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First Steps Into Guidance
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CASE3594
Posted 9/29/2018 23:28 (#7016739 - in reply to #7016721)
Subject: RE: First Steps Into Guidance


Tuscola, IL
I know you're just getting started, but skip the lightbar and go with at least an EZ steer (electric motor on the side of the steering wheel). You'll end up driving yourself crazy trying to chase the lightbar all over the place. Plus, once you have the display and the antenna, which you have to have both to get GPS for the lightbar anyway, a used steering motor and T2 box (the brains of the EZ steer) aren't going to cost you much anyway.

I can't speak to the Raven systems, so my advice will only apply to the Trimble products. You can find used 500 displays with EZ steer systems with them for between $2-3000. But, if you think you'll want to upgrade your signal at any point while you are doing this, skip the 500 and look for a used 750 with EZ steer. This is going to probably push you up towards the high end of $3,000 to possibly $4,000, but with a 750, you can do a Rangepoint subscription for $350/yr and you don't have to buy any sort of unlock. If you go with the 750, you aren't spending money on an obsolete display and you can build it as you go into whatever you want.

Now, I will throw this out there because, full disclosure, I sell guidance for a living, but on our farm, we are just starting out in precision and auto guidance. So, here's what my plan is just to show you the direction I intend to go personally. Keep in mind, we are very small farmers, but the trend is towards technology and I don't want to be left behind (anymore than we already are!).

My plan for our tillage tractor is to start out with an AgLeader Compass display running an Ontrac steering system. This is going to run about $8,000 for the package. WAAS steering is fine for us in the tillage tractor. I have yet to see an EZ steer or EZ pilot come close to steering as well as the Ontrac 3 systems that I've put in. To the extent that I'm willing to pay $4,000 more for the Ontrac. For what you're talking about doing, I think you'd get along just fine with the EZ steer, but the Ontrac is a step above and you wouldn't regret paying the extra money if you ran them side by side.

Either way you go, you'll be happy within the first season that you didn't settle for a lightbar. In my personal experience, the majority of the time, running the lightbar is harder and more exhausting than just driving. It will track where you've been and keep you from overlapping too terribly much from pass to pass, but you will save enough with the steering that it will pay for itself as well.
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