Posted on 03/22/2017 1:08:15 PM PDT by Rebelbase
To avoid the draconian locks that John Deere puts on the tractors they buy, farmers throughout America's heartland have started hacking their equipment with firmware that's cracked in Eastern Europe and traded on invite-only, paid online forums.
Tractor hacking is growing increasingly popular because John Deere and other manufacturers have made it impossible to perform "unauthorized" repair on farm equipment, which farmers see as an attack on their sovereignty and quite possibly an existential threat to their livelihood if their tractor breaks at an inopportune time.
"When crunch time comes and we break down, chances are we don't have time to wait for a dealership employee to show up and fix it," Danny Kluthe, a hog farmer in Nebraska, told his state legislature earlier this month. "Most all the new equipment [requires] a download [to fix]."
(Excerpt) Read more at motherboard.vice.com ...
I was there from '89-'91, and again in '93. Their tractors were still two-wheeled things that looked like oversized rototillers without the tilling blades.
Anybody that installs a Ukrainian hack deserves whatever hell it unleashes. This is stupid.
I have breakfast with a group of local farmers every morning. None of them have anything nice to say about JD. They do own their equipment, but work together planting and harvesting. I’ll have to ask them if they know about this tomorrow.
I bought a Ford 5000 last summer, 70 hp of rompin’ stompin’ fun!
I got a attachment for the front bucket that allows to uproot 10”-12” trees.
My husband has been looking for a tractor and the older used ones cost more than the newer used one because of all that crap.
$130,000? Most of the ones I see are base priced at over $250,000!
It has that old JI Case look to it.
This appiles to our cars and should be made illegal immediately. This is ant-trust if I have ever seen it but because our government representative are paid by these people— they do nothing and we get screwed!! I had to change a head light and it was $490. That is robbery and needs to be quickly addressed as FRAUD!!
http://opensourceecology.org/portfolio/tractor/
http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/LifeTrac
More “hack” than tractor but .....
In the early 1960’s my dad made a tractor very similar to that, I still got it. Made from a late 40’s Wisconsin auger engine, a Minneapolis Moline combine clutch, 1935 Plymouth tranny & a 1952 Nash narrowed rear end.
Cars are becoming the same sort of thing. They are now so complicated you almost have no choice but to go the dealer to get anything fixed. The days of even doing simple things on a car is almost gone.
I saw what you did there
Probably buying pre-programmed ECU tuning modules like everybody else.
Sounds like I need to move to the midwest and start a tractor jailbreaking biz.
LOL, no shiite. That’s why I prefer Windows over Apple any time hands down. You can download any app or file over torrent etc.
“Who could have foreseen at that time, what would become of Kubota?”
It had to start someplace, and today it’s a quality tractor just as good as JD & Case. Almost as expensive too.
No it isn’t.
Most of the other responses on this thread are educated.
Read them.
Crony Capitalism has always had a "thing" for fascist government. You should look up the NAZI relationships with big business.
There is a freeper that has all this information regarding big business and NAZI fascism on his "about" page. Unfortunately I've forgotten who it was.
I had no idea!
The only thing electronic on my tractor, purchased new four years ago, is the voltage regulator for the generator.
If there is an EMP or something, with these computerized tractors (and vehicles in general) people are gonna starve... But my tractor will still be running... all I have to do is install a switch and monitor the charge level on the battery and flip the switch when it is charged.
I have a 2008 Chevy Trailblazer. Several years ago the driver's side window switch went out. I discovered that it wasn't a set of switches, but instead was an electronic control module with switches on it. I was informed that I could buy a used one, but it wouldn't work because all these products are serial numbered, and if it wasn't programed to send the correct serial number to the car's computer, the car's computer would reject it.
I was told that the Dealer would charge $500.00 to program it, and I would also have to pay for the new module.
I never did get it fixed. I simply made up my mind that I was not going to buy a newer vehicle for the rest of my life.
In fact, I want to find myself some 1940 or 1950 era vehicle to restore and I plan to drive that.
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