Hot Seat Cool Seat

[pacerron]

Has anyone come up with a workable solution to having a cool seat in this hot humid weather on an open tractor?
I try to do as much in early morning and evening as possible but too much to do to waste the hot daylight hours by not using the tractor then. Even with a canopy, which helps alot, this weather gets you soaking wet in a few minutes on the vinyl seats. I had a circa 1970 car seat pad with wood balls that I used for years but wore it out and it was not friendly to the vinyl seat.
Looking today at auto stores, they have nothing that could be cut down or that would hold up in the tractor environment.
I see on the internet pads with fans in them but the dust and dirt would clog them up in a hurry. Looking for stadium pads, office chair pads, and medical pads I see a product that has crystals in it that become liquid over time as you sit on them pulling the heat away. Has anyone had experience with these
or anything else that works?
Ron

 

[RalphVa]

I just sit on a big towel.

Ralph

 

[Wolfy]

I have the same issue, and I don't wear shorts. What works for me is to stay cool in other ways, Drink loads of water, wet my hat often, on real hot days, I wet my bandana and wrap it around my neck. I have several older closed cab machines, and I will put up with the noise, dust, and sun anyday to get out of those ovenlike cabs.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

I have a seat cushion that I use when mowing to give me a smoother ride. It's comfortable and it also has a "cooling gel" that works good to keep
my...uh..."backside" cool (for a while anyway)...

We got it at Costco for about $15.

 

[HiTechTed]

A ventilated seat would be awesome. Something as simple as a seat with factory-made holes through it would be better than nothing. Of course the vinyl would probably crack around the holes after a while, then you'd have scratchy vinyl in a place where you don't want scratchy vinyl....

 

[kebo]

Wonder how well these work??? If it works good, I would pay $80 for it! Man, it's been 100 deg here this week, with a heat index of 110. Everything you can do to stay cooler is a plus.


http://www.orrsafety.com/Product/the-50-degree-company-cool-zone-cooling-seat-cool-zone

 

[wolc123]

If you are getting a hot seat with a canopy, then the canopy is probably not big enough. I have yet to see a factory canopy that I thought was big enough to give good all-day protection from the sun. I made one for my JD 4120 with a wooden frame and a brown duck canvas from an old boat cover. I made it as big as I could so that it would not interfere with the loader and was just a little narrower than the tractor at its widest point. I also gave it some depth so it works when the sun is down at a pretty good angle, and some taper towards the front so it slides through the brush easily. I have had that canopy on my tractor the last 6 years and it has held up very well. Just this year I touched up a few small rips at the rear corners with some duct-tape and it is good as new, although not quite as pretty. There aint many places I would rather be on a scortching hot day than mowing under that canopy. Unlike the factory canopies, which are often quite heavy and difficult to remove, I can have mine off with 4 bolts in under 2 minutes for times when I want to fold down the rollbar to fit low doors, etc. The canvas/wood construction is as light as it gets. The worst place to put weight on a tractor is on top of the rollbar. I would say that on a hot day, mowing at a good clip, I am probably just as comfortable as those folks in them $5000+ cabs. The best part is, I am only out the hour or two it took me to make that canopy from scraps I had in the barn, and I dont loose any hp running an air compressor for the AC.

 

[TripleR]

My wife found a "cool cushion" somewhere like my dad used as a truck driver before AC was an option. She uses it on our BX2660 and it works really well.

 

[jobguy]

I saw a tractor seat at the MN state fair last year that was "Mesh" like the airflow office chairs. I think it was on a Simplicity or Cub Cadet (can't remember which brand of tractor) If I could remember which brand I would get the seat for my CT 120. Any how, the women I was with was giving me the evil eye so had to cut short my stay at that display. Will try again this fall.

 

[jinman]

A link to a nice $20 seat cover from Amazon.com. Read the whole linked thread for details.

 

[HenRut]

Or for $500 you could go with something like this used by small aircraft owners...

Arctic Air Cooler

 

[jinman]

Or for $500 you could go with something like this used by small aircraft owners...

Arctic Air Cooler

When I worked in aviation training, all 32 of our full-motion flight simulators had sheepskin seat covers. I've been in many corporate jets that also had these. No matter how cool it is in the cockpit, sitting for hours in the pilot/copilot seat is gonna put your butt into something approaching bed sores. However, I don't think I'd pop for the cost of these to put on my tractor unless it had a cab and I spent hour after hour in the seat.

 

[pacerron]

And furthermore.....
what tractor has room for an icebox this size. You'd probably have to hang it under the ROPS and clamp the air tube down the ROPS coming out somewhere amongst all the levers and pedal linkage.
The real problem is the vinyl seat material. Remember the days of vinyl seats in automobiles with big windows or even before that when car seats were upholstery but everybody put plastic seat covers over them to protect the resale value.
Going into TSC yesterday I passed a line of lawn tractors with black cloth seat material, similar to modern car seat material, and black vinyl arm rests sitting in the sun. Putting my hand on the seat part found it warm ( being black ). The vinyl armrests were so hot they caused instant reflex.
Maybe the larger tractor designers will review their basic physics some day and switch to a cloth type seat that is light grey in color.
Even though I have a large aluminum canopy on the CNH and a grey vinyl seat and high back, the sweat factor is aggravated even more by the solid black floor, the high fenders, and the high black gas tank that is higher than the seat back. The muffler is under the hood and the fan blows a strong blast of hot air into the cockpit area at foot level; nice in the winter but adds to the heat in the summer. I may add deflector plates.
Best solution in my mind is a "Jinman seat cover" + getting off for a few minutes every hour or so + avoiding the late afternoon sun when mowing east and west as much as possible.
Ron

 

[Short Game]

What is this HOT thing people are talking about? The Pacific Northwest wants to know. I'm wondering if it will dry out enough to finish last week's mowing.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Wonder how well these work??? If it works good, I would pay $80 for it! Man, it's been 100 deg here this week, with a heat index of 110. Everything you can do to stay cooler is a plus.


http://www.orrsafety.com/Product/the-50-degree-company-cool-zone-cooling-seat-cool-zone

That works by the phase change principle. A lot of heat must be transferred to change from solid to liquid. They use a solution that must undergo this change around 70F to be able to recharge [freeze] in air conditioning. The cushion then holds your butt at 70° until the "ice" melts.
larry