Combines lightbars and guidance

[Case_Farmer]

I have a lB4 Starlink (now raven lightbar) And i use a trimble for the antenna and reciever and ive been very happy with it. I might be buying a case lightbar sometime soon with the lCD screen but i still like that on mine it has large numbers to tell you what pass your on and how far you are from makeing your next turn. So overall ive been useing this for 6 years and ive been very happy with it Good luck with it and you will love a lightbar in the sprayer

 

[steve_farmer]

I have a trimble ez-guide plus. The first year I used it as a light-bar. That was a nice improvement over how I sprayed before. last year I got the ez-steer. I used it on a 45' field cultivator for chemical_fertilizer application in one pass. It worked really well. It is surprising how it looks like you might be missing some, but you're not. That showed me how I was always overlapping more than I thought. Then I used it on a 90' sprayer. I had no skips. We had wet conditions for spraying and it had a hard time in mud with the tractor rocking from side to side. I put it on manual steer in the muddy stretches. What also did not work so good was crossing ditches at an angle. It would get a bit confused until on flat going again. I would shut it off and steer manually straight ahead, then activate it again once the tractor was level. Now they have come out with the T-2 tilt_roll compensation system. I'm hopeful it will fix or largely improve both of these situations. It looks like a good addition for less than $1000. What I like is that I can move it from one rig to another in about 30 minutes. It is easy to make your own brackets for the steering motor to mount on older machines. All it needs is a steering wheel! It's really something in the dark, too. One more thing, it gives you lOTS of time to look back and really study how your implement is set, nozzles aren't plugged, etc.

 

[Bundy]

Currently run a Trimble Autopilot in conjunction with the 170 field computer and 252 reciever, using HP subscription on our 80 ft 3640 coupe and would not be with out it. Coupe's can be pricks of things to steer straight at the best of times, (try driving one down a sealed, uneven road at 37km_hr) the the the Autopilot does it easy, over banks, slopes, gullies, no worries and all I have to worry about is keeping the boom in the right place all the time while crossing all these obstructions. Repeatability is fantastic, 2 or 3 months latter it is straight down or withing an inch or so of the same track which can be adjusted by nudging if you want identical. We also have an ez-guide plus in the combine and main farming tractor, but after using auto steer you will never want to go back to visual guidence again. The biggest issue we have is the cost of transfer kits for the autopilot. Even though you have all the components already, they still want to jam you extortionary prices just for the cables_hydralic lines and steering sensor. Ie a kit for us to go from coupe to 4wd tractor - $13500 Australian. Despite already forking out a fortune for the original install and they won't let you do the install yourself despite the fact they have a step by step instructions that anyone with half an idea could easily follow. Also watch out for cabling costs, can be pretty hefty to, as trimble insist on using "special" plugs that no-one else can sell or supply, hence tying up the market. But in terms of reliabilty, accuracy, and backup (although rarely needed) it has performed very well.

 

[Bundy]

Currently run a Trimble Autopilot in conjunction with the 170 field computer and 252 reciever, using HP subscription on our 80 ft 3640 coupe and would not be with out it. Coupe's can be pricks of things to steer straight at the best of times, (try driving one down a sealed, uneven road at 37km_hr) the the the Autopilot does it easy, over banks, slopes, gullies, no worries and all I have to worry about is keeping the boom in the right place all the time while crossing all these obstructions. Repeatability is fantastic, 2 or 3 months latter it is straight down or withing an inch or so of the same track which can be adjusted by nudging if you want identical. We also have an ez-guide plus in the combine and main farming tractor, but after using auto steer you will never want to go back to visual guidence again. The biggest issue we have is the cost of transfer kits for the autopilot. Even though you have all the components already, they still want to jam you extortionary prices just for the cables_hydralic lines and steering sensor. Ie a kit for us to go from coupe to 4wd tractor - $13500 Australian. Despite already forking out a fortune for the original install and they won't let you do the install yourself despite the fact they have a step by step instructions that anyone with half an idea could easily follow. Also watch out for cabling costs, can be pretty hefty to, as trimble insist on using "special" plugs that no-one else can sell or supply, hence tying up the market. But in terms of reliabilty, accuracy, and backup (although rarely needed) it has performed very well.

 

[farmert]

beeline guidiance great company and better now that agco owns thems. I use it in a stx 375 cat mt765 and a 1254 rogator works great and you can move bettween machines in minutes. they are suppose to havea new one out that the swap dock sets on top the cab and only the screen is in the cab would not plant with out it. never had a light bar never will

 

[Case_Farmer]

lOl Glad to see something is better since agco bought them im not sure if rogator is

 

[Case_Farmer]

Thats the one with the lcd screen rightIJIJIJ is it easy to see in the cabIJ Threwout the dayIJ My grandpa has one in his rogator and they seem to really like it Also do you have the remote controllIJ ive heard that a must Also....good post...

 

[steve_farmer]

Yes, it is the one with the led screen. It is easy to see in daylight. For steering you use the red leds as your guide. I have the remote control. It was relatively cheap. One thing about the trimble auto steer is that it is the cheapest (no small thing) and most easily tranferable of all the auto steer systems. Trimble is also a company with their sh** together. The unit has an extra plug on it for future refinements.

 

[Case_Farmer]

Cool I saw that autosteer at the louisville farm show last year and yeah i think its programable for up to 3 machines and it looked pretty handy i think id want to keep it in slower moveing machines than a sprayer but im sure it would work in a sprayer too...

 

[todd08]

I say buy whatever lightbar you can get your hands on at a cheap price, that is at least 5htz, has changeable baud rate, can change Nema on, and has serial plug on it, and has the light arrangement which you think you can stand to watch to help guide you. As long as WAAS works well in your area. Rest does not matter in my mind. (Right outfit for auto-steer will be able to access for future steering use.) For auto-steer Think to the country where tractor driving auto steer originated, not talking airplanes. Then invision how your personal computer, fax, monitor, printer, cell phones, wireless stuff , and do your homework, the autosteer product is out there currently. You just probably have not seen it advertised. (How many different brands do you have in those home goods, probably many...I know I do. And I like the fact that not stuck to one company for any new age tech advance...you know the captive market effect if you have (JD or CNH) Yeah, I have a JD auto-steer, BIl had a Beeline for awhile, and Ole man has two Autofarm step-one's, Already converted the one on the Rogator, so as to have more features like contour, straight-line and auto-boom switching, maps. But if your an ole man and do not know much about computers better stick with the idiot proof stuff by OEM vendors is my atttitude.