IllinoisCollege of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental SciencesEngineering at Illinois
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Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois

U of IL Wins ASABE Quarter Scale Tractor Design Competition!

Published Jun 1, 2009

The award-winning 2009 Illini Pullers team after the awards banquetThe 12th annual ¼ Scale Tractor Student Design Competition was held May 28 - 31, 2009 at the Expo Gardens in Peoria, IL.  The Illini Pullers, performed exceptionally well in all the different categories of the competition to come out as clear winners overall.  We can once again be proud of their efforts and their representation of our department and of the University of Illinois at this international event.  This is the 9th consecutive year that they have participated in this competition and this is the first time that they have won the event.  It is the 12th year that the competition has been held.

A total of 23 teams competed this year, of which two were from Canada.  There were 11 teams in the X-Team event.  The competition incorporates many individual events for which the students gain points that contribute to an overall total.  The points breakdown is as follows:


Design report – 500
Oral presentation – 500
Design judging (manufacturability, serviceability, ergonomics, safety) – 350
Maneuverability test – 100
Tractor Pulls – 800

The tractor pulls are broken down into two weight classes of 1050 lb and 1550 lb and two pulls are conducted in each weight class and each pull is worth 200 points.  Incidentally the base weight of the machine must be no more than 850 lb.

We did have an X-team who did a great job with their written report and also their oral presentation, which was done by three freshmen.  Unfortunately they ended up with 3 out of 6 engines in the pulls because of a broken belt, but still did very well and their efforts will prepare them well for the design and production of the tractor for the next competition.

This year our tractor had 5 engines as opposed to 6 last year.  It was one of the very few with 5 engines.  Most tractors featured 3 or 4 engines with some having only 2.  As is usual, a remarkable range of tractor designs were on show and reflected some great innovations.  Some innovations of our own included a move from belts to chains, which turned out to be much more reliable with some help from Matt Whyte (Thanks Matt!).  This year we were fortunate to have an ECE freshman student Alex Suchko join the team and it turned out that his father has a business developing engine electronic control units.  So Alex adapted a control unit to install on the tractor and ramp up its electronic prowess considerably with some special features such as warning the operator as to when the machine needed to be serviced!  Alex’s father proved to be very helpful in this effort and provided much support including donating the equipment (Thank you Adam!).

Here are some specific results:

Design report: 1. Univ. Laval, 2. Univ. Illinois, 3. Kansas State Univ.

Oral presentation: 1. Univ. Illinois, 2. CalPoly, 3. Univ. Wisconsin, Riverfalls

Maneuverability test: 1.  Southern Illinois Univ., 2. Univ. Illinois.

Tractor pulls:

1050 lb – Hook 1: Univ. Illinois, Hook 2: Univ. Kentucky (Illinois 3rd)

1550 lb – Hook 1: Nicholls State Univ. (Illinois 2nd), Hook 2: Nicholls State Univ. (Illinois 4th)

Overall for pulls: 1. Nicholls State Univ., 2. Univ. Illinois, 3. Univ. Kentucky.

Competition Champions:

1. Univ. Illinois
2. Kansas State Univ.
3. Purdue Univ.
4. Iowa State Univ.
5. Texas A&M Univ.                  

One of the great stories of the event was the team from Southern Illinois Univ.  When I say team, actually it was only one student and his girlfriend!  They did exceptionally well and had a high quality tractor with what I think was 4 engines.

One other noteworthy aspect of the event was the involvement of the two founders of the Illini Pullers, Sean Landers and Greg Trame.  Both Sean and Greg have been active officers and leaders in the running of the ¼ scale tractor competition and it was really special to have them witness the Illini Pullers receiving the award and joining in the celebration (Sean and Greg, thank you for your continued support!).  John Eisenmann was also at the event and the awards banquet.  John played a major role in the success of the Pullers from 2003-2005 (John, Thank you also for your continued support and interest).

For more information on the Illini Pullers, please visit: age-web.age.uiuc.edu/illinipullers/mainpage.htm

For more information on the ASABE 1/4 Scale Tractor Design Competition, please visit: www.asabe.org/students/tractor/asaecomp.html

Chief's Vendetta, driven by Jacob KeslerChief's Vendetta at rest back home

 

Left: The Chief's Vendetta in action, driven by Jacob Kesler.

Right: The Chief's Vendetta at rest back home in Champaign.

 

 


For additional press coverage, please visit the following links:

http://illinois.edu/here_now/index.html#26318
http://engineering.illinois.edu/news/
http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news4813.html
http://agweb.com/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?src=MachineryJournal&PID=9af4cb1d-6bf9-476e-a3c7-3ef317f5a7fc

News source: Alan Hansen

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