A few more thoughts:
- I've always been a little unhappy about the height of the cab, I think I ended up too tall by 3-6 inches. I did some wood mockups prior to building it, and tried to make sure I wouldn't hit my head getting in and out, but I think I overshot a bit. Not a big deal, more of an appearance thing to me. I'll try to take some measurements sometime after we get home from the Easter weekend.
- Size-wise, I would recommend doing some mock-ups with cheap materials to get comfortable with the sizes. I used some 2x2 wood pieces, not quite the 2x2 to match the tubing, but close enough to ballpark thngs. That helped get a feel for the look, room, etc.
Key things I paid attention to for the dimensions:
- Loader joystick travel (don't want to bang your hand into the window/door when dumping the bucket or something), room behind the seat
- Room behind the seat for an arm. Since I have a rear-mount snowblower, I needed some space to have an arm behind the seat while backing up and also to keep the glass away from my head.
- Head room both seated and when getting in or out. I have lots of headroom once in, but less as my head goes past the top side tube on the way in.
Other random thoughts:
I built my cab with a few other things in mind. It does not rest on any green appearance parts but rather "straddles" the existing fenders. Currently I have no weatherstripping in that gap. the idea was to avoid anything that would tend to vibrate against and dull/scuff/damage the pretty green paint (for future potential trade-in value) I also paid attention to the weight of the cab to avoid potentially overloading the rear axle somehow. I don't remember the numbers anymore, but it was something I worried about. Typicall rear end
ballast is out on or in the wheels, not being supported by the axle housings/shafts. I rearly if ever max ouf the 3-point hitch with any implements I have, so the cab uses a little of the extra margin there...
In order to get approval from "the finance commitee" I had to worry about styling even more than I normally would have. That drove the slight taper to the sides (top is narrower than the mid-body and bottom) and the maybe fancier than needed roof and hazzard lights. I do like the way it turned out compared to many aftermarket cabs though, sort of like it was supposed to be there. That and visibility also drove using big windows and less intrusive sheetmetal frames like some cabs do. Tried to mimic a "real" cab with a structural tube frame and little else obstructing vision. A lot of times, I barely notice the cab being there and just go about my work, which was the idea.
For whatever reason, I hardly ever need the windshield wipers, which is good since I never got around to installing the rear one. Don't know if it's the plexiglass that helps keep snow from sticking or what. I'll maybe once or twice during a driveway cleaning session need to flick some off the front windshield, but it's not much... Since it hasn't yet been an issue, I'm still holding off putting real glass in the front and rear becuase of the $ and the weight increase...