A Comparative Study of Actual Fuel Consumption and the Predicted Fuel Consumption of the Tractor with Chisel Plow

A field experiment was conducted during December 2019, at the Demonstration Farm of the Faculty of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, University of Alsalam. The objective was to compare the actual fuel consumption and the predicted fuel consumption of tractor with chisel plow. Randomized complete block design with three replications was used in this study. Three operating speeds of 3.41 km/h, 5.52 km/h and 8.4 km/h were set as treatments. Three methods of calculating fuel consumption were used namely, refilling (direct) method, first estimation and second estimation methods. The effective field capacity and field efficiency were also determined. The results showed there was a significant difference (P ≤ 0.05) between refilling method and first estimation method in the first speed. The first estimation method showed an increase the rate of fuel consumption by 33% over the refilling method. However, in the second speed, the difference was a significant between the refilling method and the second estimation method. The rate of fuel consumption was increased by 28% over the refilling method. In the third speed, the difference was significant among the methods of calculating fuel consumption. The second estimation method increased the rate of fuel consumption by 14% over the refilling method, while the first estimation method decreased the rate of fuel consumption by 49%.The results showed that increasing in the operating speed resulted in increase the rate of fuel consumption in refilling and second estimation methods. However, in the first estimation method the rate of fuel consumption remained constant in all operating speeds. The results also showed increasing in the operating speed led to a significant increase in effective field capacity and field efficiency. It can be concluded that the second estimation method could be used because it gave closer results to the refilling method at different operating speeds.