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Proper tractor setup can increase fuel efficiencyDoug Rich Power, power, and more power are what farmers have always wanted from their tractors. Recently, the price of diesel fuel has changed that mantra to power, more power, and fuel efficiency. Passenger cars achieve greater fuel efficiency by becoming lighter and smaller, but that is not an option for farm tractors. Modern tractors need to pull and haul increasingly bigger and heavier loads; however, it is still possible to get the most from every gallon of diesel fuel. Farmers cannot afford to just put it in gear and shove the throttle forward, anymore. Producers need to tailor their machines for better fuel efficiency with proper ballast weights, correct tire pressures, smart transmissions and new technology. Ballast "Too often, farmers put weights on the tractor for the biggest job they will do and then never change the weights again," said Jason Hoult, AGCO product marketing manager. When farmers switch to a practice that requires less weight, such as disking or field cultivating, they end up with more weight on the front of the tractor than they need. A 50-50 split between the front and rear axle under load is ideal. "The weight increases the rolling resistance and it takes more fuel just to move that weight," Hoult said. More weight on the front of the tractor than needed creates more rolling resistance and can create power hop issues. Power hop is an imbalance between the front and rear axle. Taking weight off the front axle can solve this problem. For example, a Challenger MT765C Challenger tractor can be used to run a big disk or deep ripper as well as being used for planting or spraying. Take weight off the tractor when the load is lighter. "It is important to ballast for the application," Hoult said. The trick is to get as much useful work from that gallon of fuel as possible. That means maximizing the power transfer from the tractor to the ground. Bob Rees, Michelin Ag Tire product marketing manager, said the tractor should be a certain weight relative to its horsepower to enable the tractor to transmit that power to ground. "That weight needs to be placed on the front and rear axles in the right ratio to get the best performance out of the tractor," Rees said. Tire pressure The optimum setup for fuel efficiency also includes tire pressure. Air pressure inside the tire is pretty much the actual ground pressure. "With optimum setup, producers can minimize slip, and slip is where they can be wasting fuel or wasting horsepower," Rees said. "One of the primary areas where you gain efficiencies is through minimizing slip." Rees suggested setting up your tractor tire pressure for the most demanding conditions. Tires on large four-wheel tractors can use very low tire pressures, between 6 to 10 psi. Be sensitive to temperature changes. As weather cools in the fall and winter, the ambient air temperature drops and so will the air pressure. When producers run at these low tire pressures, that can be significant. Rees said to check tire pressure in the morning, the coolest part of the day. That will be the lowest ambient air pressure and the lowest tire pressure. At the very least, check tire pressures weekly. Depending on the condition of the tractor tire and the price of fuel, potential savings can be significant. Rees said producers can see a 10 percent savings if they reduce rolling resistance and minimize slip with proper tire setup. "Get the ballast set up right, split front to rear, choose the right tire for the application, set tire pressure accordingly and get the optimum performance from your tractor and the most from your fuel," Rees said. Gear up and throttle down Everyone knows to run at a lower RPM at a higher gear if you want to save fuel, but the ability to do it quickly and accurately is the trick. New transmissions on modern tractors make it much easier to gear up and throttle back. AGCO offers the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) with power shift and John Deere has the Infinitely Variable Transmission (IVT) with auto mode. How often do you check to see if you are matching the right gear to the right engine speed as field conditions change or load on the engine changes? New "smart" transmissions make that connection several hundred times a second. Jason Hoult said Challenger has a feature called engine power management that allows operators to dial in a mile per hour or select maximum output. The engine and transmission work together to find the correct RPM and gear for the load. "The engine and transmission pick the right gear and RPM to save the most amount of fuel," Hoult said. "Gear up and throttle back but think about doing this 300 times a second." Hoult said an operator will never get to that level of precision and he or she will not do it that quickly. An operator may only need that extra RPM for just a few hundred feet in the field. As the load changes, the power management feature compensates by bringing the RPM down or changing to a different gear. The John Deere auto mode adjusts the engine automatically for lower load and allows the engine to run at lower RPMs. There is also a FieldCruise option that maintains a constant engine speed and thus constant ground speed as the load on the tractor varies. Don Worner, product marketing manager at the John Deere Waterloo Works, said in lighter load operations such as chemical incorporation or fertilizer application this will improve fuel economy by keeping the engine RPM at a lower level. "The FieldCruise option makes it possible to set an upper parameter for RPM and the fuel savings comes from not allowing the operator to over rev the engine," Worner said. Evaluations done at the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory showed an 8 percent savings in gallons per hour at 75 percent of the max pull when comparing the 8430 IVT in auto mode versus manual mode. "Don't overlook the technology that is out there now," Hoult said. GPS technology New technology includes Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) used in precision farming. GPS technology can have a big impact on inputs costs such as fertilizer, but it can also save fuel in many cases. Kent Shannon, Missouri Precision Ag Center Associate Director at the University of Missouri, said farmers could save 15 to 20 cents an acre in fuel costs by using GPS technology. Part of this savings comes by reducing overlap and thus reducing the number of trips across the field. A study done by John Nowatzki Ag Machine Systems Specialist at North Dakota State University, found that GPS technology could reduce overlap by 5 to 10 percent. "The other part of the equation comes in that a person can drive a little faster," Shannon said. "By getting the job done quicker, there are some savings associated with that practice." We won't being seeing the agricultural version of the Smart fortwo car anytime soon, but proper tractor setup and operation can save fuel even when conditions call for peak power output. Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304 or by e-mail at richhpj@aol.com.
11/17/08 Date: 11/13/08
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