Tractor Wheel Equipment for Swampy Ground

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 95, Issue 1, 15 July 1957, Page 72

Tractor Wheel Equipment for Swampy Ground

SWAMPY ground is treacherous work for the tractor and nerve-racking for the driver, as the surface is easily broken and this may result in the tractor bogging down. Stumps, hollows, and hillocks make tractor driving hazardous. The steel wheel equipment shown in the illustration has proved almost impossible to bog down and is very stable on rough ground. Moreover, the large area in contact with the ground causes less compaction.

MR. B. C. COLBRAN, who has a property at Timpanys, Southland, has found the equipment illustrated ideal when he works his peat swampland, where uneven ground, stumps, and holes are prevalent. When road work is to be done, however, it takes only a few minutes to replace the original rubber-tyred wheels. Farmers developing swampy ground would be wise to consider fitting this type of wheel equipment. It is probable, too, that farmers on easy hill country could make use of a tractor so equipped when finance to buy a tracklaying tractor is lacking. Mr. Colbran’s swamp equipment consists of, first, an old pair of steel tractor wheels, approximately the diameter of the tractor’s original rubber tyres. The steel wheels required some alteration so that they could be attached to the tractor. The spokes of each steel wheel were cut to fit and welded to a ring which was bolted to the tractor hub plate. This ring is made from gin. thick mild steel and is 3in. wide with holes drilled to match the bolts on the tractor hub. The second part of the equipment is the extension, a ring of horizontal steel bars. Cage wheels, as they are called, are very popular overseas, being fitted to tractors and other implements for swampy, wet conditions. The set shown came with the old steel wheels, but were still in good order.

The bars of 3in. x 2in. x jin. angle iron are lain, long, placed with the 3in. edge out to bite into the ground. The outer ends are supported by a ring on edge, fin. thick and 2Jin. deep. An inside hoop 2in. wide and of -fin. metal has a break at one point; there an adjuster bolt allows the extension wheels to be expanded slightly and removed if desired, for the horizontal bars overlap the steel wheels by some 4in. Three gin. hook bolts arranged around the extension wheel hook on to the outer rim of the steel wheel and bolt down 3 of the horizontal bars. The extension is thus effectively clamped to the steel wheel. It is suggested, however, that if this equipment were

to be constructed, the inner hoop could be omitted. The extensions would then be a permanent fixture with the horizontal bars welded to the steel wheels. It would be necessary if this were done to have alternative wheels with rubber tyres for other work. The horizontal bars on Mr. Colbran’s extension wheels are fitted 9in. apart, but they may require different spacing on other types of steel wheels which may be fitted with cage wheel extensions to prevent interference with the tread bars.

—L. H. WESTON,

Machinery instructor, Department of Agriculture f ' Dunedin