The little libertarian in me cried a tear of joy.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/artic...n-firmware

Quote: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]."

...

A license agreement John Deere required farmers to sign in October forbids nearly all repair and modification to farming equipment, and prevents farmers from suing for "crop loss, lost profits, loss of goodwill, loss of use of equipment … arising from the performance or non-performance of any aspect of the software." The agreement applies to anyone who turns the key or otherwise uses a John Deere tractor with embedded software. It means that only John Deere dealerships and "authorized" repair shops can work on newer tractors.

"If a farmer bought the tractor, he should be able to do whatever he wants with it," Kevin Kenney, a farmer and right-to-repair advocate in Nebraska, told me. "You want to replace a transmission and you take it to an independent mechanic—he can put in the new transmission but the tractor can't drive out of the shop. Deere charges $230, plus $130 an hour for a technician to drive out and plug a connector into their USB port to authorize the part."

Sigh.... Deere is going to learn the lesson that media companies and software providers have learned... You can't lock people out of their products for long.

Wtf, what were they thinking? Also I would've never signed an agreement, would've just taken my money elsewhere for a tractor.

wow....that's just insane thinking and horrible modeling by Deere...

if I was a farmer, I would do the exact same thing....

John Deere products are a waste of damn money. I never seen one that wasn't overpriced. I'd tell them to piss off and take my business to their rivals.

My family has owned exactly two pieces of John Deere equipment in over 100 years of farming. One was a technically a lease, a one season free trial on a JD 8820 Titan II combine in the early 80's as the local dealer wanted our business since we had just purchased 2 Gleaner N7 combines and 4 Gleaner L2 combines and various tractors. The second was a second hand JD 4410 combine that I learned on when I was 13. We kept neither more than one season.

JD is notoriously difficult to work on, and has been since the 80's. It's almost a necessity for farmers to either purchase or agree to a service agreement. There are several local farmers who use JD combines because the service agreement is very good on leases, but avoid all other JD equipment. One of the very few things that JD does right is locate grease fittings on centrally located banks, rather than all over the machine in damned near impossible places to get to.

(03-24-2017 05:08 AM)stinkfist Wrote:  wow....that's just insane thinking and horrible modeling by Deere...

if I was a farmer, I would do the exact same thing....

There is competition. Kubota, IH and others.

Can't the farmers just buy another manufacturer's equipment or do they all "lock" their equipment these days?

(03-24-2017 08:05 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(03-24-2017 05:08 AM)stinkfist Wrote:  wow....that's just insane thinking and horrible modeling by Deere...

if I was a farmer, I would do the exact same thing....

There is competition. Kubota, IH and others.

yeah....however, there are corporate contracts (that do the majority of farming at this point) that impact the ones left standing....

(03-24-2017 08:54 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Can't the farmers just buy another manufacturer's equipment or do they all "lock" their equipment these days?

JD is the worst, especially when it comes to service. Case has restrictions on some equipment as well. Gleaner and Agco are not as bad, but aren't as popular outside of the midwest as JD and Case. I don't know much about New Holland, Challenger, and other players.

As more and more of this equipment has to be computerized to meet emissions standards you are going to see more companies do the same thing.

The only John Deere we had was an old B model tricycle that was thrown in as boot in an equipment swap my Granddaddy did. We didn't really need it as the only row crops we had were in the family garden but once we tinkered and tuned her up the old girl ran like a top. When we started selling things off after Grandaddy died one of my friends bought it and restored it as a show tractor.

(03-24-2017 07:40 AM)200yrs2late Wrote:  My family has owned exactly two pieces of John Deere equipment in over 100 years of farming. One was a technically a lease, a one season free trial on a JD 8820 Titan II combine in the early 80's as the local dealer wanted our business since we had just purchased 2 Gleaner N7 combines and 4 Gleaner L2 combines and various tractors. The second was a second hand JD 4410 combine that I learned on when I was 13. We kept neither more than one season.

JD is notoriously difficult to work on, and has been since the 80's. It's almost a necessity for farmers to either purchase or agree to a service agreement. There are several local farmers who use JD combines because the service agreement is very good on leases, but avoid all other JD equipment. One of the very few things that JD does right is locate grease fittings on centrally located banks, rather than all over the machine in damned near impossible places to get to.

Dad has a 60's model allis Chalmers and a large Kubota with industrial grade tires. Both run well. John Deere can suck it

(03-24-2017 10:13 AM)Kaplony Wrote:  As more and more of this equipment has to be computerized to meet emissions standards you are going to see more companies do the same thing.

See, I think that is an excuse. (1) they don't have to be computerized to meet emission standards, computers server a lot of purposes in equipment and (2) even if there was no emission standards companies would still try to weld the hood shut on the products you purchase, that way they create a second revenue stream.

Don't auto companies do something similar to this as well? Like, make the car really hard to fix without using a certified dealer?

(03-24-2017 11:52 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  Don't auto companies do something similar to this as well? Like, make the car really hard to fix without using a certified dealer?

and I wonder why I own a '95 gmc pick-em up and barter with a couple of mechanics as req'd for "simple" maintenance......no I don't...

you couldn't pay me to buy the bs that is being sold today.....

the law of diminishing is an engineering requirement today....that's why I got out of corpshite 'murica....I could only use the finger so often....

(03-24-2017 11:52 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  Don't auto companies do something similar to this as well? Like, make the car really hard to fix without using a certified dealer?

Buddy of mine works for a company called Audi Performance Racing. They crack the software of Audis, BMWs, and maybe Mercedes and reprogram the engines to run faster with more power.