Mowing Mowing with a GPS

[Toolguy]

I mowed my lawn today with a GPS mounted on the the tractor. I have a Kubota B3030 with a 60" MMM. My lawn is approximately 1.5 acres of mostly wide open area with trees that are bedded or have mulch rings around them. I can just drive around them and no extra trimming is required. Here are the results that I found interesting. My mowing speed at full HST pedal in Medium Range is about 5 MPH. Including backing up, I traveled 4.39 miles. The elapsed time was 1 hour and 5 minutes. I also took the tractor for a short trip down our paved road at WOT in High gear and found out that top speed is 11.5 MPH.

When I was done mowing I had a track of my travels on the screen that showed where I had been. It was an almost perfect outline of my yard that showed everywhere I had driven. Pretty cool. If you have a portable GPS it might be fun to try ity out yourself the next time you mow.

 

[PineRidge]

Actually between the mowing itself, the cruise control, the stereo headphones, and the ballgame running on the overhead TV console I have no time to look at a GPS.

Unless of course it does the driving for me......

 

[shane]

ToolGuy, that's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing. I figure by the mph chart on my finder that when I mow (kinda low tech, huh?) that the length of my drive is right at 10 miles.

 

[danbuf]

Which GPS do you have?
They make a wrist unit that displays speed, elasped distance.. Petty cheap..
Dan

 

[ratter]

I like the ability of my cheap little GPS to calculate the internal area in acres of a circular path that you travel. I'm very bad at guessing the size of a parcel by eyeballing it. So it's nice to have the GPS handy to be able to say ok, that parcel is 1 acre, that one is 5, that one 7, etc etc. On the other hand, I'd be afraid to look at my lawn mowing path....does the GPS have a "chicken with head cut off" mode?

 

[Tim_in_IA]

that is a great idea using it to calculate area. That would help with a lot of things.

I was thinking from the thread title that this was an autopilot thing. Sounds like PineRidge needs one of those with all he has going on in the cab!

 

[PineRidge]

that is a great idea using it to calculate area. That would help with a lot of things.

I was thinking from the thread title that this was an autopilot thing. Sounds like PineRidge needs one of those with all he has going on in the cab!

Cab, I have no cab, I like the bugs that get caught in my teeth.

 

[Tim_in_IA]

PineRidge,

Do you have the tv mounted to your canopy or were you just joking on the TV? Might be a punch line I missed. I am pretty good at that some days.

 

[PineRidge]

Tim I have no TV in the tractor, I was just pulling your leg a bit.

 

[jinman]

Tim I have no TV in the tractor, I was just pulling your leg a bit.

I heard you were going to install a TV, but you'd have to move the soft-serve ice cream machine, so you decided against it.

 

[patrick_g]

When I went BIG SCREEN (Samsung DLP rear preojection HDTV) fed from Dish network with gimbled servo driven satellite antenna) in my Kubota I lost all forward visibility and had to mount a forward facing video camera to feed the PIP so I could see to drive. My wife thinks I should just record the programs but I don't like to wait and brush hogging is so B O R I N G !!!

Pat

 

[daTeacha]

I heard the soft serve ice cream dispenser was just a disguise for the Killian's Red tap. That would also explain some of the headless chicken stuff that ratter experiences. Did you guys get your tractors at the same dealership?

 

[Onthesauk]

Reminds me of my wife visiting farmer relatives in Colorado. Stereo, air conditioning, cruise control, all the bells and whistles on the enclosed cab tractors but no running water to the bathtub in the house. Had to fill it with a bucket.

 

[thcri]

I never used my GPS to mow but I did use it to adjust my Hydro pedal and speed according to my manual. I had my GPS with me one time while waiting for a barge to go throug the loc and you pretty much have to putz around so the current didn't take you. I downloaded to my satellite program and it mad me sick trying to figure out how many circles I made, I would think the same for mowing, just a bunch of lines going up and down your lawn.


murph

 

[Toolguy]

My GPS is an older model Garmin GPS III. It is a handheld unit that is out of production now. It has a built in map but without the detail of the more modern units. It works quite well and can be permanently mounted and operated with a 12 volt adapter or 4 AA batteries. I normally use it on my boat but since I haven't yet used the boat this year I thought I would put it to use on the tractor. A GPS is great for checking speeds and distance traveled. I took it with me on an airplane trip once and found that Boeing 757s will go at least 435mph at around 40,000 feet!

 

[Egon]

I Think, not sure, that some farmers use GPS systems when applying chemicals???

 

[Hootie]

Now that is an idea. Since I am color blind and the use of the dyes in my sprayer do not help me at all, a GPS might just help me with the spraying of my yard and pasture. Which is the brand of choice these days in GPS'?

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I Think, not sure, that some farmers use GPS systems when applying chemicals???

GPS is used for planting, combining, applying chemicals and fertilizer. Fields are charted for yields and fertilizer applied as needed, heavier in low yielding areas than higher areas, ect. Some are even accurate enough (used in conjunction with yield monitor) to chart yields being lower in compacted tire tracks from tractor/combine/grain cart/ect.

Most major manufacturers have their own "house brand" nowdays. They come pre-installed in tractors and combines, with matching hardware on planters, sprayers, fert. spreaders and such. John Deere markets their GPS as "GreenStar".

Hence the term "Precision farming".

And there's GPS controlled steering available too. Makes planting after the sun goes down a LOT easier.

 

[Egon]

That's what I kinda thought but my knowledge is still in the four hoofed days where it was just expected that the horse knew where to go and how fast.

 

[Tim_in_IA]

Okay the TV, the ice cream, and the killians tap have me thinking that in addition to the "trick my truck" series on the country music channel that they need a "trick my tractor" series. A flip down flatscreen with front and rear view cameras and a beverage station!

I was actually this close to heading out to PineRidge's webpage to see his flat screen installation project

All joking aside I am on the lookout for a decent GPS now