Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price • Hacker News Board

Re: Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price

#651

Post by lettergram » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC

simplyluke wrote: post #531

lettergram wrote: post #465

You can get a kubota M5-111 with a closed cab for $70k-100k, cheaper than these. Plus zero percent financing though then for 5-7 years. Well built and a comparable class in terms of weight and horse power. People aren’t buying them for price, but the first sentence discusses it as if it’s relevant. My assumption are farmers are trying to skirt the eco rules for vehicles in some way. Which by the way is insanely annoy…

> My assumption are farmers are trying to skirt the eco rules for vehicles in some way. They're using remanufactured 90s cummins for this reason. They're pre-DEF. Modern regulations have killed the diesel engine as a reliable workhorse. It's easy to write off the woes of this segment as corporate greed, but we've made it illegal to build a simple reliable tractor like this. > The Kubota M5-111 is a 105.6 HP utility t…

Yup, that's pretty much what I was saying for the above. I had a Kubota and can indeed attest to the issue(s).

Re: Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price

#652

Post by mwcampbell » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:06 PM UTC

api wrote: post #609

I’ve always thought if we met super advanced aliens they would be… no more advanced than needed. In each domain they would use only the most complex thing needed to accomplish a task and no more. 100 years ago I might cook in a cast iron pan and use a slide rule to compute. Now I cook in a cast iron pan and use a 5nm scale multi core CPU to compute. In 100 years I might cook in a cast iron pan and use a topological q…

IMO the word "compute" is too generic here. To me, the most valuable thing that personal computers have brought us so far is the ability to communicate smoothly across (dis)abilities through digital text. Think of a blind student writing an assignment that can be read by a sighted teacher, or a sighted student and a blind teacher, with no transcriber mediating between them, and a blind writer being able to know what they're actually writing and correct it (as opposed to, say, using a typewriter blind). We should be able to do that, with a variety of assistive technologies for different disabilities, with far less computing power than we're using now. Edit to add: And indeed we did, decades ago, including in battery-powered devices. But now we're convinced that our "one device" needs to be able to do everything, thus it needs to have as much computing power as modewrn technology allows.

Edit 2 to add: I think it's important to be specific about what the computing is for. If you just need to solve a small number of equations, then yes, you can do that with a slide rule. But in the written communication case above, the computing is only useful when done with at least the speed of an early microcomputer and paired with digital storage and/or networking and a variety of I/O devices. Still, we don't strictly need our modern supercomputers for that use case, except that it's now considered weird and limiting to use anything less. Also, I bring up the written communication use case because there is a rising backlash against allowing personal computers at all in certain contexts, such as education, because of AI-based cheating. I don't want disabled people like me to lose what we've gained from personal computing in the specific use case I described above. Maybe the solution is to normalize using less than a maximally powerful, Internet-connected personal computer in such contexts.

Re: Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price

#653

Post by ckrapu » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:12 PM UTC

MSFT_Edging wrote: post #629

wahern wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're generalizing too much. Rural communities take gun safety seriously. Farming communities take farming equipment seriously. Kids grow up internalizing the seriousness of these things, which is communicated expressly and tacitly their whole lives by countless people around them, including their friends. Plus they encounter walking examples of what can go wrong, like a missing finger, burn scars (not caref…

On the flip side, plenty of Rural and Suburban people are terrified by the city, which kids growing up in the city shrug off. Rural folks might learn to respect a PTO or the varmint rifle by age 10, but city kids learn how to navigate the bus routes and subway. They learn how to walk on crowded streets, how to live among a lot of different people, including dangerous people(and how to avoid the conflict). It's all qu…

I think that there's a major difference in the resulting mindsets that the two types of experiences form, though.

The first learn that nature is always present and doing its best to kill you / wreck your harvest, and that it is only through man's intelligence and social bonds that we thrive. I would argue a corollary of this is that one cannot tolerate malicious or grossly neglectful people around.

The second group learns that other people are a liability and that bad actors are just a fact of life to be tolerated and worked around.

Both approaches are clearly optimal for their respective environment. The former seems like a stronger foundation for building a civilization on, though.

Re: Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price

#654

Post by slow_typist » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:26 PM UTC

bityard wrote: post #621

samiv wrote: post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a motorcyclist stopped at the traffic light I always keep the gear on and clutch pulled in. Why? Because I have to be ready to take off when the moron driver on the phone behind me fails to stop.

I do the same thing, and I rationalize it with the fact that the clutch in my motorcycle is is constantly bathed in oil so it can take the "abuse."

The release bearing might not be

Re: Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price

#655

Post by mothballed » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:34 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #595

Ancapistani wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without going too far into the weeds here, IMO this experience is representative of gun rights, zoning, and all sorts of other differences between urban and rural. Rural kids are put into situations where they are expected to rely fully on themselves, with life-or-death consequences, from a young age. When your pre-teen is driving a machine on their own that could easily kill them or those around them, giving them a…

The phrasing of "gun rights" in the context that's really about gun responsibilities is a big part of the problem. And I say this from an unusual position; I'm a Brit who was taught to shoot at school (cadets). The urban gun control question is not so much about responsibility as about malice. There's not a huge number of people with murderous intent, but there are enough. And the resistance of rural America to the q…

Maybe 'city' folk should offer something in exchange then. I would trade megamillion 'city' sovereignty on 'gun control' in exchange for stopping application of the NFA and GCA in the 'country'.

Right now all 'city' offers is a shittier deal and pray they do not alter it worse. Obviously that's not politically viable way to get agreement and part of the reason why gun control advocates think "nothing changes."

Re: Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price

#656

Post by 9rx » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:36 PM UTC

Hasz wrote: post #20

I think this is a reaction to the incredibly locked down ecosystem that most of these mfgs are pushing. However, the tech exists for a reason and is not inherently bad, the issue is the lock-in, the lack of choice and interoperability. IMO, there is plenty of space for an OEM who can play nice with others, offer an open (and vibrant ecosystem), and keep users coming back by choice, not by lock-in.

The typical commercial farmer is going to be no more concerned about the software being locked down than the CEO of a marketing firm is concerned about Adobe products being locked down. It's not the core competency. They are using the product of a third-party vendor because they don't want to have to deal with it.

But technology is expensive. That's the play here: To strip the tech so that the tractor can be sold for a fraction of the cost. And for the farmers who don't need tech, that might be appealing. They will never win over the farmers who are already buying equipment with all the bells and whistles, but there could be an opportunity to capture those who are still in something 50 years old and are looking to update to an affordable newer machine that isn't worn out.

Repairability will be the biggest concern for any potential customer. It helps that they've tried to stay as "off-the-shelf" as possible, but the article suggests they struggle to keep parts already and there is no dealer network to see that the parts are sitting where the farmers are located. John Deere is the market leader mostly because they've worked hard to make sure you can get parts as soon as you need them and not have to wait days/weeks to have it shipped from across the country/world, if they exist at all. The Belarus tractor saga taught farmers the hard lesson of what happens when the machine is cheap to buy but parts are difficult to source long ago.

Re: Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price

#657

Post by hmhrex » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:43 PM UTC

I helped build the e-commerce site for Tilmor[0] when they were starting up. They build easily repairable mechanical farming equipment for small to medium sized farms with an emphasis on organic farming. It's a really interesting niche that I think will continue to grow. I'm 6 years out from working for them and still think of their products fondly.

[0] https://www.tilmor.com/en-us/

Re: Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price

#658

Post by kkkqkqkqkqlqlql » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:44 PM UTC

greedo wrote: post #254

dylan604 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

admittedly, i'm not a farmer nor an expert in data driving farming. but getting a farmer the ability to precisely drive a tractor in a field so that planting seeds, applying fertilizer, and any of the other steps would be a huge win. The settings used when doing that can easily come from bigFarmData gained from other sources. Can it be used even more precisely when everything is gathered/integrated by one company? Th…

The economics of farming (at least in the US) are brutal. Scaling up is really the only way to make a living long term. Some of this is due to equipment cost (look up how much a combine costs), and some is due to competition. It's not unusual for a farmer to be land rich and cash poor. If you want to see a couple of guys learning how to farm from scratch, visit https://www.youtube.com/@spencerhilbert . Spencer and hi…

Very offtopic, but:

> raising beef

Is that cows? English isn't my first language, so I thought beef was the word just for the meat, with all Normans eating while Saxons raising thing.

Re: Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price

#659

Post by mvkel » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:46 PM UTC

jillesvangurp wrote: post #488

mvkel wrote: post #460

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Before buying new, aren't there enough tractors from the 60s, 70s, 80s that are still salvageable? The general aviation world has Cessna 172s from the 50s still going strong; why buy new?

Cessna 172s are great if you are learning to fly. But most people using these things for actually getting from A to B will be looking for something with a bit more range, speed, etc. That still might be sixty year old plane but one with a bigger engine; or two of them even. And if you want to go really fast you get something with a turbo prop or even jet engines. The newer ones are a bit more efficient with the fuel…

Probably the best reply I've ever received on HN. Thank you. I learned a lot from this comment, particularly around the realities of old planes in practice... and EV tractors(!) That's actually such a brilliant application for electric; why don't they already exist?!

Re: Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price

#660

Post by Jedd » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:47 PM UTC

simplyluke wrote: post #526

Late to the party here, so I don't expect this to get a lot of traction, but I'd like to point out that part of the reason this hasn't existed until recently as an option in the US is because it's functionally illegal for it to exist. > The 12-valve Cummins is arguably the most widely understood diesel engine in North America. Every independent shop, every shade-tree mechanic with a set of wrenches, every farmer who…

> US is because it's functionally illegal for it to exist.

This feels like one of those 'burying the lede' situations.

Can you explain what's functionally illegal (and I admit that I'm mildly curious about the distinction of functional illegality and non-functional illegality) about this existing?

I'm as breathless as you are, after reading that second paragraph, but I nonetheless remain ignorant about the nuances of the legality of this situation.