Farm Tractors, Used Tractors - Heavy Equipment Resource

Are your tractors tires worn? Are you thinking about replacing them soon? Then read about radials for your tractor. Most new tractors may come equipped with radial tires but if you are running conventional tires or have an older tractor you may want to consider some of the advantages of switching to radials.

Farm industry surveys show running radial back tires will provide a much smoother ride and longer wear. Most important especially on two wheal drive models is a major improvement in traction. The reason for this is most radials not only have deeper lugs but typically a radial tire inflated properly will look low on air but the slightly squashed out foot print provides more lugs on the ground and a shallower rut to climb out of. In fact the improvement in traction is such that in certain applications where you thought a four wheal drive tractor would be needed a two wheal drive tractor with rear radials

The tire industry claims radial tractor tires could improve the efficiency of your tractor by up to 20%.  Based on a fuel savings of 10% while covering 20% more acreage and improved cut time of 11%.
The farm industry said owners who paid the extra $100 to $500 for radial tractor tires recovered this in anywhere from immediately to between two and five years.    

The GPS system (for those not familiar GPS stands for Global Positioning System) that is installed in most heavy equipment and Agricultural equipment such as farm tractors was developed by the US military at a cost of around 12 billion. GPS uses satellites for locating where you are, usually a triangulation of at least three.  By measuring the travel time of radio signals bounced between these satellites and a point on the ground they came up with a system so precise they would be able to use it to guide missiles to targets within a few centimeters.

This was a huge advancement in mapping and we now use GPS for everything from navigating our boats and aircraft to mapping, surveying and mining. GPS can accurately measure distance, depth, speed and tell you where you are at any time. It can give a 3d topical image of terrain when combined with strategically positioned sensors on the ground.

An example of this use could be how do we determine how many cubic yards of gravel were extracted from a gravel pit over a one year period? This information may be needed to determine royalties owed per cubic yard for gravel extracted or future development or life of the pit. This can now be quickly and accurately measured using GPS and a few strategically positioned sensors on the ground to come up with a 3d image slash measurement to be compared year over year. This is very precise in determining the volume extracted and in most cases just takes one surveyor a day or less to do.

Heavy Equipment Benefits from GPS Technology

Heavy Equipment manufacturer Caterpillar recently came out with a neat system built right into a two way radio called the CR series. What is neat is all heavy equipment is usually setup and wired for a two way radio to start with so installation is simple. The radio is equipped with built in GPS and ATS (advanced tracking sensor) ATS is similar to the ground positioned sensor system used in the gravel pit scenario. This radio displays all readouts on the radio display screen so an onboard pc is not needed. These radios can also relay information from an office computer which could contain engineering data and or 3d imaging software.

The blade of a machine (in this case an excavator) could be fitted with a tracking sensor and then be tracked by a stationary instrument. This combined with GPS can provide a great 3d view of where you are and what you are doing. This can be very helpful when you are trying to achieve specific engineered grades or depths of a project with your machine. Farm tractors use GPS for guiding them on the fields allowing for unattended plowing of the fields.

There are many systems out there and with the combination of high speed computers, Rapid response sensors and GPS knowing where your blade or excavator bucket teeth are within a few centimetres is no problem.