To CAB or NOT

   / To CAB or NOT #61  
Hello again,

As I get closer to purchasing a new tractor, I am still struggling with getting a Cab. I have always been in an open station and feel a little enclosed when testing tractors with a Cab. I am 46 and not getting any younger (starting to feel it more). I want this next tractor purchase to hopefully be my last and payed off by the time I am 50. I dont think prices are ever going back down and if I put it off for another 5 years, and finally decide I need the Cab, it will probably be 70K + for one. I do a lot of burning in the cold rain and snow and bush-hogging, tilling and grading in the summer with lots of dust. I am starting to get tired of eating dust and being dirty/wet from head to toe. Probably answering my own question here while typing this. LOL

Anyway, how many of you on here have gone through a simliar situation/buying experience at this stage of life? Did you choose a Cab or did you stay open-station? This is going to be a big purchase and I dont want to do it again. I know I could get a canopy but that will just keep some rain off of me.

I have mostly pines that are around 20 feet tall now. Currently 4 acres open and 12 wooded but I am still clearing with the excavator and burning lots of brush piles. Will probably end up with 8 open and 8 wooded. I guess the biggest concern I have and hear from folks is hitting tree limbs and such while in the Cab. I feel like I am pretty observant and careful with operating but mistakes happen.

Any opinions/experience/similiar situations welcome.

Thanks
This cab saved my life.. That's a good enough for me. I would have been crushed to death with just a ROPS tractor.
 

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   / To CAB or NOT #62  
Hello again,

As I get closer to purchasing a new tractor, I am still struggling with getting a Cab. I have always been in an open station and feel a little enclosed when testing tractors with a Cab. I am 46 and not getting any younger (starting to feel it more). I want this next tractor purchase to hopefully be my last and payed off by the time I am 50. I dont think prices are ever going back down and if I put it off for another 5 years, and finally decide I need the Cab, it will probably be 70K + for one. I do a lot of burning in the cold rain and snow and bush-hogging, tilling and grading in the summer with lots of dust. I am starting to get tired of eating dust and being dirty/wet from head to toe. Probably answering my own question here while typing this. LOL

Anyway, how many of you on here have gone through a simliar situation/buying experience at this stage of life? Did you choose a Cab or did you stay open-station? This is going to be a big purchase and I dont want to do it again. I know I could get a canopy but that will just keep some rain off of me.

I have mostly pines that are around 20 feet tall now. Currently 4 acres open and 12 wooded but I am still clearing with the excavator and burning lots of brush piles. Will probably end up with 8 open and 8 wooded. I guess the biggest concern I have and hear from folks is hitting tree limbs and such while in the Cab. I feel like I am pretty observant and careful with operating but mistakes happen.

Any opinions/experience/similiar situations welcome.

Thanks
Two things, yellow jackets & cold.
 
   / To CAB or NOT #63  
The cab is great in winter but, any other time when outside temps are 50 or higher I must run the a/c or I cook in the cab. I would not recommend a cab without ac.
 
   / To CAB or NOT #64  
I hit a ground nest with my open station and got nailed twice by hornets before I realized what was happening. Then I got my cabbed tractor and hit another ground nest. “Hey, look at all those hornets on the other side of the glass”. It’s a good argument :)
The only time I've ever been stung by hornets on a tractor was inside my buddy's old cabbed Case backhoe. Hornets love to build nests in that damn cab, every summer. It may be not as tight as modern cabs, I suspect.
 
   / To CAB or NOT #65  
This cab saved my life.. That's a good enough for me. I would have been crushed to death with just a ROPS tractor.
Will most modern cabs actually take a life-ending hit, without just disintegrating? I thought that other than the integrated ROPS in the rear of the cab, most were just Lexan and plastic?
 
   / To CAB or NOT #66  
Hello again,

As I get closer to purchasing a new tractor, I am still struggling with getting a Cab. I have always been in an open station and feel a little enclosed when testing tractors with a Cab. I am 46 and not getting any younger (starting to feel it more). I want this next tractor purchase to hopefully be my last and payed off by the time I am 50. I dont think prices are ever going back down and if I put it off for another 5 years, and finally decide I need the Cab, it will probably be 70K + for one. I do a lot of burning in the cold rain and snow and bush-hogging, tilling and grading in the summer with lots of dust. I am starting to get tired of eating dust and being dirty/wet from head to toe. Probably answering my own question here while typing this. LOL

Anyway, how many of you on here have gone through a simliar situation/buying experience at this stage of life? Did you choose a Cab or did you stay open-station? This is going to be a big purchase and I dont want to do it again. I know I could get a canopy but that will just keep some rain off of me.

I have mostly pines that are around 20 feet tall now. Currently 4 acres open and 12 wooded but I am still clearing with the excavator and burning lots of brush piles. Will probably end up with 8 open and 8 wooded. I guess the biggest concern I have and hear from folks is hitting tree limbs and such while in the Cab. I feel like I am pretty observant and careful with operating but mistakes happen.

Any opinions/experience/similiar situations welcome.

Thanks
Honestly, I would never buy a tractor with out one again. There is something to be said for being comfortable. In any weather conditions.
The cabs are always more expensive to add on later, and they are never as nice as a factory setup. Trust me, I've done that twice already.Bite the bullet, and get the cab, its less expensive in the long run.
Also, I take my tractor in the woods all the time, and never once damaged the cab, but them again, I'm not using the windshield like its a friggin' skidder. Go around things, or bring a saw and make a path.
 
   / To CAB or NOT #67  
I love the bee argument. I’ve yet to see it not come up in these “cab or not” fights here, yet in 50 years of operating open station tractors (almost exclusively), I’m still waiting for my first bee sting.

Lucky you. I've run into problems with bees many times on open tractors. Nothing like operating on a steep hillside which demands constant attention and having yellow jackets landing on the steering wheel, instrument panel, and your neck. Yellow jacket worker bees die in the fall when cold weather sets in. They are very aggressive on warm fall days. I bumped a bald faced hornet nest hanging in brush at a treeline I was mowing with an open tractor. Got stung a lot and ran. Those hornets were still all over the tractor an hour later. I've hit bees nests mowing with my cab tractors too, and it feels pretty good for them to be bouncing angrily all over the machine trying to find a way in.

This cab saved my life.. That's a good enough for me. I would have been crushed to death with just a ROPS tractor.

Why don't you think the ROPS would have protected you in the same manner? It would have stopped the tractor from rolling over and if you were seatbelted in, you likely would have been fine. Worst thing that happens on open machines is if your feet hang off the platform they can get crushed; cabs tend to keep all body parts inside. Anyway, glad you were OK!

Will most modern cabs actually take a life-ending hit, without just disintegrating? I thought that other than the integrated ROPS in the rear of the cab, most were just Lexan and plastic?

Modern cabs have plastic roofs but all glass and steel pillars.
 
   / To CAB or NOT #68  
I prefer the cab 90% of the time, mostly for bees and not breathing dust. Also good to keep a little warmer and cooler depending on need. I find tractor heat to be quite adequate once the engine warms up. A/C however is often lacking if you are running at full PTO speed for hours on end on a hot and sunny day. Once the radiator and condenser screens get plugged up with chaff, your A/C will get warm and you need to shut the machine down and clean them out. Battery powered blower works decent, but after a few times you need to use water to clean the cooling stacks. Lots of guys tint their cab windows which helps, except at night when you can't see.
It's also nice to have a locking, waterproof cab where you can leave stuff.
That said, I've broken the amber lollipop lights on the cab, broke a work light, and scraped up the plastic roof. Open tractor definitely has better visibility.
 
   / To CAB or NOT #69  
Two things, yellow jackets & cold.
You bet, Why I got mine. Once you come across yellow Jackets while bush hogging in a cab tractor , it is fun to fire them up with the bush hog over the hole for a while. Cab glass was covered and they were mad
 
   / To CAB or NOT #70  
Go with a cab. I started with an open station. Purchased a front-mount JD snow blower. In most conditions the snow would blow right back and I would be coated in a fine layer of snow. I would end of freezing cold and still had hours of driveways to clear. It’s pretty miserable. Purchased a new JD 3520 with a deluxe cab before the next snow season. No regrets. I’m warm, wearing a sweatshirt, listening to my music. Caught a 32” blizzard a few years later, headed out as the storm was winding down and spent 10 hours driving around and being flagged down. Made over $1000 in those 10 hours. Wasn’t going to do that in an open station tractor (supposed you could but you may as well dress as if you were going out on a snow mobile.
I mowed with the same tractor for the next 10 years. Nobody is going to complain about mowing on a 95° day with the AC on and not eating dust.
As we all get older a little well-earned comfort is not a bad thing.
 

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