Don’t even think about giving that bullshit concept a name that would only embolden these morons that create new DRM to fuck us all over.
Im with the EFF side on this- fuck DRM in every form.
I hate who the farmers vote for but I absolutely have no hatred toward the farmers doing what they do for a living and I absolutely want to see them enabled to fix their own tractors because the reality they now live with is absolute bullshit. There is no reason for it and a tractor should not need to be that complicated. Unless it can plow a field at the speed of a Lamborghini and restore the ground underneath of it there is no improvement you’re ever going to see by making a technological tractor
There are companies making such tractors right now. Where I live Minsk Tractor Works tractors are very popular and the models I’ve seen are completely DRM-free and they are very easy to service by yourself:
I’ve also heard that some company in India bought license and manufactures Polish Ursus C-330 tractor. That machine is legendary for it’s reliability, simplicity and low cost:
I’d also think so, especially in European Union (mabye not DRM, but at least some kind of electronically controlled fuel injection and emissions system) and I was really surprised when I’ve seen new Belarus tractors at official EU dealer few months ago. There was next to no electronics and just a simple mechanical fuel injection pump. I have no Idea how such thing got allowed inside EU.
To be sure, the farmers buying these old machines aren’t luddites. In fact, they often customize and retrofit them with contemporary tech like GPS for automatic steering.
Such farmers may also want to consider adding any needed safety devices that would not have been required by OSHA in the 70s, but would be needed now. They may also need to meet ANSI standards that did not exist earlier.
Agricultural machines in the EU are -AFAIK- not regulated by the same emission standards as the automobile world. Also the “I’ve got russian tractors who work without DRM” argument is exactly what I meant when I wrote “general security”. Imagine these russian monster tractors running havoc without anyone being able do stop them! We’re all going to die! Why do you love Putin so much?
These are not Russian. If you want real Russian monster tractor, Kirovets K-700 is the thing:
The engine was so large that is wasn’t started directly by an electric starter, but had an smaller two stroke motor that started main engine. Sadly K-700 is not manufactured anymore, probably due to its ridiculous fuel consumption.
Another Russian classic is Владимирец T-25A. Parents have one and I really like driving it - the visiblity is great, it has 8 forward and 6 reverse gears and its 2-cylinder diesel engine sounds awesome
The only problem with it is spare parts availability - Soviet-era parts are hard to get, and newer parts have next to no quality control.
Not just underdeveloped countries. Here in the U.K. where farms are usually much smaller than the prairies in the US, farmers just don’t need huge tractors teched up to the eyeballs, those are usually operated by contractors who will work larger cultivated areas, so it’s usual to see tractors thirty, forty or more years old still in daily use.
They’re literally agricultural equipment with diesel engines, so long as vital areas are kept lubed, a tractor can be hauled out of a hedge after a decade and it’ll start!
There are some farmers still using track-laying Caterpillar vehicles dating back forty-fifty years, they just keep working.
Some thing old, something new, something DRM free.
@Avery_Thorn I wondering how long it will be before we start hearing of tractors being
stolen to order in the third world, and shipped back to the first world to feed a demand for low tech base units for 3rd party upgrades.
They remind me of the Moon Buggy from “Diamonds are Forever”. One of the wheels can be seen rolling around in the bottom left of the screen around 1:29, after the Buggy crashed out of shot.
I’m a commercial fisherman in California. In my industry, upgrading to a new Cat can not only shut you down for long periods of time while waiting for a tech to come out and re set some error code, it can be deadly.
These new computer controlled engines shut down at the slightest hint of adversity. If you happen to be crossing the bar and the oil pressure sensor gets a momentary anomalous reading due to punching through waves, it’ll shut the motor down.
In this and other similar situations losing power can lead to you losing the vessel and all crew.
I’m sticking to my old Detroit two stroke.
If you’re after size, have you seen modern 4WD articulated tractors? They dwarf the K-700 substantially. I had the privilege of driving a dually Deere 9630 once and it’s like driving a small building. 25 tons when running loaded, and almost 500hp at the drawbar. There are larger machines now- I saw one at a farm show a few months ago that was indescribably large. Didn’t get the model number because I blacked out from the emotional experience of being near it.
I am so tired of people lamenting, “Customers are stupid. We deserve all the crap we get, because obviously the market wouldn’t deliver this crap unless people willingly paid money for it”
Its such lazy, circular logic that shields fragile egos from admitting a deeper truth, that we are trapped in a predicament not of our own making.
