PERFORMANCE TESTS OF THREE-POINT MOUNTED IMPLEMENT GUIDANCE SYSTEMS: II. RESULTS

Abstract

Side-shift and disk-steer implement guidance systems were tested for differences in performance duringcultivation on fields with 0 and 5% side slope. Test speeds were slow (4.8 km/h, 3 mph) and medium (8.0 km/h, 5 mph).Test path shapes included a tractor ramp, implement ramp, sine and curve. Performance measures included tractorpositional error, implement positional error, torque from side forces on the cultivator non-swiveling coulters, and travelspeed. Relatively few significant differences between guidance systems were detected, and most of those involvedinteraction with path shape. Therefore, no clear conclusion could be reached indicating one guidance system was betterthan the other. There were no differences between the effects of the two travel speeds on the performance measuresdirectly related to the implement guidance (implement positional error and the torque on either coulter) indicating thatfor future experiments only one of the travel speeds need be included. The implement positional error distributionsindicated the side-shift system kept a higher percentage of errors within the 3 cm (1.2 in.) and 5 cm (2.0 in.)acceptable error bands in the test situations where the rows were mostly straight (tractor ramp, implement ramp and sinepath shapes), while the disk-steer system performed better with the 3 cm (1.2 in.) acceptable error band in the testsituations were the rows were mostly curved. Both implement guidance systems performed well in keeping the implementcentered between the crop rows, as at least 80% of the implement positional errors were within the 5 cm (2.0 in.)acceptable error band. The torque from side forces on the non-swiveling, residue-cutting coulters of the side-shift systemwere less than or equal to, not greater than the torque for the disk-steer system.