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posted by martyb on Thursday January 09 2020, @09:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the tough-row-to-hoe dept.

Digital Rights/Restrictions Management (DRM) technologies affecting new tractors are behind the continuing rise in popularity of the models. Particularly in the midwest, farmers are finding that 40-year-old tractors do the job with less trouble and expense.

Tractors manufactured in the late 1970s and 1980s are some of the hottest items in farm auctions across the Midwest these days — and it's not because they're antiques.

Cost-conscious farmers are looking for bargains, and tractors from that era are well-built and totally functional, and aren't as complicated or expensive to repair as more recent models that run on sophisticated software.

"It's a trend that's been building. It's been interesting in the last couple years, which have been difficult for ag, to see the trend accelerate," said Greg Peterson, the founder of Machinery Pete, a farm equipment data company in Rochester with a website and TV show.

Previously;
Reeducating Legislators on the Right to Repair (2019)
John Deere Just Swindled Farmers Out of Their Right to Repair (2018)
US Copyright Office Says People Have the Right to Hack their Own Cars' Software (2015)


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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Friday January 10 2020, @12:05AM (2 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday January 10 2020, @12:05AM (#941696)

    You can always unbolt the EFI and strap on carburetors and a mechanical spark distributor...

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  • (Score: 2) by Rich on Friday January 10 2020, @02:20AM

    by Rich (945) on Friday January 10 2020, @02:20AM (#941743) Journal

    carburetors and a mechanical spark distributor

    Tough luck for me. It's a direct injected diesel. But I've seen conversions to Hayabusa 1300 engines. The little bubble gets a little more bubbly with those. :) Kind of defeats its purpose for me, though. I'd rather swap out the drive unit for an electric one. Really perverse: A mechanic who knows the car can swap the whole rear-axle-engine compound in under an hour, but it's impossible to swap any electronics module without dealership "programming". OTOH, the car is so simple that anyone with decent Arduino attitude could hack out fitting firmware in a month - well, bar the complicated emission test detection and defeat logic :P

  • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday January 10 2020, @06:47AM

    by RS3 (6367) on Friday January 10 2020, @06:47AM (#941795)

    Or an aftermarket fuel injection system. And some of them use GM PCMs. I'm fixin' to build a programming interface...