Agricultural equipment with the strength of the calves!

[Grelinette]

Hello everybody

Right now, in my area there is a multitude of shared garden projects that flourish on all sides, and depending on my availability and skills, I participate in some work in these gardens.
Lately we spent a morning returning a field with spades and pickaxes to soften the soil to sow and plant ...

Fortunately we were numerous and the surfaces were reduced because a large part of the ground had already been plowed by the owner with a tractor (To the dismay of the managers and animators of the garden, horrified that a gasoline engine came to drag his tires aggressive on this land of organic permaculture!).

I then remembered having seen a website (American) that presented plowing tools designed to be implemented by a cyclist! (there was even a rather convincing video ...)

Would someone have the link to this site? (The link is on econology but I do not know where).

Otherwise, I thought it must be quite simple to make a kind of small traction module that can pull a tool such as a harrow, a weeder or other plow, and operated by one or more cyclists!

The idea would be to build a platform with 4 wheels including 2 agrarian on which we would fix bikes (from 1 to 4) maintained with home trainers.


Many participants in these shared gardens come with bikes, including pedelecs, which would be easy to fix on the machine!

Cyclists would train a heavy flywheel placed underneath, as seen on some fitness equipment, which would drive the tractor module to have more torque and power.

What do you think ?

As usual, if you have ideas and suggestions!

[netshaman]

I think that at the end of the same 5 min you will be so exhausted that you will drop!
Indeed the power that would have to go far beyond what can provide one or more cyclists.
Finally it 's just my opinion, I'm wrong maybe, the best is to try!

[Ahmed]

The use of wheels would require a strong reduction of development to obtain a reduced speed and a strong torque, however, a strong torque can be transmitted by a wheel only if it is applied very strongly on the ground by a heavy weight.

I therefore agree with Netschaman, the wheel is not the best traction solution in soft and uneven terrain, there is a much better solution: the feet!

In addition, changing an alternating movement in rotation to return to linear progress is a complication completely useless ...

Human traction must be based on animal traction, mutatis mutandis, I'm surprised, Grelinette, that this evidence escapes a seasoned user of draft animals.

[Grelinette]

That you are defeatist my friends!

I think that at the end of the same 5 min you will be so exhausted that you will drop!

You underestimate our calves!

While the total power may seem insufficient but I think the addition of a large and heavy disc playing a role of flywheel would add enough power and torque. In my idea, the wheels of bicycles would cause this disc in a high speed of rotation, which disc would cause the gear box ...

I still insist that there are examples of such machines that work. (Christophe, if you hear me !!! ... could you find the link to the site that presents this video? It is about econology ...)

To change an alternating movement in rotation to return to linear progress is a complication completely useless ...

It seems to me that this is the principle of cycling, which has precisely improved the principle of the balance bike by adding a rotary movement!

For the sharp reduction, I already get a gearbox mower self-range ... it seems to me to be a good material for this new DIY (in addition there is 5 speeds and reverse!).

Human traction must be based on animal traction, mutatis mutandis, I'm surprised, Grelinette, that this evidence escapes a seasoned user of draft animals.

Yeah .... I'm sure that if there was a bike suitable for draft horses, they would not hesitate to ride this pedals to be more effective!

There is the treadmill, but it seems less powerful to exploit the power of a horse ... That said, why not a human treadmill ?

[Ahmed]

However, it seems to me that it is the principle of the bicycle, which has precisely improved the principle of the balance bike by adding the rotary movement!

Yes, in a completely different context and in order to obtain a greater speed; cycling represents an improvement rarely achieved in terms of efficiency of human muscular strength in connection with a level and hard ground * (uphill, the system shows its limit).
As you note yourself, the trépigneuse is not a judicious configuration to transform a linear movement into a rotary one.
In agriculture, the rotary has imposed itself by the means of the thermal engine of which it is the natural mode of operation and because a heavy technology followed ... it has, of course, also, to what I note, heavily impacted the spirits!

* On the flat, walking deploys most of its effort in lifting and balancing and a relatively small proportion is devoted to propulsion; in the same situation the bicycle devotes almost all to advancement.
In the same vein, the oars propel a skiff more effectively than a paddle since it uses only the power of one arm, the other serving to counterbalance this force, while the oars, taking support on the tolets mobilizes all the power efficiently.

[Grelinette]

That's it, I found a video: the Culticycle pedal power farming
This is not exactly the one I mentioned but here is already a promising track!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4u87VhYFV0
(Source: http://farmhack.net/home/ )

Imagine a little this principle of agricultural machine, improved with a flywheel and implemented with several cyclists, some in VAE!

[chatelot16]

the great efficiency of the bike is to replace the legs by wheels on a beautiful road

so on a good road the bike is more effective than the legs which lose energy to support the weight of a man not to advance a lot while walking

but to garden like a digger, the gardener who knows how to use his spade is much more energy efficient than a tractor and a plow: the gardener who spades only moves the land he is digging, and not a tractor of a tonne

the smallest tiller makes 4kW while a cycling champion makes 500W ... so pedaling men to run a tractor does not leave me much hope

[chatelot16]

Another remark on the plowing: before the tractor there was steam engine, heavier and less powerful than the current tractor: therefore unable to roll in the fields to pull a plow: the weight of the steam engine which s' bunk consumes all the power

so the solution at the time was to pull the plow with winch and cable: and 2 locomobile at 2 ends of the field: each locomobile pulls each turn, moving slightly to make each row

I saw it in the books a long time ago and then in real life at the feast of St.

it's impressive when you're in the middle of the field to see the plow move forward without any noise from tractor: the earth runs on the plow making the sound of a boat splitting the water

and some old 15ch steam engine do a job that looks like a 50ch tractor, because it does not move a tractor, because there is no wheel energy loss wading in from the ground too mole: there is only the plow that moves

So you could imagine 2 pedal winch to 2 end of the field to pull a small plow

can it be more effective than every man with a spade?

[Remundo]

good remarks from Chatelot.

And besides, a tiller does not get tired ...

Do you have to stop bioblocking? In fact, you will cry very quickly ... To operate sustainably an agricultural machine, even a small one by the strength of a man, it is insurmountable.

Just take a bio-ethanol tiller

[chatelot16]

ethanol he already drank
when I fill a tank with E85 it makes me thirsty: it smells of hooch more than gasoline