Hi,

Just read that John Deere is following the trend of not letting folks repair their own stuff. According to the article, they're using all of the claims of 'safety' and 'proper repair'.

Farmers ( as you might guess) are none too happy about this. They are getting together and trying to do their own work. They're even supplying stuff to other countries -- the Deere policy is worldwide, I guess.

They're also going after 'right to repair' -- and they should. One of my wife's relatives told me about making 2 trips in one day from south central MN to Fargo ND. It was harvest time and they needed their machinery working. They fight weather, pests and weeds - they have to hit it when they can. They shouldn't have to fight their tractor company as well.

hj

 

i think there is more to this than they are saying. it has to do with the EPA mandated emissions controls. if the repair is not done according to a set procedure the emissions controls can be damaged, which will shut down the machine and do very costly damages.
did you know that if you shut down an engine while it is in regen, it will not restart until the computer is reset?

 

There is some of that, but I think that at least some of it is the philosophy that service is a profit center. So, they lock up the service and force customers to use their dealers for everything. In Deere's case, they use a license agreement -- getting more common. You buy something, but you don't quite own it. On the other hand, they aren't liable for your losses due to product failures and delays in repair.

Original article here -- fairly vague
There's a Thriving John Deere Black Market as Farmers Fight for "Right to Repair"

Source article with a lot more info
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/a...inian-firmware

hj

 

I read somewhere there ^^^^ is now a big market for "parts" meaning software from eastern Europe. Guess it allows them to get into the menus or whatever they need to do. Their argument is they don't have the time to wait for a repairman to show up at certain times.

 

I wonder if there is a third party insurance company that specializes in farming losses due to equipment failures or the failure of the service tech to get you up and running in a reasonable time frame. If a self employed person buys a piece of equipment that is unserviceable at home, then they should be some protection.