| bjhalbur - 4/26/2007 00:29
To your knowledge, does this improve the accuracy of the return passes or is this more needless junk? Or will RTK combined with this be a fix all?
I have personally used the Trimble system on a planter and I'll put it this way: one can not quantify how much a planter actually drifts until walking behind one with the implement steering off and then watching the implement steering pull the planter into place when it is turned on. RTK powered autosteer and implement steering is as far as you can go with what's available in today's market. I do not believe that simply shifting the tractor position is a good way to address implement drift, I believe it is more of a band-aid until something better comes along.
Picture side dressing nitrogen on 30" corn. You shift the position of your A-B line so that in theory, your toolbar will be running right in between 2 corn rows. However, your bar likes to drift. With a true implement steering system, the coulters will pull your toolbar back into place while the "tractor shift method" will do the same, but at the same time, shift your tractor position to where you could easily be running over corn rows. Another example would be planting into strips made by a strip till bar. Your strips will be in the correct spot with either implement position correction. However, you come back through with the planter and as we all know, planters love to drift, and will even do so with strips, but obviously not as severe. If for some reason your planter really starts to drift, your tractor can easily end up shifting its position to where your tractor tires are driving directly on top of the strips, ruining a nice seedbed.
It would be nice if one of the Trimble or AutoFarm representatives that watch this board would chime in about implement steering. |
jd iguide
