To CAB or NOT

[deserteagle71]

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.

Consider yourself lucky. You either work in an area with no bugs...or you have some kind of natural repellant!

Me...been bit by bees, wasps/hornets, black flies, gnats, horse flies...but most of all by leap hoppers. Before cab tractor days when mowing tall grass I'd get bitten by a leaf hopper every few minutes it seems like. I have a pic somewhere I took of the glass of my tractor cab just covered with hundreds of leaf hoppers.

 

[Ortimber]

I have both, but enjoy fresh air as much as anyone. The open station machine gets used less and less as I get older. 51 now, and recently developed an allergy to hornets.

 

[CliffordK]

You can guess which one of these dozers I like using better and so would anyone else. View attachment 856095

I just got a slightly used CAT. I haven't put it to use yet. Most of the cab windows are broken, and the two doors are missing. However, I'm pretty sure I'll like having a windshield between my face ad the diesel exhaust. And, of course, good ROPS.

A $500K CAT just isn't in the budget. However, I have seen that controls are evolving over time.

Nonetheless, there may not be a substitute for power, weight, and size.

 

[ruffdog]

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.

A bee attack may happen at the very worse time and may cause death.

UPDATE: Police suspect bee attack led to death of man operating bulldozer

 

[CliffordK]

The first tractor my parents got we decided to plow the field. Dad hit a yellow jacket nest on the corner. Put it in reverse to do a square corner and got a hundred stings. Jumped off the tractor and ran, then saw the tractor chugging across the field in reverse with a swarm of angry bees.
He was OK, but mom got worried enough to take him to the hospital.

 

[4570Man]

I just got a slightly used CAT. I haven't put it to use yet. Most of the cab windows are broken, and the two doors are missing. However, I'm pretty sure I'll like having a windshield between my face ad the diesel exhaust. And, of course, good ROPS.

A $500K CAT just isn't in the budget. However, I have seen that controls are evolving over time.

Nonetheless, there may not be a substitute for power, weight, and size.

I had one of those for about 2 weeks and I sold it. I found the dozers to be much easier to run.

 

[Texasmark]

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

I have 7 tractors, 2 of which are with cab. The cab units are for a reason why you want a cab. The others aren't. Your choice.

 

[Texasmark]

Thanks for the response. If I get a CAB, it will not be removable. I want a solid, deluxe CAB.

When I bought my Branson 6530C it was because it had all the "whistles and bells" I wanted in a new tractor. It is a 2007, bought new, and the cab has never been removed nor has it been returned to the dealer for any reason.

 

[mcmxi]

I ran a Kubota BX25D for five years up here in MT. I dressed appropriately for the cold, but you can never avoid getting blasted in the face when blowing snow (front mount), but it was bearable. I didn't do much mowing with the BX, maybe 1-1/2 acres, so other than the awful ride it was ok. I then bought an MX6000 open station and RCR1884 rotary cutter which was a way better setup for mowing, so I did a lot more and added a friend's 20 acres to the mix. However, after one spring/summer with terrible dust, bugs, heat, noise, etc., I realized that I wanted a cab. I sold the MX and ordered another MX6000 but the cabbed model. Then a short time after I bought the M6060 with a cab right off the lot. There is no way in hell I'd buy another open station tractor.

Many will find that they use a cabbed tractor a lot more than an open station. It doesn't matter if it's raining, freezing, hot, humid, mosquito season, or whatever. When you have a cab, all of the bad stuff goes away. Don't forget, on those lovely spring days when it's cool and bug free you can always open the rear window and side windows if you have them and you're almost an open station at that point.

The only two downsides of cabbed tractors in my opinion are the initial cost, and the chance of an expensive repair if you damage the cab.

 

[TractorTYMe]

Well howdy old Co-worker MCMXI! A cab is a 24-7-365 machine. Truly enjoy my machine more often.