and grapefruit orchards. Loved that tractor. Very versatile and easy to work on.
40 years in advertising has made me long for those times on the 9N.
That farm is still in the family down on the border.
Posted on 08/18/2015 11:31:17 AM PDT by Theoria
The iconic image of the American farmer is the man or woman who works the land, milks cows and is self-reliant enough to fix the tractor. But like a lot of mechanical items, tractors are increasingly run by computer software. Now, farmers are hitting up against an obscure provision of copyright law that makes it illegal to repair machinery run by software.
Take Dave Alford. He fits that image of the iconic farmer.
"I do farming on the family ranch," says Alford, standing on a piece of grassy earth with a white barn behind him. "I've been farming for the past 30 years and obviously my family much before that."
Alford wears a blue baseball cap with a farm supply company logo across the top, a plaid shirt, bluejeans and work boots. As Alford and I walk over to see one of his newer tractors we pass what looks like a graveyard of rusty old ones.
Alford says he keeps the old ones around, "Just because I'm a farmer. You keep thinking, well, maybe I'll make this one work someday."
Alford considers himself a small farmer — he's got 1,000 acres in San Luis Obispo along the central coast of California where he grows snow peas, garbanzo beans, hay and seed crops. But he jokes that he tells his friends he's a mechanic.
"You spend so much of your time in agriculture fixing things," Alford says. "I'm of a size that it's more economically beneficial to me to fix as much stuff as I can myself."
But that's been getting a lot harder to do.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
This does not apply to cars. Federal law requires the manufacturer to provide the same tools and online manuals their dealers use. Hyundai puts all their manuals and parts lists online, free to all. Toyota/Lexus/Scion will sell it to you. The Techstream intelligent tester can be had for a mere $8000.00 The shop I work for has one.
Time to get Congress to fix the copyright laws.
Do Hyundai and Toyota sanction modifying their software?
Or just diagnosing and repairing sensor and operational faults?
Big difference between those two things.
I have a 1952 8N Ford tractor. Runs good and I can still get a lot done with it. I have a very old grader blade, boom and mower for it. Also have a post hole digger but have misplaced the auger.
No, but Ford does. Ford works with Saleen, Rousch, Diablosport and others. Reflashing the ECM is big business.
Any manufacturer not allowing or helping just gets hacked by tuners. It is an American thing. You might not understand.
I might not “understand” but I’ve spent a lot of time on the witness stand testifying in product liability suits.
And I can “understand” why manufacturers take the position they do.
This article is the reason I bought/kept a 57 Bel air and my 67 Camaro.
Good example is my next repair. Camaro has a clog in one side of the carburetor idle mixture. The fix will be to unscrew the idle screw, shoot in some gum out and compressed air, and if that doesn’t work, swap out to a spare carburetor. Worst case Total time about 1 hour 45 minutes, cost zero.
Now imagine if it is a new car. Maybe the computer diagnostics catch it, maybe not, if you can read the output. It could be clogged injectors, could be the computer, if you could get to any of them in a cramped engine compartment. If you yank the battery cable you likely have to reset the computer. So, you probably are stuck taking it to the dealer where you are out anywhere from $100 to $500, plus your time.
That pays for an awful lot of gas. Now this article is telling us, you won’t even be allowed under the hood. And the GPS will tell the Feds everywhere you go.
Nope, I’m just going to soup up my old cars, a lot cheaper in the long run.
Your argument has merits, but you can also go on Craigslist and see millions of newer cars for sale with 150,000 - 200,000 miles.
You didn’t see that in the old days.
I’m not disagreeing the new cars have advanced, I’m just saying they aren’t necessarily a better choice. My calculation is I can spend $20,000 every 12 years for a new car. Or I can put $120,000 into my Camaro and get the best car in the city, bar none, it will be worth $50,000 when I’m done and it will be good for another 20 years.
$20,000 gets me positraction, disk brakes, top end stereo, plush interior, Recaro seats, Centerline wheels, bullet proof 4 speed transmission, 450 horsepower engine rebuild. And $6000 left over.
Whooops! Put $20,000 into the Camaro, not $120,000
I’ve spent a lot of time on the witness stand testifying in product liability suits.
******************
Then you need to gear up for defending farmers... a tractor where the diagnostics are purposely locked down to force you to use the manufacturers repair facility is a HUGE liability... you can’t just drive one of these to the dealer ,, they have to come to you... and what if the tractor breaks down and you miss a harvest that you must do RIGHT NOW because the forecast is for a week of rain if you don’t finish it NOW. This isn’t a video game where the stakes are a few wasted hours by a teenager this is $$MILLIONS$$ of dollars in hard losses.
Just like I can’t run my printer until every last micron of ink that I bought is used up and can’t refill it because it has a clock or whatever it’s called.
And this is one of the many reasons I bought all new tractors that were ahead of the computer controls. Not a big farm and does not require complex tractors.
I don’t need washing machines that call my cell phone if they are out of balance either.
Things have gone way too far.
I have a tandem of a 1962 Ford Diesel 841 and a 1972 MF 135 diesel. Both are stalwarts and work. I’ve had both engines refurbished recently and expect them to work another twenty plus years.
In comments filed with a federal agency that will determine whether tinkering with a car constitutes a copyright violation, OEMs and their main lobbying organization say cars have become too complex and dangerous for consumers and third parties to handle.
Allowing them to continue to fix their cars has become "legally problematic," according to a written statement from the Auto Alliance, the main lobbying arm of automakers.
The dispute arises from a section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that no one thought could apply to vehicles when it was signed into law in 1998. But now, in an era where cars are rolling computing platforms, the U.S. Copyright Office is examining whether provisions of the law that protect intellectual property should prohibit people from modifying and tuning their cars". {excerpted),
http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/20/automakers-gearheads-car-repairs/
Thanks for posting, that is scary stuff.
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