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For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

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Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#101

Post by peteradio »

scarmig wrote: post #71
brenden2 wrote: post #16

The technology itself is not the issue, the problem is that companies are at war with their customers. These companies will go to any length to extract as much revenue as possible. Milking your customers is not good for business, especially if you drive them into insolvency. I hope in the future there are more companies that try to align incentives with their customers, such that their business practices help custome…

> Milking your customers is not good for business, especially if you drive them into insolvency. It clearly is good for business, even if it's bad for customers and society at large. Pretending it's bad for business just encourages complacency because it suggests that the natural discipline of the market will drive the milkers out of business and encourage good business practices. But that doesn't happen, and if we w…

It would drive out bad actors in the long run if there was proper competition in the market. Unfortunately short term gimmicks can give you the necessary capital to simply buy your competition and then you can milk your customers because they have no other option but not to play.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#103

Post by pmiller2 »

weinzierl wrote: post #69

I have an IHC (International Harvester Company) 433 that is about 60 years old and it is still in use occasionally for forest work. It is amazing how robust and reliable these old machines are. Fun facts: - It has 8 reverse gears and 16 forward ones. With a maximum speed of about 25 km/h this is very granular. On the other hand: the diesel engine is very forgiving and not easily stalled. - It does have an operating h…

I always felt as though an odometer reading was only a proxy for what really matters when it comes to most maintenance schedules (operating hours). Tires and brakes would be an exception, but for most parts, operating hours is the better proxy. There's a reason airplane maintenance schedules go by hours flown rather than distance traveled.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#104

Post by deith »

dsr_ wrote: post #62
catalogia wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many times must it be demonstrated that "market forces" is not a silver bullet to every problem before people take the hint?

Market forces would work in this situation, if only the situation were different: - if there were an existing competitive market, that would help. - if there were a clear long-term market, that might inspire competition. But in this case, market forces caused the problem.

>Market forces would work in this situation, if only the situation were different

That can be said every time the market fails to adjust itself.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#105

Post by [deleted] »

viator wrote: post #88
xtian wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly all the greatest societal reforms have been brought about by individual purchasing decisions.

Followed closely by the second most influential action, encouraging other people to vote the same way you do in website comments on articles that don't pertain to elections. Good luck, Mssr. Quixote.

[deleted]

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#106

Post by planteen »

melling wrote: post #15
privateSFacct wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All good ideas, but repairing surface mount / integrated / dust and vibration glued parts is not as easy EVEN IF they were open standards as a 40 year old tractor is to repair. I spent way to long repairing an old gas engine, it was super simple in terms of operating approach. Opening the hood on my new car - the fixes are not as obvious.

I couldn’t even swap out a headlight in my girlfriend’s car, because of the tight space. Instead she has to pay a garage to do it. That’s not it used to be.

I mean that sounds more like "It's a pain in the ass to change a headlight in my girlfriend's car, so I have her bring it to a shop" than a right to repair issue. Or are you saying the shop needs special tooling to get the job done? What kind of car is it? There's usually a few YouTube videos showing how to do things like this.

I have an older gas guzzling SUV on a truck chassis. Lots of repairs are a lot easier than my wife's car, because there is a lot more space. But that is a fundamental tradeoff between two vehicle classes and gas guzzlers versus high MPG crossovers. My SUV is newer than her car too.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#107

Post by [deleted] »

skywhopper wrote: post #65
wvenable wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why was this downvoted? I just made the same comment before noticing this one already done. Competition is what solves these kind of things.

Sure, but how do you propose to introduce competition into this market?

[deleted]

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#108

Post by pmiller2 »

apotatopot wrote: post #55

"tech weary" and “An expensive repair would be $15,000 to $20,000, but you’re still well below the cost of buying a new tractor that’s $150,000 to $250,000." wtf come on. This has nothing to do with technology.

Here's where "tech weary" (side note: maybe "tech wary") comes in:

> There are some good things about the software in newer machines, said Peterson. The dealer will get a warning if something is about to break and can contact the farmer ahead of time to nip the problem in the bud. But if something does break, the farmer is powerless, stuck in the field waiting for a service truck from the dealership to come out to their farm and charge up to $150 per hour for labor.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#109

Post by s_y_n_t_a_x »

wetpaws wrote: post #23
sneak wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If customers don’t want this stuff, why isn’t there a competing company offering non-DRM tractors?

Because there is no competition in the US.

There's already competition.

Kubota

JCB

Kioti (I used to build these w/ my grand parents)

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#110

Post by planteen »

privateSFacct wrote: post #9
melling wrote: post #6

“ They cost a fraction of the price, and then the operating costs are much less because they’re so much easier to fix,” he said.” It’s not really so much a technology problem as the ability to repair, probably by the farmers themselves. Companies don’t make it easy. You need special equipment, tools, etc. We could insist on a right to repair, open standards, etc

All good ideas, but repairing surface mount / integrated / dust and vibration glued parts is not as easy EVEN IF they were open standards as a 40 year old tractor is to repair. I spent way to long repairing an old gas engine, it was super simple in terms of operating approach. Opening the hood on my new car - the fixes are not as obvious.

Some things are much easier with ODB electronics though. Like if a cylinder is misfiring, you pull out a code scanner and see exactly which spark plug needs to get replaced.
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