Newbie here

[chim]

I had a heated-only DIY cab on the last tractor and it was a huge improvement in Winter. With the doors off and a fan it was OK in Summer. Still had bugs, dust, heat and humidity in Summer. Since going with a factory cab with heat and A/C it's safe to say I wouldn't want to deal with an open station year round.

There were differences in the various cabbed tractors I looked at. I was seriously considering a Mahindra but the seat wouldn't adjust to fit me at 6-3 and 260#. I'm glad we found the clean used L4240. It's been a terrific piece of equipment. The HST+ trans is super handy and the tractor turns sharper than the L3200 it replaced.

 

[rScotty]

SNIP..

There were differences in the various cabbed tractors I looked at. I was seriously considering a Mahindra but the seat wouldn't adjust to fit me at 6-3 and 260#. I'm glad we found the clean used L4240. It's been a terrific piece of equipment. The HST+ trans is super handy and the tractor turns sharper than the L3200 it replaced.

It's nice to see some differences begin to happen in recent tractors. During early years anyone could tell a Farmall, Case, Oliver, etc. from a JD a mile away just by the different profile. Kids knew them all from amazing distances. Up close, of course everything mechanical was different as well. As well as the color.

Then for awhile the tractor world became - and still is - filled mostly with Universal 4WD Compact Utility Tractors - I call them "U4CUTs"
Regardless of make or even model, if you change the color of the paint color of a U4CUT it gets real difficult to tell them apart even from a few feet away.

One big difference really is invisible. It's that HST+ transmission you just mentioned that Kubota has. Even though the transmission doesn't show, it is different. Very simple, and no other make has anything like it. Hydrostat Plus (HST+) is basically just a heavy duty 3 range Hydrostatic drive that works through a solenoid-actuated 2 speed rear axle. Giving a total 6 speeds F&R. We have one on our Kubota. When we bought that tractor it was a new feature and I didn't really know what it was. But I liked the rest of the tractor so I just shrugged as I signed the paperwork and said, "Sure, give it the HST+....whatever that is...." And it turns out to be terrific.

The HST+ transmission goes a long way toward answering the old HST vs gear shift debate.

rScotty