1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an implement supporting vehicle, for example, an agricultural or ground working implement. Although this invention is described below with particular reference to farming applications it will be apparent that the vehicle described is suitable for many other applications including road work.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A wide variety of agricultural and ground working tasks are performed by implements drawn or carried by the well known farm tractor. This traditional arrangement can suffer from some or all of the following disadvantages:
(a) Difficulty in operator monitoring by the operator of the working of an implement being drawn by the tractor. This is particularly the case with large trailed implements because the operator must control the direction of the tractor by looking forward, while periodically monitoring the implement by looking rearwardly and from side to side. Further, the "length of pull" distance between a trailed implement and the tractor increases as the width of the implement increases. Thus, very large implements of the order of thirty meters in width, can be up to fifteen meters behind the operator's cab.
(b) Large trailed implements are attached to a drawing tractor at one hitch point and are designed to be carried on their own wheels Accordingly, the implement must be a fully structured assembly including a long draw bar and usually built-in folding mechanisms for road transporting of the implement. While such implements are quite heavy, only a small percentage of the weight is transferred to the tractor to assist with traction The tractor must therefore carry added or built in weight for extra traction to pull the weight of the attached implement together with the induced load resulting from the implement doing work against the ground. Considerable energy is thus wasted in the transport of the added tractor weight and structural weight of the implement.
(c) The combined weight of the tractor and the implement also undesirably compacts the soil by the combined effect of the tractor and the implement wheels.
(d) The combined tractor and implement assembly is quite long and since the length increases with the size of the implements, large combinations become very difficult to maneuver. This presents particular difficulties in "strip farming" (long narrow fields).
(e) In the case of three point linkage implements, the width of the implement is limited by the weight of the implement compared with the weight of the tractor or the carrying capacity of the three point linkage on the tractor.
(f) Traditional farm tractors and implements are usually designed separately to meet differing specifications. Thus it is possible to mismatch implements and tractors which leads to inefficiency and sometimes structural and mechanical damage to both machines.