Free-pivoting Suspension on One-wheel Two-row Walk-behind Rice Transplanter

摘要

The aim of this research was to simplify the suspension system of running device on a one-wheel rice transplanter. The free-pivoting suspension of the wheel was mounted on a modified rice transplanter with a fixation device installed for switching between the free-pivoting and the fixed suspensions. In varying soil pans of the field, the pitch angle of the transplanter with the free-pivoting suspension was maintained stably at an average of 1.8° on the soil surface, compared with 4.7° that tended to change with the sinkage of the wheel with the fixed suspension. With the addition of 98 N of weight on the wheel, slippage with the free-pivoting suspension was reduced by a half on uniform surfaces of the soil pan.