B2620 Cab Installation and Modifications

[ericdube]

I've been busy over the last few months getting my B2620 ready for snow blowing this winter including installing a Sims Indy Cab on my B2620 (that I bought at the beginning of this year) along with a number of other modifications (horn, alternator, electrical wiring, heat, LED lighting, control switches, etc.)

While I still haven't finished everything, I figured I'd finally get around to starting a thread so I can post pictures of everything. Also, I should have some better pictures of the cab installation once I finish up the LED lighting this weekend.

For the LED Lighting I used Rigid Industries Dually D2 (x4) Driving Spot Lights in the front and Dually (x2) Diffused Lights in the rear. Both sets of lights are switchable from the in-cab switch panel. The lights are really bright and use very little amperage (albeit a bit pricey though.)

 

[ericdube]

More pictures of the cab including the upgraded 3-point hitch assembly from the xx30 series, and the 40-amp high capacity alternator. The Sims cab comes with rear light brackets to relocate the round lights (although you need to build your own wire extensions to plug them in.)

 

[ericdube]

Pictures of the cab heater installation. I had to source a number of parts shown in the pictures since they didn't come with the Sims Heater installation kit and many of the original parts didn't work for the B2620 due to the hood support mechanism (major design flaw by Sims in my opinion.)

I ended up getting my own shutoff valve and 3/8" to 1/2" adapter to connect to the manifold that Sims provided.

To protect the hoses from chaffing I used hydraulic hose covering. It worked great and doesn't take up much space.
Also, the heater has a dual-speed blower behind it that can be controlled from the switch control panel.

Finally, I used the original hole where the heater switch was suppose to go to install a Powerlet outlet in-place of that, which powers a monitor providing voltmeter, thermometer, and clock (just above the heater.)

 

[ericdube]

More pictures of the heater installation. You need to cut the lower radiator hose in the middle and install a T-fitting.

 

[ericdube]

Pictures of the electrical installation. I made a custom bracket in the engine bay to mount a 50-amp Bosch relay with a 40-amp fuse to switch the accessories on/off with the ignition key.

The switch control panel was an option from Sims, but I wouldn't recommend buying it. It isn't designed to fit this cab, and I had to modify the bracket just to make it fit. In addition, the wiring harness is useless - I ended up cutting it up into pieces and built my own with the wiring. In the end, it would have been much cheaper to build my own.

The switches control the front LED lights, rear LED lights, Mini LED Lightbar (not shown), and dual-speed heater blower motor.

If you look closely at the last picture, you can make out the engine block heater plug on the bottom. It gets installed in the engine on this side.

 

[ericdube]

I attached a handle bar mounted ATV winch rocker switch to the hydraulic joystick using a 1/2" SS split collar ring for the chute angle adjust. Unfortunately, these switches (while compact) are SPDT so you need to use a dual relay setup. I made a custom bracket and mounted a pair of relays under the seat with waterproof disconnects for everything including SAE connectors going to the snow blower.

Also, attached is the wiring diagram that I used to wire the pair of relays. To make things easly, I ended up buying two un-wired relay sockets and made all the wiring terminations myself. This allowed me to attach all the ground together and daisy chain the connections to all I had to attach was a single ground and positive connection.

 

[ericdube]

The horn kit was from the B26 (P/N L8043). It's practically a bolt-on kit with the exception that you need to build your own wiring harness from the combination switch to the horn relay (I used a Bosch 40-amp relay for this). The only other part I needed to buy from Kubota was the combination switch (P/N 32741-55420)

The rest of the parts (other than the Bosch 40-Amp Relay (0 332 019 157) which I got from Ebay) I bought directly from Eastern Beaver. You'll need two .090" MT female terminals, a 2-position .25" female connector/terminals (for connecting into the wire harness that comes with the horn kit), and a 5-pin relay socket for the Bosch relay.

The horn mounts on the left side of the tractor where there's two existing holes that line up perfectly with the horn holes. It even clears the front grill without any issues. My guess is that this is where the horn suppose to go (it's too perfect!)

 

[ericdube]

More pictures of the horn installation including the connectors which I sourced from Eastern Beaver so I didn't have to modify any of the existing wiring (basically everything was plug and play - no drilling or cutting of the existing Kubota wiring harness.)

Also, I attached the wiring diagram that I used to wire up the horn.

 

[PSDStu]

Thats a Great Looking job you did!!

Enjoy the warmth!

Stu

 

[kcender]

Very nice looking job.Looks like quite a bit of work.Will be a very nice setup for clearing snow I am sure.:thumbsup:

 

[ericher69]

Eric,

Great job! Thank you for such a detailed post. (should have done this)

How do you like the cab so far?

I realize it is not a factory cab but I still enjoy mine. Beats getting snow/hail/rain in the face anyday

Did u get the power wiper?

 

[Bob77064]

Eric you have done some excellent work. Very clean installation.

 

[srs]

Eric, absolutely beautiful workmanship! Thanks so much for the detailed write up and pictures.

 

[Birdman1970]

Extremely clean and professional looking setup. Now all you need is more snow to go out and play in

 

[George the Beagle]

I'm green with envy, not just for the cab but for the ability to work up something like this. Nice job!

 

[ericdube]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I really appreciate it!

Also, I should have some better pictures coming soon (still a number of things that I'm working on finishing up/waiting to arrive.)

How do you like the cab so far?

I realize it is not a factory cab but I still enjoy mine. Beats getting snow/hail/rain in the face anyday

Did u get the power wiper?

The cab really isn't too bad at all (much better than the Curtis cab I saw for the B2620.) Although, I did run into a couple issues with Sims and their less than stellar ability to provide customer support for some quality control issues.

The cab door frames were obviously welded wrong (along with a number of minor kitting issues for my tractor/cab), and Sims just wouldn't respond to any of my emails and even when I tired calling to talk with someone they told me to email (yet they wouldn't respond to the emails! ) It took over a month including some very nasty emails at the end to get someone from Sims to respond. Honestly, I hate resorting to this type of approach but they left me with no option and definitely took their time to respond (a month is a bit excessive in my opinion.)

In the end, I finally got the replacement door frames sent to me (along with some free side mirrors to apologize for their behavior), but I probably won't get around to installing them until the spring since it's a major headache to replace them (I have foam stuffed into the gaps for now.) As for the other kitting issues I ran into (missing bolts, wrong size bolts, incorrect hardware, design mistakes, etc.), I just purchased the necessary parts myself and bit the bullet spending my time fixing their mistakes (as I just couldn't get them to address all of their mistakes and it was turning into too much of a headache dealing with them.)

The only other issue that I'm still working on trying to solve is to get the under-seat covering to work with the backhoe (reversible) seat. It's really not designed for use on a backhoe equipped tractor, so you end up with a big hole under the seat (counter productive for heating! ) I bought some really nice vinyl material to sew up a new under seat covering, but I still need to get around to cutting out a new template first (probably next weekend's project.)

As for the wiper, yes, all the Indy cabs come with a powered front wiper. I didn't get a rear wiper though because I wanted to see if I would need it. (I have a feeling I won't since the window is angled down though.) I'll take a picture of this in the next batch I posted.

Also, I bought the interior cab fan, although I haven't installed it and I'm not sure that I'm going to now. I'd like to see first if the front windshield will fog up or not - if it does then I'll mount it behind the seat and point it towards the front of the cab.

 

[KU Gator]

Nice job on your cab.

I did notice in the pictures where you show the telescopic stabilizers that replace the turnbuckles that you have a large clevis on your draw bar that is up under the stabilizer on the left side. I recently came to realize that is probably how I bent two turnbuckles before I finally went to the telescopic stabilizers also. The Clevis turns to the side (on mine for some reason always the left side) and gets under the stabilzer and when you lower something on the 3 pt hitch, it hangs up on the stabilizer. I bought a smaller clevis and put on mine, but will probably just try to remember to take it off when I am not using it.

 

[MG1867]

Looks great. Also very nice garage, how to you like that floor?

Mike

 

[ericdube]

I did notice in the pictures where you show the telescopic stabilizers that replace the turnbuckles that you have a large clevis on your draw bar that is up under the stabilizer on the left side. I recently came to realize that is probably how I bent two turnbuckles before I finally went to the telescopic stabilizers also. The Clevis turns to the side (on mine for some reason always the left side) and gets under the stabilzer and when you lower something on the 3 pt hitch, it hangs up on the stabilizer. I bought a smaller clevis and put on mine, but will probably just try to remember to take it off when I am not using it.

I noticed that as well. I usually keep the clevis on with the backhoe on and there's never a problem, because the 3-pt hitch arms aren't installed. But when they're installed, I was concerned it might get caught when lowering the hitch.

I'll remove the clevis for the winter.

Looks great. Also very nice garage, how to you like that floor?

Works very well and has been holding up great with about 7 years of abuse. In addition, even though it does get dirty (oil spills or otherwise), it cleans up without a problem.

 

[ericdube]

Here's some close-up pictures of the Rigid Industries Dually D2 LED Lights that I used. I'll try to get a picture of them at night to show how bright they are.

In addition, I had a request to show a close-up of the ATV winch rocker switch that I used for the chute control. If you need anymore, just let me know.