About Tractor Parts & Repair: Our site brings you the info and resources you need to care for your tractor. Learn more about Tractor Camshaft here, and find the parts you need to maintain your tractor and keep it at optimal performance.
Tractor Camshaft
For decades the major weakness of the camshaft in a tractor has been its weight. The weight of these camshafts would prevent them from rotating freely, making for poor steering control and overall poor performance on the back of the tractor. The weight of the camshaft also meant that they were not very fuel efficient, especially in big tractor and particularly in those with big engines. In the 70's changes to the camshafts started to include heavier materials and heavier axles, which improved the performance considerably, but they still weren't quite as easy to handle as lighter spring-tractor camshafts.
Then in the early 1980's a new idea was brought forward: instead of adding a big heavy camshaft onto the back of the tractor, why not make two small camshafts. By using a two-sided camshaft it was possible to add the weight of the tractor directly to the wheel axle, increasing the weight and decreasing the amount of fuel needed for the tractor. These camshafts are still used in some small tractor models. The problem is that their effect on tractors is very limited, because they are not particularly efficient or powerful, and so they need to be supplemented by the extra weight of other materials, such as castors or rollers.
There have also been attempts to design special truck camshafts, but these too have proved to be very poor affairs. A camshaft is an important part of any engine, so any replacement for a camshaft needs to be carefully considered. If your tractor has a camshaft, you need to know exactly what it is doing and what problems it can be solving, otherwise there is a strong chance that the whole system will need replacing very soon.