Choosing a walk-behind tractor for plowing the land - HouseChief - online edition for modern masters

Buying a walk-behind tractor, even if it will not be used regularly on the site, is a fairly serious investment, which you should thoroughly prepare for so as not to miscalculate and not overpay. What nuances need to be taken into account and what models of walk-behind tractors to pay attention to, says Nikita Didov, sales consultant of the Garden department of Leroy Merlin Ivanovo.

Cultivator or walk-behind tractor

A cultivator and a walk-behind tractor are garden machines that are used for tillage, caring for beds and harvesting in areas from several acres to several hectares. Motoblocks and cultivators differ in power and, accordingly, in the area for which they are intended.

Cultivators are produced with gasoline (power up to 7 hp). c.) or an electric motor - the latter can be powered by a home network or battery. They are equipped with working cutters, on some models it is possible to mount attachments, such as hillers. These are compact and maneuverable machines that are suitable for small summer cottages with an area of ​​\u200b\u200bno more than 7 acres. With the help of a cultivator, you can perform standard work: plow and loosen the ground, hill up beds on a plot with prepared soil.

One of the advantages of cultivators is that they are lighter and cheaper than walk-behind tractors. For example, the Sterwins Model-1 motor cultivator with a capacity of 3.5 liters. With. and weighing 35 kg is suitable for processing areas up to 4 acres. Due to the ease of operation of the device, you do not need to exert great physical strength. But it should be borne in mind that if such a motor cultivator is still able to plow the soil overgrown with grass, then virgin soil or clay is most likely too tough for him.

Motoblocks are produced mainly on gasoline running with engines up to 15 hp. With. (there are also diesel models that are more suitable for professional farmers). They are equipped with a pair of pneumatic wheels, and their weight can reach 140 kg, which allows the equipment to successfully cope with virgin soil and hard soil. Motoblocks also have the ability to mount a variety of attachments, from potato diggers to carts for transporting crops. These machines are suitable for complex work on large areas or areas with difficult soil: plowing, including including virgin lands, harrowing, hilling beds, planting and collecting potatoes, mowing, snow removal, transportation cargo.

In order not to overpay for equipment, it is important to make sure that you really need a walk-behind tractor. After all, there are many models of cultivators, often cheaper. Nevertheless, it is certainly not worth saving on your own nerves, health and time. A walk-behind tractor can save a lot of resources of the owners of the cottage - especially if the site is large.

Most often, a walk-behind tractor is recommended to choose in cases where:

• you need to plow virgin lands or a long-abandoned site;
• your site has heavy or hard soil that the cultivator cannot handle;
• the area of ​​​​the plot is from 10–12 acres - the cultivation width for different walk-behind tractors reaches 80–100 cm, and work in a large space is faster;
• in addition to plowing the soil, you solve other tasks - for example, digging, mowing, hilling, processing row spacing, snow removal, transportation of goods: the walk-behind tractor has much more opportunities for working with a mounted equipment.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that walk-behind tractors are heavier than cultivators. Therefore, when buying such equipment, you must either focus on the fact that a strong enough person will work with it, or buy a trailer or cart with a driver's seat for the walk-behind tractor. As for transportation, you should not worry about this: now in the network construction hypermarkets you can order the delivery of heavy equipment directly to the site.

One question remains: how to check if the soil is heavy on the site, can the cultivator handle it, or is it better to invest in a walk-behind tractor? Let's take a closer look.

How to check the density of the soil on the site

In order to understand whether an ordinary cultivator can cope with the soil or whether it is still better to purchase a walk-behind tractor, it is necessary to determine its density.

The heaviest soils are clay and loamy. They warm up for quite a long time in spring and quickly freeze through in autumn. If you do not know the composition of the soil, you can determine it empirically at home and without additional equipment. To do this, you need to dig a small piece of soil and clean it from pebbles, plant roots, lumps and other large impurities, so that only earthen groats remain in your hands. You need to add a little water to it so that you can roll the sausage out of the resulting mass. If the mass rolls easily, does not crumble in the hands, there are practically no kinks on it, then the soil is dense, clayey. Most likely, it will stick to the cultivator's active cutter or prevent the blades from going deep enough. In this case, it is worth giving preference to a walk-behind tractor.

Which walk-behind tractor to choose for plowing: power and engine

If you understand that you need a walk-behind tractor, you should carefully consider the choice of model so as not to overpay. Retailers may advertise more expensive options as more powerful and performant, but it's possible that you just don't need shock performance.

For standard 6-10 acres, models with a capacity of 6-7 horsepower will be quite enough. Usually they are also the lightest - 60-70 kg. If the site occupies 15–20 acres, you will need a tool with a capacity of 7.5–9 horsepower and, most likely, a trailer with a seat for it: manually plowing such an area can be too long and hard. Heavy-duty walk-behind tractors with a capacity of more than 10 horsepower are no longer the choice of amateurs, but of professionals with their own farms and large plantations of several hectares.

To make sure that the power of the walk-behind tractor is sufficient for your site, find out the recommended processing area for a particular model. At the same time, it should be taken into account that in an effort to save money, buyers make a common mistake - they choose a large area of ​​a walk-behind tractor with a minimum sufficient power (for example, 5 horsepower for 15 acres). But if the walk-behind tractor will constantly work at the power limit, then it will live less. Therefore, it is worth taking a tool with a small power reserve of 1-2 horsepower.

If you have to work with virgin or heavy soil, that is, basically plowing the land with a plow, even in a small area, a model weighing 80–100 kg is preferable. A light walk-behind tractor may simply not pull the plow along with it and slip on the ground. In addition, the tool crashes into the ground only under its own weight, which means that the heavier it is, the better the furrows will come out. Although many manufacturers of light walk-behind tractors promise a working depth of 30-35 centimeters, do not forget that this is the maximum depth, without taking into account the characteristics of the soil in your area.

Motoblocks of different classes are produced with gasoline and diesel engines. They have their pros and cons. A walk-behind tractor with a gasoline engine is cheaper than a diesel one, quieter, more resistant to low temperatures, does not require expensive repairs - this is the best option for an amateur with a plot of up to 15–20 acres. Of course, compared to a diesel engine, it has lower efficiency, tractive effort, resource and service life, but these characteristics are not required for a small area. Motoblocks with diesel engines are intended rather for professional farms, where work is not done with hundreds, but with hectares. The tool is characterized by a long service life, resistance to stress, lower fuel consumption - but its cost is higher, repairs are more expensive.

Which walk-behind tractor to choose for one-time work: equipment

It is difficult to overpay for a complete set in the case of a walk-behind tractor: almost all models are sold “naked”, without canopies. If you are planning a wide range of work on your site, you can also purchase additional equipment for machinery - for processing row spacings, chopping branches, planting and digging potatoes, removing snow, transporting crops and cargo, pump irrigation, mixing fertilizers with soil, and others works.

If you only need to plow the soil, either one cutter will be enough (sometimes it is included in the model package), or cutters of the desired type and plow, which can be purchased separately in the network of hypermarkets of goods for home improvement and garden.