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South Western Ontario | I am running an 1995 844(854 with rotary fuel pump) and have been using the Cultiva(now Autofarm) Mechanical Drive Unit, referred to as On-Trac 1 for 2-3 years with good success. The first year it ran as Quick-Trax w/the Raven Smart-Trax box and wheel position sensor. I had a little bit of frustration tuning the system in the spring and that summer they updated the Smart-Trax long boxes and tuning it became a breeze. Last year, be it right or wrong, we switched to the ATC for a controller so we had two interchangeable systems in the planter and sprayer. The tractor on the planter is a 7520 Deere and we run the ATC Right Trac system (sub 3") in that machine, and then we can swap antennas and use the sprayer with Right-Trac to band spray(in theory). We were able to band spray, but unable to use the auto steer due to the sway factor of the MDU(Mechanical Drive Unit). The accuracy of the planter on Right trac was enough to let us steer manually and obtain coverage in the bands over the tree widths of the planter w/the 90' sprayer.
Both systems work well, with a little set up, but expectations from that MDU should not be to high. This spring Autofarm introduced the Ontrac 2 which is a much improved MDU that takes far less work to install(no need to remove steering wheel due to a split gear design) and is much quieter and in my opinion sways far less. As a matter of fact, with this redesign and the use of magnetic clutche, I would venture a guess that you could get the accuacy of a hydraulic auto steer with this system, so long as your steering system is tight.
I installed the OT2 on a 1994 Jeep to spread clover this spring. In less than 5 minutes I had it calibrated and it worked beautifully over all 400 acres of our winter wheat. My confidence in the system having less sway is from using it in such a short wheel base vehicle and being able to run pretty straight at 15 MPH.
So this year in order to get another auto-steer system on the farm and to streamline the controls in the sprayer, I have invested in the Envizio-Pro from raven which will run the OT2(they call it Smart Steer), run switch-pro(booms on and off automatically, called Accuboom), control 2 products(main tank and one injector) and the control the Raven boom leveling system(AutoBoom) all from one 8" wide(6.4" screen) box in the cab.
This all boils down to us using the Right Trac system to plant Sugarbeets and Corn, we will use the OT1 and an ATC to plant beans and work ground, and the sprayer will run the OT2 with the E-Pro during the spring and early summer, and be used in the Beet Harvester in the fall.
That all being said, I think most of the systems work well, but depending on the age of the sprayer, installing a hydraulic steering kit may not be justified if you can get adequate performance from the mechanical systems, especially with the improvements over that last couple of years.
Just my experience and 2 cents, take it for what it is worth.
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RoGator 854 - Auto Steer
