Ploughing tractor trials Naver Forest
Forestry Commission copyright image of Forest Research photographs courtesy of Glenn Brearley, Roslin. Nil Ref No
Fiat 100C with apical tracks and driver Jocky Banks at the forest roadside having repairs to the winch motor which is missing, the hydraulic feed hoses have been coupled to each other around the winch handle. Jocky Banks lived at Ardgay near Bonar Bridge and like many other tractor drivers worked away from home most of the time.
There is no information on the ploughing tractor work study trials at Naver Forest but Mike Lofthouse may have been looking at the effectiveness of the apical track plates. There are several views of the tractor (FC62402) showing the profile of the track plates which were designed to work more effectively on soft peat giving higher drawbar pulling power before the vegetation surface was peeled off by the tracks. This may indeed have been the case but it was very obvious that the apical track plates damaged the fragile peat vegetation surfaces much less and tractors could pass a number of times more easily without severe damage. They could also slew more easily on the curve of the apical track plate with correspondingly much less tearing damage to the vegetation surface.
In some shots the winch is complete with hydraulic motor. Photographs by Mike Lofthouse.
See PDF for more views.
Download Large Version (173kB)
Groups: Forest Research, Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Tractors Ploughs and Drainage Machines