To CAB or NOT

[mikennh]

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

This cab saved my life.. That's a good enough for me. I would have been crushed to death with just a ROPS tractor.

 

[BeeFarmer]

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

Two things, yellow jackets & cold.

 

[nepa]

The cab is great in winter but, any other time when outside temps are 50 or higher I must run the a/c or I cook in the cab. I would not recommend a cab without ac.

 

[WinterDeere]

I hit a ground nest with my open station and got nailed twice by hornets before I realized what was happening. Then I got my cabbed tractor and hit another ground nest. “Hey, look at all those hornets on the other side of the glass”. It’s a good argument

The only time I've ever been stung by hornets on a tractor was inside my buddy's old cabbed Case backhoe. Hornets love to build nests in that damn cab, every summer. It may be not as tight as modern cabs, I suspect.

 

[WinterDeere]

This cab saved my life.. That's a good enough for me. I would have been crushed to death with just a ROPS tractor.

Will most modern cabs actually take a life-ending hit, without just disintegrating? I thought that other than the integrated ROPS in the rear of the cab, most were just Lexan and plastic?

 

[Jlillie2]

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

Honestly, I would never buy a tractor with out one again. There is something to be said for being comfortable. In any weather conditions.
The cabs are always more expensive to add on later, and they are never as nice as a factory setup. Trust me, I've done that twice already.Bite the bullet, and get the cab, its less expensive in the long run.
Also, I take my tractor in the woods all the time, and never once damaged the cab, but them again, I'm not using the windshield like its a friggin' skidder. Go around things, or bring a saw and make a path.

 

[troverman]

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.

Lucky you. I've run into problems with bees many times on open tractors. Nothing like operating on a steep hillside which demands constant attention and having yellow jackets landing on the steering wheel, instrument panel, and your neck. Yellow jacket worker bees die in the fall when cold weather sets in. They are very aggressive on warm fall days. I bumped a bald faced hornet nest hanging in brush at a treeline I was mowing with an open tractor. Got stung a lot and ran. Those hornets were still all over the tractor an hour later. I've hit bees nests mowing with my cab tractors too, and it feels pretty good for them to be bouncing angrily all over the machine trying to find a way in.

This cab saved my life.. That's a good enough for me. I would have been crushed to death with just a ROPS tractor.

Why don't you think the ROPS would have protected you in the same manner? It would have stopped the tractor from rolling over and if you were seatbelted in, you likely would have been fine. Worst thing that happens on open machines is if your feet hang off the platform they can get crushed; cabs tend to keep all body parts inside. Anyway, glad you were OK!

Will most modern cabs actually take a life-ending hit, without just disintegrating? I thought that other than the integrated ROPS in the rear of the cab, most were just Lexan and plastic?

Modern cabs have plastic roofs but all glass and steel pillars.

 

[troverman]

I prefer the cab 90% of the time, mostly for bees and not breathing dust. Also good to keep a little warmer and cooler depending on need. I find tractor heat to be quite adequate once the engine warms up. A/C however is often lacking if you are running at full PTO speed for hours on end on a hot and sunny day. Once the radiator and condenser screens get plugged up with chaff, your A/C will get warm and you need to shut the machine down and clean them out. Battery powered blower works decent, but after a few times you need to use water to clean the cooling stacks. Lots of guys tint their cab windows which helps, except at night when you can't see.
It's also nice to have a locking, waterproof cab where you can leave stuff.
That said, I've broken the amber lollipop lights on the cab, broke a work light, and scraped up the plastic roof. Open tractor definitely has better visibility.

 

[mra400ex]

Two things, yellow jackets & cold.

You bet, Why I got mine. Once you come across yellow Jackets while bush hogging in a cab tractor , it is fun to fire them up with the bush hog over the hole for a while. Cab glass was covered and they were mad

 

[The Lazy Dog]

Go with a cab. I started with an open station. Purchased a front-mount JD snow blower. In most conditions the snow would blow right back and I would be coated in a fine layer of snow. I would end of freezing cold and still had hours of driveways to clear. It’s pretty miserable. Purchased a new JD 3520 with a deluxe cab before the next snow season. No regrets. I’m warm, wearing a sweatshirt, listening to my music. Caught a 32” blizzard a few years later, headed out as the storm was winding down and spent 10 hours driving around and being flagged down. Made over $1000 in those 10 hours. Wasn’t going to do that in an open station tractor (supposed you could but you may as well dress as if you were going out on a snow mobile.
I mowed with the same tractor for the next 10 years. Nobody is going to complain about mowing on a 95° day with the AC on and not eating dust.
As we all get older a little well-earned comfort is not a bad thing.

 

[blacktruck]

I'll throw my $0.02 in here.
I can easily understand both sides of this argument having ran a lot of both types of machines. For me at the present time, I am a no cab type. I spend my days in an office driving a computer for days on end so the opportunity to get out of the office chair and into or onto a tractor or some type of equipment is more than just a change off scenery. I enjoy being outside and taking a bit of whatever is happening just to know that I am doing something I enjoy and not in some far away land. One of these days, i am sure I will get one with a cab, but not yet. I even enjoy moving snow when the opportunity arrives.

 

[Bison]

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 drove open station tractors for the first 30 years of my life. After i experienced a cab i have only had cabbed tractors since, I am 74 now.No more wind wet or cold. Just keep your eyes peeled for branches when you're close to trees.

PS, if you feel your age already at 42 then maybe a rocking chair is a better buy for you.lol

 

[kthompson]

I am now 70. Living about 20 miles west of Myrtle Beach SC. So my northern friends will say how warm our winters are and I will say how cold they are. But how hot it is here is as much of an issue as how cold it gets. The rain. blowing sand, insects and more insects, I will take the cab. My last two tractors were/are cab. One large farming tractor JD and one a L6060 kubota. The L cab is much tighter than I would like, like the room of the JD 4000 series better but no side windows to open turned me off.

In addition to the weather and insects is spraying chemicals. Soon or later a hose will burst or pull off or such and even it that never happens just the wind drift will hit open cab. I still have two open cab tractors and use them. But give me the cab. And if you end up wanting to sell, cab will be easier to sell based upon my experience.

On a cab tractor especially be sure the front end is protected from limbs especially being in the woods and with a grapple. The coolers up front are several and costly.

 

[Paul McILwain]

Have two cabbed tractors and one os. Grew up with os tractor and still enjoy the open feeling however the os tractor rarely comes out in the winter. I sure like the cabbed tractor for all the reasons mentioned and will add one small plus for the cab. In haying season quite often I can’t get the hay delivered soon enough and have to store it in the shed leaving no room for two of the tractors. Don’t mind leaving the cabbed tractors out for a few days but the os tractor stays in out of the rain

 

[rcooley4]

I made this video for a friend of mine that was trying to make the same decision. It's now been several years since he bought his cab tractor and has been very happy with it!

 

[WinterDeere]

I made this video for a friend of mine that was trying to make the same decision. It's now been several years since he bought his cab tractor and has been very happy with it!

lol... love the "backup to my backup cold beer."

I suffer from the berries down the shirt and stained seat of my paints when mowing, as well. But I'm mowing with a zero turn.

 

[MROlson86]

I have both. My cab does not have A/C but fans for cooling and keeping the glass clear in cold weather. The cab is convenient for controls, lighting, FEL, strobe, front and rear lighting. And you do stay cleaner. Entering and exiting isn’t a problem.

 

[Zetorboy]

And an advantage of the cab is security, ijf you don’t have a roll bar on an open one.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I'm very thankful for my cab, with both a/c and heat. We get pretty extreme cold temps (most) in winters, but it also gets hot in summer. We are blessed with an expected operating range of -45F in winter (no windchill b.s.) and also +100F in summer (that's true ambient air temps, none of this lying "heat index" horse crap). Having the ability to change the temps of the operating station across that wide a temp range is a blessing. Not to mention keeping the bugs (both angry and benign), dust, pollen, rain, snow, ice at bay for extended periods of time.

When I was a boy, I grew up on a small farm in what has now been totally devoured by the city of Phoenix, AZ (it was farms in the 60's). Then, I had never even seen a cabbed tractor-anything. All we knew was open stations, so that's what we had. "Heat Index" hadn't been invented yet, so we just farmed that way because we didn't know any better. I don't think I saw my first cabbed tractor until a family trip to Missouri in the early 70's.

So I've certainly spent time on both kinds. I will gladly take my cabbed tractor now.

 

[bdhsfz6]

The cab is great in winter but, any other time when outside temps are 50 or higher I must run the a/c or I cook in the cab. I would not recommend a cab without ac.

I bought this cheap 12V fan for my Kubota cab:

12 Volt DC 2 Speed Dash Cab Fan KDF12 | DC Fans | Blowers & Fans | Electrical | www.surpluscenter.com

12 Volt DC 2 Speed Dash Cab Fan KDF12, DC Fans, 12 VDC CAB FAN Brand new, Two speed cab fan. Metal mounting base with swivel ball joint to positionKDF12 ,

www.surpluscenter.com

I made a mount that fits in the cup holder. With the windows open, it pulls in cooler outside air. It works well in temps up to 70F or so. Keeps me from having to use the A/C until it gets hot out.