Combines Chances of having GPS guidance on STX or NH TJ tractors

[John_W]

Check with Trimble at www.trimble.com. They are one of the leaders in the GPS ag market and I know they have autosteer systems that work on CIH row crop tractors so I'll bet they have you covered. A swath marker that you still have to manually steer to follow has been available for several years for less money.

 

[todd08]

Yes, I realize Companies like Trimble have are introducing some add on self steering capabilities but at tremendous cost up to $50,000. And yes I am acknowledge that their are swath guidiance light bars, My brother-in-law owns one and it works very well for his spray pickup, but I can tell you that if you think you can consistantly drive a straight row off of it your crazy or you will go crazy watching the little lights. He thought he could use it on his Cat 45 to plant his corn, It didn't take him long before he turned it off and relied on the planter markers. I know that the STX has a whole lot of extra wires and harnesses in the tractor and the company gu ru's had said they are capable much more new gadgets, just wondering if anyone knew if they were playing with this. I have a hunch that they can not do it so easily. The JD crawler steering is electric over hydraulic so to speak, (Deere has speed sensitive steering etc. The electric part is what makes it so easy to program this, and to add on the self steering GPS does not take that many extra dollars to buy, the good part. Most tractors steering are all hydraulic.

 

[John_W]

I suspect the tractor electro_hydraulic_mechanical part of the auto steer systems is the cheap part. Those high dollar auto steer systems by Trimble this outfit,http:__www.gpsfarm.com_cgi-bin_inx.plIJfn=farm:Autofarm, are expensive because of the very high accuracy, ie. less than 1" which requires an extra GPS transmitter near by and some pretty high tech computers. The swath markers are not as accurate and only use corrected GPS signals to operate. I see that Cat is advertising some kind of a auto steer system on their new MT700 row crop tractors, but I know nothing about it. I suspect autosteer systems will become much more common in the near future. Wonder how the ag plane pilots manage to keep the light in the center on their GPS swath markers while flying an airplane that close to the ground. Must be exciting.

 

[jd9750]

We rode in a MX240 with Trimble GPS hooked up to it at The Farm Progress Show.We found it very easy to use and it stayed in straight line after it was programmed.In the 2000 FPS we also drove a STX275 with accusteer and that tractor really turns tight.

 

[shellman]

FYI. GPS steering accuracy unless you are really close to a differential does not at this time offer great enough accuracy for planting. Talking sub meter at this time. OK for spraying etc. The STX Accusteer does show in it's wiring schematic an RS-232 port for the steering controller. Just let you imagination run.