Low Tech

[ysabetwordsmith]

This Alberta Startup Sells No-Tech Tractors for Half Price

Ursa Ag, a small Canadian manufacturer, is assembling tractors powered by 12-valve Cummins engines — the same mechanically injected workhorses that powered combines and pickup trucks decades ago — and selling them for roughly half the price of comparable machines from established brands. The 150-horsepower model starts at $129,900 CAD, about $95,000 USD. The range-topping 260-hp version runs $199,900 CAD, around $146,000.


There's been a growing problem in agriculture because corporations have chosen to make only big, highly computerized farm equipment that farmers are not allowed to repair themselves. Farmers resent this deeply, and have previously protested by continuing to use older equipment that is often smaller, without any computer at all, and which they can easily maintain on their own. Now a company has started filling that gap with brand-new mechanical tractors. \o/ They are limited by their small size for now, but if you're into tractors -- especially older models -- take a look at your skillset and budget to see if there's any way you might be able to help them grow. I suspect that high demand will help them find people who can contribute to their expansion.

Note that it's not just tractors. People are getting fed up with a lot of the drawbacks to electronic products. Manual typewriters are coming back too. Writers like them for the practical reasons; privacy and security advocates like them because they can't be hacked and everything they create is Secure On Paper Only. A ribbon typewriter is easy to re-ink too. Some people have decided they don't like the direction technology is going, they preferred earlier versions, and so they are seeking out those options instead of the modern mainstream ones.

You're not stuck with technology you hate. Look for alternatives. Look for other people seeking the same things and network with them to boost your impact.
 

Comments

[thewayne]

THAT is very smart! I expect a lot of farmers will still smack a suction-cup GPS on the windshield.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Maybe, maybe not. If all they wanted was the right to repair their own damn tractor, they might. But if they resent the intrusion of tech overall, probably not. Amish folks don't use any of that shit, and they produce just fine.

[siliconshaman]

I strongly suspect in the next few years we might well see cars going in that direction, kinda. People are already doing EV swapped classic cars, but with minimum electronics intruding into the 'cab'. It won't be that long before I suspect some smart guy starts building and selling retro-looking new EV cars that aren't Tesla-like with computer this that and the other and no real dash-board. I mean, you can already buy a manual stick-shift to electronic gear selector linkage kit.

Diesel might not be going away anytime soon, since you can use corn-oil or just about anything flammable in a cummins engine... but petrol/gas engines that's another matter. Especially later ECU run versions that are damn finicky about what you feed them and tend to die randomly anyway.

It's weird, objectively... hi-tech electric power train, power steering, ABS, brakes etc.. but all the controls are analogue and retro so it feels vintage... but I guess people are fed-up of the hi-tech gimmickry but not so much that they don't see the advantage of non-fossil fuel system.

It's niche thing now, but give it a few years, and gas prices at $15 or above..

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Hybrid tech is a thing. I tend to prefer purely mechanical when I can get it; less likely to break.

People will scream bloody murder about "driver distraction" but then put screens in all the cars. For fucksake.

Re: Yes ...

[siliconshaman]

Nice thing about electric drive trains.. less to break if it's done right. Teslas are NOT an example of that... you wouldn't believe the amount of proprietary tech they ram into the motors alone, where you have to use specialized tools they won't sell you, just to get to the electronic boards.

Fortuitously, there's also a lot of people who are willing to void warranties and have the tools and after-market mods you need to make them actually useful. Tesla are not happy about that, but they also can't stop them...and hey, thanks to the disaster that was the cyber-truck there's a ton of Tesla drive trains on the secondhard markets. You can buy entire kits for stripping off every useful body part from one of those dumpsters, and grafting them into a 50's and 60's vintage pickup. With manual stick shift, apparently.

[mama_kestrel]

A lot of things that are computerized in the States (like sewing machines!?) are strictly mechanical here. Most of the food prep gadgets I saw before we left were digital. Again, here they're the sort of machines I used to take apart and fix 30+ years ago. It's interesting, and frankly something of a relief.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Lucky you. I watch for things in Amish territory so I can actually use them.