DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF A SHIFTED HITCHING SYSTEM FOR A MOUNTED PLOW

The common plowing technique with a mounted moldboard plow can often g enerate a plow pan. Plowing with all of the tractor wheels out of the plow furrow should decrease the occurence of this problem. A hitching device to be inserted between the tractor and the plow was designed to allow the implement to be offset laterally by 500 to 900 mm from its usual location with respect to the tractor. Field trials were carried out to check some performance parameters using this new hitch. Energy requirements for this new hitch were the same as for the conventional hitch. Specific pull, slipping and fuel consumption remained at 100 kN /m(2), 6% and 23 L/h respectively. The general stability of the moldbo ard plow was not affected by the use of the system. However, the use o f the shifted hitching system increased the vertical load applied to t he rear axle by 6 kN and made it more difficult to adjust the plowing depth.