From the production and use of tractors, the main development trend of tractors is

1. Average power is continuously increasing. Regardless of whether it's an agricultural or industrial tractor, average power continues to increase to improve the single-machine operating productivity, but the growth rate has shown a downward trend. In North America and the Soviet Union, due to a large land area and small population, agricultural production is on a large scale, mostly using large agricultural machinery and equipped with correspondingly high-power tractors. In general developing countries, small and medium-power tractors still dominate, but their average power is also continuously increasing.
2. Wheeled tractors have an absolute advantage in agricultural tractors. In many countries' agricultural production, crawler tractors are basically no longer used. In the Soviet Union, Italy, and China, although some crawler tractors are still in use, their proportion is also declining. In industrial tractors, especially bulldozers and excavators, crawler type still has an absolute advantage. With the increase of tractor power, four-wheel drive tractors have developed rapidly. The application of hydraulic steering devices can solve the steering difficulties of this type of machine, and articulated steering can greatly reduce the turning radius. These factors have further promoted the development of high-power four-wheel drive tractors. In order to improve the traction performance and passability in paddy fields, four-wheel drive variants of small and medium-power wheeled tractors have also developed rapidly in countries such as Japan.
3. The safety, ease of operation, and comfortable working environment of tractors are increasingly valued. Well-designed cabs and various instruments can not only improve the working conditions of the driver and ensure safety, but also improve labor productivity and work quality.
4. The serialization, generalization, and standardization of tractors and their parts are important measures to facilitate production, use, reduce manufacturing costs, and simplify parts supply. In order to meet the diverse needs of the tractor market with fewer basic tractor models, major tractor companies in Europe and America produce one or several series of products. In the Soviet Union and other countries, there is a nationally unified tractor series spectrum to guide the development of products from various manufacturers. Developing basic tractor models with two or more power levels and certain organic connections, and their corresponding variants, to form a series of products, can maximize the commonality of parts between products, thereby increasing the production batch of common parts; or similar parts can be produced on the same processing line, and similar components and adjacent level tractors can be assembled on the same assembly line. This is very beneficial for making full use of production capacity and reducing production costs.
5. The application of hydraulic technology in tractors is becoming increasingly widespread. In modern tractors, especially large tractors, almost all major components are controlled by hydraulic devices, such as clutches, power shifting of gearboxes, differential locks, brakes, and steering mechanisms. In some tractors, seat adjustment and window opening and closing are also hydraulically controlled. Electronically-hydraulically controlled suspension systems have been adopted in some tractors. This device, due to the convenient arrangement of operating switches and the correspondingly shortened hydraulic pipelines, will be more widely used in large tractors.
6. Some components of tractors are subjected to random alternating loads for a long time, which can cause fatigue damage and affect the working reliability and life of the tractor. In order to further improve product quality, large tractor companies have invested a lot of funds and manpower to obtain the load spectrum of parts under various working conditions, organize simulation tests and stress analysis, and develop electronic computer software based on the accumulation of a large amount of experimental data for optimization design. This can not only improve product quality but also shorten the research and development cycle of new products. Advanced tractor manufacturers have already applied computer-aided design (CAD) tools for product design. The research and application of optimization design are also increasingly valued.