Performance of an agricultural tractor fitted with rubber tracks

Agricultural tractors can have different types of undercarriage such as two wheel drive, four-wheel drive, and steel tracks. Despite a higher tractive performance and lower soil compaction, steel-tracked tractors are not popular due to their complexity and the difficulties of moving steel-tracked vehicles on roads. Recently, rubber belt tracks have become a notable solution for agricultural tractors, because they unite tractive performance and lower soil compaction with a better trafficability. Triangular rubber belt systems have been developed to replace the conventional wheeled configuration found on combine harvesters, and these can also be used on tractors. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of these solutions on a standard agricultural tractor. In particular, a tractor equipped with standard tyres, water-ballasted tyres, half-tracks, and fully-tracked was analysed. Drawbar power tests on asphalt and on soil were carried out, and compaction tests were performed on soil. The results show a better tractive efficiency and a reduced soil compaction for the solution with four rubber tracks with respect to the others. In addition, a reduction of the tractive efficiency with the increasing of the slip was highlighted in the half-track solution caused by an unfavourable weight distribution on the axles. (C) 2011 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.