TruSet Active maintains desired depth for tillage

DAVENPORT, Iowa — TruSet Active gives farmers the ability to measure the actual working depth of tillage tools and to compensate based on changing conditions.

“We first introduced TruSet in 2014 for in-cab depth control of tillage,” said Ryan Jardon, John Deere marketing manager. “TruSet Active is the first true depth capability that a tillage tool offers.”

TruSet Active automatically maintains the desired depth regardless of changing field conditions with no need for operator input.

“When you hit a wet spot in a field, the tool will want to sink down so the operator would need to feather it up,” explained Jardon during a John Deere Tillage Media Event.

“But with TruSet Active, the sensor is mounted on the main frame to sense the height and adjust it back up,” Jardon said. “It automates a decision point the operator use to make.”

For autonomous operation of equipment every decision point the operator needs to make must be automated.

“It’s not just a matter of being able to drive without someone in the seat,” Jardon said.

TruSet Active uses an ultrasonic sensor to actively adjust the tillage machine.

“Whatever field conditions a customer is running in, he can dial it in to where it’s performing well in his soil,” Jardon said. “With TruSet Active, all the adjustments are made in the cab.”

This technology makes the depth control smart.

“It will read the actual height and compensate for it as the soil conditions change,” Jardon said.

Farmers will also have the benefit of an additional layer of data.

“You can record the data and then make decisions off that,” Jardon said.

The ProFinish leveling system raises and lowers the dual rolling baskets on the back of the vertical tillage machine.

“That will make a really nice even soil profile for the planter in the spring,” Jardon said.

TruSet Active will be available for farmers to start ordering in February. It will be shipped during late spring, so farmers will be able to use it next fall.

“TruSet Active will be standard equipment on several tillage tools for model year 2024,” Jardon said. “That will include 2230 Field Cultivators, 2330 Mulch Finishers, 2630 Series Disks and 2660VT Vertical Tillage.”

For mulch finishers, TruSet Active will enable side-to-side leveling adjustments to ensure consistent performance across the entire working width of the machine.

In addition, for both mulch finishers and disks, farmers can use TruSet Active to do fore and aft adjustments.