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We need an open source tractor. Who’s with me! It doesn’t even have to be great. Just minimum viable product and let iterations improve it. Maybe a billionair

We need an open source tractor. Who’s with me! It doesn’t even have to be great. Just minimum viable product and let iterations improve it. Maybe a billionaire would fund kicking this off?

rascul 5y ago
There was one on HN about a month ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28827785 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28827785
carbocation 5y ago
Check out https://opensourceecology.dozuki.com/c/LifeTrac https://opensourceecology.dozuki.com/c/LifeTrac
JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
The old ones are about as open source as you can get haha. I can see everything on my Mom and Dad’s old Massey Ferguson tractors and every single part is available online from a plethora of vendors since there really aren’t that many parts.
- markdown 5y ago
  Except they don't make those any more, do they? Maybe some of the low-end Mahindra models will do. No fancy electronics, ease to maintain, etc.
rzzzt 5y ago
Would three wheels be enough?
- webmaven 5y ago
  > Would three wheels be enough? Potentially, but there are a number of issues to overcome, such as: More weight on each wheel compresses the soil more. This is possibly alleviated by the 3rd wheel not being in line with the other two, or that might make the problem worse, I'm not sure. Steering, handling, tipping. With a triangular wheel base, the tractor will seem more top heavy for any given size. This is less of a problem than it would be for eg. an SUV, but it is still a problem. Widening the footprint overcomes this but introduces transportation and parking problems, not to mention having to reconsider spacing of row crops etc. Overcoming that is possible by making the whole thing an articulated tripod that can adjust the wheelbase at need (and incidentally maneuver in any direction), but the flexibility gained comes at the cost of quite a bit more complexity that is unlikely to be worth it for farming equipment (construction equipment might be a different matter, but I wouldn't bet on it).
markvdb 5y ago
Have a look at the plans for USSR tractors. Those were fairly well-documented. An acquaintance of mine working at a kolchoz - a USSR collective farm - told me whenever new rolling equipment came in, they usually took it apart and rebuilt it from scratch. The Belarus (MTZ) tractor factory [0] still produces a popular super maintainable model that hasn't changed much since the 1970's. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus_(tractor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus_(tractor)
- leeoniya 5y ago
  reminds me of https://i.redd.it/469hjiwz3ga21.jpg https://i.redd.it/469hjiwz3ga21.jpg
MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
Or how about just remove the computers from the tractor.

We need an open source tractor. Who’s with me! It doesn’t even have to be great. Just minimum viable product and let iterations improve it. Maybe a billionaire would fund kicking this off?

rascul 5y ago

There was one on HN about a month ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28827785 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28827785

carbocation 5y ago

Check out https://opensourceecology.dozuki.com/c/LifeTrac https://opensourceecology.dozuki.com/c/LifeTrac

JohnJamesRambo 5y ago

The old ones are about as open source as you can get haha. I can see everything on my Mom and Dad’s old Massey Ferguson tractors and every single part is available online from a plethora of vendors since there really aren’t that many parts.

markdown 5y ago
Except they don't make those any more, do they? Maybe some of the low-end Mahindra models will do. No fancy electronics, ease to maintain, etc.

rzzzt 5y ago

Would three wheels be enough?

webmaven 5y ago
> Would three wheels be enough? Potentially, but there are a number of issues to overcome, such as: More weight on each wheel compresses the soil more. This is possibly alleviated by the 3rd wheel not being in line with the other two, or that might make the problem worse, I'm not sure. Steering, handling, tipping. With a triangular wheel base, the tractor will seem more top heavy for any given size. This is less of a problem than it would be for eg. an SUV, but it is still a problem. Widening the footprint overcomes this but introduces transportation and parking problems, not to mention having to reconsider spacing of row crops etc. Overcoming that is possible by making the whole thing an articulated tripod that can adjust the wheelbase at need (and incidentally maneuver in any direction), but the flexibility gained comes at the cost of quite a bit more complexity that is unlikely to be worth it for farming equipment (construction equipment might be a different matter, but I wouldn't bet on it).

markvdb 5y ago

Have a look at the plans for USSR tractors. Those were fairly well-documented. An acquaintance of mine working at a kolchoz - a USSR collective farm - told me whenever new rolling equipment came in, they usually took it apart and rebuilt it from scratch. The Belarus (MTZ) tractor factory [0] still produces a popular super maintainable model that hasn't changed much since the 1970's. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus_(tractor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus_(tractor)

leeoniya 5y ago
reminds me of https://i.redd.it/469hjiwz3ga21.jpg https://i.redd.it/469hjiwz3ga21.jpg

MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago

Or how about just remove the computers from the tractor.