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North west MN | I would have to strongly disagree with you and would say the accuracy of a EZ-Steer is greatly improved when using RTK and it gets good enough to be used in repeatable row crop applications.
I have several EZ-Steers running on RTK and 2 autopilots running on RTK. The EZ-Steers are mostly on Combines and 4 Wheel drive articulated tractors. The way it works for me is I can get the EZ-Steer to stay within 2 inches of the GPS used on most applications. When using WASS the GPS can drift so you add the drift from wass and the 2 inch error from the EZ-Steer it becomes more of an error problem but most of the error is from the GPS not the EZ-Steer when using WASS. But when I use an EZ-Steer with RTK the GPS error is less than an inch and all I have to deal with is the 2 inch or less error from the EZ-Steer. Last year 2006 I planted all my 22 inch row crops with the EZ-Steer and RTK and was very satified I was able to use the same AB lin for planting and spraying and harvesting. I wanted a little more accuracy so This year I planted with a 4640 and a 4840 both had hydraulic autopilots and RTK. I was able to cultivate and spray using the autopilots on the JD's Now when harvesting the beets it is hands free from one end of the field to the other. Normally at this time of the year my left shoulder is so bad I am in a sling from steering and staying on the row. Now getting back to the EZ-Steer I used it in the combine with RTK this fall and I can follow the rows with the EZ-Steer from one end to other without nudging. So EZ-Steer has its place with RTK. Now I have a friend that planted with the EZ-Steer using OmniStar and also sprayed with it following 22 inch rows talked to him yesterday and he put the EZ-Steer in the combine and the EZ-Steer is following the corn rows without any problem. So you can’t say the EZ-Steer won’t make use of RTK. I would say that RTK makes the EZ-Steer more useable and nearly a Hydraulic autopilot with some fine tuning.
The drawbacks I see with the EZ-Steer are not being able to use it in reverse, not being able to stop and start with out it disengaging or below 1 MPH, you will get a little wiggle from the EZ-Steer that can be fine tuned to 2 inches or less from the GPS signal on most well maintained tractors, The other thing is it is best if the operator of a tractor with EZ-Steer knows how to calibrate it and fine tune it without getting someone else to do it for them were the Hydraulic autopilot just works.
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