Digging potatoes for walk-behind tractor: description

Landowners know firsthand that tilling the soil with your hands is a tough and monotonous task. Dig up the beds, plant seeds or seedlings, and then collect the harvest - hard physical labor, time-consuming. And harvesting potatoes is not one day. Today, there are many different devices for automating the cultivation of land.

Motoblock application

The first uniaxial constructions on two wheels for manual plowing of the earth appeared in Europe more than 100 years ago. Varieties of mini tractors were widely used in the postwar years. Today, few farms do without an easy and easy to manage mechanical assistant. Motoblock helps to perform many operations. This is plowing, cultivating and harrowing the upper soil layers, hilling and fertilizing the beds, harvesting.

For each operation, the appropriate nozzle is attached to the walk-behind tractor, which can be purchased at the store or made independently. Since harvesting potatoes is the most time-consuming and physically difficult process, potato diggers for walk-behind tractors are very popular. Among the devices used there are potato diggers, both factory-made and home-made.

Use of potato diggers for walk-behind tractor

In structure, all models are similar to each other, designs differ only in the mounting system to the walk-behind tractor and names from manufacturers. The principle of operation of a potato digger for a walk-behind tractor is that, digging into the soil, the digger picks up potato tubers and spreads them on top of the ground. After that, the crop is harvested without much effort from the surface. In order not to damage the potatoes, the diggers are attached to the rear motoblock. Small-sized, lightweight and easy-to-operate potato diggers are used in small summer cottages and on farms, where the use of tractors is inconvenient or impractical.

Manufacturers of some models of walk-behind tractors produce universal attachments for potato diggers. For motoblocks "Neva", "Salute", MTZ, "Favorite" and some others, the same devices are suitable. All models of potato diggers produced today are divided into three groups: simple lancet, vibration and conveyor.

Arrow potato diggers

Lancet or stationary attachments are mounted motionlessly on a walk-behind tractor and look like a simple bayonet spade with a metal comb of 5-8 rods instead of a handle. The sharp working part of the digger is directed along the movement of the walk-behind tractor and at an angle to the surface of the soil.

The heart-shaped "shoulder" is immersed to a depth of 5-7 cm below the potato planting, and the walk-behind tractor starts. Tubers are pushed out of the ground, the earth wakes up through the comb, and the potatoes are on the surface. The size of the boom is different for different models. Depending on the type of soil, light or heavy, a wide arrow or short and narrow is selected.

Screen potato digger

Vibration trailers have a more complex structure made of a rigid frame with a bottom made of metal rods and an inclined cross share on its own wheelset. A wide through bucket in front of the digger grabs a layer of soil with potatoes. In the process of movement, the tubers advance to the grate, the earth shakes off and the clean potatoes scatter behind the “rumble”. More complex devices have a transmission hitch with a motor-block engine, which drives a wheel with a flywheel. The flywheel levers connected to the bars of the grate periodically shake the “roar”, peeling potato tubers of adhering earth.

Conveyor diggers

Today conveyor diggers for potatoes appeared for motoblocks . Traditionally more complex and heavy conveyor suspensions, capturing 2 potato rows, are used with mini tractors. Single-row potato diggers are produced for motoblocks. Structures similar in structure to vibrational models propel the tubers to the rear through a conveyor grill secured by chains between two rotating shafts. Additionally, for cleaning potatoes from adhering earth, the conveyor can be equipped with flexible, for example rubber, aprons or a cleaning drum from reinforcing bars.

Digging potatoes for walk-behind tractor for power take-off

The mechanism that transfers part of the energy of the motor-block engine to the flywheel of a vibrating or conveyor digger is called a power take-off shaft. Thanks to this detail, compact and lightweight walk-behind tractors are able to perform the work of expensive and slow tractors, greatly facilitating the time-consuming process of cultivating the land. The modern market offers more than 600 models from domestic and foreign manufacturers.

Hardy and multifunctional walk-behind blocks are divided into 3 groups:

1. Lungs are designed for processing soft soil on a plot of up to 30 acres.
2. The average will cope with work on an area of ​​up to 1 hectare.
3. Heavy , equipped with a powerful engine and gearbox, will process hard soil on a plot of up to 4 hectares.

The power take-off shaft is equipped with medium and heavy models. Given the characteristics of the harvesting process, the PTO is usually installed in front of the potato digger. Chinese-made Kipor walk-behind tractors are characterized by high quality and a long service life, as well as a wide range of attachments.

Thanks to its maneuverability and low weight, motor-blocks with a PTO shaft are easy to operate, fuel efficient, low noise and do not require any special driving skills.

Self-made lancet potato digger

You can make an elementary potato digging machine, having skills in working with metal, from unnecessary parts of an old cultivator, a metal corner, cropped forks and other details. The design of a simple lancet digger consists of several elements:

• Bipod - suitable from the cultivator or can be made from a piece of round pipe.
• Plank - metal corner 5 cm by 5 cm.
• Tip - a shortened bayonet shovel or paw from the cultivator.
• Teeth - trimmed forks or rebars.

Parts welded according to the scheme into a single unit form the simplest potato digger.

How to make a screen yourself

Making a potato digger with your own hands for a vibrating type walk-behind tractor is a bit more complicated. The scheme can be drawn independently, taking into account its own dimensions.

It has been experimentally calculated that the convenient width of the structure is 35-40 cm, the length is 60-70 cm. The height does not matter, it also depends on the size of the wheelset on which the potato digger will stand. Wide wheels with a deep tractor tread are recommended for any type of soil. The assembly process takes place in several stages:

1. The manufacture of the frame. According to the selected size, a square or rectangular frame is welded from metal corners, channel, square or round pipe.
2. The jumper is made of the same material as the frame.
3. Racks ( 3 pairs recommended) are welded vertically down and should have different lengths: the first is long (for example 50 cm), the middle is 10 cm shorter, and the last is shorter than the first by 20 cm. The first rack is connected by a channel or a corner to the frame in this way to make a triangle. The lower ends of the racks are interconnected by crossbars (reinforcement, corner, channel).
4. A ploughshare made of an old plow, two sharp metal plates or a strip of sheet metal is welded to triangles.
5. Reinforcing bars are fastened by welding only from the share side with a gap of 3-4 cm. So that the potatoes do not fall out in different directions, the sidewalls can be closed with sheet metal or reinforcement rods.
6. The wheels are bolted to the middle strut or welded.

Homemade potato digger turns out to be strong, inexpensive and durable.