I've been running open-station tractors all my life. Then I inherited my father-in-law's MF-135 which had part of a cab on it, just the front window, roof and rear window. Just that little bit of protection made me suddenly appreciate how uncomfortable an open-station tractor is in the weather extremes, especially when blowing snow.
Fast forward a few years to the point when my wife knew she was near retirement and decided to purchase a retirement gift for me (yeah, she's a real sweetie!). The gift came in the form of my first Kubota, a B7510 with heated Curtis cab, front-mounted blower, mowing deck, etc. Wow, I was in heaven!
Then I bought an open-station B7200 and rear-mount snow blower to keep things opened up at the airport. Ugh! The wind at the airport means I always wear at least 10% of everything that goes through that snow blower!
Then along came a really sweet low-time open-station B7510... sold the B7200 and ran the B7510 at the airport, all the while ingesting more than my fair share of snow. Holy smokes it's cold when the wind is howling, driving that snow through every little chink in your personal body armor!
When my father needed a tractor I took that B7510 and installed an excellent cab. Wow, talk about comfort. It has a fantastic heater, two-speed windshield wiper, great lights. I used it recently to clear Dad's half mile of driveway and had to take my coat off because I was too warm. And the cab provides excellent visibility - unlike with the Curtis cab, the Jodale-Perry cab allows me to see the front wheels.
All of these gyrations left me with no tractor at the airport, so I bought a high-time B2410 with B2550 front-mounted blower and a mowing deck. It also has a canopy. Mowing grass under the canopy was a real pleasure... Then came winter. Once again I'm getting more snow in every crook and cranny. Once again I find myself wishing I had a cab on that tractor but know it's not a possibility since the cab is too tall to go under the wing of my airplane, thus I'd have to move the tractor every time I move the airplane. In fact I've taken its non-folding ROPS and canopy off for this same reason, but will likely install a folding ROPS and mount the canopy to that for summer operations. Being out of the sun under the canopy is really nice and this tractor is a delight to use for mowing grass.
So... that leaves me with a pair of B7510's with heated cabs - LOVE those cabs! And a MF-135 with parts of a cab - that's a heck of a lot better than nothing. And a B2410 with no cab. Brrrrrrr - wish it had a cab!
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