled. Typically a CUT will have four wheel drive, or more correctly 4 wheel assist. Modern Compact Utility Tractors often feature a Hydrostatic transmission, but many variants of gear drive transmissions are also offered from low priced simple gear transmissions to synchronized transmissions to advanced glide-shift transmissions. All modern CUTs feature a government mandated roll over protection structure (ROPS) just like agricultural tractors. The most well known brands in North America include Kubota, John Deere Tractor, New Holland Ag, Case-Farmall and Massey-Ferguson. Although less common, compact backhoes are often attached to compact utility tractors.
Compact Utility Tractors require special smaller implements than full size agricultural tractors. Very common implements include the box blade, the grader blade, the landscape rake, the post hole digger (or post hole auger), the rotary cutter (also called a slasher or a brush hog), a mid or rear mount finish mower, broadcast seeder, subsoiler and the rototiller (also rotary tiller). In northern climates, a rear mounted snow blower is very common, on smaller CUTs some models are available with front mounted snow blowers that are powered by a mid-PTO shaft. There are many more implement brands than there are tractor brands offering CUT owners a wide selection of choice.
For small scale farming or large scale gardening, there are some planting and harvesting implements sized for CUTs. One and two row planting units are commonly available as are cultivators, sprayers and different types of seeders (slit, rotary and drop).
Garden Tractors
Garden Tractors (also called Mini Tractors) are small, light and simple tractors designed for use in domestic gardens. Garden Tractors are usually designed primarily for cutting grass, being fitted with horizontal rotary cutting decks. The distinction between a garden tractor and a ride-on lawnmower is often hard to make- generally Garden Tractors are more sturdily built, with stronger frames, axles and transmissions. Garden Tractors are generally capable of mounting other implements such as harrows, cultivators/rotavators, sweepers, rollers and dozer-blades. Like ride-on mowers, Garden Tractors generally have a horizontally-mounted engine with a belt-drive to a transaxle-type transmission (usually of 4- or 5-speeds, although some my also have two-speed reduction gearboxes or hydraulic gearboxes). However, Wheel Horse (now part of Toro) garden tractors have vertically-mounted engines with belt-drive, whilst Allen/Gutbrod tractors had an automotive-type clutch and gearbox. The engines are generally 1- or 2-cylinder petrol (gasoline) engine, although diesel engine models are also available, especially in Europe.
In the U.S., the term riding lawn mower today refers to mid or rear engined machines. Front-engined tractor layout machines designed primarily for cutting grass and light towing are called lawn tractors, and heavy duty lawn tractors, often shaft driven, are garden tractors. The primary difference between a lawn tractor and a garden tractor are the frame weight, the rear wheels (garden tractors almost always have multiple mounting bolts, while most lawn tractors have a single bolt or clip on the hub.), and the ability to use ground engaging equipment such as plows or disk-harrows. Craftsman, MTD,Snapper and other major mowing equipment manufacturers use these terms.
As well as dedicated manufacturers, many makers of agricultural tractors have made (or continue to make) ranges of garden tractors, such as Case, Massey-Ferguson, International Harvester and John Deere.
EPA tractor
During World War II there was a shortage of tractors in Sweden and this led to the invention of a new type of tractor called the EPA tractor (EPA was a chain of discount stores and it was often used to signify something lacking in quality). An EPA tractor was simply an automobile, truck or lorry, with the passenger space cut off behind the front seats, equipped with two gearboxes in a row. When done to an older car with a ladder frame, the result was not dissimilar to a tractor and could be used as one.
After the war it remained popular, now not as a farm vehicle, but as a way for young people without a driver's license to own something similar to a car. Since it was legally seen as a tractor it could be driven from 16 years of age and only required a tractor license. Eventually the legal loophole was closed and no new EPA tractors were allowed to be made, but the remaining were still legal, something that led to inflated prices and many protests from people that preferred EPA tractors to ordinary cars.
In March 31, 1975 a similar type of vehicle was introduced, the A tractor [from arbetstraktor (work tractor)]. The main difference is that an A tractor has a top speed of 30 km/h. This is usually done by fitting two gearboxes in a row and not using one of them. Volvo Duett was for a long time the primary choice for conversion to an EPA or A tractor, but, since supplies have dried up, other cars have been used, in most cases a Volvo.
The term tractor (US & Canada) or tractor unit (UK) is also applied to:
Road tractors, tractor units or traction heads, familiar as the front end of an articulated lorry / semi-trailer truck. They are heavy-duty vehicles with large engines and several axles.
The majority of these tractors are designed to pull long semi-trailers, most often to transport freight of some kind over a significant distance, and is connected to the trailer with a fifth wheel coupling. In England this type of "tractor" is often called an "artic cab".
A minority is the ballast tractor, whose load is hauled from a drawbar.
Locomotive tractors (engines) or Rail car movers
The amalgamation of machines, electrical generators, controls and devices that comprise the traction component of railway vehicles
Artillery tractors
Vehicles used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights.
NASA and other space agencies use very large tractors to ferry launch vehicles such as booster rockets and space shuttles from their hangars to (and, in rare cases, from) the launchpad.
Combine harvester
The combine harvester, or simply combine, also known as a thresher is a machine that combines the tasks of harvesting, threshing, and cleaning grain crops. The objective is the harvest of the crop; corn (maize), soybeans, flax (linseed), oats, wheat, or rye among others). The waste straw left behind on the field is the remaining dried stems and leaves of the crop with limited nutrients which is either chopped and spread on the field or baled for feed and bedding for livestock.
History
The first combine was invented by Hiram Moore in 1838. It took many decades for the combine to become popular. Early combines often took more than 16 horses to drive them. Later combines were pulled by steam engines. George Stockton Berry joined the combine into a single machine using straw to heat the boiler. The header was over forty feet long, cutting over one hundred acres per day.Early combines, some of them quite large, were drawn by horse or mule teams and used a bull wheel to provide power. In 1902, a combine could harvest enough grain in one hour to make 10 loaves of bread[citation needed]. Tractor-drawn, PTO-powered combines were used for a time. These combines used a shaker to separate the grain from the chaff and straw-walkers (grates with small teeth on an eccentric shaft) to eject the straw while retaining the grain. Tractor drawn combines evolved to have separate gas or diesel engines to power the grain separation. Newer kinds of combines are self-propelled and use diesel engines for power. A significant advance in the design of combines was the rotary design. Straw and grain were separated by use of a powerful fan. "Axial-Flow" rotary combines were introduced by International Harvester "IH" in 1977. In about the 1980's on-board electronics were introduced to measure threshing efficiency. This new instrumentation allowed operators to get better grain yields by optimizing ground speed and other operating parameters.
Combine Heads
Combines are equipped with removable heads (called headers) that are designed for particular crops. The standard header, sometimes called a grain platform (or platform header), is equipped with a reciprocating knife cutter bar, and features a revolving reel with metal or plastic teeth to cause the cut crop to fall into the head. A cross auger then pulls the crop into the throat. The grain header is used for many crops including grains and legumes.
Wheat headers are similar except that the reel is not equipped with teeth. Some wheat headers, called "draper" headers, use a fabric or rubber apron instead of a cross auger. Draper headers allow faster feeding than cross augers, leading to higher throughputs. In high yielding European crops, such headers have no advantage, as the limiting factor becomes grain separation. On many farms, platform headers are used to cut wheat, instead of separate wheat headers, so as to reduce overall costs.
Dummy heads or pick-up headers feature spring-tined pickups, usually attached to a heavy rubber belt. They are used for crops that have already been cut and placed in windrows or swaths. This is particularly useful in northern climates such as western Canada where swathing kills weeds resulting in a faster dry down.
While a grain platform can be used for corn, a specialized corn head is ordinarily used instead. The corn head is equipped with snap rolls that strip the stalk and leaf away from the ear, so that only the ear (and husk) enter the throat. This improves efficiency dramatically since so much less material must go through the cylinder. The corn head can be recognized by the presence of points between each row.
Occasionally rowcrop heads are seen that function like a grain platform, but have points between rows like a corn head. These are used to reduce the amount of weed seed picked up when harvesting small grains.
Self propelled Gleaner combines could be fitted with special tracks instead of tires or tires with tread measuring almost 10in deep to assist in harvesting rice. Some combines, particularly pull type, have tires with a diamond tread which prevents sinking in mud.These tracks can fit other combines by having adapter plates made, they will fit a JD6620 2WD only having to remove one shield.
Conventional combine
The cut crop is carried up the feeder throat by a chain and flight elevator, then fed into the threshing mechanism of the combine, consisting of a rotating threshing drum, to which grooved steel bars are bolted. These bars thresh or separate the grains and chaff from the straw through the action of the drum against the concave, a shaped "half drum", also fitted with steel bars and a meshed grill, through which grain, chaff and smaller debris may fall, whereas the straw, being too long, is carried through onto the straw walkers. The drum speed is variably adjustable, whilst the distance between the drum and concave is finely adjustable fore, aft and together, to achieve optimum separation and output. Manually engaged disawning plates are usually fitted to the concave. These provide extra friction to remove the awns from barley crops.
Sidehill levelling
An interesting technology is in use in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest of the United States in which the combine is retrofitted with a hydraulic sidehill levelling system. This allows the combine to harvest the incredibly steep but fertile soil in the region. Hillsides can be as steep as a 50% slope. Gleaner, IH and Case IH, John Deere, and others all have made combines with this sidehill levelling system, and local machine shops have fabricated them as an aftermarket add-on. Linked pictures below show the technology.
The first levelling technology was developed by Holt Co., a California firm, in 1891.[1] Modern levelling came into being with the invention and patent of a level sensitive mercury switch system invented by Raymond Alvah Hanson in 1946.[2] Raymond's son, Raymond, Jr., produced leveling systems exclusively for John Deere combines until 1995 as R. A. Hanson Company, Inc. In 1995, his son, Richard, purchased the company from his father and renamed it RAHCO International, Inc. In April, 2007, the company was renamed The Factory Company International, Inc.[3] Production continues to this day.
Sidehill levelling has several advantages. Primary among them is an increased threshing efficiency on sidehills. Without levelling, grain and chaff slide to one side of separator and come through the machine in a large ball rather than being separated, dumping large amounts of grain on the ground. By keeping the machinery level, the straw-walker is able to operate more efficiently, making for more efficient threshing. IH produced the 453 combine which leveled both side-to-side and front-to-back, enabling efficient threshing whether on a sidehill or climbing a hill head on.
Secondarily, levelling changes a combine's center of gravity relative to the hill and allows the combine to harvest along the contour of a hill without tipping, a very real danger on the steeper slopes of the region; it is not uncommon for combines to roll on extremely steep hills.
Currently sidehill levelling is on the decline with the advent of huge modern machines which are more stable due to their width. These modern combines use the rotary grain separator which makes leveling less critical. Most combines on the Palouse have dual drive wheels on each side to stabilize them.
Sidehill levelling system in Europe was developed by Italian combines' manifacturer Laverda that still today produces those systems as a leader.
Maintaining threshing speed
Another technology that is sometimes used on combines is a continuously variable transmission. This allows the ground speed of the machine to be varied while maintaining a constant engine and threshing speed. It is desirable to keep the threshing speed since the machine will typically have been adjusted to operate best at a certain speed.
Self-propelled combines started with standard manual transmissions that provided one speed based on input rpm. Deficiencies were noted and in the early 1950s combines were equipped with what John Deere called the "Variable Speed Drive". This was simply a variable width sheave controlled by spring and hydraulic pressures. This sheave was attached to the input shaft of the transmission. A standard 4 speed manual transmission was still used in this drive system. The operator would select a gear, typically 3rd. An extra control was provided to the operator to allow him to speed up and slow down the machine within the limits provided by the variable speed drive system. By decreasing the width of the sheave on the input shaft of the transmission, the belt would ride higher in the groove. This slowed the rotating speed on the input shaft of the transmission, thus slowing the ground speed for that gear. A clutch was still provided to allow the operator to stop the machine and change transmission gears.
Later, as hydraulic technology improved, hydrostatic transmissions were introduced by Versatile Mfg for use on swathers but later this technology was applied to combines as well. This drive retained the 4 speed manual transmission as before, but this time used a system of hydraulic pumps and motors to drive the input shaft of the transmission. This system is called a Hydrostatic drive system. The engine turns the hydraulic pump capable of high flow rates at up to 4000 psi. This pressure is then directed to the hydraulic motor that is connected to the input shaft of the transmission. The operator is provided with a lever in the cab that allows for the control of the hydraulic motor's ability to use the energy provided by the pump. By adjusting the swash plate in the motor, the stroke of its pistons are changed. If the swash plate is set to neutral, the pistons do not move in their bores and no rotation is allowed, thus the machine does not move. By moving the lever, the swash plate moves its attached pistons forward, thus allowing them to move within the bore and causing the motor to turn. This provides an infinitely variable speed control from 0 ground speed to what ever the maximum speed is allowed by the gear selection of the transmission. The standard clutch was removed from this drive system as it was no longer needed.
Most if not all modern combines are equipped with hydrostatic drives. These are larger versions of the same system used in consumer and commercial lawn mowers that most are familiar with today. In fact, it was the downsizing of the combine drive system that placed these drive systems into mowers and other machines.
The threshing process
Despite great advances mechanically and in computer control, the basic operation of the combine harvester has remained unchanged almost since it was invented.
First of all the header, described above, cuts the crop and feeds it into the threshing cylinder. This consists of a series of horizontal rasp bars fixed across the path of the crop and in the shape of a quarter cylinder, guiding the crop upwards through a 90 degree turn. Moving rasp bars or rub bars pull the crop through concaved grates that separate the grain and chaff from the straw. The grain heads fall through the fixed concaves onto the sieves. The straw exits the top of the concave onto the straw walkers.
Since the New Holland TR70 Twin-Rotor Combine came out in 1975, combines have rotors in place of conventional cylinders. A rotor is a long, longitudily mounted rotating cylinder with plates similar to rub bars.
There are usually two sieves, one above the other. Each is a flat metal plate with holes set according to the size of the grain mounted at an angle which shakes. The holes in the top sieve are set larger than the holes in the bottom sieve. While straw is carried to the rear, crop and weed seeds, as well as chaff, fall onto the second sieves, where chaff and crop fall though and are blown out by a fan. The crop is carried to the elevator which carries it into the hopper. Setting the concave clearance, fan speed, and sieve size is critical to ensure that the crop is threshed properly, the grain is clean of debris, and that all of the grain entering the machine reaches the grain tank. ( Observe, for example, that when travelling uphill the fan speed must be reduced to account for the shallower gradient of the sieves.)
Heavy material, e.g., unthreshed heads, fall off the front of the sieves and are returned to the concave for re-threshing.
The straw walkers are located above the sieves, and also have holes in them. Any grain remaining attached to the straw is shaken off and falls onto the top sieve.
When the straw reaches the end of the walkers it falls out the rear of the combine. It can then be baled for cattle bedding or spread by two rotating straw spreaders with rubber arms. Most modern combines are equipped with a straw spreader.
Rotary vs. Conventional Design
For a considerable time, combine harvesters used the conventional design, which used a rotating cylinder at the front-end which knocked the seeds out of the heads, and then used the rest of the machine to separate the straw from the chaff, and the chaff from the grain.
In the decades before the widespread adoption of the rotary combine in the late seventies, several inventors had pioneered designs which relied more on centrifugal force for grain separation and less on gravity alone. By the early eighties, most major manufacturers had settled on a "walkerless" design with much larger threshing cylinders to do most of the work. Advantages were faster grain harvesting and gentler treatment of fragile seeds, which were often cracked by the faster rotational speeds of conventional combine threshing cylinders.
It was the disadvantages of the rotary combine (increased power requirements and over-pulverization of the straw by-product) which prompted a resurgence of conventional combines in the late nineties. Perhaps overlooked but nonetheless true, when the large engines that powered the rotary machines were employed in conventional machines, the two types of machines delivered similar production capacities. Also, research was beginning to show that incorporating above-ground crop residue (straw) into the soil is less useful for rebuilding soil fertility than previously believed. This meant that working pulverized straw into the soil became more of a hindrance than a benefit. An increase in feedlot beef production also created a higher demand for straw as fodder. Conventional combines, which use straw walkers, preserve the quality of straw and allow it to be baled and removed from the field.
History
The first combine was invented by Hiram Moore in 1838. It took many decades for the combine to become popular. Early combines often took more than 16 horses to drive them. Later combines were pulled by steam engines. George Stockton Berry joined the combine into a single machine using straw to heat the boiler. The header was over forty feet long, cutting over one hundred acres per day.Early combines, some of them quite large, were drawn by horse or mule teams and used a bull wheel to provide power. In 1902, a combine could harvest enough grain in one hour to make 10 loaves of bread[citation needed]. Tractor-drawn, PTO-powered combines were used for a time. These combines used a shaker to separate the grain from the chaff and straw-walkers (grates with small teeth on an eccentric shaft) to eject the straw while retaining the grain. Tractor drawn combines evolved to have separate gas or diesel engines to power the grain separation. Newer kinds of combines are self-propelled and use diesel engines for power. A significant advance in the design of combines was the rotary design. Straw and grain were separated by use of a powerful fan. "Axial-Flow" rotary combines were introduced by International Harvester "IH" in 1977. In about the 1980's on-board electronics were introduced to measure threshing efficiency. This new instrumentation allowed operators to get better grain yields by optimizing ground speed and other operating parameters.
Combine Heads
Combines are equipped with removable heads (called headers) that are designed for particular crops. The standard header, sometimes called a grain platform (or platform header), is equipped with a reciprocating knife cutter bar, and features a revolving reel with metal or plastic teeth to cause the cut crop to fall into the head. A cross auger then pulls the crop into the throat. The grain header is used for many crops including grains and legumes.
Wheat headers are similar except that the reel is not equipped with teeth. Some wheat headers, called "draper" headers, use a fabric or rubber apron instead of a cross auger. Draper headers allow faster feeding than cross augers, leading to higher throughputs. In high yielding European crops, such headers have no advantage, as the limiting factor becomes grain separation. On many farms, platform headers are used to cut wheat, instead of separate wheat headers, so as to reduce overall costs.
Dummy heads or pick-up headers feature spring-tined pickups, usually attached to a heavy rubber belt. They are used for crops that have already been cut and placed in windrows or swaths. This is particularly useful in northern climates such as western Canada where swathing kills weeds resulting in a faster dry down.
While a grain platform can be used for corn, a specialized corn head is ordinarily used instead. The corn head is equipped with snap rolls that strip the stalk and leaf away from the ear, so that only the ear (and husk) enter the throat. This improves efficiency dramatically since so much less material must go through the cylinder. The corn head can be recognized by the presence of points between each row.
Occasionally rowcrop heads are seen that function like a grain platform, but have points between rows like a corn head. These are used to reduce the amount of weed seed picked up when harvesting small grains.
Self propelled Gleaner combines could be fitted with special tracks instead of tires or tires with tread measuring almost 10in deep to assist in harvesting rice. Some combines, particularly pull type, have tires with a diamond tread which prevents sinking in mud.These tracks can fit other combines by having adapter plates made, they will fit a JD6620 2WD only having to remove one shield.
Conventional combine
The cut crop is carried up the feeder throat by a chain and flight elevator, then fed into the threshing mechanism of the combine, consisting of a rotating threshing drum, to which grooved steel bars are bolted. These bars thresh or separate the grains and chaff from the straw through the action of the drum against the concave, a shaped "half drum", also fitted with steel bars and a meshed grill, through which grain, chaff and smaller debris may fall, whereas the straw, being too long, is carried through onto the straw walkers. The drum speed is variably adjustable, whilst the distance between the drum and concave is finely adjustable fore, aft and together, to achieve optimum separation and output. Manually engaged disawning plates are usually fitted to the concave. These provide extra friction to remove the awns from barley crops.
Sidehill levelling
An interesting technology is in use in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest of the United States in which the combine is retrofitted with a hydraulic sidehill levelling system. This allows the combine to harvest the incredibly steep but fertile soil in the region. Hillsides can be as steep as a 50% slope. Gleaner, IH and Case IH, John Deere, and others all have made combines with this sidehill levelling system, and local machine shops have fabricated them as an aftermarket add-on. Linked pictures below show the technology.
The first levelling technology was developed by Holt Co., a California firm, in 1891.[1] Modern levelling came into being with the invention and patent of a level sensitive mercury switch system invented by Raymond Alvah Hanson in 1946.[2] Raymond's son, Raymond, Jr., produced leveling systems exclusively for John Deere combines until 1995 as R. A. Hanson Company, Inc. In 1995, his son, Richard, purchased the company from his father and renamed it RAHCO International, Inc. In April, 2007, the company was renamed The Factory Company International, Inc.[3] Production continues to this day.
Sidehill levelling has several advantages. Primary among them is an increased threshing efficiency on sidehills. Without levelling, grain and chaff slide to one side of separator and come through the machine in a large ball rather than being separated, dumping large amounts of grain on the ground. By keeping the machinery level, the straw-walker is able to operate more efficiently, making for more efficient threshing. IH produced the 453 combine which leveled both side-to-side and front-to-back, enabling efficient threshing whether on a sidehill or climbing a hill head on.
Secondarily, levelling changes a combine's center of gravity relative to the hill and allows the combine to harvest along the contour of a hill without tipping, a very real danger on the steeper slopes of the region; it is not uncommon for combines to roll on extremely steep hills.
Currently sidehill levelling is on the decline with the advent of huge modern machines which are more stable due to their width. These modern combines use the rotary grain separator which makes leveling less critical. Most combines on the Palouse have dual drive wheels on each side to stabilize them.
Sidehill levelling system in Europe was developed by Italian combines' manifacturer Laverda that still today produces those systems as a leader.
Maintaining threshing speed
Another technology that is sometimes used on combines is a continuously variable transmission. This allows the ground speed of the machine to be varied while maintaining a constant engine and threshing speed. It is desirable to keep the threshing speed since the machine will typically have been adjusted to operate best at a certain speed.
Self-propelled combines started with standard manual transmissions that provided one speed based on input rpm. Deficiencies were noted and in the early 1950s combines were equipped with what John Deere called the "Variable Speed Drive". This was simply a variable width sheave controlled by spring and hydraulic pressures. This sheave was attached to the input shaft of the transmission. A standard 4 speed manual transmission was still used in this drive system. The operator would select a gear, typically 3rd. An extra control was provided to the operator to allow him to speed up and slow down the machine within the limits provided by the variable speed drive system. By decreasing the width of the sheave on the input shaft of the transmission, the belt would ride higher in the groove. This slowed the rotating speed on the input shaft of the transmission, thus slowing the ground speed for that gear. A clutch was still provided to allow the operator to stop the machine and change transmission gears.
Later, as hydraulic technology improved, hydrostatic transmissions were introduced by Versatile Mfg for use on swathers but later this technology was applied to combines as well. This drive retained the 4 speed manual transmission as before, but this time used a system of hydraulic pumps and motors to drive the input shaft of the transmission. This system is called a Hydrostatic drive system. The engine turns the hydraulic pump capable of high flow rates at up to 4000 psi. This pressure is then directed to the hydraulic motor that is connected to the input shaft of the transmission. The operator is provided with a lever in the cab that allows for the control of the hydraulic motor's ability to use the energy provided by the pump. By adjusting the swash plate in the motor, the stroke of its pistons are changed. If the swash plate is set to neutral, the pistons do not move in their bores and no rotation is allowed, thus the machine does not move. By moving the lever, the swash plate moves its attached pistons forward, thus allowing them to move within the bore and causing the motor to turn. This provides an infinitely variable speed control from 0 ground speed to what ever the maximum speed is allowed by the gear selection of the transmission. The standard clutch was removed from this drive system as it was no longer needed.
Most if not all modern combines are equipped with hydrostatic drives. These are larger versions of the same system used in consumer and commercial lawn mowers that most are familiar with today. In fact, it was the downsizing of the combine drive system that placed these drive systems into mowers and other machines.
The threshing process
Despite great advances mechanically and in computer control, the basic operation of the combine harvester has remained unchanged almost since it was invented.
First of all the header, described above, cuts the crop and feeds it into the threshing cylinder. This consists of a series of horizontal rasp bars fixed across the path of the crop and in the shape of a quarter cylinder, guiding the crop upwards through a 90 degree turn. Moving rasp bars or rub bars pull the crop through concaved grates that separate the grain and chaff from the straw. The grain heads fall through the fixed concaves onto the sieves. The straw exits the top of the concave onto the straw walkers.
Since the New Holland TR70 Twin-Rotor Combine came out in 1975, combines have rotors in place of conventional cylinders. A rotor is a long, longitudily mounted rotating cylinder with plates similar to rub bars.
There are usually two sieves, one above the other. Each is a flat metal plate with holes set according to the size of the grain mounted at an angle which shakes. The holes in the top sieve are set larger than the holes in the bottom sieve. While straw is carried to the rear, crop and weed seeds, as well as chaff, fall onto the second sieves, where chaff and crop fall though and are blown out by a fan. The crop is carried to the elevator which carries it into the hopper. Setting the concave clearance, fan speed, and sieve size is critical to ensure that the crop is threshed properly, the grain is clean of debris, and that all of the grain entering the machine reaches the grain tank. ( Observe, for example, that when travelling uphill the fan speed must be reduced to account for the shallower gradient of the sieves.)
Heavy material, e.g., unthreshed heads, fall off the front of the sieves and are returned to the concave for re-threshing.
The straw walkers are located above the sieves, and also have holes in them. Any grain remaining attached to the straw is shaken off and falls onto the top sieve.
When the straw reaches the end of the walkers it falls out the rear of the combine. It can then be baled for cattle bedding or spread by two rotating straw spreaders with rubber arms. Most modern combines are equipped with a straw spreader.
Rotary vs. Conventional Design
For a considerable time, combine harvesters used the conventional design, which used a rotating cylinder at the front-end which knocked the seeds out of the heads, and then used the rest of the machine to separate the straw from the chaff, and the chaff from the grain.
In the decades before the widespread adoption of the rotary combine in the late seventies, several inventors had pioneered designs which relied more on centrifugal force for grain separation and less on gravity alone. By the early eighties, most major manufacturers had settled on a "walkerless" design with much larger threshing cylinders to do most of the work. Advantages were faster grain harvesting and gentler treatment of fragile seeds, which were often cracked by the faster rotational speeds of conventional combine threshing cylinders.
It was the disadvantages of the rotary combine (increased power requirements and over-pulverization of the straw by-product) which prompted a resurgence of conventional combines in the late nineties. Perhaps overlooked but nonetheless true, when the large engines that powered the rotary machines were employed in conventional machines, the two types of machines delivered similar production capacities. Also, research was beginning to show that incorporating above-ground crop residue (straw) into the soil is less useful for rebuilding soil fertility than previously believed. This meant that working pulverized straw into the soil became more of a hindrance than a benefit. An increase in feedlot beef production also created a higher demand for straw as fodder. Conventional combines, which use straw walkers, preserve the quality of straw and allow it to be baled and removed from the field.
Baler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A baler is a piece of farm machinery that is used to compress a cut and raked crop (such as hay or straw) into bales and bind the bales with twine. There are several different types of balers that are commonly used. Balers are also used in the material recycling facilities, primarily for baling plastic, paper or cardboard for transport to a recycling facility.
Round baler
The most frequently used type of baler is a round baler. It produces cylindrically shaped "round" or "rolled" bales. The hay is simply rolled up inside the baler using rubberized belts, fixed rollers, or a combination of rollers and belts. When the bale reaches a determined size, the twine or mesh wrap that binds the bale is wrapped around the outside but not knotted. The back of the baler is opened up and the bale is discharged. Straw or fully-dried hay bales are complete at this stage, but if the bale is to be silage, it will also be wrapped in airtight plastic sheeting by another machine. Variable-chamber balers typically produce bales from 48 to 72 inches in diameter (about 120 to 180 cm) and up to 60 inches in width (150 cm). The bales weigh from 1100 lb (500 kg) to 2200 lb (1000 kg), depending upon size, material and dampness.
Early round balers were sold by Allis Chalmers as the Roto Baler. These bales were roughly 16 inches (410 mm) in diameter and 48 inches (1,200 mm) wide. The concept was first pioneered by Ummo Luebbens as early as 1910. Introduced in 1947 and discontinued in 1960, Allis Chalmers was a pioneer in supplying machinery that would form cylindrical bales during a period where rectangular bales were most common.
The modern round baler was designed in 1972 by the Vermeer Company, which as of 2007 continues to produce them.[1][2]
Round bale handling and transport
Round bales can weigh a ton or more, and are well-suited for modern large scale farming operations such as a dairy with 200 or more cows. However, due to the ability for a round bale to roll away on a slope, they require special transport and moving equipment.
The most important tool for round bale handling is the bale spear or spike, which is usually mounted on the back of a tractor or the front of a skid-steer. It is inserted into the approximate center of the round bale, then lifted up and the bale is hauled away. Once at the destination, the round bale is set down, and the spear pulled out. Careful placement of the spear in the center is needed or the round bale can spin around and touch the ground while in transport, causing a loss of control.
Alternatively, a grapple fork may be used to lift and transport round bales. The grapple fork is a hydraulically driven implement attached to the end of a tractor's bucket loader. When the hydraulic cylinder is extended the fork clamps downwards towards the bucket, much like a closing hand. To move a round bale the tractor approaches the bale from the side and places the bucket underneath the bale. The fork is then clamped down across the top of the bale, and the bucket lifted with the bale in tow.
It is difficult to flip a round bale so that the flat surface is facing down and later flip it back up on edge, so transporting many round bales a long distance is a challenge. Flat-bed transport is difficult since the bales could roll off the truck bed going around curves and up hills. To prevent this, the flat-bed trailer is equipped with rounded guard-rails at either end, which prevent bales from rolling either forward or backward. Another solution for this is the saddle wagon, which has closely-spaced rounded saddles or support posts for round bales to sit in. The tall sides of each saddle, or the bale settling down in between posts, prevent the bales from rolling around while on the wagon.
Round bales can be directly used for feeding animals by placing it in a feeding area, tipping it over, removing the bale wrap, and placing a protective ring around the outside so that animals don't walk on hay that has been peeled off the outer perimeter of the bale. The baler's forming and compaction process can assist in unrolling a round bale, as it is often possible to unroll a round bale in a continuous flat strip.
Silage / Haylage large bales
A recent innovation in hay storage has been the development of the silage or haylage bale, which is a high-moisture wrapped round bale. These are baled much wetter than normal round bales, and are usually smaller than regular round hay bales because the greater moisture content makes them heavier and harder to handle. These bales begin to ferment almost immediately, and the metal bale spear stabbed into the core becomes very warm to the touch from the fermentation process.
They are placed on a special rotating bale spear mounted on a tractor. As the bale spins, a layer of plastic cling film is applied to the exterior of the bale. This roll of plastic is mounted in a sliding shuttle on a steel arm and can move parallel to the bale axis, so that the operator does not need to hold up the heavy roll of plastic themselves. The plastic layer extends over the ends of the bale to form a ring of plastic approximately 12 inches (0.3 meters) wide on the ends with hay exposed in the center.
In order to stretch the cling-wrap plastic tightly over the bale, the tension is actively adjusted with a knob on the end of the roll which squeezes the ends of the roll in the shuttle. In this example wrapping video, the operator is attempting to use high tension to get a flat, smooth seal on the right end. However the tension increases too much and the plastic tears off. The operator recovers by quickly loosening the tension and allows the plastic to feed out halfway around the bale before reapplying the tension to the sheeting.
These bales are placed in a long continuous row, with each wrapped bale pressed firmly up against all the other bales in the row before being set down onto the ground. The plastic wrap on the ends of each bale sticks together to seal out air and moisture, protecting the hay from the elements. The end-bales are hand-sealed with strips of cling plastic across the hay opening.
The airtight seal between each bale permits the row of round bales to ferment as if they were in a silo bag but are easier to handle than a silo bag since the bale can just be picked up and hauled away as a discrete package, as opposed to a large open bag which is full of loose material that must be scooped up, and which is fragile and easily damaged by the silage loader. However, the plastic usage is high and there is no way to reuse or recycle the hay-contaminated plastic sheeting, other than as a fuel source via incineration. The wrapping cost is approximately US$5 per bale.
An alternative form of the same type of bale is placed on a pair of rollers on a turntable mounted on the three-point linkage of a tractor, and spun about two axes while being wrapped in several layers of cling-wrap plastic film. This covers both the ends and sides of the bale in one operation, and which is thus sealed separately from other bales. The bales are then moved or stacked using a special pincer attachment on the front loader of a tractor which does not damage the film seal. They can also be moved using a standard bale spike, but this punctures the airtight seal. The hole in the film is repaired after moving.
For either type of wrapping, the bale must be unwrapped before being fed to livestock to prevent accidental ingestion of the plastic, and are usually fed to the animals using a ring feeder.
Large rectangular baler
Another type of baler in common use produces large rectangular bales, each bound with a half dozen or so strings of twine which are then knotted. Such bales are highly compacted and generally weigh somewhat more than round bales.
Rectangular bale handling and transport
Rectangular bales are easier to transport than round bales since there is little risk of the bale rolling off the back of a flatbed trailer. The rectangular shape also saves space and allows a complete solid slab of hay to be stacked up for transport and storage.
They are well-suited for large scale livestock feedlot operations where many tons of feed are rationed every hour.
Due to the huge rectangular shape, large spear forks, or squeeze grips are mounted to heavy lifting machinery, such as: large fork lifts, tractors equipped with front end loaders, telehandlers, hay squeezes or wheel loaders to lift these bales.
Small square baler
A type of baler which is less common today in some places but which is still prevalent in many countries such as New Zealand and Australia to the exclusion of large bales produces small rectangular (often called "square") bales. Each bale is about 15 in x 18 in x 38 in (38 x 46 x 96 cm). The bales are wrapped with two, three, or sometimes four strands of twine and knotted. The bales are light enough for one person to handle, about 45 lb (20 kg) to 60 lb (25 kg).
To form the bale, the hay in the windrow is lifted by tines in the baler's pickup. The hay is then dragged or augered into a chamber that runs the length of one side of the baler. A combination plunger and knife moves back and forth in the front end of this chamber. The knife, positioned just ahead of the plunger, cuts off the hay at the spot where it enters the chamber from the pickup. The plunger rams the hay rearwards, compressing it into the bales. A measuring device measures the amount of hay that is being compressed and, at the appropriate length it triggers the mechanism (the knotter) that wraps the twine around the bale and ties it off. As the next bale is formed the tied one is driven out of the rear of the baling chamber onto the ground or onto a special wagon hooked to the end of the baler. This process continues as long as there is material to be baled.
This form of bale is no longer much used in large-scale commercial agriculture because of the costs involved in handling many small bales. However, it enjoys some popularity in small-scale, low-mechanization agriculture and horse-keeping. Besides using simpler machinery and being easy to handle, these small bales can also be used for insulation and building materials in straw-bale construction. Square bales will also generally weather better than round bales because a more much dense stack can be put up. Convenience is also a major factor in farmers deciding to continue putting up square bales, as they make feeding in confined areas (stables, barns, etc.) much easier.
Many of these older balers are still to be found on farms today, particularly in dry areas where bales can be left outside for long periods.
The automatic-baler for small square bales took on most of its present form in 1940. It was first manufactured by the New Holland Ag and it used a small petrol engine to provide operating power. It is based on a 1937 invention for a twine-tie baler with automatic pickup.
Wire balers
Bales prior to 1937 were manually wire-tied with two baling wires. Even earlier, the baler was a stationary implement, driven by power take-off (PTO) and belt, with the hay being brought to the baler and fed in by hand. The biggest change to this type of baler since 1940 is being powered by the tractor through its PTO, instead of by a built-in internal combustion engine.
In present day production, small square balers can be ordered with twine knotters or wire tie knotters.
Square/wire bale history
Pickup and handling methods
In the 1940s most farmers would bale hay in the field with a small tractor with 20 or less horsepower, and the tied bales would be dropped onto the ground as the baler moved through the field. Another team of workers with horses and a flatbed wagon with would come by and use a sharp metal hook to grab the bale and throw it up onto the wagon while an assistant stacks the bale, for transport to the barn.
A later time-saving innovation was to tow the flatbed wagon directly behind the baler, and the bale would be pushed up a ramp to a waiting attendant on the wagon. The attendant hooks the bale off the ramp and stacks it on the wagon, while waiting for the next bale to be produced.
Eventually as tractor horsepower increased, the thrower-baler became possible, which eliminates the need for someone to stand on the wagon and pick up the finished bales. The first thrower mechanism used two fast-moving friction belts to grab finished bales and throws them at an angle up in the air onto the bale wagon. The bale wagon was modified from a flatbed into a 3-sided skeleton frame open at the front, to act as a catcher's net for the thrown bales.
The next innovation of the thrower-baler as tractor horsepower further increased was the hydraulic tossing baler. This employs a flat pan behind the bale knotter. As bales advance out the back of the baler, they are pushed onto the pan one at a time. When the bale has moved fully onto the pan, the pan suddenly pops up, pushed by a large hydraulic cylinder, and tosses the bale up into the wagon like a catapult.
The pan-thrower method puts much less stress on the bales compared to the belt-thrower. The friction belts of the belt-thrower stress the twine and knots as they grip the bale, and would occasionally cause bales to break apart in the thrower or when the bales landed in the wagon.
New Holland has invented a machine named the "Stackcruiser", or a stacker. Small "square" bales are dropped by the baler with the strings facing outward, the stacker will drive up to the bales and it will pick it up and set it on a three-bale-wide table (the strings are now facing upwards). once three bales are on the table, the table lifts up and back causing the three bales to face strings to the side again, this happens 3 more times until there are 16 bales on the main table. this table will lift like the smaller one and the bales will be up against a vertical table. The machine will hold 160 bales (ten tiers), usually there will be cross-tiers near the center to keep the stack from swaying or colasping if any weight is applied to the top of the stack. The full load will be transported to a barn, the whole rear of the stacker will tilt upwards until it is vertical. there will be two pushers that will extend through the machine and hold the bottom of the stack from being pulled out from the stacker while it is driven out of the barn
In Britain (if small square bales are still to be used) they are usually collected as they fall out of the baler in a bale sledge dragged behind the baler. This has various channels, controlled by automatic balances, catches and springs, which sort each bale into its place in a square eight. When the sledge is full, a catch is tripped automatically, and a door at the rear opens to leave the eight lying neatly together on the ground. These may be picked up individually and loaded by hand, or they may be picked up all eight together by a bale grab on a tractor, a special front loader consisting of many hydraulically-powered downward-pointing curved spikes. The square eight will then be stacked, either on a trailer for transport, or in a roughly cubic field stack eight or ten layers high. This cube may then be transported by a large machine attached to the three-point hitch behind a tractor, which clamps the sides of the cube and lifts it bodily.
A simple method of handling large and small round bales can be seen in the article Hay Delivery. This is a simple do-it-yourself modification to the tractor bucket. Two hooks are welded to the outside top of a tractor front loader bucket and a 14-foot (4.3 m) logging chain which allows the user to stay on the tractor, grab bales, transport them, stack them and place them out for animals to eat. The advantage of this simple system is that it uses no fancy expensive equipment which must be swapped back and forth on the tractor. This allows a small farmer to avoid the costs of extra equipment and not have a separate tractor just for that one function. With a little practice one can be as quick as the specialized hydraulic bale grabs. This method developed by Walter Jeffries of Sugar Mountain Farm also has less maintenance involved and is safer than bale spears and clamps.
Storage methods
Before electrification occurred in rural parts of the United States in the 1940s, some small dairy farms would have tractors but not electric power. Often just one neighbor who could afford a tractor would do all the baling for surrounding farmers still using horses.
To get the bales up into the hayloft, a pulley system ran on a track along the peak of the barn's hayloft. This track also stuck a few feet out the end of the loft, with a large access door under the track. On the bottom of the pulley system was a bale spear, which is pointed on the end and has retractable retention spikes.
A flatbed wagon would pull up next to the barn underneath the end of the track, the spear lowered down to the wagon, and speared into a single bale. The pulley rope would be used to manually lift the bale high up into the air until it could enter the mow through the door, then moved along the track into the barn and finally released for manual stacking in tight rows across the floor of the loft. As the stack filled the loft, the bales would be lifted higher and higher with the pulleys until the hay was stacked all the way up to the peak.
When electricity finally arrived, the bale spear, pulley and track system disappeared, replaced by long motorized bale conveyors known as hay elevators. A typical elevator is an open skeletal frame, with a chain that has dull 3-inch (76 mm) spikes every few feet along the chain to grab bales and drag them along. One elevator replaced the spear track and ran the entire length of the peak of the barn. A second elevator was either installed at a 30-degree slope on the side of the barn to lift bales up to the peak elevator, or used dual front-back chains surrounding the bale to lift bales straight up the side of the barn to the peak elevator.
A bale wagon pulls up next to the lifting elevator, and a farm worker places bales one at a time onto the angled track. Once bales arrive at the peak elevator, there are adjustable tipping gates along the length of the peak elevator. By pulling a cable from the floor of the hayloft, tipping gates can be opened and closed, so that bales will tip off the elevator and drop down to the floor in different areas of the loft. This permits a single elevator to transport hay to one part of a loft and straw to another part.
This complete hay elevator lifting, transport, and dropping system reduced bale storage down to a single person, who simply pulls up with a wagon, turns on the elevators and starts placing bales on it, occasionally checking to make sure that bales are falling in the right locations in the loft.
The neat stacking of bales in the loft is often sacrificed for the speed of just letting them fall and roll down the growing pile in the loft, and changing the elevator gates to fill in open areas around the loose pile. But if desired, the loose bale pile dropped by the elevator could be rearranged into orderly rows between wagon loads.
Usage once in the barn
The process of retrieving bales from a hayloft has stayed relatively unchanged from the beginning of baling. Typically workers were sent up into the loft, to climb up onto the bale stack, pull bales off the stack, and throw or roll them down the stack to the open floor of the loft. Once the bale is down on the floor, workers climb down the stack, open a cover over a bale chute in the floor of the loft, and push the bales down the chute to the livestock area of the barn.
Most barns were equipped with several chutes along the sides and in the center of the loft floor. This permitted bales to be dropped into the area where they were to be used. Hay bales would be dropped through side chutes, to be broken up and fed to the cattle. Straw bales would be dropped down the center chute, to be distributed as bedding in the livestock standing/resting areas.
Traditionally multiple bales were dropped down to the livestock floor and the twine removed by hand. After drying and being stored under tons of pressure in the haystack, most bales are tightly compacted and need to be torn apart and fluffed up for use.
One recent method of speeding up all this manual bale handling is the bale shredder, which is a large vertical drum with rotary cutting/ripping teeth at the base of the drum. The shredder is placed under the chute and several bales dropped in. A worker then pushes the shredder along the barn aisle as it rips up a bale and spews it out in a continuous fluffy stream of material.
Industrial balers
Industrial balers are typically used to compact similar types of waste, such as office paper, cardboard, plastic, foil and cans, for sale to recycling companies. These balers are made of steel with a hydraulic ram to compress the material loaded. Some balers are simple and labor-intensive, but are suitable for smaller volumes. Other balers are very complex and automated, and are used where large quantities of waste are handled.
A baler is a piece of farm machinery that is used to compress a cut and raked crop (such as hay or straw) into bales and bind the bales with twine. There are several different types of balers that are commonly used. Balers are also used in the material recycling facilities, primarily for baling plastic, paper or cardboard for transport to a recycling facility.
Round baler
The most frequently used type of baler is a round baler. It produces cylindrically shaped "round" or "rolled" bales. The hay is simply rolled up inside the baler using rubberized belts, fixed rollers, or a combination of rollers and belts. When the bale reaches a determined size, the twine or mesh wrap that binds the bale is wrapped around the outside but not knotted. The back of the baler is opened up and the bale is discharged. Straw or fully-dried hay bales are complete at this stage, but if the bale is to be silage, it will also be wrapped in airtight plastic sheeting by another machine. Variable-chamber balers typically produce bales from 48 to 72 inches in diameter (about 120 to 180 cm) and up to 60 inches in width (150 cm). The bales weigh from 1100 lb (500 kg) to 2200 lb (1000 kg), depending upon size, material and dampness.
Early round balers were sold by Allis Chalmers as the Roto Baler. These bales were roughly 16 inches (410 mm) in diameter and 48 inches (1,200 mm) wide. The concept was first pioneered by Ummo Luebbens as early as 1910. Introduced in 1947 and discontinued in 1960, Allis Chalmers was a pioneer in supplying machinery that would form cylindrical bales during a period where rectangular bales were most common.
The modern round baler was designed in 1972 by the Vermeer Company, which as of 2007 continues to produce them.[1][2]
Round bale handling and transport
Round bales can weigh a ton or more, and are well-suited for modern large scale farming operations such as a dairy with 200 or more cows. However, due to the ability for a round bale to roll away on a slope, they require special transport and moving equipment.
The most important tool for round bale handling is the bale spear or spike, which is usually mounted on the back of a tractor or the front of a skid-steer. It is inserted into the approximate center of the round bale, then lifted up and the bale is hauled away. Once at the destination, the round bale is set down, and the spear pulled out. Careful placement of the spear in the center is needed or the round bale can spin around and touch the ground while in transport, causing a loss of control.
Alternatively, a grapple fork may be used to lift and transport round bales. The grapple fork is a hydraulically driven implement attached to the end of a tractor's bucket loader. When the hydraulic cylinder is extended the fork clamps downwards towards the bucket, much like a closing hand. To move a round bale the tractor approaches the bale from the side and places the bucket underneath the bale. The fork is then clamped down across the top of the bale, and the bucket lifted with the bale in tow.
It is difficult to flip a round bale so that the flat surface is facing down and later flip it back up on edge, so transporting many round bales a long distance is a challenge. Flat-bed transport is difficult since the bales could roll off the truck bed going around curves and up hills. To prevent this, the flat-bed trailer is equipped with rounded guard-rails at either end, which prevent bales from rolling either forward or backward. Another solution for this is the saddle wagon, which has closely-spaced rounded saddles or support posts for round bales to sit in. The tall sides of each saddle, or the bale settling down in between posts, prevent the bales from rolling around while on the wagon.
Round bales can be directly used for feeding animals by placing it in a feeding area, tipping it over, removing the bale wrap, and placing a protective ring around the outside so that animals don't walk on hay that has been peeled off the outer perimeter of the bale. The baler's forming and compaction process can assist in unrolling a round bale, as it is often possible to unroll a round bale in a continuous flat strip.
Silage / Haylage large bales
A recent innovation in hay storage has been the development of the silage or haylage bale, which is a high-moisture wrapped round bale. These are baled much wetter than normal round bales, and are usually smaller than regular round hay bales because the greater moisture content makes them heavier and harder to handle. These bales begin to ferment almost immediately, and the metal bale spear stabbed into the core becomes very warm to the touch from the fermentation process.
They are placed on a special rotating bale spear mounted on a tractor. As the bale spins, a layer of plastic cling film is applied to the exterior of the bale. This roll of plastic is mounted in a sliding shuttle on a steel arm and can move parallel to the bale axis, so that the operator does not need to hold up the heavy roll of plastic themselves. The plastic layer extends over the ends of the bale to form a ring of plastic approximately 12 inches (0.3 meters) wide on the ends with hay exposed in the center.
In order to stretch the cling-wrap plastic tightly over the bale, the tension is actively adjusted with a knob on the end of the roll which squeezes the ends of the roll in the shuttle. In this example wrapping video, the operator is attempting to use high tension to get a flat, smooth seal on the right end. However the tension increases too much and the plastic tears off. The operator recovers by quickly loosening the tension and allows the plastic to feed out halfway around the bale before reapplying the tension to the sheeting.
These bales are placed in a long continuous row, with each wrapped bale pressed firmly up against all the other bales in the row before being set down onto the ground. The plastic wrap on the ends of each bale sticks together to seal out air and moisture, protecting the hay from the elements. The end-bales are hand-sealed with strips of cling plastic across the hay opening.
The airtight seal between each bale permits the row of round bales to ferment as if they were in a silo bag but are easier to handle than a silo bag since the bale can just be picked up and hauled away as a discrete package, as opposed to a large open bag which is full of loose material that must be scooped up, and which is fragile and easily damaged by the silage loader. However, the plastic usage is high and there is no way to reuse or recycle the hay-contaminated plastic sheeting, other than as a fuel source via incineration. The wrapping cost is approximately US$5 per bale.
An alternative form of the same type of bale is placed on a pair of rollers on a turntable mounted on the three-point linkage of a tractor, and spun about two axes while being wrapped in several layers of cling-wrap plastic film. This covers both the ends and sides of the bale in one operation, and which is thus sealed separately from other bales. The bales are then moved or stacked using a special pincer attachment on the front loader of a tractor which does not damage the film seal. They can also be moved using a standard bale spike, but this punctures the airtight seal. The hole in the film is repaired after moving.
For either type of wrapping, the bale must be unwrapped before being fed to livestock to prevent accidental ingestion of the plastic, and are usually fed to the animals using a ring feeder.
Large rectangular baler
Another type of baler in common use produces large rectangular bales, each bound with a half dozen or so strings of twine which are then knotted. Such bales are highly compacted and generally weigh somewhat more than round bales.
Rectangular bale handling and transport
Rectangular bales are easier to transport than round bales since there is little risk of the bale rolling off the back of a flatbed trailer. The rectangular shape also saves space and allows a complete solid slab of hay to be stacked up for transport and storage.
They are well-suited for large scale livestock feedlot operations where many tons of feed are rationed every hour.
Due to the huge rectangular shape, large spear forks, or squeeze grips are mounted to heavy lifting machinery, such as: large fork lifts, tractors equipped with front end loaders, telehandlers, hay squeezes or wheel loaders to lift these bales.
Small square baler
A type of baler which is less common today in some places but which is still prevalent in many countries such as New Zealand and Australia to the exclusion of large bales produces small rectangular (often called "square") bales. Each bale is about 15 in x 18 in x 38 in (38 x 46 x 96 cm). The bales are wrapped with two, three, or sometimes four strands of twine and knotted. The bales are light enough for one person to handle, about 45 lb (20 kg) to 60 lb (25 kg).
To form the bale, the hay in the windrow is lifted by tines in the baler's pickup. The hay is then dragged or augered into a chamber that runs the length of one side of the baler. A combination plunger and knife moves back and forth in the front end of this chamber. The knife, positioned just ahead of the plunger, cuts off the hay at the spot where it enters the chamber from the pickup. The plunger rams the hay rearwards, compressing it into the bales. A measuring device measures the amount of hay that is being compressed and, at the appropriate length it triggers the mechanism (the knotter) that wraps the twine around the bale and ties it off. As the next bale is formed the tied one is driven out of the rear of the baling chamber onto the ground or onto a special wagon hooked to the end of the baler. This process continues as long as there is material to be baled.
This form of bale is no longer much used in large-scale commercial agriculture because of the costs involved in handling many small bales. However, it enjoys some popularity in small-scale, low-mechanization agriculture and horse-keeping. Besides using simpler machinery and being easy to handle, these small bales can also be used for insulation and building materials in straw-bale construction. Square bales will also generally weather better than round bales because a more much dense stack can be put up. Convenience is also a major factor in farmers deciding to continue putting up square bales, as they make feeding in confined areas (stables, barns, etc.) much easier.
Many of these older balers are still to be found on farms today, particularly in dry areas where bales can be left outside for long periods.
The automatic-baler for small square bales took on most of its present form in 1940. It was first manufactured by the New Holland Ag and it used a small petrol engine to provide operating power. It is based on a 1937 invention for a twine-tie baler with automatic pickup.
Wire balers
Bales prior to 1937 were manually wire-tied with two baling wires. Even earlier, the baler was a stationary implement, driven by power take-off (PTO) and belt, with the hay being brought to the baler and fed in by hand. The biggest change to this type of baler since 1940 is being powered by the tractor through its PTO, instead of by a built-in internal combustion engine.
In present day production, small square balers can be ordered with twine knotters or wire tie knotters.
Square/wire bale history
Pickup and handling methods
In the 1940s most farmers would bale hay in the field with a small tractor with 20 or less horsepower, and the tied bales would be dropped onto the ground as the baler moved through the field. Another team of workers with horses and a flatbed wagon with would come by and use a sharp metal hook to grab the bale and throw it up onto the wagon while an assistant stacks the bale, for transport to the barn.
A later time-saving innovation was to tow the flatbed wagon directly behind the baler, and the bale would be pushed up a ramp to a waiting attendant on the wagon. The attendant hooks the bale off the ramp and stacks it on the wagon, while waiting for the next bale to be produced.
Eventually as tractor horsepower increased, the thrower-baler became possible, which eliminates the need for someone to stand on the wagon and pick up the finished bales. The first thrower mechanism used two fast-moving friction belts to grab finished bales and throws them at an angle up in the air onto the bale wagon. The bale wagon was modified from a flatbed into a 3-sided skeleton frame open at the front, to act as a catcher's net for the thrown bales.
The next innovation of the thrower-baler as tractor horsepower further increased was the hydraulic tossing baler. This employs a flat pan behind the bale knotter. As bales advance out the back of the baler, they are pushed onto the pan one at a time. When the bale has moved fully onto the pan, the pan suddenly pops up, pushed by a large hydraulic cylinder, and tosses the bale up into the wagon like a catapult.
The pan-thrower method puts much less stress on the bales compared to the belt-thrower. The friction belts of the belt-thrower stress the twine and knots as they grip the bale, and would occasionally cause bales to break apart in the thrower or when the bales landed in the wagon.
New Holland has invented a machine named the "Stackcruiser", or a stacker. Small "square" bales are dropped by the baler with the strings facing outward, the stacker will drive up to the bales and it will pick it up and set it on a three-bale-wide table (the strings are now facing upwards). once three bales are on the table, the table lifts up and back causing the three bales to face strings to the side again, this happens 3 more times until there are 16 bales on the main table. this table will lift like the smaller one and the bales will be up against a vertical table. The machine will hold 160 bales (ten tiers), usually there will be cross-tiers near the center to keep the stack from swaying or colasping if any weight is applied to the top of the stack. The full load will be transported to a barn, the whole rear of the stacker will tilt upwards until it is vertical. there will be two pushers that will extend through the machine and hold the bottom of the stack from being pulled out from the stacker while it is driven out of the barn
In Britain (if small square bales are still to be used) they are usually collected as they fall out of the baler in a bale sledge dragged behind the baler. This has various channels, controlled by automatic balances, catches and springs, which sort each bale into its place in a square eight. When the sledge is full, a catch is tripped automatically, and a door at the rear opens to leave the eight lying neatly together on the ground. These may be picked up individually and loaded by hand, or they may be picked up all eight together by a bale grab on a tractor, a special front loader consisting of many hydraulically-powered downward-pointing curved spikes. The square eight will then be stacked, either on a trailer for transport, or in a roughly cubic field stack eight or ten layers high. This cube may then be transported by a large machine attached to the three-point hitch behind a tractor, which clamps the sides of the cube and lifts it bodily.
A simple method of handling large and small round bales can be seen in the article Hay Delivery. This is a simple do-it-yourself modification to the tractor bucket. Two hooks are welded to the outside top of a tractor front loader bucket and a 14-foot (4.3 m) logging chain which allows the user to stay on the tractor, grab bales, transport them, stack them and place them out for animals to eat. The advantage of this simple system is that it uses no fancy expensive equipment which must be swapped back and forth on the tractor. This allows a small farmer to avoid the costs of extra equipment and not have a separate tractor just for that one function. With a little practice one can be as quick as the specialized hydraulic bale grabs. This method developed by Walter Jeffries of Sugar Mountain Farm also has less maintenance involved and is safer than bale spears and clamps.
Storage methods
Before electrification occurred in rural parts of the United States in the 1940s, some small dairy farms would have tractors but not electric power. Often just one neighbor who could afford a tractor would do all the baling for surrounding farmers still using horses.
To get the bales up into the hayloft, a pulley system ran on a track along the peak of the barn's hayloft. This track also stuck a few feet out the end of the loft, with a large access door under the track. On the bottom of the pulley system was a bale spear, which is pointed on the end and has retractable retention spikes.
A flatbed wagon would pull up next to the barn underneath the end of the track, the spear lowered down to the wagon, and speared into a single bale. The pulley rope would be used to manually lift the bale high up into the air until it could enter the mow through the door, then moved along the track into the barn and finally released for manual stacking in tight rows across the floor of the loft. As the stack filled the loft, the bales would be lifted higher and higher with the pulleys until the hay was stacked all the way up to the peak.
When electricity finally arrived, the bale spear, pulley and track system disappeared, replaced by long motorized bale conveyors known as hay elevators. A typical elevator is an open skeletal frame, with a chain that has dull 3-inch (76 mm) spikes every few feet along the chain to grab bales and drag them along. One elevator replaced the spear track and ran the entire length of the peak of the barn. A second elevator was either installed at a 30-degree slope on the side of the barn to lift bales up to the peak elevator, or used dual front-back chains surrounding the bale to lift bales straight up the side of the barn to the peak elevator.
A bale wagon pulls up next to the lifting elevator, and a farm worker places bales one at a time onto the angled track. Once bales arrive at the peak elevator, there are adjustable tipping gates along the length of the peak elevator. By pulling a cable from the floor of the hayloft, tipping gates can be opened and closed, so that bales will tip off the elevator and drop down to the floor in different areas of the loft. This permits a single elevator to transport hay to one part of a loft and straw to another part.
This complete hay elevator lifting, transport, and dropping system reduced bale storage down to a single person, who simply pulls up with a wagon, turns on the elevators and starts placing bales on it, occasionally checking to make sure that bales are falling in the right locations in the loft.
The neat stacking of bales in the loft is often sacrificed for the speed of just letting them fall and roll down the growing pile in the loft, and changing the elevator gates to fill in open areas around the loose pile. But if desired, the loose bale pile dropped by the elevator could be rearranged into orderly rows between wagon loads.
Usage once in the barn
The process of retrieving bales from a hayloft has stayed relatively unchanged from the beginning of baling. Typically workers were sent up into the loft, to climb up onto the bale stack, pull bales off the stack, and throw or roll them down the stack to the open floor of the loft. Once the bale is down on the floor, workers climb down the stack, open a cover over a bale chute in the floor of the loft, and push the bales down the chute to the livestock area of the barn.
Most barns were equipped with several chutes along the sides and in the center of the loft floor. This permitted bales to be dropped into the area where they were to be used. Hay bales would be dropped through side chutes, to be broken up and fed to the cattle. Straw bales would be dropped down the center chute, to be distributed as bedding in the livestock standing/resting areas.
Traditionally multiple bales were dropped down to the livestock floor and the twine removed by hand. After drying and being stored under tons of pressure in the haystack, most bales are tightly compacted and need to be torn apart and fluffed up for use.
One recent method of speeding up all this manual bale handling is the bale shredder, which is a large vertical drum with rotary cutting/ripping teeth at the base of the drum. The shredder is placed under the chute and several bales dropped in. A worker then pushes the shredder along the barn aisle as it rips up a bale and spews it out in a continuous fluffy stream of material.
Industrial balers
Industrial balers are typically used to compact similar types of waste, such as office paper, cardboard, plastic, foil and cans, for sale to recycling companies. These balers are made of steel with a hydraulic ram to compress the material loaded. Some balers are simple and labor-intensive, but are suitable for smaller volumes. Other balers are very complex and automated, and are used where large quantities of waste are handled.
Farm buildings
Farms require buildings to facilitate the action of farming the material at hand. Such buildings can include a farm house (for the farmers), a grain silo (for storing grain), and a barn (for the storing of certain animals.)
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