Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | My reply yesterday was literally while my Steady Steer was steering my combine in rowed soybeans.
Two years ago I added an Ag Leader Steady Steer system to my Deere 9770 combine. Although the combine has a Deere steering valve I decided to use a complete Steady Steer system with my InCommand 1200 in the combine. Some might ask Why not use the built in steering valve rather than add on the Steady Steer motor?. My concern was possible conflicts with using Ag Leader steering with the Deere valve. This concern was likely unfounded. Besides I wanted the option of using the Steady Steer in other vehicles and felt that the "tack on outside the vehicle's own system" had better appeal.
The Steady Steer system works well for me in my combine with rowed soybeans. The soybeans were planted with a Deere 8310R with Ag Leader's Steer Command Z2 and a 24-30 planter. The soybean head is a Deere 635Fd which is 35' or exactly 14-30" rows. I move the InCommand 1200 and GPS 7500 from the planter tractor to the Hagie Sprayer and then to the 9770 combine as the season progresses. The GPS 7500 is unlocked for Terra Star Pro C with a paid subscription.
I can reuse the AB lines from planting or set a new AB line when harvesting. This works out well since the soybean head is exactly 14 rows meaning I have some "grace" on each end of the head if the head is perfectly centered on a planter pass. Of course the majority of the time I am harvesting portions of two passes. Since our land is basically flat by most standards, the "guess row" is never exceedingly wide or narrow. I do notice that the combine is not always perfectly centered on a set of rows but I very rarely have any problem just letting the Steady Steer do the steering.
However, that first year I tried using Steady Steer with the same combine for corn harvest I was disappointed in that it didn't keep me exactly on the rows.. The corn was planted with the same planting tractor and planter. My corn head is an 8 row so I am always on the left, center or right set of 8 rows. I felt that Steady Steer should work even better there since no "guess row" would be involved. This did work but the head was not always centered on the rows as well as I felt desirable.
I believe this was due to the inevitable planter drift where the planter is not tracking exactly straight behind the tractor at all times.
This lead me to investigate the Headsight Truesight 2 feeler steering system. I responded to an Ad from Roeder Precision. Daryl was vey helpful although I never met him face to face.
I purchased the Truesight 2 kit for my combine mid Winter. I literally laid it out in my basement to get a feel for what went where. Since the wiring harness is a general purpose arrangement, it has several branches which are not used in my combine. I placed tape over the connections that I would not be using (they are all inside the cab).
I have the Truesight 2 ECU on the floor of the combine cab and ran the various cables to their respective locations (feeler sensor, steering angle sensor, header height sensor, seat safety sensor etc.) I needed to connect an ISO branch to my InCommand 1200 display cable so I can use the UT capabilities for setting up the Truesight system. I did need to change the combine display cable since I was using an older cable and an adapter which did not have the ISO branch.
This means I have two steering systems in the combine. They both remain in the combine at all times. When I harvest soybeans, the Steady Steer motor is plugged into the Steady Steer ECU along with an engage/disengage switch. When I switch to corn, the corn head has a cable that plugs into a mate on the combine under the cab. Inside the cab I move the motor cable from the Steady Steer ECU to the Truesight 2 ECU. I also move the connector for the engage/disengage switch.
The Truesight 2 system then steers the combine based on the set of feelers on the corn head. This works very well. The system has various options for engaging/disengaging, however I just use a manual approach where I steer onto a set of rows, lower the head manually and start to steer as usual. Once I'm on the rows, I push the engage button and release the steering wheel. At the end of a pass I do essentially the opposite and disengage then do the turn around into the headland manually.
You mention that you have a Truesight system already. Is it the original Truesight or the somewhat newer Truesight 2? All my experience is with the Truesight 2.
You do not mention if you wish to use the Steady Steer in the combine for AB guidance at times such as I do. If you only desire to reuse the Steady Steer motor for feeler guidance in corn then it would not be necessary to install the Ag Leader Steady Steer ECU in the combine. The Steady Steer motor would need to have a high current power supply as that would be necessary for it to do the work of actually turning the wheel.
My arrangement may sound confusing but it works very well. Now that it is installed I only need to move the motor drive cable and the engage/disengage switch from one system to the other. I considered making a Y type switch to go from one to the other but felt it wasn't worth the effort. Here's a picture of the button that I use.
I believe you would be very happy with the final arrangement.
Edited by tedbear 9/28/2025 08:22
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