alright so long story short we picked up a contract for spray applications on about 1200 acres this season, mix of rice paddies and some hilly terrain which is part of why this is complicated. ive been running a smaller xag unit for two years so im familiar with the ecosystem and the support network in our area is decent, but the T40s tank capacity and spread system is pretty tempting especially for the flat rice sections where you can really open it up.

the terrain following on both is supposed to be good but ive heard mixed things about how the T40 handles irregular edges and oddly shaped paddies, like it does fine in open fields but the boundary precision suffers. havent been able to confirm that from anyone whos actually used both though. mostly see specs sheets and marketing stuff which doesnt tell you much.

anybody running either of these on actual contract work, not just hobby or testing? the maintenance and parts availability question is maybe even more important to me than the raw performance numbers at this point.

parts question is legit and honestly underrated concern. we had a T30 before upgrading and getting certain components took longer than expected when something went wrong mid season, that was a bad time. i dont have direct T40 experience yet but from what ive seen the xag support infrastructure in asia pacific regions tends to be more robust if thats where you're operating. if you're already in the xag ecosystem and have a local dealer who actually picks up the phone i would think really hard before switching just for tank size.

the terrain following concern on the T40 in complex paddies, ive heard that too from a guy in our regional group. something about the radar sensing being tuned more for open field optimization. could be a firmware thing by now though, that stuff changes a lot.

1200 acres contract on what kind of timeline? because that changes the calculus a lot. if youve got flexibility the xag is probably the safer continuity play but if youre trying to hit tight spray windows on rice and weather is unpredictable then raw throughput starts mattering more and the T40 pulls ahead pretty clearly there. also what are your battery charging logistics looking like, cause running either of these at scale without a solid charging station setup is where people usually hit the wall before the drone itself becomes the bottleneck