JD X728 cab and heater

jbgood · Feb 21, 2012

Planning on buying JD X728 with snowblower and installing the soft side cab (JD's price 969.00 Part # BM20482)
The tractor has 12 volt accessory plug in. Thinking of buying a 12 volt Heater/fan to keep the windshield from fogging. Not worried about me, I'll still dress warm and be out of the wind and blowing snow. Looking for comments on the cab and using the accessory plug in

shortthrow50 · Feb 21, 2012

just run the exhaust in teh cab

Deere Dude · Feb 21, 2012

I had a couple garden tractors, one with soft side and glass windshield and another hard side with glass all around and never had to run a fan to keep the windshield clear, and all was good. I would try it first and see how just the cab works, besides I don't know how much juice those plugs can handle.

Harry in Ky · Feb 21, 2012

Your owners manual should tell the size fuse supplying the outlet, which needs to exceed the rated amperage of your selected heater unit. Look at the back of the outlet and check the wire size leading to it. That also should meet or exceed the requirements of your heater. That being met, you should have no problems.

jenkinsph · Feb 21, 2012

If you need heat you would be wise to use the engine coolant system. Utilizing a 12v 20amp or 40amp alternator for supplying heat is too minimal to do much good. If the lighter/power outlet is rated for 15 amps then you would have with engine running 13 volts x 15 amps for 195 watts. Since you can only get about 3.4 btu's/watt (for resistive heat) then you would have 195 x 3.4 =663 btu's/hr of heat. A typical small tractor cab would need about 12,000 btu's. I think you would be wasting your time and money.

rsewill · Feb 21, 2012

Most big truck dealers carry nice caged fans designed to be used to do what you want except you will need to attach your own male 12v plug to fit your socket.