Criteria for choosing a walk-behind tractor. top 10 aggregates

What are the capabilities of the walk-behind tractor?

When buying a walk-behind tractor for a personal plot, many begin to use it for cultivating the land. Not every amateur gardener is familiar with its mechanical capabilities.

Many additional functions allow you to perform a wide variety of types of work. Most often these are:

• plowing;
• landing;
• hilling;
• digging;
• mowing grass;
• winter works;
• transportation and transportation of goods.

Plowing is carried out using a special plow, which is fixed at the bottom of the device. It helps to plow deeper layers of soil, while mixing them together and gently cultivating.

Hilling is carried out using a hiller nozzle. It allows you to evenly process the rows of potatoes. Thanks to her, the upper layers of the soil are saturated with oxygen. The plant begins to bear fruit quickly.

Planting and disembarkation is carried out using an unusual nozzle in which the planting material is placed. It lands at the required depth.

Excavation of the crop is carried out with a flat plow. The tiller carefully moves along the row-spacing, thereby raising the upper layers of the earth along with the contents of the bushes. Modern models have special limiters that prevent crop spoilage.

Lawn care includes a rotary attachment that cuts the grass to the desired height. In some configurations, there is a special aerator. It allows you to enrich the soil with oxygen. As a result, the vegetation begins to grow rapidly and intensively. The lawn turns out to be dense and bright green.

Winter work is performed with a snow shovel, which is fixed on the outside of the equipment. Snow masses are evenly distributed on both sides of the path.

Division into classes

Motoblocks and cultivators are divided into three classes. The choice of class depends on the type of cultivated soil and the area of ​​the site. Distinguish between light, medium and heavy cultivators and walk-behind tractors.

• Lungs. Suitable for processing light, and previously already treated soils. They are characterized by low power and weight, as a rule, they have a small processing area in one pass. These are cultivators for summer cottages, small gardens and vegetable gardens with annual tillage. They are characterized by high maneuverability. But, due to their low weight, one has to make significant efforts to stabilize their position. This is especially true when working with light cultivators - you have to press well so that the cutter remains at the desired depth. It is very problematic to develop new areas with equipment of this class and can lead to rapid wear.

• Average. Suitable for working on medium-dense soils. Due to the more solid weight, processing is possible at greater depths. It can also be used in summer cottages, but it already works well on loams of medium "weight", fertile soils. Due to the greater weight, the equipment is more stable, does not jump out of the ground when working. Maneuverability is still high. Motor-blocks of the middle class are suitable for processing plots of up to half a hectare, with motor-cultivators of this type, work goes faster, although they are not designed for processing large areas.

• Heavy. Universal aggregates for processing any kind of soil, including for cultivation of virgin lands. Suitable for transporting crops, for working with other mounted implements (mower). It is advisable to buy if there is more hectare of heavy soils in the processing or two or more of light soils. Due to the greater weight and dimensions, maneuverability is less, but the width of the working strip and the possible depth are greater.

In general, it is easy to choose motoblocks and cultivators by class.For summer cottages, light and medium models of motor cultivators are suitable, for farms, walk-behind tractors are more suitable. The class will have to be determined by the soil and the size of the cultivated area.

How to choose a walk-behind tractor: a variety of types

To buy the most suitable model, you need to be guided by the amount of work. For these purposes, there are three options for a walk-behind tractor:

1. Lungs. These are motoblocks, small in size and power, which are suitable for a small personal plot. They don't differ much from a heavy cultivator. Power is about 74 hp, weight - no more than 60 kg. Solves the main tasks in the garden and vegetable garden. Suitable for processing up to 60 acres. It has a working width of up to 90 cm, therefore it is considered a universal device.

2. Average. More confident units that have more power (7 hp) and weigh up to 100 kg. They have 2 speeds (forward and backward), thanks to which they allow you to work on more difficult soil areas. The large mass makes it possible to deeply cultivate the land. More agile and stable vehicle. It is used for cultivating soil up to 1 hectare.

3. Severe. The most powerful units with high power (16 HP) and weighing over 100 kg. They are professional, intended for processing a large area of ​​agricultural land (5 and more hectares). They are quite heavy, so a certain physical preparation is required.

How to choose a walk-behind tractor

You need to understand what kind of land you will be cultivating and what attachments to use. If you have a virgin land that has not been cultivated for years, then you need a heavy, powerful walk-behind tractor. For an already treated area, an average walk-behind tractor is enough. And lightweight models are suitable for greenhouses, garden beds and small, up to 10-15 acres, plots. There is no need to overpay where a medium or light walk-behind tractor is enough - heavy equipment consumes a lot of fuel and quickly breaks down, working in a mode that is not optimal for itself. There is no need to save where a heavy walk-behind tractor is needed - a weak engine will not cope with the tasks set.

Most often, walk-behind tractors come with gasoline engines. These are modern models with a four-stroke cycle of work, economical, with good traction characteristics and a good resource. Major manufacturers are Subaru, Honda, Briggs and Stratton. Diesel engines can also be installed, but the price of such motoblocks will already be much higher. The main advantages of diesel engines for the end user are longer continuous running time and higher torque at low rpm. Economical fuel consumption in comparison with gasoline counterparts will be a pleasant bonus. As a rule, farmers buy such agricultural machinery, as it is designed for professional use.

There is a large selection of motoblocks and motor-cultivators of domestic and foreign manufacturers on the Russian market. The leaders of the Russian production are the Neva walk-behind tractors of the Krasny Oktyabr-Neva CJSC company. A wide range of models, an assortment of engines and attachments allow you to select equipment taking into account the tasks at hand. From foreign manufacturers, Viking would be a good option, which has conquered the world market with high quality assembly and components.

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Transfer type

The torque from the engine to the drive axles can be transmitted using various types of gears:

• Belt and chain. The most common type of transmission. The engine crankshaft in such models is usually located parallel to the axle of the wheels.To transmit torque, pulleys with a belt or a pair of sprockets with a chain are used. Sometimes the function of a V-belt variator falls on the belt drive - this unit usually reduces the rotation speed, but increases the traction capabilities. Sometimes a double pulley is installed instead of the PTO shaft.
• Toothed-worm gear. Such a transmission is very light and compact; it is usually installed on weak walk-behind tractors intended for use in private households. The crankshaft in them is located vertically, the clutch is usually automatic centrifugal.
• Serrated. This is the classic type and is commonly used on full size vehicles such as tractors. The transmission is reliable, but heavy and material-intensive, it costs a lot. Therefore, they put it on heavy row-crop motoblocks, which are advisable to use on a large area.

The country where walk-behind tractors are the most popular as a type of equipment is China. There are a lot of private peasant farms there, but there is no money for a mini-tractor. But in the USA, on the contrary, walk-behind tractors are not used at all - because there are no subsidiary farms there at all, and professional farmers use tractors. Russia is roughly in the middle: the walk-behind tractor is used here by the owners of private land plots, who sell the surplus to procurers.

Digging attachments

Potato diggers of various types are very popular among farmers. These devices save people from hard manual labor, speeding up the harvesting process several times. The digger for the walk-behind tractor has a very simple design. It can be made from the metal that remains after the construction and repair of the house.

For work you will need:

• Bulgarian;
• welding machine;
• electric drill;
• heavy hammer;
• anvil;
• profile steel pipe 20x40 mm;
• reinforcement 12 mm;
• tin (preferably stainless);
• bayonet shovel without a handle.

The digger is made in the following sequence:

1. Drawing up a drawing. The width of the digger should be within 25-30 cm. The angle of attack of the point is taken perpendicular to the opener so that the tool does not burrow into the ground.
2. The reinforcement is cut into pieces of a given length. With the help of a hammer and anvil, they are given the required bend.
3. A container for tubers is assembled from a profile pipe and sheet metal. The chassis or runners are welded to the container frame. The runners are made from pipes, and the chassis is taken from an old stroller, cart or lawn mower.
4. The holder and reinforcement rods are welded to the shovel. The drawbar is welded to the holder, which is fixed to the assembly container. Connections are made movable by bolts or hinges.
5. Rust and weld build-up are removed. The finished product is treated with an anti-corrosion agent and painted over.

Adjustment and adjustment of the digger is carried out using stands and steel ties.

In the kit for the digger, you can immediately make a disc hiller. You will need this tool when planting tubers after they have been buried in a plow trench. Hillers are made from old pot lids, profile pipes and bolts. A trolley is assembled from pipes and small wheels, onto which holders for lids are welded at a certain angle. After sharpening on the stone, the discs are mounted on the holders.

Types of motoblocks

Since we are trying to figure out which walk-behind tractor is better, we should familiarize ourselves with their division into different types, because this is necessary in order to choose the ideal model for you. To begin with, the division of motoblocks is by type of fuel - gasoline and diesel.

There are also walk-behind tractors that are equipped with a power take-off shaft, but they are not very popular in the modern market, since they have a rather narrow scope of application, and all because of their relatively low power.

These are the units that do not suffer from a lack of power, these are gasoline and diesel.

Generally speaking, they are extremely similar to each other - powerful, versatile, productive, have excellent cross-country ability.

However, diesel motoblocks benefit in terms of fuel costs, because diesel is cheaper than gasoline.

It is also worth remembering that diesel motoblocks are always more expensive than gasoline ones.

As a result, we get a picture in which the first place is occupied by gasoline motoblocks, and deservedly so.

Despite the fact that fuel is more expensive for them, they themselves are cheaper, work much quieter, are easy to operate and at the same time are not inferior in power.

Since they are still powerful, but at the same time quite quiet, you can easily buy a trailer for a walk-behind tractor and use it as a vehicle with an engine.

Within a large plot or village, such a solution looks quite interesting if you often need to transport something.

Varieties and features

A walk-behind tractor is a special technique designed for the processing of land plots with a small area. It includes a number of functions: plowing, cutting rows, hilling, harrowing. It can have attachments: a rotary mower, a snow blower, a brush, which is driven by a power unit. The possibilities of the walk-behind tractor are very wide: this is all sorts of land work, and the transportation of goods, and clearing the territory from snow.

1. Gasoline units. The advantage of these machines is power and productivity. Gasoline engines are quieter than their diesel counterparts, they are easy to repair and operate, they are lightweight, and their exhaust gases are less harmful to the environment. Today this technique is the most popular.
2. Diesel units. The main advantage of such equipment is the price of the fuel that ensures their operation. In addition, diesel motoblocks have increased power and cross-country ability, thanks to which it is possible to cultivate land plots with a large area. The price of diesel devices is higher than that of their gasoline counterparts. Whether it is a disadvantage or not is up to the buyer.
3. Motoblocks with power take-off shaft. This type of technique completely mechanizes manual labor and combines many functions. For example, they are used for planting and landscaping a lawn, cleaning the area from garbage and other household needs. Basically, the models are equipped with four-stroke engines with one cylinder and a splined PTO (power take-off shaft). Paired (motor + PTO) make it possible to use active attachments. Conventional walk-behind tractors transmit torque to active equipment using a belt drive - this option is less reliable. Having evaluated each walk-behind tractor separately, it will not be difficult to choose a specific model.

In what cases can a cultivator be used, and in which walk-behind tractor

The cultivator is the ideal machine for summer cottages and small areas. Some European, American and Japanese models can be used for professional work in landscape design, gardening, greenhouse farming. They perfectly loosen the soil almost to the state of fine sand or flour, destroy weeds, and the ability to change the milling width makes them indispensable in gardening.

In terms of their functionality, they are practically not inferior to light walk-behind tractors - there is only no possibility of transporting a trailer, but few people use light walk-behind tractors as a vehicle.

If your land is cultivated and in the future you need to maintain its condition from year to year by milling, then the best choice would be a motor cultivator weighing 30 - 40 kg. For greenhouses, you can choose a cultivator model weighing 20 kg.

A walk-behind tractor is a versatile tool that allows you to perform not only milling, but also other various operations. Therefore, if you only need cultivation, then you should not spend money on a walk-behind tractor.

A motoblock should be bought only if there is a plot of about 0.5 hectares, the need to connect active equipment and transport various agricultural, construction and household goods over short distances. Motoblocks, especially heavy ones, have the functionality of a mini-tractor.

In some cases, you can attach the cart to the cultivator. To do this, you will need to purchase pneumatic wheels and a special coupling. However, this makes very little sense, the cultivator itself does not have such power, and due to the lack of increased gears, its speed will be only 2 - 3 km / h.

If you plan to work with rear attachments such as a plow, potato digger, double hiller, then you cannot do without a walk-behind tractor. At the same time, the heavier the walk-behind tractor is, the easier it is to work with the rear attachments, but the harder it is to milling. To work with a plow, you should take a closer look at walk-behind tractors weighing 100 - 120 kg.

In addition to cultivating the land, the walk-behind tractor allows you to attach a mower for mowing grass. There are two types of such mowers - knife and rotary. They can be adapted for both hay and lawn mowing.

In winter, you can attach a rotary snow blower to the walk-behind tractor and use it to quickly remove snow from the paths around the house.

Recently, there has been a tendency to equip the walk-behind tractor with a front steerable axle and turn it into a four-wheeled agricultural machine with delivery capacity and breadth of possibilities for servicing a private farm, park and communal services, or a medium-sized garden and greenhouse economy.

When choosing the necessary equipment, first of all, it is recommended to focus on the volume and type of work for which it is purchased. It should also be remembered that the more powerful the walk-behind tractor or cultivator, the more difficult it is to control it. For pensioners and women working in personal plots, it is best to buy a motor-cultivator of medium weight, and for full use in a commercial economy, a walk-behind tractor.

The main components of the mechanism

As befits a moving vehicle, any walk-behind tractor includes a chassis as a base, however, it is distinguished from a simple trolley by the presence of at least four more components: an engine, a transmission, as well as aggregation and control systems.

Engines in walk-behind tractors almost always run on liquid fuel, electric ones are still a rarity. Newer models are usually four-stroke. Their two-stroke "brothers" are now considered obsolete. Since the unit is operated by a foot person, the engine is equipped with an automatic speed governor. By engine power, walk-behind tractors are usually divided into light (up to 5 horsepower) and heavy (from 4 to 10 horsepower), but power over 10 horsepower is very rare.

As for the transmission, in motoblocks this mechanism can be of one of four types. The gear transmission, most characteristic of ordinary tractors, is usually found on large walk-behind tractors. It is good for the ability to reverse, but there are alternative solutions.

So, the gear-worm transmission is valued for its compactness and relatively small weighting of the unit, and therefore it is usually found in light models. The belt-toothed-chain transmission allows you to achieve an increase in the agrotechnical clearance, thanks to which the walk-behind tractors equipped with it are more appropriate in loose soil conditions and are better suited for cultivating vegetable gardens.

Hydrostatic transmission is one of the innovations. Its widespread use is characteristic mainly of the last decade. They usually choose it for the sake of simplifying transport control, since it is easy to adjust the speed of the unit with its help.

The aggregation system is, in simple terms, special devices that allow you to attach certain agricultural implements to the walk-behind tractor, because without such accessories it is useless. On this basis, pedestrian tractors are divided into two main categories. Motorized cultivators involve the installation of additional equipment directly on the axle. Wheeled walk-behind tractors are equipped with a special bracket on which everything you need is attached.

As for the control system, it can be implemented in different ways in different models of individual manufacturers. In most cases, however, the steering rods are used to hold the machine in the correct position and orient it in the right direction. Since both hands of the operator are occupied by these grips during use, all basic functions are controlled from here: the clutch is often located on the left boom, and the throttle on the right. Light models usually do not have any mechanical brake at all; heavy ones also have one on the right boom. As for the more specific controls, they are usually not displayed on the rods - they are located on the same node that they are controlled.

Recently, manufacturers have also paid significant attention to operator safety. Although not all models have at least some of the following, when choosing a good option, it is better to overpay a little for a complete set.

Thus, special protective covers above the working cutters do not allow the escaping clods of earth or stones to fly towards the operator. Steering rods are often equipped with an elastic suspension that smooths out engine vibrations, because the latter often provokes various health problems.

A good walk-behind tractor also knows how to automatically disengage the transmission as soon as the operator releases the steering rods. This minimizes the number of accidents. Some manufacturers specifically limit reversing to a speed of no more than 30 cm per second. This avoids running over the operator if he falls.