so ive been running an Agras T40 for about two seasons now doing contract work for a few corn and soy farms in my area and honestly the machine is great but the cost of entry and maintenance is killing me, especially when i'm trying to scale up and add another unit. started looking at some of the chinese alternatives - there's a few brands i've seen on alibaba that claim similar tank capacity and boom spread but obviously the support situation is basically nonexistent if something goes wrong.

the T40's RTK integration and the way it handles the variable rate application based on terrain is really the thing i keep coming back to when i think about switching. like yeah i can get a knockoff for maybe 40% of the price but if the flow sensors are garbage or the nozzle atomization isnt consistent i'm just wasting product and potentially damaging crops which kind of defeats the whole point. anyone here actually run one of the cheaper spraying drones for real ag work and not just hobbyist stuff? curious what the actual field experience is like not just spec sheet comparisons

ran an XAG P100 for one season before going back to the agras ecosystem and honestly the XAG wasn't bad but the software side of things was where it fell apart for me. the mission planning felt clunky compared to what i was used to and getting it to talk to the farm's existing variable rate prescription maps was way more of a headache than it should have been. hardware seemed solid enough, the centrifugal nozzles worked fine, but ag work is so time sensitive that if you're spending extra time dicking around with software on a tight spray window you're losing money fast.

that said if you're doing straightforward flat field work with consistent product and you dont need tight integration with external agronomy software then maybe the calculus is different. just wouldnt recommend it for anything complex.

not to derail but have you looked into the leasing options DJI has through some of their ag dealers? i know a guy who's doing it that way and the maintenance is basically covered which changes the math a lot. might be worth a call before you commit to an alternative platform you'll have to support yourself