Yes, the idea would be to use a complete RTK system, but maybe it's not the right way to go about it, I don't know. I hope that the solution to making them line up is going to be fully integrated compared to using the ATU like we have been. I don't think that we see planter drift so much from terrain as we do just from how hard the openers go in the ground. We are relatively flat here- I'm looking out the window as I type this and I can see the front on my brother's house and it's about 3.5 miles away.  We run a head that is half the width of our planter, and keep track of the degree headings when we plant. Our combine would not follow the rows "good enough" this year. Maybe the 20" rows make it worse?, but I thought they would probably make it easier. We are putting integrated steering in the tractor and the new combine will have it as well, so we will have to see if that helps this coming season before making any final moves.

I agree with you that a feeler system is the way to go. There would be no doubt that you could follow rows. There is a company out of Europe that makes just such a thing and has a distributer in North Dakota I believe, but the cost is high. High enough that it just doesn't make sense to have when it won't with soybeans/wheat where the Autosteer actually creates a ROI.