John Deere employee responds to Right to Repair: Difference between revisions

<blockquote>Thank you for taking the time to educate yourself on matters you do not fully understand. I appreciate what you are doing fighting for right to repair and wish you luck. However I would also like for you to have accurate information in order to make yourself more credible. The video I would like to start with is the one published on Jan 26 titled “John Deere dealerships are lobbying AGAINST right to repair. Farmers, please help me out.”<ref>{{Cite web|title=John Deere dealerships are lobbying against right to repair. Farmers, please help me out here.|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38O1zEuLOMM|publisher=YouTube|author=Louis Rossmann|date=27 Jan 2020|language=en|format=video}}</ref> Much of your commentary in inaccurate and I will address your points one at a time and give proof as to why.

The tractors used in these professional pulling competitions are purpose built for that sole use. However farmers do modify current production tractors to produce more power in the field. This is usually referred to as “chipping.” The most common brand used by my customers is Steinbauer. www.steinbauer.cc. These devices change the fuel mapping to the engine generating more power. This would be very similar to overclocking a CPU. The reason they do this is very simple. While Deere makes higher powered tractors, they cost more. So instead of buying a bigger tractor they buy a small one and add a “chip” to it in order to increase horsepower. Deere does not want customers to do this for the same reason Intel will not let you overclock a low end i5 running at 3.4GHz and overclock it to 4.6GHz. They want you to buy the faster chip so they lock out the ability to overclock them. And just like CPU’s the more power the more heat they produce. On CPU’s you would upgrade the stock cooler to maybe a water cooled system. On tractors the cooing capacity is designed into the machine for a specific horsepower and not easily upgradeable. Also the transmissions, drive shafts, axles, etc are designed to withstand a certain amount of power.

Another point you mention is farmers are not trying to add to pollution by changing emission standards. This is also not entirely accurate. Google “Deere DPF delete kit” or go to allcartuning.com. These are kits used to change the engine software and components to remove emission devices. This often removes the EGR valve (exhaust gas recirculation), DPF (diesel particulate filter), DOC (diesel oxidation catalyst), SCR (selective catalytic reduction), AOC (ammonia oxidation catalyst), and DEF injection system (diesel exhaust fluid). This is done to save money. DEF is consumed by the engine at a rate of typically 3-6% of fuel consumption. So for every 100 gallons of fuel you will need 5 gallons of DEF. This system is on all modern diesel engines including pickup trucks and semi trucks. Owners remove this system because DEF does not increase performance of the engine. It is injected into the exhaust stream to aid the AOC in removing NOx (nitrous oxides) from the exhaust. This increase the operating cost of the machine but adds no financial benefit. Also the engine mapping can be changed without these emission devices to use less fuel at the same power, however it no longer meets EPA emission standards.

You discussed in your video certain repairs must be completed by software used by the dealership even if the repair is performed by the customer. This is accurate in very specific situations. The short answer to this is because of emissions. I will explain. A current production 8R series tractor can have around 45 on board controllers. The customer has access to the DTC’s (diagnostic trouble codes) of all 45 controllers through the touch screen display in the cab along with a short description of the fault. This is vastly superior to the ability of most cars. If your “check engine” light or “service engine” light comes on in your car you must use a scan tool to retrieve the code. This is not necessary in these tractors as this function is built In to the on board software. Of these 45 controllers the customer can erase the DTC’s themselves on 44 of them with the push of some buttons and the vast majority of the codes on the 45th. The 45th being for the engine. Of the ones the customer can erase it is usually not necessary to do so once the repair is made. When the controller detects the fault has been repaired the code is changed to “stored” instead of “active” and the machine will resume normal operations with no need to interact with the software. Now to achieve optimal performance again some sensors and devices do need to be recalibrated. Majority of the time this is accessible to the customer as well using the on board diagnostics. Now to address the times when it is not accessible to the OBD and dealership laptop must be used. These are called “latched DTC’s.” They are used when a sensor detects a problem with the engine causing it not to meet EPA emission standards. When a fault like this occurs it can physically damage the emissions devices (DOC, DPF, AOC, SCR.) These are very expensive as they are similar to the catalytic converters on your car. To date the most expensive system I have priced out was $18,000.00. If farmers had the ability they would clear this DTC every time it came up and continue to use the machine unaware it was destroying itself and causing excessive pollution. By creating these “latched” codes it does not allow the code to be cleared and keeps the machine in a de-rated condition forcing the problem to be addressed instead of ignored. Yes, my customers ignore the warning on the display and continue to use the machine until the timer in the software runs out “usually a few minutes” and puts the engine in a de-rate mode. When there power and speed are reduced to half that gets their attention. This de-rate mode also helps to protect the engine from any further damage.

I tell you this not to combat you on right to repair, but to educate you on the things you are unaware of. In most cases I am for right to repair and would like it expanded in the industry. I believe people advocating for right to repair need to have accurate information to seem credible when appearing in front of a legislative body, or on a YouTube video. I have greatly simplified many of these topics and focused primarily on Deere’s current production premium heavy ag equipment. I can expand or clarify on any of this more if you would like, or answer any questions you may have. There are also other more technical discussions being held in the industry relating to this topic regarding thigs [''sic''] like data management, third party access to CAN BUS [''sic''], GPS steering system, and other situations that would be hard to explain without a background knowledge. Also please let me know how I did explaining this as I feel I will be doing it more in the future and would like to do a competent job of it.