More Than He Expected

Craig’s AGCO DT180A not only offers high-tech features, but also has a seat for daughter Amber or any one of his three children.

Craig Ragaller admits things were getting a little tense last spring, after he sold the White 2-155 that he had been using as his main tillage tractor.

“I had been wanting to get something that was a little newer with fewer hours on it,” Craig relates. “So when I got a chance to sell the White to another buyer, I let it go with the idea that I’d just replace it with another used machine.”

Unfortunately, by the time Craig would get home from school and follow up on an ad, the tractor he had his eye on would be gone.

“It got to be the end of March, and I still didn’t have a tractor,” Craig recalls. “Everything I could find was being sold before I could get to it. Fortunately, Lenny down at Robinson Equipment in Irwin, found this one, which had previously been used as a demonstrator in Washington state,” he says, in reference to his AGCO DT180A.

“It’s got more bells and whistles on it than I need right now, but you never know.”

Craig says that one of the features he already uses regularly is the headland management system that came with the Datatronics III system.

“That’s certainly nice when you have multiple things to do at the end of the field,” he says. “Now, all I have to do is push a button, turn around and push the button again. It really takes the effort out of it.”

Craig says the ability to control hydraulic flow at the remotes from the Datatronics III console is also a valuable feature … not to mention the tractor performance monitors built into the system and the memory functions that allow up to six sets of information to be stored for various fields, operators or implements. He notes that his brother Mark’s Massey Ferguson 8460 has many of the same features, making the tractors virtually interchangeable.

“Last fall, for example, I set the one remote so that the auger on the grain cart moved in and out at a slower rate so it wouldn’t bang into place,” he says. “The front axle suspension and cab suspension were really nice this spring, too,” he adds. “It’s sure a lot easier to get in the tractor and ride over rough fields with a field cultivator than it used to be … especially after I’ve already spent a long day at school.”