Cabs are for wimps

[ByronBob]

Generally speaking I can't disagree with you much but I have noticed it's harder to handle the weather outside either hot or cold if your sitting in a nice environment like a cab. I think the seat time helps you acclimate to the weather either good or bad.
Still 100 degree heat or zero degree weather isn't something we should be in for too long anyway.

 

[mjarrels]

My next tractor will have a factory cab... I don't have a dog house and might need some place to stay when the wife sends me to the dog house for the night!

mark

 

[riptides]

My next tractor will have a factory cab... I don't have a dog house and might need some place to stay when the wife sends me to the dog house for the night!

mark

Here, I'll save you some trouble. Even if you get a dog house, the dogs will not share.

I think my SO bribed them or something, but it is forbidden turf according to the dogs, their place is their place. I understand that now.....

-Mike Z.

 

[mike223]

I don't have my tractor yet, and I'd love to buy one with a cab, but too many trees precludes that option. What I intend to do is get a canopy, and then make some netting that attaches with velcro to the canopy and secures on the fenders, to cut down on the bugs and grass when cutting, but can roll up and be out of the way when necessary. Sort of like the soft top on my Jeep. The little fan is an outstanding idea.

 

[mjncad]

I remember a web site for a company in Windsor, Colorado that is north of me that made swamp coolers for construction and farm equipment. I can't find the link so they may be out of business now, nor do I recall their name.

A swamp cooler for a tractor would have minimal HP impact; but would require some sort of water reservoir. Plus swampers are worthless in humid climates; but work in dry climates like where I live. Personally I prefer AC for houses as swamp coolers make the place muggy, and the same would happen with a tractor.

Anyway a swamp cooler is an interesting concept for cooling a tractor cab.

An issue of Farm Show magazine had an article on a guy with an old White tractor that kept going through AC compressors. Getting the parts and the cost was getting prohibitive, so he rigged up a small window AC unit for a house that was powered by a DC/AC inverter. Obviously his White tractor was big enough and had enough alternator capacity to do such a work around.

 

[lawn_king]

My factory cab protects me from pesticide drift, insects,sunlight and the elements. After having this cab, i couldn't go back to a non cab machine. I would like to have both, but its not in the budget right now. It would be nice to have an open station machine for those perfect weather days, i think we get about 3 a year here!

 

[Dmace]

I love my heated cab and on the warm days I can take off both doors and enjoy the weather. The sense of security is a great feeling, that and the heat in the winter.

Warm Days

Cold Days

 

[Builder]

My cab just saved my butt yesterday. I was digging a crawlspace behind a customers house. There was an old discontinued black plastic well line buried in the ground. I got ahold of it while I was raising the backhoe it swung around and slapped the side of the cab. It it hit me, it would have really hurt, maybe broken bones.

Cabs aren't just to create comfort, they also create safety.

 

[gemini5362]

when my old massey ferguson 65 finally got to where it was going to need some major engine work I started looking at new tractors. I talked to my wife about it and she told me she wanted me to get a cab on it. I used the arguements I have been reading here. Basically cabs are for wimps and real men do not use them. Her reply was that I brushhog our 25 acres and I am very alergic to wasps. She was worried that one day I would be brushhogging and I would run over a yellow jacket nest and she would come home and find me on the tractor dead. She told me she had no objections at all to me buying a new play toy but that it had to have a cab. Only to appease her and not have to argue I bought my new montana with a cab. It was the best arguement I have ever lost. It is so much fun to play with that the first 6 months I had it I would have to set myself a time limit on how long I could work with it because I had other stuff that was not getting done.

 

[mjncad]

I love my heated cab and on the warm days I can take off both doors and enjoy the weather. The sense of security is a great feeling, that and the heat in the winter.

Warm Days

Cold Days

BRRR! I could have used that heated cab this past winter! A quick question, doesn't your neck and back get stiff from blowing snow in reverse? I know mine would.

 

[MadDogDriver]

gemini5362, your CEO is a keeper!! Love it when they want to keep you alive instead of having your (former) life a part of the Soprano's plot.

For those of us MANLY MEN (or those who really want to be wimps but can't afford it), here's a summer option to keep cool. golf cart mister, 12 volt misting systems

Looks like it'd be a great project, especially with a canopy over the ROPS. It's only about 5% of the cost of a cab, but then again it's about 100 times more than the cost of a cool bandana.

 

[RoyJackson]

As a residential user with less then 5 acres...I can't see much use for a cab, or spending the added dollars.
But if I was working a field, like a real farmer...you betcha I'd have a cab!

 

[Dmace]

BRRR! I could have used that heated cab this past winter! A quick question, doesn't your neck and back get stiff from blowing snow in reverse? I know mine would.

Not at all really. I actually turn and sit sideways on the seat so I am not turning my neck much with one hand on the steering wheel and one on the 3pt lift lever for those pesky rocks that jump out in front (or is that back?) of me.

My only complaint is after I am in there for an hour or so with the heat and wearing just a long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up, I step out of the cab to go in and remember it's only 2 or 3 degrees outside.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Most cabs have rear view mirrors inside and a couple more outside (usually as options), but that makes a big difference, i find I turn around MUCH less on the cab than on the platform (only in tricky spots), saves my neck.

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Boys,
As a previous poster stated, if I was a real farmer I would have a cab, I will second that !

Ive got three old tractors, no cab , no ROPS, and honestly Im constantly being wacked by low limbs around my hedgerows Dont know how a cab would take that abuse I will say on a nice day open platform is the way to go ! Especially with my work tunes and a good cigar !

 

[Kendrick]

Here, I'll save you some trouble. Even if you get a dog house, the dogs will not share.

I think my SO bribed them or something, but it is forbidden turf according to the dogs, their place is their place. I understand that now.....

-Mike Z.

go sleep in the cab thats what you bought it for your comfort...

I have worked on my grandma's farm in 120 deg texas sun. 4wd tractor etc its all the same. cover is the rule cab rules them all... you want dead space try hoeing in tall crops that gives you no wind. the only thing that tops that is a sealed cab. most decent ones have many vent opertunitys that you can match the job and keep the shade a little cooler then sun...

unfortunatly due to rising alergy issues and nastier chems a cab is necessary to survive. being orange and pruned by the age of 40 is not a good life. I survive the nastiest of heat in high humidity in good form i could do it all and just come back to the house dead tird. my choice is not to and if i get a proper cab the wife will proly be stealing hours from me in short order

 

[mjncad]

Mornin Boys,
As a previous poster stated, if I was a real farmer I would have a cab, I will second that !

Ive got three old tractors, no cab , no ROPS, and honestly Im constantly being wacked by low limbs around my hedgerows Dont know how a cab would take that abuse I will say on a nice day open platform is the way to go ! Especially with my work tunes and a good cigar !

Cold water or iced tea while driving the tractor, and a cold beer or two or three after the tractor has been put away works for me.

 

[mjncad]

For those of us MANLY MEN (or those who really want to be wimps but can't afford it), here's a summer option to keep cool. golf cart mister, 12 volt misting systems

Looks like it'd be a great project, especially with a canopy over the ROPS. It's only about 5% of the cost of a cab, but then again it's about 100 times more than the cost of a cool bandana.

The misting system looks interesting, and I've seen similar systems for industrial applications. Thanks for the link.

 

[BTDT]

To me a cab seems like a status symbol, and just runs up the cost of doing business. A lot of the yard service guys are pulling around their equipment in extended/double cab diesel Dodge or Fords. Seems like a lot of overhead cost that they have to pass on to someone. Maybe not so much in the farm industry of the past, but I think the farmers went with open cabbed tractors because they wanted to keep their costs down and maybe that's all they could afford. Now everything is so high tech, and it shows up in the grocery store.

 

[Dirtboy]

For me when I get my first tractor, I will look at trade offs. Like backhoe or cab. I do have some use for a backhoe but when those jobs are complete then what? or do I get the cab and hire out backhoe work? The cost of the cab is about the cost of a backhoe. Im in western NY, can get cold, can get hot, and im surely getting older. I have a relative in realestate that has some cutting jobs lined up when I get this tractor. Cab would help there. I work outside for the phone co., I get enough rain, sun, snow, and cold. Decisions, Decisions. Mike