IT has taken a few years, but Beverley/York farmer Duncan Young is now a happier man.
He has been farming with RTK guidance for the past 10 years, with his own base station, tweaked to plus or minus one centimetre.
It’s a controlled traffic system, though purists would frown at using dual tyres on the tractor, which means you haven’t got all the tractor weight on the defined guidance lines.
“I call it fuzzy CTF because I’m not obsessed with all machinery being on three metre spacings (10 foot), so long as the implement sizes match up,” Mr Young said.
Having said that he is working towards that goal and his latest addition is a new John Deere 9470RX four-track articulated tractor on three-metre spacings.
“It’s one of the last pieces of gear that fits our 12.2m (40.2ft) CTF system, which is the conventional three to one, with the spraying boom at 36.6m (120.7ft),” Mr Young said.
“But we’ll keep the header on duals for stability reasons on the hills.”
Mr Young bought the 9470RX from Ag Implements, Northam and it completes his “green” rig of an 1870 Air Hoe Drill and a 1910 Air Cart.
“We run all John Deere because of the great service and back-up I get from my dealer,” he said.
With limited hours experiencing the new beast – Mr Young started his program last Wednesday – he deferred to his tractor driver Olly Martin.
“Olly said the fuel consumption is great at between 6-6.1 litres a hectare and the auto diff lock feature gets more power to the ground on the run lines, particularly on the steep hills,” Mr Young said.
“We’ve also noticed there’s no power hop.”
The tractor also will be used as a chase tractor at harvest pulling a Coolamon 36 tonne capacity chaser bin on 3m, which is also braked to increase safety.
Mr Young also opted for hydraulic brakes on the 9470RX.
Another comment from Mr Martin concerned the daily inspection walk-around with no oil checks – mid-rollers are bolted onto a sealed cartridge hub which requires an oil level check at 1500 hours and an oil change at 10,000 hours.
Like all modern tractors, comfort gets a big tick from both the men who will appreciate the bigger and more spacious cab after driving a John Deere 9120 for the past 15 years.
It was a bitter-sweet moment to let go of the ‘old girl’, trading it in for the new model.
But you can’t ignore innovation, which is the key word, as far as Deere is concerned.
The stand-out, according to the company, is a mechanical Parallel Plane Four-Bar Linkage system with 10 centimetres (four inches) of vertical travel to control movement and isolate the cab and operator from sudden impacts and vibration.
In layman’s-speak, the front idler is positioned slightly higher than the two mid-rollers with a disposition to climb over obstacles rather than bulldozing.
Deere also claims its mid-rollers keep the track belts in contact with the soil over the entire length of the under-carriage and the spacing of the mid-rollers also helps prevent vibration during transport and in working mode.
Another innovation is the large drive sprocket, which Deere said provided more wrap angle and more positive drive lug engagement.
The belt also is eight per cent longer than competitive models, meaning it can travel the same distance with fewer revolutions, giving 20pc longer belt life, according to Deere.
The design allows for 41pc more lug engagement along with 12pc wider lugs to help prevent belt slippage over the drive lugs.
The track tension can be adjusted up to 16,000psi to resist de-railing and component damage.
All 9RX models are offered with Camoplast Durabuilt puncture-resistant rubber tracks and are available in 76cm (30in) and 91cm (36in) widths on 2.2m (7.3ft) spacings.
The 9RX 3m models are available in 46cm (18in) and 61cm (24in) track width.
Mr Young opted for the 61cm tracks.
The 9470 has a power rating of 346 kilowatts (470 horsepower) though the flagship 9620RX offers 456kW (620hp).
There’s also a choice between a John Deere PowerTech PSS 13.5L engine (9470RX, 9520RX and 9570RX models) and a Cummins QSX15 engine in the 9620RX, which is an option for the 9570RX.
A CommandView III cab with a new cab suspension system for improved ride quality is designed with integrated performance features already available on Deere’s 9 series wheeled tractors.
Other features include built-in, fully integrated AutoTrac guidance and JDLink Connect information management, the e18 powershift transmission with Efficiency Manager and increased hydraulic flow.
A Generation 4 CommandCenter features custom-built pages and green-on-green integrated technologies providing fingertip control of tractor and implement functions.
The company also has re-designed the hydraulic system which can be optioned up to eight SCVs and delivers a standard 220 litres a minute of flow, or an optional 435L/min.
It also can be optioned with a PTO, which Mr Young opted for.
