Which auto steer system - opinions and experiences please.

Warp Land Farmer · Oct 21, 2014

Hi, After a few days on the new-to-us Rapid drill we are considering some sort of auto steer system.

Never really looked at them before so don't have much of a clue.

To be honest we like the look of the Trimble ezipilot but can't get our heads around the yearly cost to subscribe to the GPS (didn't expect this at all).

We are looking for something with the quality / accuracy to use in the drill tractor and also during cultivations on other tractors so have to be interchangeable but ecconomic to run after the initial purchase.

Ideas / options please.

Darren · Oct 21, 2014

We started off several yrs ago with the Trimble EZ Steer. Used it for drilling and Bedforming. It was tricky to get set up right, but what a revelation. It was on Omnistar XP which was more than adequate for the job. Made life so much easier, less tired at the end of the day. Even ridging curved headlands was a treat.
After that we changed from Case to JD 6170r with steering built into the screen, SF2. this made operation far easier, setting up was simpler.Still did a fantastic job
Now running Topcon X30, full RTK on a challenger. Very good system, easy to set up and use, up there with JD but whether RTK is any better than say SF2? I don't know really. Depends on Your acreage and cropping.
Either way. Once You've had auto steer, You'll never want to go back to driving straight by eye. Gives You so much time to look at the machine, nose at the neighbors and makes the day easier.

Warp Land Farmer · Oct 21, 2014

Thanks Darren, don't have huge acerage but need to do it during out of office hours as work off farm 50 hours a week. Thinking auto steer would help when the light fails but want to / need to keep going. This season hasn't been too hard as the weather in most has been kind but another season we may not be able to take advantage of a weather window if we can't see where we are going.

Speedstar · Oct 21, 2014

So which do you like best Topcon or JD ?

Darren · Oct 21, 2014

Warp Land Farmer said:
Thanks Darren, don't have huge acerage but need to do it during out of office hours as work off farm 50 hours a week. Thinking auto steer would help when the light fails but want to / need to keep going. This season hasn't been too hard as the weather in most has been kind but another season we may not be able to take advantage of a weather window if we can't see where we are going.

You cant put a price on time and Your sanity! Go see a few machines using it, have a go. I know of a couple of old school drivers, who could drive bloody straight all day poo pooed the idea....until they used it. Then it was the best thing since slice bread!

Darren · Oct 21, 2014

Speedstar said:
So which do you like best Topcon or JD ?

Tricky one. If I were running JD then it would be simple. It would be Starfire. One screen, fully integrated. If as we are using different machines, 765D, 820 Fendt and new to us NH combine that will be getting guidance then I can't fault Topcon. I find it easier to set up, more intuitive than Trimble. The back up, after sales is second to none, even out of "office" hrs which is pretty important on a saturday night whilst trying to get drilled up

yorkie · Oct 21, 2014

only good thing about jd is you have two screens,Topcon/variguide doesn't loose signal same,these are running in same fields at same time

Clive · Oct 21, 2014

We run Topcon 2x x30's and and x20 also have claas gps pilot on combine

Have experience of JD Greenstar

All are / were good, only as good as they are set up and backed up though so my advice would be to make selection based on the company you buy from as much as the hardware itself

I use LH Agro and have always been very happy with their service, when we had some Greenstar local back up was poor but @CPP was always very helpful so seems it's very dealer dependant

Watch out for unlocks on some systems, they can be almost like buying again in cost if you want it to do more in the future than you first imagine like upgrade to rtk or vra application etc

T C · Oct 21, 2014

Running 2 trimble 750s with Rangepoint RTX - been very impressed.
Integrated (hydraulic steering) on 1 and ezpilot on the other to swap between 2nd tractor and combine.
Hydraulic is better at finding the line but when it is no the ezpilot is almost as good - with a press on the front the ezpilot takes a bit more watching.
Any of the mainline systems installed well and set up correctly seem to have happy users - backup is the main thing and personally I like to use a specialist.
Did run a different make on RTK and to be honest rangepoint is not far off (can have signal drop out behind trees) but is significantly cheaper.

Brisel · Oct 21, 2014

Running JD Greenstar here. Easy to use and user friendly. Great dealer back up here. Unlock codes for JD are expensive though. For the OP's area SF1 would be enough IMO.

gjm · Oct 21, 2014

Running JD on a Massey and New holland (combine) with the ATU steering wheel, can't fault it at all, very simple to use, not had any issues regarding signal thus far either.

Can't speak for the others though, not had any experience with them, pretty sure they'd be just as good.

Alistair Nelson · Oct 21, 2014

Agree with Clive talk to the specialists and decide which one you like and think will give you the best support and then look at the equipment and I would look at the 3rd party suppliers as they are the specialists and are able to give a better cross platform solution. We went Agleader and would recommend it to anybody

Alistair

S7ewie · Nov 6, 2014

Perviously we've ran Trimble but now we run Greenstar on 3 machines. It's a brilliant system, tons more features and more accurate than Trimble (Plus the sprayer would be unusable without it). Never struggle for a signal where as Trimble we seem to do a lot. Can be pretty complicated to set up and get the hang of but once you do it's well worth it. I think it's more expensive too but well worth it in my opinion. However if you're just looking for something to use for drilling then I'm sure there are much cheaper systems that do exactly what you need for a much better price. The Greenstar system prides on full operation from the system. Hence why our sprayer would be unusable without it (any many other of their machines) so that's where the premium price comes from which you obviously wouldn't benefit from.

major ag · Nov 7, 2014

We have two Trimble 750 on rtk having been on egnos and omnistar plus centre point Rtx.
They have been very good and as communications have been faultless.

Tractor Boy · Nov 7, 2014

S7ewie said:
Perviously we've ran Trimble but now we run Greenstar on 3 machines. It's a brilliant system, tons more features and more accurate than Trimble (Plus the sprayer would be unusable without it). Never struggle for a signal where as Trimble we seem to do a lot. Can be pretty complicated to set up and get the hang of but once you do it's well worth it. I think it's more expensive too but well worth it in my opinion. However if you're just looking for something to use for drilling then I'm sure there are much cheaper systems that do exactly what you need for a much better price. The Greenstar system prides on full operation from the system. Hence why our sprayer would be unusable without it (any many other of their machines) so that's where the premium price comes from which you obviously wouldn't benefit from.

How can it be more accurate than trimble? They all use the same satellites!

Will Blackburn · Nov 7, 2014

You have to pay for glonass unlock with Trimble some others can pick it up without unlocking so at a basic level with no subs others can be better.

John · Nov 7, 2014

We have been on it some time started with ezsteer steer on egnos total waste of time. Then we brought a challenger with topcon with xp that was pretty good but signal is expensive compared to rtkThen a rtk mast went up not to far away so changed up to that. It's integrated on the challenger the we have a steering wheel which I move between the fastrac and jd combine and move the dome and screen. Been really good

Tractor Boy · Nov 7, 2014

Will Blackburn said:
You have to pay for glonass unlock with Trimble some others can pick it up without unlocking so at a basic level with no subs others can be better.

Ok. But it can hardly be classed as accurate if you're on such a basic no subscription level. Glonass can be unlocked very cheaply on Trimble systems by subscribing to Rangepoint.

Will Blackburn · Nov 8, 2014

Tractor Boy said:
Ok. But it can hardly be classed as accurate if you're on such a basic no subscription level. Glonass can be unlocked very cheaply on Trimble systems by subscribing to Rangepoint.

I've had both on the tractor while drilling and with a few nudges the topcon was sufficient to make a tidy no stress job of it. The Trimble without Glonass would need more nudges and lost signal far far easier when in the vicinity of trees. That is just my experience.

S7ewie · Nov 8, 2014

Tractor Boy said:
How can it be more accurate than trimble? They all use the same satellites!

I find it more accurate on curves etc. Trimble you set the width of the implement and it assumes that width is is in line with the box (might have changed since the version we have). This is fine for AB straights but on curves it tends to lead to overlaps and misses especially on sharper turns where the implement isn't always perfectly in line with the box. On Greenstar however you set the dimensions of the tractor and implement, you get a lot more customisation. In my experience I've generally found Greenstar to be noticeabley more accurate on these types of curves, and we do a lot of curves.

Which auto steer system - opinions and experiences please.

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Staff Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

New Member

New Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

New Member

0 %

Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

Share this page