At a glance
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Tractor test lab started because of a disgruntled farmer.
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Established in 1920, a Waterloo Boy Model N was the first tractor tested there.
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NTTL is the gold standard as a testing facility for the world.
The Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory (NTTL), located on East Campus at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln, is at the helm of many key international developments in tractor technology performance and power standards.
And it all began with a frustrated early 20th-century farmer.
It was 1916. Wilmot Crozier, of Osceola, Neb., was dissatisfied with the performance of his Ford Model B tractor (no connection to the company founded by Henry Ford). He found his tractor undependable and had trouble getting parts and maintenance.
“Crozier was buying tractors that weren’t meeting their claims,” NTTL test engineer Justin Geyer says. “They weren’t doing what they were supposed to. And then there were other tractors that were exceeding [farmer expectations and company claims].”
Geyer, a UNL alum, worked as a student employee at the test lab and returned in 2012 as a research test engineer.
There should be a law
In 1919, Crozier was elected to the Nebraska state legislature and advocated for a bill requiring that any model of agricultural tractor sold in the state must verify its advertised performance claims. The Nebraska Tractor Test Act was passed, and the law still exists today with very few modifications from the original bill.
NTTL was established in response to requirements of that bill. “They didn’t mess around,” Geyer says. “They got started right away.”
The requirements included testing advertised claims, having at least one tractor parts warehouse and one repair facility in Nebraska, obtaining permits to sell tractors issued by the State Railway Commission (now the Department of Agriculture), and establishing a board of engineers at the university to develop the test procedures and review all test results.
The first tractor test, involving a John Deere predecessor called Waterloo Boy Model N, was completed on April 9, 1920.
In the early years, tractor testing consisted of measuring claims for drawbar and belt horsepower and fuel consumption. For belt horsepower measurements, the flat-belt drive on the tractor was connected to a dynamometer. The dynamometer is a generator, so as the tractor turned the stator, it generated electrical energy.
A scale and lever arm were used to measure torque produced. The stator speed also was measured, allowing the tractor’s horsepower to be calculated. As the load changed, it was determined how hard the tractor had to work. For drawbar testing, a load car was built by adding a portable dynamometer to a tractor frame that was then pulled in reverse.
Same procedures
Much of the tractor testing today is identical to the procedures of the original laboratory. Among the tests conducted are power-take-off (PTO) tests, drawbar tests, rollover protective structure tests and tests of sound levels in tractors. “It used to be agricultural walk-behind tractors starting at 1.4 horsepower,” Geyer says. “Now it’s 100 HP and above. On average, we test 20 tractors a year, and sometimes 15 in a season. We could have a 75-HP tractor and a 700 HP in the same season, so we need to be pretty flexible.”
Roger Hoy is the director of NTTL and a professor in the UNL biological systems engineering department. “Something that makes NTTL unique is that we’re on a university campus,” Hoy says. “We have the opportunity to allow our students to participate in our work and to learn the profession that will be expected of them when they leave the university. That’s something UNL offers that no other college in the world that I’m aware of can offer.”
“We’ll hire 15 to 25 students, and they’ll come down and work for a couple hours. It’s good for them, and then they go out and work for AGCO, Deere or Case and have an advantage,” Geyer says.
Like Geyer, Doug Triplett attended UNL and returned to NTTL in 2012 as a test engineer. “When the tractor manufacturer comes to the lab, we usually start inside on a PTO dynamometer. That’s usually where the horsepower claim is,” Triplett explains. “Most manufacturers that come here actually run this test before they bring the tractor, so they know what they’re going to get.”
Backing up the claims
“We’re following all the same rules as the law, so if they make a claim on any of their advertisements or anything, they need to come down here and prove [it],” Triplett says. “If they can’t meet that claim, they will not be issued a permit to sell that tractor in Nebraska without redoing advertisement claims. If they have already sold one, they…
Read More: Behind the scenes at Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory