One of the most important ways to improve the efficiency of agricultural production is to improve methods and means of determining the main indicators of tractors. Their performance directly affects the efficiency, economy and environmental safety of machine and tractor units. To assess the traction-dynamic and fuel-economic indicators of the tractor in various modes and soil backgrounds, its traction tests are performed. However, traction tests require expensive equipment, as well as a significant cost of funds and time to prepare and conduct it, which determines their performance only in conditions of machine testing stations. In this regard, the improvement of methods and means for determining the traction-dynamic and fuel-economic indicators of tractors that are acceptable not only for machine testing stations, but also for specific farms, is a very pressing problem and is of considerable interest. The aim of the work is to improve the methods and means for determining the traction-dynamic and fuel-economic indicators of tractors, by justifying and developing a technique for determining the reduced mass of the tractor, which makes it possible to reduce the laboriousness of measurements under operating conditions. As the object of research in this paper, the process of determining the traction-dynamic and fuel-economic parameters of tractors in operating conditions was chosen. The subject of the study in this paper was the establishment of regularities inherent in this process. The proposed method for determining the traction-dynamic and fuel-economic indicators of tractors and the measuring and computing complex that implements it, make it possible to obtain a traction characteristic (the dependence of speed, slippage, traction, hour and specific fuel consumption on the load on different transmissions on a given soil background) in operational conditions, ensuring a reduction in time and cost.