In January, John Deere began shipping 8R Series tractors equipped with its JDLink Ultimate Service and Service Advisor Remote. Complimentary for one year, the system allows the tractor to send location, operation and performance data via the web and cell phone.

Hardware for the system is comprised of a communications modem/controller, wiring harness and cellular and GPS antennas. Machine data is collected by the controller and wirelessly transferred to the data server, where it is processed and made available via the JDLink website.

The system allows for real-time alerts and other information such as location, utilization, performance and maintenance data for machines to be accessed on its website or sent via e-mail or text message.

Service Advisor Remote provides dealers with remote access to a vehicle’s diagnostic data to help minimize downtime for the customer.

It allows the dealer’s technician to perform diagnostics on those machines remotely, stay at their dealership, log onto a machine to diagnose a problem before they leave the shop.

Service Advisor is a diagnostic tool that resides on a laptop, requiring technicians to travel to the machine.

“Remote reprogramming on new machines, can also be possible for a nominal fee to the farmer,” says Aaron Bartholomay, senior marketing representative, product development for JDLink. “As software changes, updates may be able to solve a problem. By performing the update remotely, the dealership does not have to make a service call.”