Tractor GPS

yellow50HX

Anyone use a tractor GPS?

Was thinking of getting one for doing the sprayer and spreading work. Do a good bit of grassland work and it can be difficult to see the previous lines.

Not looking at contacting out the work.

Anyone come across this unit? I like that it's portable and easy to use.

https://agricision.co.uk

Buford T. Justice XIX

I use a Trimble here for spreading, a bit dearer than that unit but can also mark where you've stopped spreading and measure the areas of ground you've covered, distances from point to point and store points in the field like rocks that you want to drive around.


I'm wondering how the original spreading line is set up with that as that's the base line for the other spreading lines. Do you have to get off the tractor and press buttons on the unit to set it up?

yellow50HX

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I use a Trimble here for spreading, a bit dearer than that unit but can also mark where you've stopped spreading and measure the areas of ground you've covered, distances from point to point and store points in the field like rocks that you want to drive around.


I'm wondering how the original spreading line is set up with that as that's the base line for the other spreading lines. Do you have to get off the tractor and press buttons on the unit to set it up?

Rang the sales people in the midlands about it today. Sounds fairly simple to use. Only need to turn on the On button when you stick it on the bonnet, it's syncs to your iPhone via an app and all the settings are done via the app. Same as yours area done and where you stopped last.

Just take it off whe your finished and plug it in to charge.

About €900 including the vat.
Would be very handy and useful but hard to justify the cost with our acreage 😕.
What acreage are you doing and How much was your if you don't mind me asking and have you seen benefit?

Buford T. Justice XIX

yellow50HX wrote: »

Rang the sales people in the midlands about it today. Sounds fairly simple to use. Only need to turn on the On button when you stick it on the bonnet, it's syncs to your iPhone via an app and all the settings are done via the app. Same as yours area done and where you stopped last.

Just take it off whe your finished and plug it in to charge.

About €900 including the vat.
Would be very handy and useful but hard to justify the cost with our acreage 😕.
What acreage are you doing and How much was your if you don't mind me asking and have you seen benefit?

I think mine was under a grand when I bought it 6 or so years ago but I didn't get it from the main dealer. I got it from a guy in Cork importing them, branded for New Holland, but works fine on the JD:D


For me, it saved me a load of time and energy and I wouldn't be without one now, tbh. I moved out to 15m spread and about 3kph faster too. I can spread 20 bags in 20 acres in about 45 minutes and no overlap so no stripes in the grass for silage or grazing. Some lads can spread accurately at 12m, or think they can anyway, but I couldn't. I would have to get off and measure each bout width and that was a lot of walking every day.


Now I turn on the tractor, takes about 10 minutes to get a good signal, fill the spreader and I have a good signal by the time I hit the field for spreading. I reckon I was overlapping by over 6 or 7% too much each bout so I have that much spared from every round of spreading.


I reckon I saved the price of it over 4 years just in reduced fertiliser costs before any of the time saved or handiness of being able to measure fields or paddocks while spreading. Or being able to spread in the dark when pressure is on.


Would he give you one on trial, I wonder? You wouldn't be a day seeing how accurate it is compared to what you were doing before and how quickly you can get fertiliser out and you could see first hand the potential saving and payback for you.

Have a look at the Trimble video above, I'd say all the guides have similar videos on Youtube so you can check out the different ones.

yellow50HX

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I think mine was under a grand when I bought it 6 or so years ago but I didn't get it from the main dealer. I got it from a guy in Cork importing them, branded for New Holland, but works fine on the JD:D


For me, it saved me a load of time and energy and I wouldn't be without one now, tbh. I moved out to 15m spread and about 3kph faster too. I can spread 20 bags in 20 acres in about 45 minutes and no overlap so no stripes in the grass for silage or grazing. Some lads can spread accurately at 12m, or think they can anyway, but I couldn't. I would have to get off and measure each bout width and that was a lot of walking every day.


Now I turn on the tractor, takes about 10 minutes to get a good signal, fill the spreader and I have a good signal by the time I hit the field for spreading. I reckon I was overlapping by over 6 or 7% too much each bout so I have that much spared from every round of spreading.


I reckon I saved the price of it over 4 years just in reduced fertiliser costs before any of the time saved or handiness of being able to measure fields or paddocks while spreading. Or being able to spread in the dark when pressure is on.


Would he give you one on trial, I wonder? You wouldn't be a day seeing how accurate it is compared to what you were doing before and how quickly you can get fertiliser out and you could see first hand the potential saving and payback for you.

Have a look at the Trimble video above, I'd say all the guides have similar videos on Youtube so you can check out the different ones.

Thanks I might do that and see what happens

SuperTortoise

How accurate are they? and is there any problems with loss of signal?

Buford T. Justice XIX

SuperTortoise wrote: »

How accurate are they? and is there any problems with loss of signal?

Yeah, signal loss is a pain. If you stop the tractor, you lose connection as the unit powers off. And some days have poorer signals as well.

yellow50HX

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Yeah, signal loss is a pain. If you stop the tractor, you lose connection as the unit powers off. And some days have poorer signals as well.

The one I was looking at is battery power so not tied to the tractor.

Not sure about signal coverage but appetently there are loads of satalites and it doesn't rely on phone coverage

charolais0153

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Yeah, signal loss is a pain. If you stop the tractor, you lose connection as the unit powers off. And some days have poorer signals as well.

Trees are horrid bad for it also

Buford T. Justice XIX

yellow50HX wrote: »

The one I was looking at is battery power so not tied to the tractor.

Not sure about signal coverage but appetently there are loads of satalites and it doesn't rely on phone coverage

The Trimble needs 6 satellites to give good coverage and the number fluctuate from 5 to 10 here. It even goes as low as 3 during bad periods and you lose coverage but it normally comes back within 100m or so.


Very few trees around here either to block the signal. You can get a better signal by buying a better aerial but I haven't gone that direction as I don't need that level of accuracy but it might be an option if signal was poor.


It wouldn't be much use to you though with that GPS. The price sound a bit dear, tbh, but I'm comparing it with the price mine was a good few years ago. You would have to compare to others makes to decide if it's going to be that one or spend a bit more for a system with better functions with it.

ED E

If you want accuracy you need a DGPS/RTK system. Vanilla civilian (A)GPS is only going to give you a crude fix even if your unit can listen to the GLONAS constalation.

Buford T. Justice XIX

ED E wrote: »

If you want accuracy you need a DGPS/RTK system. Vanilla civilian (A)GPS is only going to give you a crude fix even if your unit can listen to the GLONAS constalation.

For fertiliser and spraying grassland, I don't think that level of accuracy is needed.



+ or- 30cms would be plenty accurate for grass but for autosteer you probably would need that level of accuracy.

farawaygrass

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

For fertiliser and spraying grassland, I don't think that level of accuracy is needed.



+ or- 30cms would be plenty accurate for grass but for autosteer you probably would need that level of accuracy.

Would it now leave stripes at +/-30cm if spreading fertiliser or spraying?

yellow50HX

farawaygrass wrote: »

Would it now leave stripes at +/-30cm if spreading fertiliser or spraying?

You can set your overlapp to cover any skips

Buford T. Justice XIX

farawaygrass wrote: »

Would it now leave stripes at +/-30cm if spreading fertiliser or spraying?

You're talking plus or minus 1 foot in a 48 foot width so about 4% difference. The sprays would go out most of that distance when spraying anyway, I'd say. No visible striping on silage ground that I've noticed but I've a Bogballe so she covers well over the distance anyway. It might be more obvious with a wagtail doing 11m but I'm only guessing there?

Waffletraktor

ED E wrote: »

If you want accuracy you need a DGPS/RTK system. Vanilla civilian (A)GPS is only going to give you a crude fix even if your unit can listen to the GLONAS constalation.

Doubt their interested in dropping 30 odd k on hardware and unlock codes to have rtk of any use.