When are we going to discuss tractors (speaking to the FTC)? The fact I can't even change some settings such as the gear shifting speed without a technician is insane.
They were an absolute dream to work on. Everything was straightforward and consistent. The assembly was well thought out to enable in the field repairs. In my mind at the time John Deere was a brand that understood the needs of farmers.
I can't reconcile their current position on right to repair with my experience. Something clearly changed between the 1970s and today.
It's not conspiratorial in the mustache twirling sense, but it is 100% an unambiguously desired outcome of how our tax laws and accounting principles are currently structured.
A system is perfectly tuned to generate the outcomes it does. If you don't like those outcomes, you have to change the system.
They are all farmers, do the farmers' thing. And the latter is more efficient. It makes sense (and IMO is better) for a tractor company to cater for the latter.
Those days are long gone. Fewer small family farms, fewer friendly and trusting people, fewer simple things for mechanically minded handy men to fix.
There's a lot of good things progress brings us, though it is often interesting to ponder on what we have lost.
I honestly blame film/TV and other modern media for implanting anxieties in people via a combination of sensationalist news reports on gruesome crimes and the horror genre which seem to form a feedback loop of mistrust. Before that people had to go out of their way to hear of such grizzly tales in books or newspapers (if they could even read) so most lived in ignorant bliss, unaware of the potential violence lurking in every corner of humanity. Maybe I'm wrong but I'd just like to know when ans why it was we lost out innocence as a society.
Nowadays, people tend to have more worth stealing - including your identity if you happen to have documents in an easily accessible area of your home. Back then, though, there wouldn't have been much worth taking from a small family farm- no TV, cell phones, electronics other than a radio and light fixtures for the most part (this would have been in the 1930's or 40's, I forget which).
One last stay thought: hospitality and community in general were much more central to people's way of life in rural farming communities then- farmers would help each other out with planting and harvesting, share equipment, every person in the community went to the same or one of two churches, etc. People had to rely on each other just to survive.
Tractors on the cloud.
Castles in the sky.
MBAs took over American companies. They're the ones who cook up these exploitative ideas so that no money is ever left on the table.
Everytime I dig into someone complaining about right to repair I find someone who wants to bypass emissions controls.
We can regulate emissions and farmers can be penalized for violating them, so that can’t be on John Deere.
To say that they can use the same scan tools is a false solution because John Deere could simply choose to stop selling it to them.
And while in your experience repair issues are “non existent to most customers”, we cannot let that be a reason that we don’t pursue right to repair. It’s like saying “most of the slaves are treated well” (which I admit is an exaggerated comparison, but it shares enough similarities that I’m sticking with it)
The letter of the current emissions laws and court case law is it is on John Deere. So start by talking to your federal representative about this.
Are you willing to pay for someone to go around and do random exhaust sampling of tractors? Most farmers aren't doing anything, but there is no way to know which farmer is the 1% that is without testing. If it is still "factory" then it meets emissions (VW style scandals aside, but then catch one you get them all), how are you going to enforce it if anyone can make violating changes?
> To say that they can use the same scan tools is a false solution because John Deere could simply choose to stop selling it to them.
Probably not. The protocol is the ISO11786, and we will keep using it because there are other customers of engines who demand it. The engine in our tractor is also sold for use in boats (boats are not large enough a market to pay the development cost of a modern engine, but the profit margin makes them worth selling to), it is also used in generators, and a number of other applications, and those customers demand standards so they can fix things when it is in their unit.
Also, one of our big selling points is everyone knows you can get parts for old John deere tractors (but not our competitors), and so the trade in value is higher.
Though technically you are correct, we can stop selling scan tools, the reality is there is too much value to do that.
> while in your experience repair issues are “non existent to most customers”, we cannot let that be a reason that we don’t pursue right to repair.
Sure, but be very careful about the what the law says. Most right to repair laws are not helpful to someone who uses a tractor as intended, but are useful to those abusing it in ways you may not want them to. violating emissions better be clearly on the farmer. What about the person who buys a used tractor - we use the same engine on a 200 and 300 horsepower tractor (I'm not sure without looking the exact range, but that is close enough for discussion), it wouldn't be hard to modify the smaller tractor to have more power, but that will impact how long the tractor lasts and thus the value to the next owner. There is no way to know if someone made that change and then undid it.