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

Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price

wheelfront.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

771–780 of 814 posts

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

#771

Post by anenefan »

SlightlyLeftPad wrote: post #704
defrost wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Queensland, Australia SwarmFarm might be worth a look - they're already deep into driverless automated agriculture .. making a non John Deere tech stack. https://www.swarmfarm.com/technology/ - West Australian grain farmer (4,500 hectares, barley, grains) reviews a fully automated driverless swarm bot in boom spray configuration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljEKN7CsjnM

That’s interesting. I’m really more curious about modern precision machines that are repairable on the field by third parties. Do you know if these would fall into that category? The main thing that makes John Deere anti-competitive and adversarial is their policy of not allowing third-party repairs.

Not allow is not the right phrase. I know from surfing a few tractor forums a few years back, in regard to JD in the US, third party repairs do happen, parts brought from JD and the mechanic or shop verified the repair as complete - but not fully operational until a JD tech travelled out and ran their unlocking tool over the machine.

Australia - I can't tell you as in my locale there was a move away from JD so no new JD's much - so the businesses selling them exclusively declined as well. The local farms are now even moving away from older New Hollands that got briefly popular when they first hit the scene but many are with never ending issues where they saved money - like using aluminium alloy for high pressure hydraulic pump gear and shaft - oh they do bend ... :rolls eyes:

What's a new JD look like these days. Aussie's do things a bit different, other parts of the world people might gnash teeth and complain - we just don't fucking go there any more and bitch quietly. I though tend towards the more hostile reaction with subtle jabs their company / business is on a downward path and bitch loudly to any poor sod unable to find an exit quick enough.

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

#773

Post by reverius42 »

lukan wrote: post #606
worthless-trash wrote: post #576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, encouraging people into shitty situations, the hallmarks of city life.

His tone I did not like either, but his point was that city life is not without mortal dangers either, which I think is fair.

Perhaps one difference is that it seems to be considered good/normal parenting to expose your farm kids to mortal dangers, but it's definitely not considered good parenting to expose your city kids to mortal dangers (despite the city having no lack of mortal dangers).

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

#774

Post by adev_ »

FpUser wrote: post #679
adev_ wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Up until a year ago I was regularly using a Massy Fergusson 135 There is a tradition in several European countries named Affouage : If you live in a rural area, you can get very cheap (or even free) wood at the condition that you go to cut it yourself in the close-by forest. Many many people who are doing this practice are still using today Massy Fergusson 135, Renault R98/461, Ford 3000-4000 series, SOMECA or simi…

>"f this startup can capitalize on that, they do have a market." $100K-$200 is very expensive for many. better find used old one

> 100K-$200 is very expensive for many. better find used old one

It is true. But the stock of old repairable tractor will soon or later run dry.

The price of some of these are currently increasing on the secondary market.

If you told me 20y ago, that the old rusty tractor in the neighbour Grand'Pa's storage would be an appreciating asset, I would have laugh.

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

#775

Post by num42 »

After reading the title, it reminded me of a high-tech bolt. I thought people were making even bolts more complicated, gradually finding ways to monetize them by integrating ads or unnecessary technology. Even bolts are becoming harder to use. It’s surprising to see that tractors are becoming less tech heavy now, as people prefer more usable and easy-to-repair technology again. MAKE ANALOG GREAT AGAIN(MAGA)!

SMART BOLT TECHNOLOGY:

https://smartbolts.com/

https://imbu.nl/projects/smartbolt/

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

#776

Post by modo_mario »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #148
adamcharnock wrote: post #134

Up until a year ago I was regularly using a Massy Fergusson 135 [0] (Perkins Diesel version), made sometime in the 1970s. It was wonderful! So amazing to drive and use. Clunky and heavy, but you really really felt like you were using a machine. In low gears, if you put you foot down on the accelerator the engine would roar, and your speed would barely change! And there was no fancy technology in it at all. If I was i…

My dad had one of these, to support his farming hobby. (He used to joke that we ate fifty dollar cucumbers, and a hundred-dollar ear of corn.) It came in handy living in the country, when occasionally someone would get bogged down on a dirt road, and this thing would come to the rescue.

Did your dad grow up with subsistence farmers? I also encountered plenty of hobby farmers who joke about the cost of their hobby which used to get me confused a bit since it was very much a food on the table thing for my grandparents and at least a small financial bonus to me.

Then again I don't buy much new other than seed. Everything feels like a ripoff nowadays.

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

#778

Post by wasmitnetzen »

abdjdoeke wrote: post #720
adev_ wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Up until a year ago I was regularly using a Massy Fergusson 135 There is a tradition in several European countries named Affouage : If you live in a rural area, you can get very cheap (or even free) wood at the condition that you go to cut it yourself in the close-by forest. Many many people who are doing this practice are still using today Massy Fergusson 135, Renault R98/461, Ford 3000-4000 series, SOMECA or simi…

I would like this in a new car company. Low tech, simple to operate, repair, etc. the tech is what goes out of style and I don’t know how (or don’t care) to use half of tech cars have to offer aside from the automatic safety stuff.

The problem with making a low-tech car is that a lot of high tech stuff is mandatory for the car to be road legal.

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

#779

Post by cucumber3732842 »

mulmen wrote: post #744
cucumber3732842 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know of a forklift that's pushing 80 and still used in a lumber yard (i.e. a material handling centric workplace) Other than ~30min it takes to teach an employee to drive manual it doesn't do anything worse than the modern ones it works alongside and it does a handful of minor things much better by virtue of predating OSHA.

What does it do better by predating OSHA? Are there liability concerns or does it have just enough safety to be insured economically?

Wasn't designed with the assumption that when someone gets hurt lawsuits and fines could/would fly and so there's a lot less of the manufacturer covering it's ass in the design.

There's nothing to keep you from putting it on two wheels and the transition from on the ground to off the ground is pretty graceful and operator friendly whereas the newer lifts rely on a pressure release valve to keep them from lifting that much and (presumably) because they were always expected to be far from ragged edge their weight distribution is not really proper for that. The counterweight is substantially taller so how hard it pushes down is reduces more quickly as the lift comes up so it lifts tire further (and is more likely to dump the load or go over). This also means the old lift has a way lower ass pucker factor when doing stuff at max height. The real nuisance is when braking though. Yeah you "shouldn't" brake with the load up but operators who get good will raise the load at speed as they are coming in to put a pallet of stuff on top of another pallet of stuff and then when they brake it can get sketchy. The new lifts do corner much better unloaded though so I guess you could be much faster zipping through a warehouse on a new lift (but what workplace would permit that? And top speeds are about the same so there's no benefit in a big outdoor workplace like say an airport or shipyard).

There's no seat switch or other safety interlocks so you aren't putting a ton of wear on it if you're constantly getting out to fiddle with stuff. This also means you can do "unsafe" things like stand beside it and wrangle something and just reach in and make the mast go up and down. While in a textbook world this is "bad" and you "should only pick pallets" and "everything should be strapped to the pallet" in the real world you make all that back and more because it means you can use the forklift as a glorified engine hoist/shop crane without a helper. Hook and chain operations are made much safer/more reliable by this too since the operator can be sure things are good and is not tempted to half ass it to save the time of getting back out. Sure you could always add a helper but that's dangerous too because one person doing stuff near equipment and one person running equipment opens the door to miscommunication related injury that can't really happen among one person.

I'm sure "at scale" the new lift is safer, but safer for who? In what operating context? How big is the difference?

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

#780

Post by pfdietz »

adev_ wrote: post #563
adamcharnock wrote: post #134

Up until a year ago I was regularly using a Massy Fergusson 135 [0] (Perkins Diesel version), made sometime in the 1970s. It was wonderful! So amazing to drive and use. Clunky and heavy, but you really really felt like you were using a machine. In low gears, if you put you foot down on the accelerator the engine would roar, and your speed would barely change! And there was no fancy technology in it at all. If I was i…

> Up until a year ago I was regularly using a Massy Fergusson 135 There is a tradition in several European countries named Affouage : If you live in a rural area, you can get very cheap (or even free) wood at the condition that you go to cut it yourself in the close-by forest. Many many people who are doing this practice are still using today Massy Fergusson 135, Renault R98/461, Ford 3000-4000 series, SOMECA or simi…

> Rugged environment requires cheap and robust hardware.

I read this and immediately thought "lunar colony". And especially if that colony wants to make more of their equipment themselves.

Post reply on HN