Transform Your Farming Experience Into an Exhilarating Experience With Solis

Today farmers can monitor everything from seed distance during planting to temperature and moisture control using the smart touchscreen panel with four-way video camera support and interconnection between the tractor and farm implementation tools.

Moreover, with Solis compact tractors and narrow tractors, you can take your endeavours to a whole new level at your comfort. On top of that, you can get an amazing warranty on every tractor of ours so that your adventures do not stop while we cover your loss. We believe that with solis you can transform your farming experience into an exhilarating experience by taking your endeavours beyond limits to new heights.

Speaking of technology, let us look at some of the most notable and significant tractor advancements in history that we ever witnessed-

Dream of Steam

Steam tractors were one of those first farm types of machinery that were powered by a steam engine for heavy pulling manoeuvres on farms.

Most of the first steam tractors were table steam engines and boilers that were mounted on wheels. Richard Merritt and Daniel Kellogg of Battle Creek, Michigan, are the known pioneers to develop self-propelled steam traction engines capable of moving from farms to farms.

While they started manufacturing stationary steam engines and sawmills in the year 1847, they also started manufacturing portable steam engines in the 1860s along with traction engines in the year 1875.

Hitting it with Gas!

The success of steam engines was seen in farms for years until it was observed that they were too big and cumbersome to be mounted on a mobile unit.

It was then Froelich and blacksmith Will Mann devised a vertical, one-cylinder engine mounted on a steam engine’s running gear to create a machine that could thresh 72,000 bushels of grain.

This was the first of those farm machines to feature a single-cylinder, 20-HP engine, and clutch.

The era of PTOs

A PTO is a device that is utilized to transfer an engine’s mechanical power directly to another piece of machinery. A PTO enables the source to transmit power to additional equipment that does not have a power source.

Edward A. Johnston was the person who came up with the idea of garden Tractor PTO. The first commercial PTO was manufactured by International Harvester in the year 1919 and was integrated into an 8–16 model. This machine equipped a three-speed unsynchronized gear system, four cylinders, and an 85-inch wheelbase.

Production Boom

The $395 Fordson Model F became the first tractor model to be mass-produced in the same way as automobiles were.

The Model F was manufactured in Dearborn, Michigan, between the years 1917 and 1920. Ford was able to sell these farm types of machinery easily to small farmers across the country since they were compact in size and easier to construct on an assembly line.

The Three-Point Linkage System

The three-point hitch is a commonly used type of hitch for connecting ploughs and other farm implementation tools to an agricultural or industrial tractor. A three-point attachment is the simplest as well as the only way of connecting two farming types of machinery together.

The credit to the three-point attachment goes to Harry Ferguson. He designed the hitch points in the early 1920s and patented the system in the year 1925.

The original design featured two upper and one lower link, although, most following variants came with two lower and one upper links.

This three-point system allowed modern hydraulics to be connected with tractors, allowing them to become something more than just hauling and dragging farm machines. Ferguson’s Brown Type A tractor was the first model to use A Three-point attachment.

Rubber Tires

In the early days, tractor tires were made of metal, generally steel, until the 1930s. The issues with steel tires were significant, since the clanging and banging across dirt roads caused significant damage to them. Needless to say, the noise pollution itself was a major distraction on-farm let alone the work.

Attempts to make substitutes for metal tires go back to the 1800s, but it wasn’t until 1918 that international harvester became the pioneer to use solid rubber tires on a manufacturing tractor.

Rise of Diesel

Initially, tractors ran on kerosene and gasoline but the innovations to develop a diesel tractor started in the 1920s. Once introduced it became crystal clear that diesel fuel, far more efficient than kerosene.

The D9900, better known as Old Betsy, was the first prototype of a diesel engine by Caterpillar in 1927. Later on, Caterpillar began manufacturing its first diesel tractor, the Caterpillar Diesel Sixty Tractor, in the year 1931.

Tractors Canopies

One of the reasons behind the lack of tractor canopies was that almost all tractor drivers previously worked with horses and were used to being exposed to the weather.

Early tractors even lacked a dedicated seat for the tractor driver, while on others, the seat was merely a wooden box carrying tools. Canopies did not appear in a tractor until the late 1920s and that too was available only on the largest tracklayers. However, there were some tractors with a canopy providing limited weather protection.

Way before the canopies, the 1950s had already seen an increasing demand for simple weather protection canopies. Such canopies were generally made of canvas and sheet metal, and were sometimes restricted visibility and provided negligible protection in major accidents, but drivers still welcomed the protection they offered from the worst of the weather.

Weather canopies helped change attitudes to operator comfort and safety as the driver became a key factor while designing tractors, resulting in a flow of improvements like controls and instrument layouts, better seats, ease of acc, and finally the canopies.

GPS

The concept of GPS in tractors started with the John Deere Precision Farming group. The team’s work fused with innovations pioneered by defence contractor Rockwell International Corp Vision System and the comprehensive field maps.

GPS proved to be a breakthrough to record harvest volume and match that data with location maps. Later on, this technology was paired with computers inside combines.

It was the year 1996 when JD and NASA collaborated to create the first GPS receiver officially for tractors.

AI and Smart Farming

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems have become so ingrained in the agriculture sector that pinpointing a specific era is impossible. With better gauges, sensors, and data-tracking, computerized tractors and combines became ‘smarter’ almost immediately after GPS became a reality.