Optimization potential of a standard tractor in road transportation

Abstract

In numerous farms road transportation is of high importance in the task range of a standard tractor. During the harvest of grain or biomass as well as during the application of organic substrates a certain number of tractors exclusively runs on the road. The present study shows under practical conditions opportunities to optimize standard tractors for road transportation with acceptable effort to increase machine utilization and process efficiency at the same time. By realizing certain optimizing measures fuel consumption can be reduced by 11.4 % on average. Increasing the maximum speed from 50 to 60 km/h results in time savings of 8.5 % on average, causing a 5.5 % higher fuel consumption on average. The benefits of the examined optimization measures always have to be judged farm- and situation specifically.