Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | I bought a lease return Deere 8310R some years ago. The "newness" was taken off by a local vegetable processing plant when it was used on a dump cart for pea harvest. I had an Ag Leader steering installed on the tractor. The Ag Leader system works via the tractor's CAN system.
I needed to have a Deere third party unlock for Ag Leader in the tractor itself to utilize the tractor's CAN system for steering. A local Deere Tech performed this unlock. I was charged for this through the Deere dealership.
My Ag Leader dealer installed the Ag Leader system which required an unlock of its own within its controller. That unlock was done by the Ag Leader installer at the time of installation. I was charged for that unlock through the Ag Leader dealer. This meant that I didn't need to buy an external steering valve like I did for our old 8310 and 8120 but I did need to buy two unlocks.
The Deere tech said that when he installed the Ag Leader 3rd party unlock in the tractor itself, he noticed that there was already a third party unlock for a Trimble steering system unlock present. Apparently the vegetable processing company had a Trimble Nav II temporarily installed in the tractor while they were leasing it. This explained why there were holes drilled into the floor to the right of the seat. Actually that worked out great since the guys that installed my Ag Leader system were able to use a Trimble base plate that matched up with the holes in the floor to mount the Ag Leader ECU.
I asked the Deere Tech if he thought that the third party unlock from Deere that was already installed in my tractor would have worked for the Ag Leader system. We assume it worked for the Trimble system. He did not know but said that the unlocks do have different part numbers which may have just been for bookkeeping purposes. I said maybe my tractor is now unlocked for both and I could (although won't) use a Trimble steering arrangement in the tractor in the future. He was unsure of that either.
Later Ag Leader came out with a trade up program that allowed me to trade in the Integra and steering system towards an InCommand 1200, GPS 6500 and Steer Command. The unlock game remained. Fortunately the unlock in the tractor was fine for the newer steering system so that did not need to be redone. The steering unlock in the trade in steering ECU back to Ag Leader went with it. That meant that I needed an unlock in the new Ag Leader steering ECU. I was charged for that unlock again. I complained about this since I had already paid for it once for the trade in unit. Normally on a trade in program where unlocks are involved you are "given" the equivalent unlocks on the new unit. The Ag Leader Rep said she was not able to do that in this case due to agreements with Deere (maybe Deere gets a cut out of the Ag Leader unlock?). Anyway she was able to work out another arrangement to appease me.
Edited by tedbear 8/3/2021 07:01
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