<p> Potato harvesting involves the important technological process of separating soil from potato tubers. Conventional potato harvesters equipped with rod-chain elevators provide a low soil separation efficiency (72–75 %) when operating on heavy and wet soils and cause mechanical damage to tubers (7–8 %). To address this problem, a new lifting-and-separating working unit, namely a centrifugal lifting rod elevator, has been developed. Its operating principle is based on the utilization of centrifugal force. The objective of this study was to determine the optimal parameters of the proposed device and evaluate its agrotechnical performance. Experimental investigations were conducted according to the Hartley-4 design as a four-factor multifactorial experiment with variations in drum rotational speed, elastic drum width, elevator speed, and working clearance. Experimental data were processed using the PLANEX software package, Fisher’s and Student’s statistical tests, and second-order regression equations. As a result of the optimization procedure, the optimal operating parameters of the device were determined as follows: drum rotational speed – 120 rpm, elevator speed – 0.94 m/s, and working clearance – 0.010 m. Field tests showed that the soil separation <br /> efficiency reached 81.62 %, while tuber damage was reduced to 5.74 %. The obtained results can be used in the design of potato harvesting machines intended for operation on heavy and wet soils. The implementation of the proposed design makes it possible to increase soil separation efficiency by 10–12 %, reduce tuber <br /> damage by 1.5 %, and improve labor productivity by 12.5 %.</p>