TRACTOR OVERTURNS: A NEW PREVENTATIVE APPROACH.

At the present time, there are no acceptable mechanical devices or systems for agricultural tractors to prevent or reduce the number of tractor rollovers. At Penn State, efforts toward this end have started. Mathematical models and analyses have been studied. The Penn State mathematical model combines the effects of roll motion due to surface roughness, tipping forces due to bank angle, and turns at various tractor speeds. A full-scale farm tractor has been instrumented with accelerometers. Data have been collected in the field that provide insights into the nature of the forces which tend to roll a tractor sideways when it encounters ground irregularities.