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In farm tractors, front end loaders are becoming popular attachments for primarily material handling such as loading, moving and unloading of woodchips, sand, gravels etc. It is also used for some severe load application such as tree uprooting and ripping operation which requires validation of loader frame and tractor as well. To validate the design, a standard pull-push test is carried out on tractor with loader in a laboratory. In this test front loader bucket is pushed against a rigidly clamped fixture with full engine throttle and maximum hydraulic cylinder pressure of loader. To avoid surprise failures during the test, a virtual simulation method needs to be developed and validated. In this paper, a method has been proposed by authors for the above objective. A multi-body dynamics model of tractor with loader is created in MSC ADAMS and actual event is simulated using test loads & boundary conditions.

A tractor is vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds for carrying out various agriculture operations like ploughing, rotavation etc. using implement. Hydraulic system is a key feature which connects these implements with the tractor. It controls the position and draft of the implement depending upon the type of crop, farming stage, implement type and soil conditions. These variations induces extreme range of load on the hydraulic system, thus making it challenging to design these components. Bell crank assembly is one of the main components of hydraulic system which controls the draft (thus, the loads experienced by tractor) through load sensing mechanism. Often bell crank assembly failures are reported from field due to uneven soil hardness and presence of rocks. This paper studies one of such bell crank assembly failures in the field. The failure was reported after half life cycle of usage during agriculture Operation.

The tractor engine related mounting brackets are very critical due to different aspects of vehicle performance, durability and noise. These mounting bracket have been designed as a framework to support engine external parts like muffler, exhaust tail pipe, alternator etc. Vibration and fatigue has been continuously a concern which may lead to structural failure and performance issues. Various such failures are faced regularly by automotive industry and finite element based analysis are used to resolve them. The resolution is done by playing with the component thicknesses, material, by providing additional support etc. However, due to large degree of uncertainty associated with the loading, boundary conditions, manufacturing, environmental effects; still there is some probability of failure. This paper focuses on a field failure issue of an exhaust system of a tractor and subsequent concern resolution.

A cabin on an agricultural tractor is meant to protect the operator from harsh environment, dust and provide an air conditioned space. As it is an enclosed space, cabin structure should be a crashworthiness structure and should not cause serious injury to operator in case of tractor roll over. There are International standard like OECD Code 4, SAE J2194 which regulates the crashworthiness of this protective structure. The roll-over protective structure (ROPS) is characterized by the provision of space for a clearance zone large enough to protect the operator in case of tractor overturn. None of the cabin parts should enter into the clearance zone for operator safety. In addition to meeting ROPS test criteria, the cabin structural strength should be optimized for the required tractor life. In this paper, simulation process has been established to design an agricultural tractor cabin structure and its mountings to meet the above requirements.