Are tractors with cabs becoming the norm?

[tow653]

Like has been mentioned on here many times,most TBN members are hobby or weekend users of equipment. Most full time farmers will use cab tractors for their use due to the long hours they spend in them. If you notice,construction use is way behind agricultural use of cabbed equipment,and I think the reason for this is most construction equipment is operated by hired help,while most ag use is by owners. I attended a wedding years ago and the brides family was primarily farmers,and my mother commented on how old all the men looked,and told her it was from sitting on open aired tractors for years,this was while I was working on a large farm,and consoled her in the fact that almost all the equipment I operated was cabbed. There is only one thing worse than an open aired tractor and that is a cabbed one with the air conditioner not working, it becomes a sauna with all the glass,and most don't have window that open more than the bottom tilting out.

 

[boggen]

the old ford 555C TLB, has heat, no A/C, windows were broken out when i obtained it, plexi glass no for windows.

the heater is well "ok" it warms it up, the bloody wind chill zaps any heat that is made. but the biggest part is the windows keeps the wind off of me while out in the winter. i am normally already in a few layers of clothing / cover alls already, so i really don't need super heated cab, due to by the time it would warm'ed up, i would be done, and needing to get out and shovel around some areas. for most part heater = keeping windows from fogging up, and warming my hands up.

summer.... bungie the doors open. well at least i would like to say that. the dust gets me before the heat does (bad allergies), so one door or a couple windows cracked with a little 12v fan inside is good enough. and if need be, i just plain around the heat (early morning to later at night) and avoid mid day high heat times. heck even with a cab, the sun generally just comes in one of the given windows and just pounds you anyway. so some sun screen lotion may still be wanted.

with above said, cab or no cab. cab is nice. it is a costly little item, but well worth it.

=============
i would like to say a cab is not a requirement. but man have i gotten spoiled. having a cab on the ford 555c, it may not be the greatest cab in the world. (beaten up as it is), but even of what it is, it is well worth it.

 

[KennyG]

I'm one of those guys with low trees and woods work that makes a cab impractical for the summer months. However, I found snowblowing without a cab a horrible experience in any kind of wind. I bought a Original Tractor Cab soft cab that I put on in November and take off in April which works great for me.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm reading a lot of comments about tree damage. One of the things I would want with a cab is enough HP to run a batwing mower. If it was just to be comfortable, I probably wouldn't upgrade to a cab tractor, but I want to be able to run a bigger mower, so it just makes a lot of sense to go for one with a cab. Wouldn't the added width of a batwing make it easier to mow up close to trees? Same thing with getting right to the waters edge while mowing around the pond.

As it is now, I go out a few times a year and cut branches that try to take my head off while mowing with my open station tractor. I'm not sure which is going to be worse, scratching a cab or losing an eye. LOL


Eddie

 

[Tom P]

I have a kubota F2000 front mower with a cab and love it. you can be way out there mowing somewhere and a storm comes up and you come back dry as a bone,been the drowned rat before and not again.you even come back without a sun burn.they are very nice and call me spoiled but i love my cab,dont need air just a fan blowing in cool air is enough but the heat is great to have in the winter

 

[bigbull338]

eddie most all the cabs on tractors now are all glass.if they get hit right the glass will shatter.

 

[rmorey]

Funny, when I traded tractors, the dealer told me this was his first (and last) cabbed tractor. It sat for over a year before I came along. He sells mainly smaller (<40 hp) machines to hobby farmers/weekenders, and found the cab cost added too much to the price. Worked out great for me! :thumbsup:

 

[oldpilgrim]

that's what I found too...very few cabbed tractors available on lots. My local dealer told me that they have a lot of problems selling anything over 40hp. Just too much money for local small business and hobby farms. Tractors are not a toy when it comes to pricing and I can see where the additional cost of a cab could put many, many people out of the market....especially now that Tier 4 adds many more thousands of $ to the price.

 

[lostcreekranch]

I suspect the the cab for a 30 HP tractor manufacturing costs is nearly as much as a cab for a 65 HP tractor? Adding cab to smaller SCUT tractors would be a larger % increase in price as compared to adding one to a UT.

 

[GreenWannabe]

Well, I am comfortable in my own skin, so it doesn't bother me to be a wussie! I decided I could buy exactly one tractor in my life, and that I didn't need the heat, the cold, the dust, the insects, etc., etc. But the only local dealer who stocked cab tractors was John Deere, and I quickly found that I cracked my noggin each time I climbed into one, from the smallest 3x20 through the largest 5xxx. I wound up having to drive to all the other dealers within about 75 miles to actually see cabbed tractors and try them out.

Oh, and I am not in the slightest disappointed that I chose a cabbed HST equipped tractor!