[Evil Asian]

I'm in the process of demo'ing a new patriot 2240 from our dealer. I really like the sprayer, but we are using it in sugar beets that have been strip tilled, 22 inch rows, and it keeps going to the soft strip where the beets are planted. It has the Raven viper pro guidance, but not rtk, plus my dealer says that I will be just as happy driving it, as it's easy to drive. My question is: has anyone run down strip tilled rows with a self propelled sprayer using rtk, or do you just put up with a few spots that are driven on, or do you have a suggestion that I haven't considered.
On a side note, if I do go rtk, he says that I have to change to the Case AFS 700 and the change will be very expensive.

 

[SWMan]

On a side note, if I do go rtk, he says that I have to change to the Case AFS 700 and the change will be very expensive.

If you end up using RTK radio's on your 372 receiver I am pretty sure you can feed an external signal through a power/data cable to the Viper Pro. I will know for sure in a week or two on that.

As for soft fields with rutting or tracks(which would resemble strip-till?) the autosteer isn't perfect, it will get pulled around some. I often drive my tram-lines manually but they are easy to see and follow, not sure how obvious it is in the beets?

 

[Seedcornfarmer]

We run 30" strip till and I also struggle keeping it out of the trenches. From prior experience with RTK I would say it's not going to work. You may find that if you can follow planter tractor tracks that you might have better luck.

 

[WilgerIndustries]

With GPS signals and corrections, you can end up spending a lot of money to try correct the issue. Each have their own issues, be it resuming a line after a turn, or losing your line and straying a few inches.

All in all, you are faced with a question:

Are you willing to drive the tracks yourself? If not, then you have to do something with GPS. RTK does help, and if you get one of the upper $$ packages, you will see a difference, but you could be spending $8-10,000 to have it all unlocked with new monitor etc, plus probably a $800+ fee annually.