Your autosteer retrofit kit in our buying guide?

When looking for an autosteer, auto guidance or autopilot system, there’s numerous brands and types of systems you can choose from. Nowadays they’re ranging in price from about € 4,750 ($ 5,500) to € 16,000 ($ 18,500). Some include it in their tractor purchase(s) to have it factory fitted while others, especially with mixed fleets, opt for universal (retrofit) technology. To help you choose from the available universal retrofit systems, Future Farming compiled a handy buying guide last year.

It’s the details that matter

It’s not just the brand or the price that matters when you choose your new autosteer system. The technology is still evolving at a rapid pace and thanks to for instance Canbus and Isobus, the existing steering valve and steering angle sensor can now be used. This lowers the investment costs.

If you’re planting trees for example, you want your autosteer system to be able to operate at the lowest possible speed while when spraying, you want it to work at speeds well above 25 kph (16 mph). Speaking of sprayers and large seeds drills and planters: how about up to 255 individual sections to operate?

GPS

Which of the global positioning satellite systems do the systems work with? Do they offer a solution to temporarily continue using autosteer when reception of satellite or correction signals lacks or fails? What licenses and unlocks are available and at what costs? Can you swap the system from one tractor to another and if so, how easy and fast? What application map and AB-line formats does the system support? Do you get free of charge software updates and how often?

There’s so many details that can make an autosteer system (un)suitable for your farming practice! Therefore you’ll find the answers to all your questions in the upcoming update of our buying guide with autosteer retrofit kits.

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