How many of you guys wish you did not purchase a cabbed tractor?

[N80]

When I got my Kubota, we got it with 0% financing and the price was amazing. Way better than the comparable JD. It was so good, in fact, a member here from New England came down here and bought one at the same price and so did a local friend of mine. All L4400s. Not sure if they were overstocked or what but it was the best price in the region because I shopped around. The dealer was very happy with me since I sent both of them to him in about 3 months time.

Sadly, they closed a year or two later. Their inventory and Kubota business was picked up by a local NH/MF dealership....which is now almost all Kubota.

I do remember something about their insurance. It was cheap and I appreciated having it. Did not keep it though.

If I worked out in the open all day, as a pro, in bad weather, which includes dust in my opinion, I would consider a cab a necessity. Not sure how my B-I-L has done it all these years without one. And if I never worked in the woods and such as a non-pro landowner, I'd also have a cab, but I'd consider it a luxury, not a necessity.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I've never owned a cabbed tractor, so can't comment from that point of view. A cab would be nice when plowing snow, but that seems to be required less often in recent years. But I'd never get close to all the trees that surround my field when mowing if I had one.

I end up lifting a lot of branches over the ROPS and lifting limbs over the tires with my open station tractor. I'm just cutting grass and weeds with my Bush Hog rotary cutter, but my neighbor ends up leaving hay he can't reach because he can't get under the trees on the fence row with his cabbed tractor.

Heat is not much of an issue here, and if it is I just stay out of the field and wait a day or two - the advantage of being retired.

From your avatar it looks like the weak point on your tractor is the tall exhaust pipe sticking up that would catch any tree limb and bend backwards. I had the same problem with my old open station tractor. My exhaust stack is attached to the cab and very robust. So is the cab glass. I have bushhogged many times in trees where limbs were so thick that they would literally knock you off an open station tractor. The only thing they did to my cab was fold back the mirrors and tilt my running lights back. The cab just spread the limbs back and I just slid right thru. These were all pines and the limbs were limber. I do have to be careful when working around live oak limbs that are much stiffer and tend to hang on everything with their almost thorny limbs. As long as you don't drive under a large limb that impacts the top of the cab, most limbs will just slide by. If I am mowing close to a suspected tough limb, I will raise the FEL so the arms push back the limbs first then the cab frame holds them back till I pass. So far, I have not damaged anything on my cab.
We did break out the pole saw when we first got our cabbed tractor ( my brother in law also has a cabbed tractor) and we cut every limb in the pasture as high as we could reach with a 12 foot pole saw. This facilitates mowing up close to the tree without folding back the mirrors from contact with limbs. The mirrors are a bit hard to fold back out from inside the cab. I can do it on mine, but my brother in law says that he cant get his folded back out and without that he cant get out of the cab door.

As for getting in and out of the cab, I don't see that it is any harder to get in and out of a cab than open station. The door actually has a grab rail that wouldn't be there if not for the cab so it makes getting up and down easier on my tall operators platform (almost 5 feet high). Of course you do have to lift the latch to open the door, but how hard is that to do.

All I can say to the cost is that "Life is short, make the most of your life by being as comfortable as you can be. You wont miss that $4-5K much and it will be that much less your heirs will have to fight over"

 

[Turbys_1700]

A cab tractor is in my future. We sold my dad's 8050 Allis. Nice older tractor but too big for the majority of folk including me. A local farmers bought it.

The sunshade on my current tractors really help but with my allergies I am fearful of yellow jackets. Without a cab tractor I don't brush hog after July 4th. I hit it in May and wait until first frost.

 

[Utopia Texas]

From your avatar it looks like the weak point on your tractor is the tall exhaust pipe sticking up that would catch any tree limb and bend backwards. I had the same problem with my old open station tractor. My exhaust stack is attached to the cab and very robust. So is the cab glass. I have bushhogged many times in trees where limbs were so thick that they would literally knock you off an open station tractor. The only thing they did to my cab was fold back the mirrors and tilt my running lights back. The cab just spread the limbs back and I just slid right thru. These were all pines and the limbs were limber. I do have to be careful when working around live oak limbs that are much stiffer and tend to hang on everything with their almost thorny limbs. As long as you don't drive under a large limb that impacts the top of the cab, most limbs will just slide by. If I am mowing close to a suspected tough limb, I will raise the FEL so the arms push back the limbs first then the cab frame holds them back till I pass. So far, I have not damaged anything on my cab.
We did break out the pole saw when we first got our cabbed tractor ( my brother in law also has a cabbed tractor) and we cut every limb in the pasture as high as we could reach with a 12 foot pole saw. This facilitates mowing up close to the tree without folding back the mirrors from contact with limbs. The mirrors are a bit hard to fold back out from inside the cab. I can do it on mine, but my brother in law says that he cant get his folded back out and without that he cant get out of the cab door.

As for getting in and out of the cab, I don't see that it is any harder to get in and out of a cab than open station. The door actually has a grab rail that wouldn't be there if not for the cab so it makes getting up and down easier on my tall operators platform (almost 5 feet high). Of course you do have to lift the latch to open the door, but how hard is that to do.

All I can say to the cost is that "Life is short, make the most of your life by being as comfortable as you can be. You wont miss that $4-5K much and it will be that much less your heirs will have to fight over"

Years back, even with open station tractors, we started cutting lower limbs on the Pecan trees as to not get slapped in the face with limbs. These lower limbs get almost no light and are not productive anyway. For those that are worried about rear view mirrors getting damaged......take them off. Really....how often do you use them? If they were so necessary all the time open tractors would have them also. You can occasionally turn around and look backwards if you have to and turning around in a cab is no different than in a open tractor. I have a backwards facing camera and screen in the cab anyway......

 

[Texasmark]

I can't respond to this post due to the way it's worded. Had it been worded such that the question would be "having purchased a cab on your tractor, do you regret that purchase as compared to an open station purchase" then I would have answered: NO!

 

[AxleHub]

The thought is there to trade my open station for a cabbed tractor. I do stone driveways and some tilling and some snow blowing and some lawn installation and you get the idea. I am wondering if I really want to trade. I think I do but looking to see if anyone had regrets.

I don't think you're asking a fair question. If you had asked what were reasons why others considered a cab and decided against it. . . I think you'd get better input.

Those who chose a cabbed unit may be bigger tractors or use it much more specifically for special purposes or live in areas with decided climate issues and needs.

If your goal is to be convinced by others to get a cab. . . Then I think you asked the right question.

An old wise soul told me that a cab for a tractor was for people who want to drive a car or jeep on their land, or they work for someone else and not themselves, or they live in Louisiana in the constant rain and humidity.

 

[kneedeep]

Forget manual control sprayer (unless you are using a hand held wand out the window and along that line knew of a person who ran the sprayer hoses into the cab and hose burst soaking him with a chemical that probably lead to his cancer and death.

Forget any liquid sprayer or dry spreader such as a whirly bird with gate or valve you manually operate.

Nervous as can be around trees if needing to watch blade or such behind me.

Forget the radio, still have enough noise hearing radio .

Forget reaching back to help with third arm when hooking up to 3 pth. Forget an easy reach to the lift lever when on the ground hooking up 3 pth implement.

Had the same issues with my first cab tractor, but after some modifications and add ons, most issues were resolved to my satisfaction.

1 Manual sprayer- Installed a 12v Ball Valve wired to a unused Beacon switch in cab that opens and closes the flow to the boom.
2 3 PT Cone spreader was more difficult, took a small 8" stroke cylinder off of a small drill and welded some brackets in proper place, added flow control valves to slow it down, operates off of remote hydraulics.
3 Installed a AG camera and monitor to see behind the tractor while also looking forward.
4 Cab is very quiet, radio plays great.
5 I installed a set of PATS on the lift arms, each piece of equipment has the correct I.D. Marked so the spreader bar is the correct width, backup and lift. Hooking up is just as easy with a open tractor.

 

[bodin1968]

next tractor i buy will have a cab. most of our field work is done in june-sept when its HOT down south with bugs and dust to boot. it's miserable bush hogging and discing in the heat. i've rode open tractors my whole life. i'm 48. tractor work is therapy outside of the office for me. like most here i want to enjoy time on the tractor as i get old...er

my question is the glass on the cabs? is it really that fragile? glass has come a long way last 15 years in other applications.....

my other question is what is the best set up for a 40 gal rear sprayer w/ a cab? tx

 

[bdog]

I will not buy anything without a cab. I was my lawnmower had one.

It is so nice being able to do tractor, skid steer, backhoe work and come inside and not look like you have been rolling in the dirt. It is dry here and many times when working the dust gets so bad I have to stop for a few seconds because I can't see. Not to mention the 100+ degree heat we often get. It doesn't snow a ton here but when we had our blizzard last year and I was pushing snow in my open station skid steer I had at the time I about froze to death. You get really cold sitting down and not moving. When I am working around the place in the heat it is so nice to jump in the machine with the AC going and cool down between tasks.

As to the glass it will break. I have never broke it out on the skid steer or tractor or backhoe but we have another machine that runs through the woods and I busted the front windshield on a tree limb.

 

[jajiu]

next tractor i buy will have a cab. most of our field work is done in june-sept when its HOT down south with bugs and dust to boot. it's miserable bush hogging and discing in the heat. i've rode open tractors my whole life. i'm 48. tractor work is therapy outside of the office for me. like most here i want to enjoy time on the tractor as i get old...er

my question is the glass on the cabs? is it really that fragile? glass has come a long way last 15 years in other applications.....

my other question is what is the best set up for a 40 gal rear sprayer w/ a cab? tx

I have had my tractor for over 3 years and been in and out of the woods and had the tractor slapped by branches quite often and have had no problem. I broke one of the lights, and replaced it and adjusted them in closer to the cab and broke the antenna off. I didn't think much about the antenna until I decided to get a bluetooth radio so I could get phone calls (I can't hear my phone ring when running the tractor). The bluetooth works great as it has a built in antenna, but to make the radio work, I have to replace the antenna and at $80. I'm still looking for an after market replacement. Also, make sure you close the door when you get in and out of the tractor, they do break off very readily. My dealer told me of a guy that broke 3 in 2 years. He now stocks 4 doors for replacements.