Cab vs no cab for forestry work?

[Boondox]

boondox the least you need is a steel plate above your head so you don't a knoken on you nogging.i'm sure you have read about loggers getting hurt out in the woods,alot of times it's branches falling from above

Yes, all of the canopies are full metal plates...and pretty thick, too!

 

[john_bud]

Boondox,

My buddy has one of these foggers.

Golden Eagle Thermal Fogger

It works wonderfully. Knocks down the mosquitoes and the black flies. Only for a week or so, but with applications every week for a couple summers, our place went from so bad we couldn't go out in the day time (much less the night!!!) to not even having to fog last summer. The change was miraculous. Truely.

Fog the woods !

jb

 

[KICK]

a safety type cab or cage as they call it is pretty nice when working in the woods.

It doesn't have to be walled in with glass, can have steel mesh or latticework.

nuthing like having a tree fall on you to give you religion.

never know when deadfall is coming down, chances go up when actively working the woods.

I'm glad my skid steer loader has a cage, top of it is bent in where big oak limb fell on it, never seen it coming but I doubt I'd be typing this if it weren't for that cage.

 

[Boondox]

Good points, Mike. I'd hate to have to find religion!

Deadfalls (Widow Makers is what the locals call them) are plentiful in my neck of the woods and are a lot bigger concern of mine than bees or wasps since I walk the woods daily with my pack of goldens and have a good idea where the insect hazards are located.

Still undecided on the cab issue. It sounds like AC is needed if I get a cab, and that adds some expense to the package that we're not in a position to deal with now. Buying used is certainly an option, but being unfamiliar with excavators I don't feel comfortable taking that risk

 

[MarkV]

Hi Pete nice to see you around. Mind if I ask what you are going to use the excavator in the woods for? I don’t think of excavators as fire wood collectors. More often when an excavator is in the woods it is for clearing and it is a big one. I would think that a smaller excavator would have some ground clearance problems negotiating virgin woodlands. They are also pretty slow to move from point A to point B on any regular basis.

Also knowing you live on some pretty steep grades, he lives next to a ski resort; on a smaller excavator would a cab affect the center of gravity in any significant way?

MarkV

 

[Boondox]

Hi Pete nice to see you around. Mind if I ask what you are going to use the excavator in the woods for? I don’t think of excavators as fire wood collectors. More often when an excavator is in the woods it is for clearing and it is a big one. I would think that a smaller excavator would have some ground clearance problems negotiating virgin woodlands. They are also pretty slow to move from point A to point B on any regular basis.

Also knowing you live on some pretty steep grades, he lives next to a ski resort; on a smaller excavator would a cab affect the center of gravity in any significant way?

MarkV

Hey Mark. In the woods for trail and logging road maintenance, installation of culverts, harvesting boulders (BIG boulders which are my fave building matl) and also lifting logs off the ground so they can be sliced and diced for firewood which will be picked up later with my ATV and trailer. The big Grande L with the logging winch does some horrific damage when the ground is soft, and the mini-ex has a very light footprint. Also erosion control, silt removal from drainage ditches, etc

 

[Kendall69]

Get the full enclosed cab. I dropped into a swarm of bees once, so thick it looked like a solar eclipse. They attacked the glass and were determined to kill the glass.

I just looked on with my jaw wide open, and thinking the cab just paid for itself today. Now the weather, rain snow, heat, bugs etc.

If you spend many hours on it a comfy cab with the air on and the tunes, make a day much easier to handle.

Sure it pricey, buy amortize it over 20 years, and it like a $20.00 a month luxury. We’re talking two less late’s a week at Starbucks.

 

[Boondox]

Get the full enclosed cab. I dropped into a swarm of bees once, so thick it looked like a solar eclipse. They attacked the glass and were determined to kill the glass.

If you spend many hours on it a comfy cab with the air on and the tunes, make a day much easier to handle.

Your profile is a bit tepid, but I'll bet you live south of me where things like swarming insects are an issue. Not so up here. My meadow is mowed by sheep, so no worries there. And our bees, hornets, etc build their nests in solitary trees in the meadow where they are safe from predators. In the forest it stays cool far too long each year (the last patches of snow last till late June) so they stay out in the open sunlight where it's warm. I'm in the woods daily with my dogs and have never seen a nest there.

Another point is that air conditioning as an option starts with the KX121-3. If I go that large I can't afford a cab. If I go one size down, the KX91-3, I can afford a cab but it won't have A/C because it's not offered on that model. I've been saving for years so this can be a cash purchase; I refuse to waste my hard earned cash on interest payments and the 0% isn't an option because the moment I make this purchase the fund is diverted to saving up for the wife's next toy. Call it marital detente

So the choice is between a cab on a smaller excavator with no air...or a bigger excavator with a canopy.

 

[daTeacha]

One thing to consider is overhead vision. Any kind of solid roof will limit your ability to see above you. Another is clearance -- I have to fold the ROPS to go through one of my doors. Will a FOPS be able to fold out of the way when needed? My ROPS just clears the door where the tractor is parked -- about an inch of free space is all it has. Is the FOPS or cab going to fit where you want to put it?

 

[Boondox]

One thing to consider is overhead vision. Any kind of solid roof will limit your ability to see above you. Another is clearance -- I have to fold the ROPS to go through one of my doors. Will a FOPS be able to fold out of the way when needed? My ROPS just clears the door where the tractor is parked -- about an inch of free space is all it has. Is the FOPS or cab going to fit where you want to put it?

Rich -- To my knowledge there are no excavators on the market with a folding FOPS, and the cab is just as high as the canopy, so that makes no difference. For me, I have no place out of the weather to store an excavator, so it'll be covered with tarps in inclement weather.