How Precision Upgrades Can Transform Your Combine’s Performance

Tony Kramer: Hi, I'm Tony Kramer, your host of the Agriculture Technology podcast, and I'm sitting down with agriculture technology and equipment experts to help you enhance your operation for today, tomorrow, and into the future. In this episode, I talk with Wyatt Johnson about combine precision upgrade kits. With that, let's dive into the show. Like I said, we are going to talk today about some combine precision upgrade kits.

Now, we went over planter precision upgrade kits. We went over sprayer precision upgrade kits. I figured why not throw the combines into this mix as well. As we talk through this, you'll find out that there's not quite as much for combines as there is for some of the other pieces of equipment, but I still felt that we needed to get this one in here. With me today, as I said, Wyatt Johnson. Wyatt, before we get started, why don't you introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about who you are, where you come from, and how you got to where you are today.

Wyatt Johnson: Absolutely. Good morning, Tony. Like Tony said, my name is Wyatt Johnson, product specialist for Precision Ag Technology here out of our South Dakota locations here. Background a little bit, I have an extensive Deere background. My father actually works for John Deere as you know. He's a territorial aftermarket business manager.

Tony: Good guy. Great guy.

Wyatt: I've heard that. I've heard that a time or two. He's been doing that for almost 10 years now, and he's worked at dealerships in the past too. Anyways, I started in the dealership business back in 2020 working for other dealerships, but been with RDO actually a year from today.

Tony: Congratulations.

Wyatt: Very blessed to have this opportunity to work with this great company. Right now we're kicking off wheat harvest, small grain harvest, so staying busy in the field, but happy to be here.

Tony: Combine precision upgrade kits. There's not as much out there as there is for planters or sprayers or some of the other stuff that we have, but there is some beneficial things that we can purchase or add on to our combines without having to buy new or part and piece it out.

Wyatt: Correct. Yes, absolutely. You nailed it on the head there with just precision upgrade kits in general. You can put it on a combine, obviously, and no, there's not a lot to offer there. If you wanted to add that extra technology portion to your combine, you don't have to buy a whole new machine just to get that technology option. It's just a cheaper, simpler way to get into new technology.

Tony: That was one of the things we talked about. If we go back to the planter precision upgrade kits, in the past, if you wanted to add a piece of technology or a new feature, the only option you had was to purchase new. You had to either find that on a used piece of equipment or you had to order and buy brand new. With the world of precision upgrade kits, we have the ability to upgrade little by little and get the technology we want. precision upgrade kits, big umbrella, broad spectrum. What are they? How could they benefit somebody? Why would a customer look at a precision upgrade kit versus that other piece of equipment or a new piece?

Wyatt: If you want that additional technology or automization on a piece of equipment, you got to go buy a new piece of equipment in the past. Now as today, how the markets are, maybe that customer's best interest is not to buy a new piece of equipment just because it could be a little pricey. Now we have these precision upgrades across planters, sprayers, and combines, and it's just a cheap, reliable option to get into that new technology without having to buy that piece of equipment rather than just buying the small portion to add it onto your existing equipment.

Tony: That's another piece to it. Not only do you not have to buy a new piece of equipment, but it's also usually more cost-effective or a little bit more affordable than buying that new combine and adding that technology.

Wyatt: Some guys don't even think of that. When they want to buy a new piece of equipment, they don't really think of the technology add-ons you can also get. Then they're like, "Oh shoot, now I got to buy this to get this cool feature." When we open the world of PUKs, most people think it has to go on newer equipment, but just diving on sprayer PUKs just a little bit, we can go all the way back to a 30-series John Deere sprayer. They're pretty versatile, and like we said, it's fairly cheap to get into a PUK, whether it's planter, sprayer, or combine as well.

Tony: Absolutely. You talk 30-series sprayers on the planter side, we can go back to 04 for the Moline planters, we can go back to 12 for the Bauer, the DB planters. There's a lot of opportunity. Let's dive in on the combine PUKs. Now we're going to break this out because the different series of combines have some different offerings. Start out, let's just talk a little bit about the S-series combines, so our S600s, S700s. What is available for PUKs on those machines for customers with an S600 or an S700 combine?

Wyatt: Absolutely. Like we mentioned before, there's not a whole lot of option on combine PUKs, but there are some out there. Since we're starting with the S700, we'll dive into the ones that fit the 600 and the 700 series, which is our LED light kit PUK there. What it includes is basically just a huge light kit that we can add onto our combine that has LED lights, whether that's a work light, a headlight, our top cab lights. It's basically just a huge light kit that we can add onto our existing combines to make them basically LED lights. The 600 series, when we first started them, model year 12 to 17, and then obviously our S700 started in 18, and we can put that on 18 and newer combines there.

Tony: That's actually a really important piece that I know a lot of guys may overlook. We've got that awesome LED kit for the planters too out there. Some people they chuckle at it or they overlook it, but especially on combines, think about in the fall of the year, how often you're harvesting in the dark. Maybe when you got that S600 series combine or the early S700, you didn't opt for that higher lighting package. You just got the standard halogens, whatever it may be. I don't know if you're like me, Wyatt, or not, but even in my personal vehicles, I like to have the bright LED lights. Oftentimes you have to do a ton of research and you're getting something third party, whatever it may be. This is an awesome solution for a customer that we know it's John Deere-compatible. We know it's going to work. It's going to be a plug and play solution. This is a great precision upgrade kit that can often be overlooked.

Wyatt: Correct. The work lights, especially, I think you get four work lights in the whole entire kit. We know breakdowns happen and breakdowns are not fun in the dark either. Why not have a light that'll literally light up the whole entire side of the combine that we have. You can see any nook and cranny to be able to check bearings, belts, chains, you name it.

Tony: What else do we got for the S600 and 700 series combines?

Wyatt: That actually is it for the 600 series, but we do have another option for our S700 series. Again, model year '18 and on newer machines. That is our tippable spout or tippy spout, however you want to say it there. That's just an extra add-on. Obviously, our X9s come with it from the factory, but what that tippable spout is, basically take the old boot off, put this new one on. Then on the S700 series hydro handle in the cab, there's that little scroll wheel behind the hydro handle.

We wire that into the hydro handle and we can control the tippable spout. It's all controlled off an actuator. We mount on the tube of the auger. There are a lot of operations out there that have, I wouldn't say inexperienced, but maybe not the most experienced grain cart drivers out there. For the combine operator to be able to control where that grain is exactly going into the grain cart and maybe even get it to as full as it can possibly get in the field, it's also a great add-on option too. If you have a very large head with maybe not as long as an auger and you need to shoot that grain to the left side of the grain cart, that's also a great option as well.

Tony: Absolutely. There's a lot of people, they like that. When it came out on the X series combines, all of the S-series customers and owners, they were like, "I want that. I want that." Now we do. For the S700 series, we can get that tippable auger spout.

Wyatt: Another PUK that we can get on our S700 series, again, model year '18 and on is our cross auger shutoff kit to give a brief description of what that is. On our older machines that didn't have this precision upgrade, when we shut our auger off, when we're unloading on the go, all of that grain is still stored in the unloading auger tube. What that does when we fold it back in, it has so much weight on the auger gear case. We typically see them gears or the bevels wear out a lot faster when we're unloading on the go, just due to the sheer weight on that auger tube.

Now, with this cross auger shutoff kit, it's going to shut off the cross augers when you hit the stop unloading button on the hydro handle, but our unloading auger or the large tube goes for, I think about another three seconds to completely get that tube empty so we don't have all that sheer weight sitting on the auger drive gear case.

Tony: This one here, the cross auger shutoff- -in the past, we've had some third party or some aftermarket solutions. Now we've got this. The benefit to this one is completely integrated. Like you said, we don't have a foot pedal or anything like that. Now, if you have a combine prior to an S700, we can still get that third party or that aftermarket solution. You run that with a foot pedal, but this one specifically is completely integrated right into your hydro handle with your unload on-off button.

You talk about the weight, the weight that is in that tube, in that auger when you shut that down, I can't remember what it was specifically. I'm probably going to completely throw this for a loop, but someone was telling me that there's like 2 or 3 feet of auger, of deflection height difference. If you have a fully loaded auger, it sags about, I want to say it was like 2 or 3 feet. Then when that auger is empty, it's that 2 or 3 feet higher. It really does make a difference. There's a lot of grain, especially when you're dealing with corn or wet corn or soybeans, a lot of soybeans, things like that. There's a lot of weight in that auger.

Wyatt: Especially with our consumers running a larger operation, they're running nonstop, they don't have time to stop with the short harvest window that we have. They're obviously unloading on the go all the time. To be able to have this option to possibly reduce some repair costs for them, it's unimaginable.

Tony: That rounds out what we have for our S-series precision upgrade kits. We got the lights, we've got that tippable spout and the cross auger shut off. Let's talk now about what we have for our X-series combines. Our customers out there that either have or are potentially interested in one of the X9 1000 or X9 1100 combines, what can we get them for precision upgrade kits?

Wyatt: Sure. Our X9 PUK kit list gets a little bit shorter. The reason for that is all of the PUK kits that we've mentioned already come in base with an X9 so the tippable spout, cross auger shut off and a premium light kit. That's all in base on an X9. What we actually have to offer for X9s now is either remote separator grate covers or remote concave covers. What we can do with that, be able to control our covers for the concaves or the separators through the cab because like we were just talking a little bit before we started the podcast, how fun is it to put them separator grate covers in?

Just to be able to do that from the cab and have a little bit more at ease with installation. Obviously crop conditions change throughout the whole entire year so if you have hard threshing wheat or small grains and you need to quickly throw them separator grate or concave covers in, just one click of a button and it's done. It's a very neat feature on these new machines too.

Tony: I don't know what's worse, changing concaves on the right side of the machine or putting in the separator grate covers on the right-hand side of the machine. If you've never done it, I encourage you to go out and try it. Like we said, before we were recording, we were talking about that. It's not very fun. There's not a lot of workable space on that right-hand side of the machine, but this solves that. This gives you the ability to do it right from in the cab on those X-series combines. Very good. Like you said, the list is so short because we get all those other options. Those PUKs for our S-series combines, most or all of that technology comes in base on an X-series, correct?

Wyatt: Yes. It's already integrated with all of our X-9 machines. The list is short, but also a very neat option to put on an X-9 if you don't order it from the factory. These cover add-ons we can put on the X-9s, they go back to when we started creating them.

Tony: Since our PUK lists are fairly short for the combines, we wanted to take this opportunity to talk about a couple other technologies, just remind our listeners about what's available out there as we're getting into wheat harvest here, we're ahead of soybeans, corn, all of that. There are opportunities for technologies that can be used in the combine. Let's start out last year, John Deere released AutoTrac Turn Automation for the combine.

Let's remind our listeners, Wyatt, a little bit about what ATTA is or AutoTrac Turn Automation, what it is, how it's used in the combine or the functionality of it in the combine, and what technology we need in order to utilize ATTA in a combine.

Wyatt: Absolutely. ATTA, AutoTrac Turn Automation, what it really is, it is basically automizes the end road turns for you in any machine. We can put it on tractors and planters. Then obviously in combines now and I believe Deere's currently working on sprayers with AutoTrac Turn Automation too, but on the combine side, it's just only a turn solution. It does not lift the header for you. You have to manually control the header, but also a very neat option.

If you have a decently large headland that you have already cut out from the field, you can unload on the go while you're still turning with the auger. To not have to worry about turning that steering wheel and getting lined up correctly on the rows is also a very nice feature. Technology that we need for it, we need a Gen 4 monitor or newer, a G5 Plus Universal or command center. We need an automation 4.0 or a G5 advanced license to be able to run AutoTrac Turn Automation.

Then with that, we also need field boundaries with an operation center and on our monitor. Typically we want them field boundaries to be driven with SF3 minimum correction signal. Obviously SFRTK and RTK radio will suffice. That's the most accurate we can get. I would say that's the more core technologies that we need to be able to run turn automation. There's a lot more complex display setup within the combine, but I would say that's more of your core technologies that you will need. We can run it on S700 series combines and newer.

Tony: Just like we use AutoTrac Turn Automation on a tillage tractor or on a planter tractor, we need those boundaries to be pretty- -precise because we're then creating that headland boundary. We're telling it how big our headlands are, all of that type of stuff. Now, if you do not have an Automation 4.0 on your Gen 4 or that advanced license for your G5, we can get demo activations, correct, Wyatt?

Wyatt: Yes. We were talking about this before, too. We can't remember if it's 15 hours or just a 3-day grace period demo that we can get. If we have customers that are interested in running this technology on the equipment that they have, let's just run out there and throw the demo activation in there and run it for a day and see what the customer likes. Then, obviously, we can follow up with purchasing an activation to put on their machine and continue using it throughout the year.

Tony: Absolutely. Like Wyatt said, if you have everything you need except for that Automation or that advanced license, Automation 4.0 or advanced license, reach out to your local RDO store, your local John Deere dealership and try it out. I know last year when John Deere released it on the display software update, we got it on the combine. We were actually harvesting our field trials at that point. We said, "Hey, let's try it out. This is brand new. Let's try it."

It is a very neat technology to be able to utilize in the combine. We've had it for a few years in the tractors. It's really neat to see it come to the combines. Hopefully, down the road, we'll get it in the other pieces of equipment. Sprayers, anything else that John Deere offers, I would imagine it'll slowly make its way there, too. Now, another technology I want to remind customers on that we've had in the past, but it comes full circle. The important piece is at harvest or in season and at harvest. Let's talk to a little bit about AutoPath. Now, there's two different offerings for AutoPath these days. Let's break it down. What you need for each one and how a customer could utilize them.

Wyatt: Sure. I guess we can start with the AutoPath that most people probably know/run already. That's just obviously your normal AutoPath. It's row detection. We have to start that in the springtime with a planter or we can even start in the fall with a strip till bar. Essentially, what we need to do, we just throw a receiver on that implement. Write down the exact measurements of where that receiver is located on that piece of equipment.

Then what it really does, it just detects each individual row throughout the field when you're in the field working, whether it's planting or strip tilling. Then we get that individual row documentation. When we come in with the sprayer or even the combine, the combine or the machine in general knows exactly where that row is going to be. That minimizes row damage. It streamlines our whole entire operation for that field. It'll generate the whole entire field's guidance lines.

It optimizes the most efficient way you can get that field worked, whether it's spraying or combining. Again there, you need a Gen 4 or newer display. We need that automation 4.0 activation. Then again, too, with the same as AutoTrac Turn Automation, we need that SF3 minimum driven signal correction boundary as well.

Tony: Big win. Big success on that one was back when Iowa had that derecho go through. I know a lot of customers got to utilize or try out AutoPath. It just happened to be rolling out right at that time. Being able to, in down corn, gooseneck corn, whatever it may be, being able to find those rows or allowing the machine to find those rows and where they need to be. That's a very beneficial one. You talked about it, though.

We need to start either in the fall with strip till or in the spring of the year with planting because the system needs to know where are those planted rows. That's the kicker with that one. There is a new one that came out. For our small grains friends or maybe even in a soybean field, we have a new version of AutoPath that you don't have to start in the spring of the year. Tell us a little bit about that, Wyatt.

Wyatt: That's just basically called AutoPath boundary. Obviously, keyword there is boundary. We take that boundary that you have created within operation center. Again, it does need to have a high correction signal SF3 minimum. We don't need row detection for that. What it does is it takes the dimension of that boundary that you have in your field on operation center, and then it takes the width of your implement that you're working with, whether it's a tillage piece or let's say we're talking about combines today.

We take the width of that implement and it's going to streamline guidance rows based off of the dimensions of your boundary and the width of that header, let's say, that you're using. Again, a pretty neat way. For our listeners that are listening right now and thinking, "Oh, this sounds pretty cool, but I didn't start in the spring like they just told me," you don't need to start in the spring. You just need that high accuracy driven boundary. That's about it. Then again, your Gen 4 operations there in your Automation 4.0. It's a lot more simplistic.

We see obviously a lot in soybean and small grain harvest. That's the main ones just because we don't have row detection on our air seeders or our small grain planters there. Very neat option. It just been released. We're still testing it out. All the demos and demonstrations that I've been on, it is a very neat tool, very accurate, and it works very well. Again, there it also streamlines all the guidance lines and it basically produces the most optimum way to harvest that field, the most efficient way to harvest that field.

There's multiple ways you can set up your guidance lines. You can align it to the boundary that your field is driven in. You can set a degree heading or an angle heading. We can make our guidance rows that way too. Again, very neat feature, but you don't need that row detection at the start of the year. If people are just getting into it now, we don't need all that extra equipment on your planter or your strip toolbar.

Tony: Absolutely. Whether you're using the traditional form or the row detection of AutoPath or you're using AutoPath boundary, it streamlines the operation. It increases your efficiency. No more row of shame or in your small grains. We're not combining that last little-- It would still be a row of shame, but it's rows of shame with the small grains. You're not picking up that last five-foot strip or whatever it may be. You are definitely streamlining, being more efficient, more productive, making sure your header is full at all times. Very beneficial technology. Whether it's the PUKs, AutoTrac Turn Automation, or the different types of AutoPath, if somebody wants to learn more, where can they go, who can they talk to to learn more about what we talked about on this episode?

Wyatt: Just stop at your local RDO dealership or any of your dealerships, talk to your product specialist or your account manager. They'll definitely be able to at least help you or point you in the right direction of where to go. You can also go to YouTube, look at John Deere's YouTube channel. They have many beneficial videos that you can watch. You can go to the RDO equipment page on YouTube. We have Precision Ag Answers playlist on there. We have this podcast that we're doing right now that you can listen to on YouTube as well. Plenty of answers out there, but I would say primarily go talk to your local RDO equipment dealer.

Tony: Awesome. I want to thank you, Wyatt, for taking the time out of your day to sit down and talk with me here. We mentioned it, we're getting into the heart of small grains or wheat harvest here in Minnesota and the Dakotas, but look out the window here. We got a little bit of a rain delay here, so we can catch up on some office work and record podcasts like this. Thanks again for doing this.

Wyatt: Thank you for having me. It was a fun experience.

Tony: Please take a moment to subscribe to this podcast if you haven't already. You can subscribe to the show on the many different podcasting apps that we're streaming this out to, such as Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, as well as many others. While you're out there, drop us a review. We'd love to hear what you think about the show. Lastly, make sure to follow RDO Equipment Company on Facebook, Instagram, X, and catch all of our latest videos on YouTube. You can also follow me on X @RDOTonyK.