Cage Wheels for Wet Land Cultivation

Power tiller is walking tractor mostly used for rotary cultivation in puddle soil. For wetland paddy cultivation, the power tiller can puddle the fields with rotavator and cage wheels much more uniformly and would give at-least 8 times higher output in a day than bullock operated puddling. The cage wheel, in particular, provides a floating effect to the power tiller in wet paddy fields, in addition to puddling the soil. Pneumatic, rubber-tired wheels performed poorly in paddy conditions and the power loss of these wheels was about 66% of the total loss. Therefore the mobility of these wheels should be improved by traction aids or they should be replaced altogether by rigid, open, flat-lugged wheels, such as cage wheels. These cage wheels give high traction, support the vehicle by distributing the weight of the machine over as great an area as possible, reduce soil compaction and prevent it from bogging down. Cage wheels for these conditions are inexpensive and easy to fabricate, and can be made much wider than a conventional tyre. This book will help to analyse to traction performance on puddle condition.