Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

startribune.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 511 posts

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

#441

Post by woodpanel »

Being a city-dweller for all my life it was a relevation to be finally exposed to farmer life. In many regards, not just the snobbish urban-myths (super conservative, unintelligent, smelly, unindustious government-dependend anti-environmental inbreds) that I held.

The farmers I know, have a huge range of skills, from metalworking, construction, woodwork, mechanical engineering, biology, geology and are putting that knowledge into practice every day. All of that while planning years ahead (for instance how to plow your field this year, so that in 5-10 years you don't get a massive slope on your field's edge).

So when farmers talk about fixing a tractor themselves, it's not just about being able to buy some screws or replacement joints, it's about welding that piece you need, sanding its steelframe to remove rust, knowing whether to bend or clinch instead of welding. It's even about building the tools to build those parts.

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

#442

Post by upstandingdude »

simpss wrote: post #381
NicoJuicy wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most things that break are electrical, not mechanical. The mechanics of reliable machines are taught in school and are widely available + relatively easy to repair. And I'm speaking from growing up in a village with the highest agricultural % of population in Belgium. Which my family is also pretty involved with ( my dad is a veterinarian for farm animals, my uncle has ~40 tractors) Also: a cousin with a garage, some…

Let me introduce you to the lada 4x4(previously known as the lada niva all over the ex-soviet countries). https://www.lada.ru/en/cars/4x4/3dv/about.html it hasn't changed much, it's still serviceable with a hammer and a couple of pulleys and wrenches. Not sure if it's available in Belgium(it is in eastern europe) and it sure as hell isn't as comfy as a BMW or a MB, but it's cheap to buy and maintain.

lol it also has a reputation for being super unreliable

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

#443

Post by ryanmercer »

simpss wrote: post #381
NicoJuicy wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most things that break are electrical, not mechanical. The mechanics of reliable machines are taught in school and are widely available + relatively easy to repair. And I'm speaking from growing up in a village with the highest agricultural % of population in Belgium. Which my family is also pretty involved with ( my dad is a veterinarian for farm animals, my uncle has ~40 tractors) Also: a cousin with a garage, some…

Let me introduce you to the lada 4x4(previously known as the lada niva all over the ex-soviet countries). https://www.lada.ru/en/cars/4x4/3dv/about.html it hasn't changed much, it's still serviceable with a hammer and a couple of pulleys and wrenches. Not sure if it's available in Belgium(it is in eastern europe) and it sure as hell isn't as comfy as a BMW or a MB, but it's cheap to buy and maintain.

Ladas are basically workhorse tanks. Garage 54 on YouTube has put them through all sorts of torture and they take it and ask for more, I wish they were easier to get here in the United States as I'd love to have one.

Garage 54 English (dubbed) channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCydCOEgfcXAQnkRaLCTsAQ

Garage 54 Russian channel (has more videos) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBByzLy3MGJT8UMVLYLScNg

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

#444

Post by jplayer01 »

mikorym wrote: post #390
macinjosh wrote: post #98

My grandfather, rest his soul, was a 3rd generation rancher and farmer. He bought 2 John Deere tractors in the '80s and used them for 35 years. They are still being used to this day on the ranch. Growing up, I visited the ranch regularly. Farming and ranching is very hard on equipment so the tractors often needed repair. My father and grandfather could seemingly fix anything on the tractor without even needing to go…

You need a way to reconcile the family side of things and the corporate side. It may be sad to lose the personal touch of a single owner single farm (I always say you know it's corporate when the owner doesn't personally sign off each birthday present) but one should also see the value of a business becoming a company. One important thing is that a healthy business will survive any particular person's death. And this…

I don't see why the two should be at odds when it comes to how tractors should be designed. I feel like tractors that can be repaired on-site by your own employees is a far better deal than being 100% reliant on the manufacturer's good grace.

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

#445

Post by kortex »

ethbro wrote: post #370
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I'm designing a solar powered farming machine we hope we can make open source. A bunch of the parts can be printed on a $1000 printer. I hate proprietary technology, and I think our entire economy should consist of open/libre technology. It definitely feels like "big business" is working against us in this regard. Everything new is locked down because the the rent-seeking those software locks enable. It's a drag…

Do you have any idea how the Global Village Construction Set folks are doing? Or any other similar projects in the space? I stumbled across open source ag / construction efforts years ago, but haven't kept tabs on them since. And thanks for spending your time on something so useful to society!

Last I checked, about a year ago, they were still developing, albeit producing documentation at a pretty slow rate.

I think they are still iterating a fair bit on the micro tractor. But overall it seems there was a flurry of activity around 2014 but then it has tapered off.

IMHO, I think they set their sights a bit too high, with the whole construction set. Would have been better to focus on just the tractor first, getting the documentation really hammered out. It is such an essential piece of farm equipment. But as it stands, nothing on their wiki is really viable to contribute to, because you can't really work off of it.

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

#446

Post by bluGill »

system2 wrote: post #328
planteen wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Good luck replacing it without giving the car computer mental breakdown. I replaced my car's tire once and all the sensors went crazy until engine light came on. They are not making those car software forgiving.

There are a few procedures. You just need to tell the car about the new tires so it doesn't keep looking for the old.

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

#447

Post by steveklabnik »

dumbfoundded wrote: post #403
steveklabnik wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I come from at least three generations of cattle farmers. My dad had to work a tool and die job, because unlike his father, it was already not possible to raise a family via family farm. It's really brutal.

I actually think the trend is starting to reverse. At least in the area where I live in Ashland, OR where I have a 10-acre farm. What I'm seeing is products are becoming more and more niche. Kind of like how craft beers became a thing. I think it's easier than ever for a farm to create specialized products and sell them directly to consumers. Before this way of ecommerce tools, it was nearly impossible for a small fa…

I hope it works out for you! My dad didn’t live to see these changes, unfortunately, so my family farm is now gone.

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

#448

Post by gonzo41 »

sfifs wrote: post #413
combatentropy wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd actually buy a mechanical environmental-friendly car. I agree. In fact an electric car could be simple. Just because it has an electric motor doesn't mean it has to have a computer too.

There's fairly complex compute that happens in the battery cooling, motor cooling power train etc in a Tesla that gives it the acceleration and range to compete with ICE cars. The early 1900s electric cars that were more akin to what you describe never had the range, power or acceleration to compete.

If we're lucky we'll see plug and play standardization for things like batteries, charging components and engines where the chassis and ux parts of the car can be all different but everyone can essentially have a corolla or civic to fit their price point.

I should also add that i mostly just want a car, i don't need it to drive for me, I think the telsa's could be very very simple if they dropped all the self driving stuff. I know they won't but it would be cool to buy a crate telsa engine and battery pack for a rolling chassis without the infotainment system.

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

#449

Post by bluGill »

daveheq wrote: post #438

I don't know why John Deere and other manufacturers aren't making parts for these old tractors, if they're not already, seems like a huge market opportunity.

John Deere is. There are policies for when a part can go out of production. I can't talk about them, but it amounts to if it is replaced often it remains in production. (My local dealer has the oil filter for my 1939 tractor in stock). Electronics are tricky - chips from 20 years ago are not made anymore, so if that electronic system breaks you are done. We try to predict how many replacement parts will be needed and make a large final order but sometimes we are wrong.

The fact that we make replacement parts longer than our competitors is one of our big selling points.

#deereemployee, but not speaking for my company of course.

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

#450

Post by bluGill »

ptah wrote: post #425

> tractors from the 1970s and 1980s aren’t so dramatically different from tractors produced in the 2000s I think we are coming to a point where "progress" stops and technology stays stable

Really it is tractors from the 1950s that are not dramatically different. More hydraulics and more horsepower are the only important things. AC and more comfortable cab/seats are secondary that might or might not matter to you.
Post reply on HN