Homemade Cab for Deere 2320 CUT

[Huskerplowboy]

You have done a very professional job that looks great. I cant remember if you spoke about it before but are you going to add some kind of heater so the windows dont fog up while blowing snow? Also did you think about adding a rear window wiper? I use my rear wiper more than the front when blowing snow. Also glad quality control passed the final product

Thanks.

I have a second wiper on the workbench, but haven't gotten time to drill the hole and attach it yet.

As for a heater, I haven't decided completely how I am going to do that yet. At this stage, with house selling and moving coming up, I'm sure a heater won't happen real soon. I may look to get a little fan to blow air on the windows to help fight the fog some. The temps are supposed to drop this weekend, so I'll be able to test out how things do in colder weather. The day I got the door on it was 60 degrees or so, not very good for testing the warmth of a cab! I almost wished for air conditioning at that point!

I've noticed that a good amount of engine heat gets picked up in the cowl/dash. Plus, a little fan blast does get through down by the pedals currently. I may look to do a heat houser type setup and avoid running coolant hoses back to the cab and such, will have to see...

 

[chris28]

nice cab keep up the good work oh yeah around how much did all of your materials cost, i am thinking about making one fr my bx2200 keep the pics coming

 

[PILOON]

I haven't really noticed the flexing in the plexiglass when using it. I know it does flex, but it's at least not distracting. The weekend I got the RH "glass" in, we had a day with nasty winds all day. I had to move the tractor to do something else in the shop and was a little nervous about that much wind load on the big window. But, it didn't seem to bother it much at all. I think the "bend" in the cab helps some, that split in the windows siliconed back together gives it a little more stiffness than 1 completely flat piece.

The door itself is a bit on the flexy side though. The low mounted latch didn't help that much, but that was the easiest place to fit it in as things developed. If you hit a big hole or something, you can see the top of the door frame flex away from the cab frame a bit. Nothing rattles because of the weatherstripping, so that's good. A latch closer to halfway up would've helped that problem a lot...

Hope you stop drilled that crack before you siliconed the 'patch' as that crack will continue to grow with additional flexing. (if not, it is not too late, just drill small 3/32" hole exactly where the crack ends and fill with silicone)
In the aircraft industry, stop drilling a crack is the 'acceptable' repair scheme.

Also holes drilled in plexi should always be a size bigger than the fastener used to allow for expansion and flexing.

 

[Huskerplowboy]

Hope you stop drilled that crack before you siliconed the 'patch' as that crack will continue to grow with additional flexing. (if not, it is not too late, just drill small 3/32" hole exactly where the crack ends and fill with silicone)
In the aircraft industry, stop drilling a crack is the 'acceptable' repair scheme.

Also holes drilled in plexi should always be a size bigger than the fastener used to allow for expansion and flexing.

Thanks for the tips. I've heard about stop drilling cracks before, fortunatly haven't had the need to try it for myself yet. The split in the plexi that I refered to is there intentionally. The sides of the cab aren't flat, it bends about halfway up so the upper part is tapered inward a couple inches. Rather than build/find a strip heater and try to bend the plexiglass to match, I just cut the big windows at that bend, installed it in two pieces, and used clear silicone to rejoin the pieces at the "bend", aquarium style.

 

[Huskerplowboy]

Update on cab function

Thought I'd give an update as to how the new cab has functioned so far this winter.

The first think I noticed over a month ago was that just blocking the wind makes a huge difference in comfort. I installed a cheap indoor/outdoor thermometer out of curiousity. It is almost always at least 4 degrees warmer inside the cab. If I run the tractor hard for an hour or so, the cab'll pick up a few more degrees. Since completing the cab, we sold our acreage and moved to a temporary rental house in town. Needless to say, I have the biggest, baddest snow removal equipment on the block!

This spring we'll be building a new home. Twice now, I've driven the tractor out to the building site, about 3 miles outside of town to blow or dig out the driveway so contractors, etc could come out to survey, etc. Both times, it was about 15 degrees out, and after dark. The first evening, I set a $7 ceramic heater from Wa-Mart in the cab for about 20 minutes before I left the house, just ran a cord out of the garage. In that time, the little heater had things up to 50-55 degrees inside the cab. I took off, was gone about an hour or so, and the temp never dropped below 20-25 degrees before I got back, never put my gloves or hat on the whole time! The second different time I ran out there, I didn't get home early enough to preheat the cab, but stayed plenty comfortable in there with coveralls and my Carhart coat on.

Windshield fogging hasn't seemed to be a big problem yet. Even when blowing snow, breathing pretty close to the rear window, I rarely have to wipe any fog off of the plexi. I think after the new shop gets built this summer, I'll think about adding a real heater, but so far, so good!

 

[Ductape]

I'm thinkin you just need a good long extension cord!

 

[JDeerekid]

Great to hear that the cab is working out for you! Like you said just getting out of the wind and snow helps alot and the heat is an added bonus.

 

[dqdave1]

I saw Harbor freight has little 12 v heaters for $10.00. Might just do the trick for you.Item # 96144.

 

[PILOON]

I saw Harbor freight has little 12 v heaters for $10.00. Might just do the trick for you.Item # 96144.

In order to use 12 v to generate heat means they are using an element (like stove) and that will draw MUCH to much amperage from an already marginal (most CUTS) electrical system.
You will run battery down in record time and maybe even damage alternator.

 

[nostep]

You could buy a large one-wire alternator and connect it to the PTO. Need about a 3:1 pulley ratio. Connect to the tractor battery. You'd have so much power that those little 12vdc heaters would drive you out of the cab in fifteen minutes.

 

[Huskerplowboy]

You could buy a large one-wire alternator and connect it to the PTO. Need about a 3:1 pulley ratio. Connect to the tractor battery. You'd have so much power that those little 12vdc heaters would drive you out of the cab in fifteen minutes.

Interresting Idea... I could actually mount it up underneath the tractor and run it off of the mid-PTO, which I believe spins closer to 2000 RPM... My 2320 lets me chose to run mid PTO, rear PTO, or both at the same time... I could run the mid PTO when transporting to heat things up, then flip to the rear PTO to run the blower...

 

[WilliamBos]

Interresting Idea... I could actually mount it up underneath the tractor and run it off of the mid-PTO, which I believe spins closer to 2000 RPM... My 2320 lets me chose to run mid PTO, rear PTO, or both at the same time... I could run the mid PTO when transporting to heat things up, then flip to the rear PTO to run the blower...

The alternator is mounted & driven off the rear of the engine on the 8X30 series JD tractors. Our 1523 also allows to run both mid and rear PTO's at once.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Aren't there cab heaters that draw from the radiator? I saw this one on E-bay that pulls on 3 amps. I'm guessing the 3 amps is for a fan.

Tractor Cab Heater Bobcat New Holland Case Skid Steers - eBay

I think another is called the Curtis cab heater.

 

[mjncad]

If one looks hard enough, plenty of after market cab heaters are out there. Most are water heat like your car and truck heater; but some are all electric. Unless you've got a big amp alternator, I'd go with a water based heater and let the electricity power the fan.

One does not need to buy from Curtis to get the same or similar heater. Curtis just buys them from someone else and marks them up for the middleman profit.

 

[KB9UDE]

Any idea what the cost of this cab project totalled??

 

[2manyrocks]

Used to see those auxillary heaters that got their heat from the radiator coolant and using a electric blower at various places-the J.C. Whitney catalog was one them. How hard could it be to rig one up even if you just started with a heater core from the auto parts store?

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Used to see those auxillary heaters that got their heat from the radiator coolant and using a electric blower at various places-the J.C. Whitney catalog was one them. How hard could it be to rig one up even if you just started with a heater core from the auto parts store?

Do you mean just have a fan blowing accross a heater core?

I guess that's really all these heaters are anyway.

 

[mjncad]

Do you mean just have a fan blowing accross a heater core?

I guess that's really all these heaters are anyway.

Yep, that's all they are...a fan blowing air over a heat exchanger enclosed in a box.

 

[2manyrocks]

Yes. A hydronic fan coil in a box with a fan blowing air through the coil. No different in principal than the heater in any car.

 

[PILOON]

Carter makes a heater that is 6" X 6" with the core being about3" thick.

That is what I use in my cab.
However I replaced the motor as it was a big noisy inefficient thing (and drew LOTS of amps).
I replaced with a 12v 4 x 4 computer type 'muffin fan' that draws less than 1 amp.

Today I was blowing snow in -20 deg C. and was quite cosy (other then feet as I neglected to re install my 'winter carpets')
My tractor floor is 'well vented' for want of a better description.
They punched as many holes as possible to cteate a non slip surface

The heater core that I used came from under a rear seat of a scrapped school bus, price was right!

Plumbing was easy, I simply piped into the 1/2" water pump bypass hose and used autoparts 1/2 radiator hose available by the foot. Being 1/2" I used regular 1/2" copper for all straight runs. Probably today I'd use PEX instead.

Oh, and I used household foam pipe insulation wherever possible to keep the heat in the pipes.