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Australia | Art,
Your post was straight and fair information up until your last sentence. It is a bit strong to say that anyone buying a new product (if they can't find a neighbor with one) will "surely be disappointed" by it. Your earlier advice to the poster was better. Ask the new manufacturer for dealer names and customer names who are using the new product and call them to find out for yourself. Don't just take the advice of a competing dealer with a lot to lose because that advice will 'surely' be biased against the new product.
As a senior Trimble executive you have seen plenty of new products fail for sure, but not all new products were created equal. Trimble, like all early entrants in autosteer had their fair share of problems, and luckily, plenty of patient customers who persisted because the value of the new technology was worth it.
We are now 10+ years since the first GPS Autosteer system has been sold. There have been cost reductions, technology improvements and a lot learned in that time. It is now possible that people with that experience can develop a new product that not only is reliable and does the job, but in fact improves on major problem areas that have been neglected by other manufacturers. Service and support being one of them.
For jstroh...
The only thing I can add to Art's post is that as a first time RTK buyer, you really need to understand the difference between the advantages of a network subscription, a portable base station, and your own fixed base station. Also, what accuracy you will be happy with - don't just default to RTK. There are convenience issues with a portable setup, and investment payback issues with network subscriptions if you want to autosteer more than one machine. Again, it depends on your situation in deciding what is best.
Here is a link to an old post of mine which discussed payback.
http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=44617&mid=3191...
Good luck with your decision.
John Hill | |
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What is the best RTK autosteer?
