Regret a cab tractor?

[metalbender]

Bought mine with the cab specifically for comfort. Clearing snow from a half mile drive and the yard is worth the extra. Plowed the road with an open station Ford 3000, cured me real quick. There's not enough Eddie Bauer to change my mind.

 

[RoyJackson]

Sounds like a POS rattletrap hot noisy cab that Curtis, Sims and others make only worse.

Not really and, years ago those aftermarket cabs were the only options available.
I'd wager a lot of it depended upon the quality of assembly by the user.
The cab I had on the 4520 was 10 years old and, considering the history, pretty well made, but 10 years wear and tear (tractor had just over 2000 hours when I bought it) will tell

 

[RickB]

Not really and, years ago those aftermarket cabs were the only options available.
I'd wager a lot of it depended upon the quality of assembly by the user.
The cab I had on the 4520 was 10 years old and, considering the history, pretty well made, but 10 years wear and tear (tractor had just over 2000 hours when I bought it) will tell

Yeah, that's your opinion. Fine. You already read mine. Seen, owned, drove and wrenched on too many to ever think differently. The isolated unitized tractor cab design was a game changer in the mid 1970's and since then any other cab design is second rate or worse.
New Holland CUT market share suffered terribly for the simple reason they were very late with a factory designed and built cab.

 

[DieselBound]

I have my wife drive me around the field in the carryall. I wear a harness and can cut with a chainsaw.

View attachment 718999

Hey! You and Faxman should hang out together, he was the only other person on this site that I knew of that had a Toolcat (though I don't go around surveying for that sort of thing). They're really great machines.

 

[DieselBound]

Maybe, after I retire from my day job in about 10 years, I will develop a little more appreciation for cabbed tractors. Right now, you couldn’t pay me to own one. 45 hours week in a heated and air conditioned office is way more than enough for me.

I live for the after work and weekend “outside time” on my open station tractors.

Flies, mosquitoes, baking heat, cold, rain, blackberry canes whipping me in the face... When I'm in my cabbed tractor I have none of that. And I get plenty of time outside. I know office life very well (thankfully that's in my past, but I still have a "day job") and in no way would I ever confuse office and tractor comforts.

Hoping that you you get to retirement quickly so you can appreciate a cabbed tractor!

 

[DieselBound]

It takes a pretty big limb to break a secured, closed cab door or window.
a little situational awareness goes a long ways.

I was going to reply similarly. I mean, do people just run at some higher speed right into branches or what? There, in the distance, trees, I think I'll head over there and forget that I'm now running around in trees?

I was just passing through a tight area in my cabbed tractor (made tighter because I had to navigate through with my 7 1/2' wide flail- which is about the width of the pathway where the fence posts aren't, meaning I have to do a lot of wiggling to get through). I have trees off to the sides, with some having branches poking out (I've gotten most of the low ones cut but there are a few that I figure I can leave and they'll ascend as the tree grows upward). I sometimes step out of the cab and lean out front of the window to help bend a branch which has manged to start stuffing itself on the lip of the cab top or the lights. It's not something that I have to do often. Usually it's some smaller and more flexible branches that come more toward the sides of the cab that I just ease past as they screech across the glass. Anything that would actually break the glass is something that I would see a "mile" off. BIGGER issue is with flying stuff from when say you're using a grapple and it pinches down on something and ejects it at the cab (I've had stuff jump up and out of the grapple and on to the hood <- Note that "hoods" exist on non-cabbed tractors as well Interestingly enough BOTH my tractors have had hits to their hoods).

 

[rademamj1]

On my heavily wooded lot, I have not in 5 years broken a window on my cab tractor. It seems to be mainly the fiberglass roofing that takes most of the hits, and since I have trimmed major pathways through my property for the tractor, I have been good now for nearly 3 years without any hitting tree limb issues.

I notice those advocating open station tractors, do so with a passion, and continue to say cab tractor AC and heater systems are not reliable. Yet these are the very same system's used reliably worldwide in cars and trucks. My 15 year old Toyota Tundra has an AC system still working great. After 5 years my Kioti AC can still freeze me and it is performing exceptionally well.

 

[DieselBound]

It also kept $7,500 in my pocket for implements and attachments.

If the heat index is 120F or the wind chill is 0F I will pick another day to work. It's pretty simple.

Add-on cost for my cab on my NX was a stupid $3k. Though $3k is a chunk of change, what I got for it was stupid to pass up.

Not sure how long you've been exposed to land and activities, but, for me anyway, things just don't seem to always comply with my timing desires. Emergencies happen. Trees breaking onto fences and other things that when one has animals one doesn't go: "well, it's cold out so won't go outside."

My schedule is also such that when I have to do things I have to do them, no matter the temperature. Most comes when it's warm outside (in the PNW it's not usually stifling heat as it is elsewhere, but this past summer we rang up 122 degrees apparent temperature [we have our own weather station here]). When I was putting in my fencing in the 90 degree heat several years ago (hand set- packing with a tamping bar ever post, every hole) I WISH that I could have said I could work another day. My point is that sometimes work can't wait.

I do understand not wanting to go out in crappy weather, and that some people have the luxury of doing just that. I suppose I have a bit of envy.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

On a typical winter morning, it's -40F out (not windchill, but real ambient temp), the wind is blowing 30-40 mph, it's 5am, and the driveway must be opened up to get out to work (workday).

Here, we just call that another day.

I'm quite happy with my cab.

 

[deezler]

On a typical winter morning, it's -40F out (not windchill, but real ambient temp), the wind is blowing 30-40 mph, it's 5am, and the driveway must be opened up to get out to work (workday).

Here, we just call that another day.

I would call that, “you should live somewhere else” lol. But it sure justifies a cab.

 

[deezler]

Sounds like a POS rattletrap hot noisy cab that Curtis, Sims and others make only worse.

Lol, yes perhaps. I don't know or care since I'm not a pu$$y and thus don't need a cab for winter or summer (j/k, j/k! haha).

While a cab sure seems nice sometimes, it really wouldn't make sense for me. I only need to plow snow 5 to 10 times per year here, and rarely during a blowing storm or under 15 degrees F. Shoot it hardly snows when it's any colder than that, for most of us in the continental US. And in the summer, I am constantly on and off the tractor when using it (I don't mow pasture or do real farmer stuff). Having no breeze of fresh air, and having to open and close the door constantly seems like a crazy pain in the rear.

Why are the cab doors not easily removable? Should be like a jeep wrangler, just pull the pins and pop the whole door off. The rear glass panel, too. Then you're most of the way to convertible.

 

[Blue Mule]

It's pretty easy to see that most posters that prefer cabs don't have that luxury.

It's not a luxury, it's a choice.

The only job I can think of that would HAVE to be done on the worst days of the year would be pushing snow, and that's why I said if you have the full time job of pushing snow you need a pickup truck with a plow anyhow.

Anything else can wait until the extreme conditions improve.

 

[5030]

While a cab sure seems nice sometimes, it really wouldn't make sense for me.

Depends on the application. I'd never run my disc bine with an open station, in fact it's recommended by all manufacturers of disc machines to run with a cabin tractor due to the chance that objects (stones, etc) being thrown forward by the spinning heads. Same deal with my round bailer. I always use my cab tractor not find of being covered with chaff from the bailing operation. Why I have both and open station and a cab unit. Each has their place and use.

 

[deezler]

^ exactly, if I did any real farmer stuff in the summers, I would strongly consider a cab.

 

[RickB]

It's not a luxury, it's a choice.
Anything else can wait until the extreme conditions improve.

I don't need a lecture on what can wait for better conditions. Making my 1/4 mile gravel driveway in upstate NY passible so my wife and I could get to work wasn't something that was a choice. It happened, typically in the dark before 6:00 AM no matter what the conditions were.
We didn't live in the South then where a flurry shuts down the entire state.

 

[CobyRupert]

my only regret on getting the cabbed unit was selling my old 1996 JD870 open station. i should have kept the little guy. there are times i need a smaller tractor.

i could not convince the wife to keep old JD

Get rid of a tractor? Gasp! That seems backwards. How is it that the tractor didn’t convince you not to keep the wife?

Should of told her “You are SO right dear. Maybe it is time I should get rid of some of the old stuff around here and replace it with a younger shiny version. Thanks!”

 

[grsthegreat]

Get rid of a tractor? Gasp! That seems backwards. How is it that the tractor didn’t convince you not to keep the wife?

Should of told her “You are SO right dear. Maybe it is time I should get rid of some of the old stuff around here and replace it with a younger shiny version. Thanks!”

well....im still alive, so that never happened

 

[DieselBound]

Lol, yes perhaps. I don't know or care since I'm not a pu$$y and thus don't need a cab for winter or summer (j/k, j/k! haha).

While a cab sure seems nice sometimes, it really wouldn't make sense for me. I only need to plow snow 5 to 10 times per year here, and rarely during a blowing storm or under 15 degrees F. Shoot it hardly snows when it's any colder than that, for most of us in the continental US. And in the summer, I am constantly on and off the tractor when using it (I don't mow pasture or do real farmer stuff). Having no breeze of fresh air, and having to open and close the door constantly seems like a crazy pain in the rear.

Why are the cab doors not easily removable? Should be like a jeep wrangler, just pull the pins and pop the whole door off. The rear glass panel, too. Then you're most of the way to convertible.

My doors come off by popping a couple retaining clips on hinge pins and pulling the pins (and popping the stabilizers off). I've thought about this, but then why bother? If one gets pinned in then just pop open the rear glass and climb out. Five years and 715 hrs and I've never had to do this (not even close). There's "possibility" and then there's "probability"- I tend to be more concerned with the later.

 

[tjandrews]

It takes a pretty big limb to break a secured, closed cab door or window.
a little situational awareness goes a long ways.

Well, yes and no. My brother was moldboard plowing with our JD 4600 and aftermarket cab, when he happened to drive up and over a head-sized rock. When he came down on the other side, the back window shattered into a million pieces. No limbs for several hundred feet.

Plan is to eventually make our own replacement window from a piece of Plexiglass. For now, we made a "temporary" back window out of a piece of plastic that once covered a spare tire in a Pontiac Vibe. It has a small hole in the center that you can look through, but we run it with the back propped up most of the time anyway, so fixing it hasn't been a priority. However, winter IS coming...

 

[GSVette]

My greatest joy in my cabbed LS came from watching the bald faced hornets from the nest I just ran over beat themselves silly trying to get at me!! Just the year prior I had to abandon ship on my non-cabbed Case 580 when I whacked a hornets nest while digging the trench for a water line. Still got stung a few time before I could get clear! The weed torch was sweet revenge, however