Do you own your tractor?

NOT the operating or diagnostic software, for sure!
Farm tech nightmare

Not good news. I know a lot of people who plan ahead for fall of society scenarios, and according to this, their farming equipment won't be useful for long. Those roaming bands of city-ots won't be finding food out in the country.

Trying to help a neighbor/friend with his 7420. It has an electrical gremlin somewhere. The only place I've ever seen so many wires and control boxes is on a twin airplane. I don't remember if he counted 5, or 7 modules. (I've only seen the ones on the back of the cab).

Electronics have helped our cars and trucks with efficiency and reliability. But the amount of electrical stuff on this tractor has gone too far.

My newest tractors are mid 90's and they have plenty of electronics. The European one is worse. Just one of the many areas of life where if we are going to survive, we had better look back to the people and ways which built this country, and not be looking to other countries.

I'll toss this in. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for code readers to come out for the new equipment either. Demand would be so low that they would be cost prohibiting to purchase and a lot of the guys buying new pay for all their maintenance today.

Rick

Step 1, buy a service manual... yes they are available. Next spend enough time reading it to understand what can be done. Even on Deere equipment, there is a lot that can be done even without the laptop, but you need the instructions. The biggest failing is the lack of "good" techs who can handle the informationavailable to them.

Automotive code readers are no longer in fashion
either. Now it's an umbilical cord to a computer
connected live on line with manufacturer's
website. Website constantly being updated with new
information as users (subscribers) use the data,
and find new problems to diagnose.

Want to know how far this has gone? Some cars make
you reset the computer if you simply replace a
tail-light bulb.

60 Minutes is going to air a segment this weekend that shows a computer hacker completely taking control of a new car and being able to disable the brakes, turn on the wipers, basically take control of the car. All remotely from a laptop.

Pretty scary stuff.

Gene

I wonder if that hacker can get the wipers to work on my 1964 Ford F600?

Just another reason I appreciate my 1950-era Fords and Farmall.

(quoted from post at 16:07:36 02/06/15) Just another reason I appreciate my 1950-era Fords and Farmall.

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eah,..i too will stick to the old and proven mechanical technology of yesteryear. If i can't pull start a tractor i don't want it.

The only electronics in my tractor is the voltage regulator in the alternator.

The newest tractor on this farm is a 96. That thing is way too advanced as it is. I don't see me ever buying a brand new machine. I used to say that someday I would as a present to myself. I would rather buy another low hour 4440 as a present to myself. The A/C is fantastic, it has lots of good power, and I can repair it if something goes wrong. And if I want to shut it off? Pull that cable that's attached to the valve in the pump. That's high tech enough to do field work around here.

Now, the 7800 and 4440 have quite an array of monitors for implements in them. I think to be competitive and make money you have to be far more precise and use the tools that will do that. That means a tractor from the late 70's has GPS, sprayer controllers, seed monitors, etc. I won't ever need autosteer. I feel like enough of a dope watching the GPS monitor to farm a field. The combine is a 93. I don't need any more monitors than it has. As long as it keeps ticking it has a spot in the shed. I have a lot more years in the business. Every year that passes means I have less time for things I can't problem solve in the field. If I blow a water pump I know how to change one. If a sensor puts a machine into limp mode I would be dead in the water. And taking on water.

The thread title had me going for a bit - I thought it might have been about folks whose tractors owned them. I suspect mine own me.

The only electronics in my tractor is the voltage regulator in the alternator.

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I one-uped ya - I put the Pertronix electronic ignition on my gasser, but I kept the points and condenser, just in case.

The only "software" I ever plan to have on a tractor will be fully user serviceable, and that being the cushion on the seat.

A neighbour has a JD 200R. When he took delivery of it he went to try plowing with it. He was adjusting the plow to the new tractor, and so he would make a round in the field and stop to adjust it again. The temp gauge showed it to be a little warm making individual rounds, but one he got the plow adjusted properly the brand new tractor got hot, so he stopped to see what the trouble was. He couldn't figure out what was going on, so he went to the house to call the dealership. Before he got to the house, the repair truck from the dealership drove up the driveway. The neighbour asked the mechanic "what are you doing here, how do you know I'm going to call you?" The mechanic told him that his tractor had sent an email to JD headquarters saying what was wrong, and JD headquarters had sent an email to the local dealer telling them to go to his farm because his tractor was broken, and what was wrong. That's just too creepy for me.

Hi The computer diagnostics can be a pain if the computer won't accept it's plugged into the tractor. we had that problem with a tractor in the dealers I worked at. It took The distributors man 2 days, and asking his work buddys what was wrong. to diagnose it. There was a 3 milli amp fuse blown in the system. we Changed that and the computer worked to supposedly tell us what was wrong. It turned out there was no codes!. it was that stupid fuse we couldn't find as it wasn't in the shop book diagrams, had shut the computer down!. It's a good job that machine was under warranty, if not that fuse would of cost $2000 in shop time and 60 cents for the fuse!.

I also hear from a good authority you don't want to miss payments on newer Cat combines. A guys machine stopped dead in the field. They called the dealer, the tech came plugged the comp in and said $45.000 will fix the problem. The owner coughed and said whats wrong for that money. The dealer tech said pay what you owe and Cat will turn it back on!.

I know a guy drives one of those JD self diagnostic tractors, and the mechanic phones him to find out what field it's in once in a while.
Regards Robert

This has been going on to some extent in the combines for ten years or so. Some sensor gives a false code and the header won't kick on, or the unloading auger wont run and on it goes. On the last combines I was wrenching on a few years go the computer wouldn't let anything work if the alternator wasn't sending out pulses. The combine sat there functionless until the problem was found. We lost many, many, many hours due to electrical problems, mainly computer oriented. Sometimes I felt like just running a jumper wire to something but I was afraid of blowing the $5000 computer board. A couple of times I did get brave and run a jumper wire to get the function going and it worked. Those systems work mainly on grounds. The ground is controlled instead of the hot. There are certain grounding points to check on the machine. If all is good there, plan on spending a day in the 100+ degree sun crawling around on it checking components. Ten years ago a Deere mechanic told me they usually plan on spending two days hunting and searching when a computer glitch comes up.