The Culticycle is a novel idea over at Farm Hack, a website dedicated to the small entrepreneurs looking at innovation in farming. While just a proof of concept in these pictures and videos, the idea is a pedal powered tractor that can do what many small tractors do well, but without consuming fuel. It can do most low-horsepower tasks such as cultivating, spraying, seeding, or moving small bits of gear around.
This prototype was built from a variety of parts, that consist of:
- The front ends of 2 bikes welded together at 42” on center;
- A lawn tractor differential mounted in a unistrut rectangle for a rear end , with 3/4″ round axles and 20” ATV tires;
- A bike frame welded above the rear end with motorcycle sprocket and chain driving the differential (a spring-loaded idler tensions the chain);
- A belly mount lift to hold cultivators, seeders, etc.;
- A bike handlebar, separate from the bike frame and joined to the front end, steering the front wheels.
It is actually pretty cool to watch the video and see the solutions to common cycling problems (chain tension), and the ways they came up with to solve them, without knowing about the traditional bicycle methods.
The prototypes are built from rebar, unistrut, landscape rake tines, and parts from bikes, an ATV, and a lawn tractor. They wanted to show that human pedal power can do some jobs of small tractors. It would take more time and physical effort, but be less costly, better on the environment, and better on the health of the farmer. They say this one was built for testing, and they are working on bringing an affordable product to market. Click past the jump to see the video explanation of the machine, and a few shots of it at work…
