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THE LINCOLN TRACTOR TRIALS REPORT.

13th January 1920
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Page 10, 13th January 1920 — THE LINCOLN TRACTOR TRIALS REPORT.
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An Important Publication Which Gives Useful Facts and Figures, and the Conclusions Arrived at by the judges and Their Technical Adviser.

TEIE REPORT of the Technical Adviser, Mr. G. W. Watson, M.I.Ikilech.E., M.I.A.E., and of the Judges in connection with the tractor trials held at Lincoln from September 2ttli to 27th last has just been published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders in the form. of a 100-page book, which, we understand, is being aupplied at the price of 5s. Prefacing the report is a statement cf the regulations which governed the trials, and a map of the fields where the trials were held, this later serving to refresh the memory of those r ho were present and to give a general impression of the organization to these who were not.

The Techanical Adviser divides his report into aections under ten heads, two of these dealing with the dynamometer tests, two with the nlonghing on the heavy land and on the cliff land, two with the haulage and threshing tests; whilst one section deals with mechanical construction, another with the safety cf operation, one with the results of the tests on oil, his report concluding with a brief description of each make and type of tractor engaged. -Each one cf these descriptions, by the way, includes a brief specification of the machine and a photograph of each, and in every case a reproduction of the chart obtained in the drawbar dynamometer tests on heavy clay land. One word cf warning is necessary in connection with any examination of these dynamometer charts. They are, unfortunately, not immediately comparable; as they start from different base lines ; this has, no doubt, been done in-order to save space in the book, but, to cur way of thinking, it would have been better

if they had all started from, say,, a base line representing 500 lb. of sustained pull, but, this difference having been noted, there is no reason why -the careful examiner should be misled. These drawbar charts are extremely interesting and informative.

Most of the useful information in connection with the trials (where there were, it will be remembered, no awards for the purpose of grading the competing machines in order of merit) is contained in the report of the Technical Adviser. The report of the Judges consists of rather less than six pages of comment on each competing machine, dealing very briefly indeed with ita technical peculiarities and comment an the character of the work done by it. The second portion of the Judges' report deals with ploughs and implements, whilst it concludes with a few useful comments on technical matters and a note in connection with the value of the trials. ••

The Technical Adviser ascribes the absence of certain of the data to neglect on the part of the observers to fill in on the cards supplied to them all the infOrmatien asked for. Matters which were duly reearded include fuel consumption) time duration and causes of stoppages, working time, acreage ploughed, and number and dimensions a furrows, but many observers apparently considered accurate information relative to water evaporated, petrol used for starting purposes, lubricating oil and grease-enneumed, a-nd distance taken up for turning at headlanda asrelatively unimportant and such as could be omitted. It is to be hoped that these deficiencies will be safeguarded in any future trial promoted by the Society. The purpose of the drawbar dynamometer tests was to ascertain the maximum horse-power which could be transmitted at the drawbar without skidding the wheels or tracks along the ground. The tests were all' made on moist, heavy clay'soil on cloVer ley. Tho iesults obtained are set out in a table,. which includes, abundant technical' information in connection with each competing machine, Important figures obtained in these dynamometer tests are as follow: The column headed 'Efficiency of Adhesion" represents the average drawbar pall divided by the weight of the driving wheels or tracks of the tractor, and is useful only as giving some indication of the effectiveness, o.r otherwise, cf the form of spud with. which the driving wheels. or tracks were fitted. • The Cleveland tractor was not fitted with spuds or projeotions of any kind ; hence its law record under this heading, had it been provided with spuds, the Technical Adviser is convinced that it would have shown a very high record, for itS engine was equal to far more power than the tracks could transmit.

Each competitor was informed of the average pull exerted by his tractor, and this served a useful purpose in guiding him as to the nwriber and width of farrows it' would lie able to deal with satisfactorily. It was noted that, where this information w.aa ignored, the resulting ploughing was lower in 'quality and the acreage less than might have been the case had the ploughs been adjusted for a narrower width, or even with one plough breast removed.

The results of the ploughing on heavy clay land on the first day of the Trials are set out in tabular form in the report, in which, against each tractor, there are given the following particulars,: number of .attendants for the tractor and. plough and the number

inan-rainutes lost on; each the number, depth and width of furrows; the average resistance of the land per sq. in. (this having-been determined by means of a Hyatt drawbar dynamometer which was used to carry out the resistance tests on various fields); the average pull of plough ; the nature of the soil,the rate of ploughing in acres per hour ; the estimated acreage per day of eight hours; the nature of fuel used, and the quantity of fuel used per acre and per 100 lb. of drawbar pull, together with the cost of the fuel per acre and per 100 lb. pull. .

The Technical Adviser then sets out in order of merit the various competing machines, the informa tion cnntained in the table being used in drawing up the table of merit which follows:— In the ploughing resistance dynamometer tests on the heavy land, the instruments showed a variation of from 7.91 lb. to 12.30 lb. per sq. in. of cross section disturbed, whilst, on the land used in the second day's ploughing, which was light or medium loam, the resistance recorded Was from 7.91 lb. to 11.40 lb. per sq. in. of cross section disturbed. The order of merit in certain matters was as follows : In the haulage test, which Was conducted over a road having a gradient of 1 In 11 with a short length of 1 in 9, the ii Competing tractors which were submitted to this test each demonstrated its ability to pull a load of at least four tons up the gradient, provided that suitable tyres *ere fitted. The only difficulty that occurred here was in the case of one tractor where the drawbar attachment was so low that, when hauling, there was a tendency to lift the rear wheels off the ground ; when this was modified, the tractor took the full load up the bill-without difficulty. The Alldays and the Mogul, fitted with steel tyres, took a full load of 4 tons 12 cwt. to the top of the hill Without a hitch ; there-was no lack Of power o,n any of the tractors, but it was noted that, invariably, the drawbar attachment was not high enough to take a standard traction trailer without excessive angularity of the drawbar. Each competing machine was called upon to show that its 'brakes were sufficiently powerful to hold both the tractor and trailer On the downward journey without any aid. Thirteen machines took part in the threshing demonstration, record being taken of the number of sacks obtained from the drums during the tests, butas the rate of feeding actually varied with the height of the stacks, the Technical Adviser does not consider that their publication, Would be useful. The main idea was merely to demonstrate whether each of the entered tractors could develop and sustain sufficient horse-power at the belt pulley to drive a standard 4 ft. 6 in. threShing niachine working under' average conditions for no less than three hours., In no case did a tractor fail to give the necessary power, and, in the only instance where there was any difficulty in getting into position and making ready for the work,:the fault was trouble with the magneto. The results of the tests-on engine oil failed to give evidence of any great amount of leakage of paraffin past the piston rings, or any serious contamination of the oil arising from faulty construction of the engine. It is not possible in the space at our disposal to record the brief comments of the judges on the technical features and the work of the various tractors. These comments, brief as they are, are extremely useful, however, to the potential purchaser of a tractor, as they deal with the characteristics of, each machine sufficiently to give a pod guide to its qualities and capabilities. In the judges' opnion, the short time occupied by the trials was not sufficient for any definite opinion to 'be given on the reliability of any machine, but the tractors ran singularly free from trouble. They urge the necessity for simplicity of construction, because an agricultural tractor generally has to be worked by men who have little mechanical knowledge, often at long distances from any place of repair. Strength is very important, both in build and engine power, and it is best to have a, considerable reserve of both, as a heavy strain is often quickly imparted to the machine" through a sudden and great. variation of land. The importance of the engine and working Pal ts being enclosed is emphasized. In the judges' -opinion, there is room for further investigation as to the wearing capacity of caterpillar tractor tracks and as to whether. an efficient system of. protection :of, the wearing Parts and their 4.roper lubrication can be devised. . .• '..They consider that a4ractor to be Satisfactory for , all kinds of farm-work shOuld give three speeds, varying. from 2 to 5 m.p.h. The judges note that a, large number of the tractors which did good -work were of comparatively light weight, and that the tenden,..'y of makers is more and more in that direction.

It is their opinion that the and T. 1-as rendered Valuable service tO agriculture in organizing and carrying out the trials, the benefits arising from which must of great value, not only from the point of view of farmers interested, but also in directing the attention of manufacturers to the possibilities of future development.


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