Do you regret getting a cab?

[Boondox]

I've always had tractors with foldable ROPS and my only protection from the elements was the clothing I wore. But I've got to admit there are times (winter at 20 below, bug season when swarms of skeeters or black flies torment me, steady soaking rain that eventually finds its way to my nether regions) when I really would have appreciated the protection. The problem is when I sit in a cabbed tractor it just doesn't feel tractor-like.

Do you get over that feeling? Are there other disadvantages of having a cab?

Pete

 

[brin]

Both of my tractors are open platform with foldable ROPS but I have driven my neighbors JD with a cab and I did not like it at all...Yes I was comfortable ..it was hot outside and the AC was cold inside but the problem for me was I felt disconnected from the bush hog I was pulling and the other tractor noises we all learn to listen for. I never have worn ear plugs, or used a headset for radio or anything like that since I want to hear if something goes wrong with the tractor or equipment. I have had too many situations where a link pin broke and I would have ruined a piece of equipment had I not heard it or worse it could have climbed up the back tire and taken me out...So I am destined to operate in the great outdoors hearing only the purrr of the machine...

 

[lawn_king]

Im operating my 3rd cab tractor, 1st 2000, 2nd 2005, 3rd 2008. They keep getting bigger & better. My only regret is that i waited so long to jump to cabs.

 

[Boondox]

Im operating my 3rd cab tractor, 1st 2000, 2nd 2005, 3rd 2008. They keep getting bigger & better. My only regret is that i waited so long to jump to cabs.

Did you start off with cabs?

Bob pretty much hit my concerns on the head. Will I feel cocooned and disconnected in a cab? Will the fact that I'm so much further north than him with all of the associated weather extremes make up for it?

What really got me thinking of this as I prepare to downsize from an L4630 to a B3030 was a YouTube video I found on this forum showing a fellow in Michigan with a B3030HSDC and a front mounted snow blower. My dirt road is eight feet wide with stone walls on either side, so if we get a bit of snow I quickly run out of places to push it and my road narrows till it's just wide enough for the car to pass thru scraping both sides.

A snowblower would let me loft the snow up and over those walls, but on an open platform and any breeze at all that's just miserable work! Seeing that fellow all toasty warm in his heated cab really stirred something in me. And then there's bug season here in Vermont -- really an ugly time of year. Our summer is only a couple of weeks long, so the AC wouldn't see much use.

But did I mention the cold and the bugs?

 

[rbargeron]

I do snowblowing at 8 places all within a half-mile radius of home. We're on a hill open to NW clearing winds so I wanted a cab just for that - its warm and big and has lots of outside lights so its perfect for winter. But I completely agree with brin about being isolated and out of touch with the machinery. So for summer I take off the doors and rear window, leaving the roof to keep the rain off, and the windshield & side glass (tinted) to reduce some of the sun's glare. The cab corners deflect tree limbs when mowing at the edges of fields - pretty handy since pine boughs taking off my glasses!
I'm a full cab fan for winter, and a half-cab fan in fair weather.

 

[Jaylegger]

It's similar to driving a motorcycle or a car, for snowblowing I'll take the car anyday. No regrets having a cab for that purpose but I take it off for summer, but I'm wouldn't be on it for more than an hour at a time, if that.

 

[lawn_king]

Did you start off with cabs?

Bob pretty much hit my concerns on the head. Will I feel cocooned and disconnected in a cab? Will the fact that I'm so much further north than him with all of the associated weather extremes make up for it?

What really got me thinking of this as I prepare to downsize from an L4630 to a B3030 was a YouTube video I found on this forum showing a fellow in Michigan with a B3030HSDC and a front mounted snow blower. My dirt road is eight feet wide with stone walls on either side, so if we get a bit of snow I quickly run out of places to push it and my road narrows till it's just wide enough for the car to pass thru scraping both sides.

A snowblower would let me loft the snow up and over those walls, but on an open platform and any breeze at all that's just miserable work! Seeing that fellow all toasty warm in his heated cab really stirred something in me. And then there's bug season here in Vermont -- really an ugly time of year. Our summer is only a couple of weeks long, so the AC wouldn't see much use.

But did I mention the cold and the bugs?

I ran open station internationals for 20 years, so i paid my dues! There are days here in new england that i wish i had an open station machine, about 3 a year!

 

[Taiser]

No use for a cab at my place much. Used my machine to grub the land first, cab would have been destroyed and scratched to **** if I had one on there while doing that.

Would be handy for snowblowing, but I use a plow anyways, that about the only advantage in winter, but it only takes my about 45 min to plow my whole driveway. In the summer I'd probably have the doors open anyways. Just like to hear and "feel" the machine better, cabs isolate too much IMHO. My $0.02.

 

[TripleR]

That's a hard question and factors such as age and health will play a part.

I grew up driving open station tractors farming as that's what everyone had. The only concession to the elements was an umbrella and years later a hard top on my ROPS. About fifteen years ago I began operating a cab in addition to an open station.

Yes, I do feel "disconnected" to a certain extent in a cab and vision is not as good with an open station, but with that "isolation" comes "protection" from heat, cold, bugs, dirt, pollen, vaporized noxious weeds and the occasional errant limb. I recently decided to buy another cabbed tractor and stop running an open station for the most part (still operate my BX2660 and John Deere 2305) and bought a Grand L5030HSTC.

For some of us older guys, a cab is the only way we can keep using a tractor regularly. My father in law had heart problems and couldn't handle the extremes in temperatures. He died up behind our house in January doing what he loved; if not for a cabbed tractor he would have been house bound.

 

[Ductape]

If you are considering the large B series, spend the extra money and get the factory cab........ you won't regret it ! I can snowblow in my underwear listening to my favorite music all winter long. I use the A/C all summer too. No bugs, no hornets, no sweat ! I don't feel disconnected from my tractor at all. I'm on my third tractor, but first with a cab...... and wish I had justified it sooner also. If there is a drawback, its that you have to trim a few branches where you mow each spring. I can live with that.