Concept for the creation of a set of vehicles for tree planting - Version 1
In this document I will describe a set of vehicles that could be made to manage tree planting.
There are more than one vehicles in question, the main concept is that they must be specialized, for example:
- 1: A vehicle should be used to transport the saplings, and it would be nothing more than a piloted trailer that allows them to be transported safely.
- 2 : A vehicle would be used to transport the removed dead trees, and would be nothing more than a trailer.
- 3 : A vehicle would conceptually be a trailer that transports soil.
- 4 : A vehicle should take care of tree planting: this should be drivable and should be able to be used to dig the hole in the ground necessary for positioning the sapling with an auger. This vehicle should also have a pilotable mechanical arm to allow the sapling to be picked up from the trailer carrying them and placed in the dug hole. In this way it could be possible to plant even large trees, if the mechanical arm and this vehicle are appropriately designed.
- 5 : A vehicle should be used to remove dead trees (cut trunks left on site) and to collect and remove the soil attached to the removed roots so that it can somehow be moved to the dedicated trailer (even manually).
- 6 : A vehicle should be used as a drivable tank trailer for the transport of liquids to be used to irrigate the tree after planting or even in subsequent phases, and also have a part dedicated to the transport of fuel cans in case of emergency.
- 7 : A vehicle should be used as a drivable trailer solely for the transport of removed tree root remains.
These motor vehicles should have the part in contact with the ground (wheels or tracks) interchangeable: an intelligent design could allow both wheels and tracks to be used in contact with the ground and also be able to replace them, since, conceptually, they are always and in any case operated by an axle that rotates and transmits power to the wheels or tracks. For example, if tracks are not needed on the plains, in certain mountain areas they would be indispensable. The possibility of using both wheels and tracks for the part in contact with the ground would allow the easy use of these vehicles both on the plains and on the hills or mountains.
As for the engine, it would be important for it to run on fossil fuel (as it is easily transportable and facilitates management even in emergency cases). As for possible improvements in energy management and the fact that very often these engines would idle, considering the number of fossil fuel cars currently in use I don't think this problem even needs to be addressed. A good diesel or petrol engine would be fine. I understand that they may seem a bit "rough" as they were not designed with electric motors or driven by smartphones... but they were designed to be really useful also from a practical point of view, drivable both on the road and in off-road terrain (including even difficult mountain terrains) and can be achieved in a not excessively long time. They are conceptually "off-road" in the meaning that we give today to certain types of vehicles currently on sale, but with the addition of the possibility of using tracks so as to be able to truly do so without any type of problem even on very rough terrain. In addition to this, the choice to use a fossil fuel engine would also allow its use in areas where electricity is scarce or unavailable. As for the interchangeable tracks/wheels, they can be transported in a normal van, as the operations of replacing the wheels with the tracks and vice versa would obviously have to be carried out where there are still roads, and only in case of necessity.
Written by : Marco Bagnaresi
Email : contact@mbcraft.it