Drawbar Power Required for Sugarcane Infield and Road Transport by Trailers

Abstract

The common size agricultural trailer of loading surface 2 m width × 4 m length designed for general farm transport purposes have been used for road as well as infield transport of sugarcane. In several locations of sugarcane production area, carts and camels may be used for infield transport due to the poor conditions of infield roads. Smaller size trailers have been gradually introduced to mechanize infield cane transport and to reduce the probability of cane to mill delivery delay. The prevailing tractor power in the sugarcane production area ranged from 60 to 80 hp. Adequate power to pull the common size trailer either used for road cane transport or used for infield cane transport was determined. Power required to pull the small size trailers was also determined to facilitate the proper selection of the power unit or the small tractor capable for infield cane transport. Dynamometers were used to determine pull force of the trailers loaded with cane while transporting cane from inside the field to the trans-loading site and from trans-loading site to the mill. The peak pull forces were recorded at possible safe travel speeds of the loaded trailer at variable conditions of the road or the surface on which the trailer moves. The specific power consumption of the road cane transport trailer operated at safe load (9 ton) and safe travel speed (12 km/h) was 0.51 hp/ton km. The specific power consumption for the common size trailer when used for sugarcane infield transport was 1.18 hp/ton km. The specific power required for the small size trailer (1.5 ton) was 0.9 hp/ton km. The results show that power adequate to pulls the common size trailer of 3 ton cane load used for infield transport may be 21 hp and that adequate for the small size trailers of 1.5 ton cane load may be up to 12 hp. It is recommended to select the power unit with 50 % over estimation to overcome resistance of non expected conditions and to maintain capable pull power for infield cane transport.