Classic Tractors From The '80s Are Becoming Popular With Farmers Sick Of High-Tech Bullshit

[EmersonHart13]

Classic Tractors From The '80s Are Becoming Popular With Farmers Sick Of High-Tech Bullshit

While modern agriculture is filled with very modern technology, farmers have been butting heads with some of the biggest farm equipment builders over tech issues, specifically the fight for their own rights to repair equipment they own. This has led to strange, maybe not-so-legal hacking of...

jalopnik.com

While modern agriculture is filled with very modern technology, farmers have been butting heads with some of the biggest farm equipment builders over tech issues, specifically the fight for their own rights to repair equipment they own. This has led to strange, maybe not-so-legal hacking of farmers’ own equipment with the help of Eastern European hackers, and, now, more legally, to farmers just avoiding all the high-tech headaches entirely and just buying tractors from the late ‘70s and 1980s.

According to the Star Tribune, pre-1990 tractors have been selling for higher prices at auction, and demand for the older tractors has been increasing. The Star Tribune story gives some pretty clear reasons why:

Kris Folland grows corn, wheat and soybeans and raises cattle on 2,000 acres near Halma in the northwest corner of Minnesota, so his operation is far from small. But when he last bought a new tractor, he opted for an old one — a 1979 John Deere 4440.
He retrofitted it with automatic steering guided by satellite, and he and his kids can use the tractor to feed cows, plant fields and run a grain auger. The best thing? The tractor cost $18,000, compared to upward of $150,000 for a new tractor. And Folland doesn’t need a computer to repair it.
...
The tractors have enough horsepower to do anything most farmers need, and even at a record price like the $61,000 the tractor in Bingham Lake fetched, they’re a bargain compared to what a farmer would pay for a newer tractor with similar horsepower.
The other big draw of the older tractors is their lack of complex technology. Farmers prefer to fix what they can on the spot, or take it to their mechanic and not have to spend tens of thousands of dollars.
“The newer machines, any time something breaks, you’ve got to have a computer to fix it,” Stock said.

Modern tractors are incredibly sophisticated and expensive machines, with lots of very advanced technologies for operation and control, but the fundamental mechanical design hasn’t changed all that dramatically since the 1980s.

In much the same way that a 1966 Volkswagen Beetle can get your ass to and from work at generally the same sort of speeds as a 2019 Volkswagen Passat, on the exact same roads, using the same basic principles, a 40-year-old tractor does essentially the same job as a modern one, at a fraction of the cost, and with the ability to effect repairs without involving John Deere reps to come out with a USB key or enlisting the help of Ukranian hackers.

What would be interesting is if one of John Deere’s competitors were to look at this and see an opportunity for lower-tech but still useful modern tractors, sold at a price well below what a modern, CPU-choked Deere goes for. Perhaps Mahindra & Mahindra or Case or one of the other big tractor makers will wise up?

With less regulations than the automotive world, and with a significant portion of the potential market actively hostile to massive increases in tech, you’d think this could be a good idea.

To be fair, though, I don’t know jack feces about farming. But I do know it’d drive me up the wall if I legally wasn’t allowed to repair a vehicle I owned.

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[EmersonHart13]

I had actually watched a YOUTUBE video related to this a few weeks ago....



tinfoilhat

 

[DEEZUZ]

Wait til govt says you can't run them polluting dogs.

 

[DEEZUZ]

Cause that's next. Either retrofit fit or buy new. And doing either puts you back to where you are now. Unreliable

 

[LikeABauce302]

Cause that's next. Either retrofit fit or buy new. And doing either puts you back to where you are now. Unreliable

My understanding is that they can't upgrade to newer engines without retrofitting them with the correct emissions equipment respective for that year engine. I'm not sure how it could even be enforced though.

Aftermarket tuning and delete kits are huge in the agriculture market.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

Good. Fuck John Deere for locking their shit down via software and not letting people repair it.

 

[CMNTMXR57]

My F-I-L (while not a farmer, but in to shit like this), has been saying this for years. The new shit, and not just JD, are all too fucking complicated and expensive to buy and then repair. Farmers tend to be self-sufficient people and create fixes/equipment on their own to fit their needs. So when you can't work on a modern, whatever tier diesel, they say "fuck it!"

 

[EmersonHart13]

In the video the guy references how expensive it is just to bring equipment in for them to scan just to find out its an easy cheap fix. That makes sense to me to want to avoid that.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

its stupid. LITERALLY using software to lock things out and artificially create complexity.

 

[DEEZUZ]

Every deere dealer has mobile units, and plenty of them. So having to bring equipment there isn't an issue

 

[EmersonHart13]

Its in the video, thats all I am saying.

 

[CMNTMXR57]

But it's the point of having to call a Deere dealer, set up a service call to have them come out and scan your $150k tractor for a $400 diagnostic fee to tell you the rotator splint is busted.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

Every deere dealer has mobile units, and plenty of them. So having to bring equipment there isn't an issue

wouldnt be needed if they let the farmers fix it themselves and they just provided parts.

 

[EmersonHart13]

Scanners are good, but let me scan my own stuff.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

they have a monopoly and they are abusing it IMO

 

[CMNTMXR57]

And then, if it is truly busted and that diagnostic proves it, it is the downtime waiting for them to get out there to tell you it's busted. The old shit, you could nurse back (or grab another tractor out of the shed), drag it back, fix it (even if it's a temporary fix), and have it back out in the field doing it's job.

Downtime = lost $$$ not to mention the $ spent on the diagnostic...

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

"Buy 2 tractors then" - John Deere

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

My friend is a farmer & mechanic (farmer during planting/harvesting season, mechanic for the rest)...just asked him about this.

I'm sure i'll get a 39 paragraph response, because farmers are passionate about everything farming

 

[EmersonHart13]

I'd read it

 

[Yaj Yak]

fucking tcg

heavy farm equipment specialists and market experts.

 

[EmersonHart13]

fucking tcg

all things experts.

Fixed and we all bang supermodels

 

[DEEZUZ]

they have a monopoly and they are abusing it IMO

I call John deere out, give the dummy 15 mins to try to find the issue, then just work his laptop for him, find what I need and send him on his way

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

That is fucked up, based on what they said in the vid you can't even do a simple part swap without having the dealer reprogram it.

Curious what my friend will say

 

[DEEZUZ]

Yes you can.

 

[DEEZUZ]

You cans still change alot of stuff, of course not like ECM's and shit like that, but these engines are still very workable. It's kind of like working blind unless you're really good and familiar.