The farmer brought out too small a 4wd tractor and that sealed my doom. I buried it to the axles, both the drill and the tractor. We had to lock the drill up, unhook the drill, pull it around sideways and then hook two tractors together to get it out of the mud. I did something like 23 acres today. Then, just after dark it started pouring, shortly after that the low seed alarms started going off. I got everything unplugged and planted out the rest of my drill load but I just came home.
Fellow I'm working for just got his brand new New Holland combine Repoed shortly before I got there to plant. Kind of depressing economic conditions here lately...
Strangely enough, the local Case-IH sales manager saw me from the road and stopped to talk briefly. Said he had nothing to sell me just wanted so say hello. I like him and he is a nice guy. I don't know if he understands that I am a lost cause. He told me they sold an Auto-steer GPS system to a local fellow for the tune of something like $35,000. Said they didn't have to use their drill markers any more. Didn't have the nerve to inquire further. Yikes! I guess I can stick with my ebay special non-auto steer system. You would have to do a lot of acres perfectly to pay for $35,000! But, wouldn't I feel like a BTO putting out my little RTK tripod. I wonder if you have to wear a white lab coat to make it work properly?
Although, spending $1,200 on a new helix antenna doesn't seem so much in comparison to $35,000! On second thought, $1,200 is still $1,980 more that I have. (Thanks to a generous contribution I now have $20 in my paypal account.)
I asked him to check if they made an autosteer valve for my 1984 White. (They don't-and they will laugh if you ask)
Posts
My mother-in-law used to have a saying, "Live in hope if you die in despair!" Don't know if it applies here or not, but there it is.
ReplyDeleteI know that expression too Gorges. Budde, seems to me when I get stuck in winter it is in snow and on frozen ground but then we do live in different worlds as this picture I took a couple of days ago shows.(If link works)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.redpowermagazine.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=88334
A foot of snow on non-frozen ground can get "interesting" but so far-so good.
I'm amazed that auto steer is not available for your White though.
Gorges, I've only got a week of planting left and my combine didn't get repoed. So I suppose I should be quite cheerful!
ReplyDeleteRalph, a three inches of snow on non-frozen ground is a heavy story for us. It shuts everything down for a day or two. When I asked the Raven rep at the Tulare ag show he said no. Suppose I won't spend more on guidance than I did for the tractor. It would be so cool! You going to put it on your Case?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBudde, I have this old fashioned non- progressive desire to steer my own machinery but I did invest in a trimble ez guide so I could at least see where to steer when pulling the sprayer. It was a real life saver and has preserved what remains of my sanity when trying to spray fields where the wheel marks were impossible to see. Just watch the little screen and follow the red line, so simple.
ReplyDeleteRalph, You have probably seen my GPS that runs on a PC laptop. I spent about the same as you but I have to do a lot more fooling around. I found a used Raven 210 on ebay and connected that to my laptop. I cant steer by those arrows. Or not straight enough for 7.5 inch spacing. (Not enough video games as a child.)
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand it works really good for spreading fertilizer and laying out lands for the plow at 4 mph and me REALLY concentrating.
Just stumbled upon this story and realize its a few years old but wanted to say that we have Outback eDrive auto steer on our White 2-180s and it works great. Definitely worth checking out if you haven't found something similar already.
ReplyDeleteJust stumbled upon this and realize its a few years old but wanted to say that we have Outback eDrive on our White 2-180s and it works great. Definitely worth checking out if you haven't found something similar yet.
ReplyDelete