Home                                           Picture Home                                      Shop Work Pictures

EZ-Guide & EZ-Steer mounting

In the late spring of 2006, I decided to join the guidance crowd. Too late for spring seeding, but just in time for the weed spraying season. I chose the Trimble system because of it's portability & ease of moving from one machine to the other. I fabricated all of the steering servo motor brackets in my shop. They all attach to the steel steering column of each machine in a similar manner. All three consist of a short piece of steel tubing who's I.D. closely matched the O.D. of the column. I split the tubing and welded ears onto it that accept 1/4" bolts that squeeze it and clamp it to the column. The plate steel that the EZ-Steer mounts to is fastened to this clamp.

Click on a small picture to enlarge it. Use the BACK button on your browser to return to this sheet.

 

Spray Coupe Bracket

The plate for the servo is straight on this application. It has been welded to the clamp. Height and angle of the bracket can easily be adjusted by loosening the clamp bolts.

Spray Coupe Cockpit

Overall view of the guidance arrangement.

Spray Coupe at work

A view from the seat with the EZ doing the driving. After a couple days of operation with the antenna mounted on the roof, I moved it to the nose. It was much quicker to acquire the line in this location.

Cat MT845 Bracket

After peeling away enough plastic, I located a steel tube that the bracket could be clamped to. Because a bundle of wires was running up the column, I had to make ears that the bracket could be bolted to after the clamp was tightened.

Cat MT845

Servo motor location and view of finished bracket.

MT845 Cockpit

View from the Cat cockpit.

R72 Antenna Roof-mount

A piece of 2" square tubing was drilled to take advantage of the two cab roof bolts. The 4"X16"X3/16" strap iron was welded to the underside of the square tubing at it's midpoint.

R72 Antenna

Looking up at the antenna and mount.

R72 Bracket

After removing the plastic on the steering column, I found the steel column. I was able to make a clamp similar to the one on the Coupe and Cat. The 3/16" X 4" strap was bent to exactly follow the bottom and front side of the instrumentation box. Once formed and drilled for the servo, I welded it to the clamp, clamped it to the column, and by slitting the plastic I was able to reinstall it.

R72 EZ-Steer

Left view of the servo. Telescoping steering wheel is adjusted to fit the rub wheel when the EZ is being used.

R72 EZ-Steer

Right side view of both the EZ-Steer and EZ-Guide. I mounted the light bar on a length of 3" X 1/8" strap that was drilled to sandwich between the bracket and the servo motor and held in place by the servo mounting bolts. Strap had to be twisted a bit to attain the proper viewing angle for the guidance screen.

R72 Cockpit

View of the EZ system as mounted in the Gleaner.

Click on a small picture to enlarge it. Use the BACK button on your browser to return to this sheet.

Home                                           Picture Home                                      Shop Work Pictures