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Winter's coming, time to build a cab...

7K views 44 replies 17 participants last post by  POENY 
#1 · (Edited)
I use my old Murray GT to plow the driveway in the winter. I bought it on the cheap for 200 bucks. Didn't run, missing the deck, etc. But the engine rotated by hand (and would stop up against it's compression) and the transmission shifted through all it's gear. The deck I didn't care about, I've got a separate ride on for mowing grass. This was meant to be a "yard donkey" and the peerless 820 was one of the "clinchers", seeing as it was rated as a "ground engaging" transmission. A couple bucks (needed a solenoid) and a little work (carb rebuild) had it running just fine again.

I have a walk behind snow blower (and it's power everything, including steering) and while it's easy to use, I broke my back many years ago doing a Medivac off a bulk carrier 250-odd miles out to sea (used to fly helicopter SAR). So walking is hit or miss for me. Before the tractor, there were a couple times where I actually had to use the snowblower to drag me back to the front door as my back would just completely go out.

The old Murray was bought to be built into a yard tool to do things I can no longer do (like dig, push a wheelbarrow, etc) and plowing snow is one of those things. Here's a pic of the bucket I built for it:



That was a "scrounge" build. Winch to lift it, manual dump latch, a couple electric joysticks and the back of the bucket is actually an old snow plow blade. Cost around a couple hundred bucks all said and done. Most of that was the cost of the winch. Here it is earning it's keep:







Yep, works just fine and probably not much of an exaggeration to say it's saved my life a couple times. Or at least saved me a boat load of money, since I didn't have to hire someone to do stuff for me.

Here is the same bucket in "plow mode":





Last year, when it came to snow plowing, I just bundled up and wore my old full face motorcycle helmet. Looked a bit strange maybe, but I was warm and didn't have to worry about shielding my eyes from driving wind and snow. But all bundled up, it made it even harder to move and twist to see around and behind the tractor.

So a cab is in order to make my life a little easier. Being retired (forced out due to medical issues) I don't have a ton of disposable cash laying around. Anything "ready made" is just silly priced. Even soft cabs (which look like cheap conduit and a big plastic bag) are overpriced (for what you get) in my opinion.

So, it's going to be a scrounge build".

Fall cleanup turns up and old weight bench, which provides plenty of steel for the frame. Now, glass.What am I going to do for glass?

Checking the price of plexi reveals it's stupid expensive compared to the last time I went shopping for some. Enough plexi to do the whole cab is going to run somewhere up into the 600-700-800 dollar range. Yeesh, that's ridiculous. Plus, a plexi windshield is going to haze, scratch and just generally not hold up very well.

I remember there's a guy down the road who sells old windows......cheap. I drop in and 25 bucks later I'm headed home with two aluminum screen doors and a couple single pane pieces of glass. I weld up the frame from the weight bench steel and take the screen doors apart.

I try cutting the single pane glass to fit. Well, long story short, it all ended up in a little box,in pieces no bigger than a few inches. I check the glass from the doors and it's tempered. No cutting that, so it has to fit "as is" or not at all. A little work and I've got the channels off the aluminum and bolted to the frame, then the glass slides right in:



Ok, front is done and it's real glass!

On to the back:



Same deal: weld up a frame and drop in a piece of tempered glass.

Doors, what to do for doors?

Well, hook up the spool gun to the MIG, cut some bits and:





The doors provide the front and rear glass, the frames for the doors, the hinges and the latches. Not too bad for 25 bucks. The aluminum is a bit of a fight with the MIG. The Lincoln wants to either not weld it or blow right through. Would be soooo much easier if I had a TIG, but sometimes you have to work with what you've got.

Then I start filling in the rest of the openings:







Coming along nicely. I'm in the home stretch now. All I have left is to make the rear 1/4 windows, the roof (just using plywood), and some small bits like the door latches, etc.

Once it's done, I'll probably hit it all with some Tremclad "fire red" (Canadian version of Rustolium) to tie it all together a bit better.

Unfortunately, the cost is up to just a tick over 400 bucks(before paint). I had no choice but to buy some plexi for the doors and other places. 375of that400is just the plexiglass. I decided that glass wasn't a good option for the doors since I didn't want something that might shatter if the door swings, slams or just generally bends/twists over rough ground.

Starting to plan for some cabin heat now. Being and old B&S opposed twin, there's no coolant to use in a heater core. I'm not a big fan of using an "exhaust heater" (known as a "Heater Muff" in light aircraft) due to the possibility of force feeding CO directly into the cab with me. I'm thinking I'll add a small "duct port" to the engine shroud around the LH cylinder. It should steal some of the air being used to cool the cylinder and since it's on the opposite side of the exhaust pipe and the engine cooling fan draws air in from the opening in the hood,I should be fairly safe from CO intrusion. I need to think a bit more on that one.

There will be a couple small 12V fans to help keep the windows clear and probably some type of manual wiper somewhere down the road....
 
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#5 ·
Cool! Nice work for sure! I love doing stuff like that when i have time. I don't have the money and don't like to spend the money on "factory" stuff if I don't have to.
 
#7 ·
Gettin’ there:




Door latches are on, roof is on, installed two high mounted flood lights and built a diamond plate visor. The visor serves a double purpose in that it covers the open space above the windshield glass (well, it looks kinda neat too!).

Tomorrow, I’ll build some “gutters” for the sides and maybe get it all into a fresh coat of red paint.

Then it’s just some small details like wiring up a couple fans and some foam strips to seal up the doors.

:)
 
#8 ·
Looks great!

Did you buy the diamond plate? If not, what was the source of that?

Sorry to hear about your injury. Thanks for your service!

Mike
 
#10 ·
Now THAT is cool!

Mike
 
#12 · (Edited)
Nah, it can be made to work, but skid steer (in an Argo) sucks for close in work. You wouldn't think so, but since it pivots at it's center, the nose and tail swing pretty far and pretty fast when trying to turn. It's also nearly impossible to do small movements and close in work. Plowing with the Argo woudl be a good way to whack the house (or something else) when plowing. Steering tires on teh front of the tractor works much better for snow plowing.

Besides, it gets tracks for winter:



That's an older pic.

It mostly handles snowmobile recovery duty (do the same for ATV's in summer) in the winter for some of my friends who, ah.....like to push thier......ummm....."limits".LOL!

Nowhere a snowmobile can go that my Argo can't....and the Argo can drag 'em back no problems. Heck, the Argo woudl probably be able to drag a snowmobile out of the woods even if it was upside-down......;)
 
#15 ·
I really couldn't justify owning one of those, but I feel like I want one anyways!!!

Mike
 
#18 ·
That's awesome. yes I can imagine it would be a bit to handle at higher speeds with no suspension.
 
#19 · (Edited)
First coat of paint:



The side windows look “hazy” because they still have their protective shipping coating. Once I’m done painting, I’ll peel it all off for the last time I didn’t see much sense in pulling it all off before paint and then having to go back and tape it all off.

If you look closely, you’ll see there’s a “brow” on the front and back. They're not there as sun shades, they’re there to stop snow from blowing into the cab. I left about a 2-3 inch opening above the front and rear window in order to let air out and help alliviate “fogging” issues. If it becomes a problem with wind and/or cold getting in, I’ll just make a hinged flap I can open and close for them. The “brow” on the sides just extends the roof out past the door tops and cab side so any melt drips off and goes right to ground instead of finding its way inside.

What you can’t see is the adjustable rubber stops I added to each door so they don’t bang around and the bungee cords that keep the door from swingjng wide open in the wind and afford a little bit of a “self closing” feature.

Not bad for a bunch of “cast off” stuff. Not too bad at all!

:)
 
#20 ·
Looks a lot better than "not bad" I'd say!!!

Mike
 
#25 · (Edited)
If you mean “remove the cab”, you’re right! Lol!

It’s easy enough: 2 bolts and two pins and the rear drops off, 4 bolts and the front lifts off. Then it’s open air motoring.

Or: drop the rear, pop the doors off and I can even slide out the front window if I want. That would make it wide open, but keeps the roof as a sun shade.

Easy peasy!

;)
 
#27 · (Edited)
Took a little time today and added a “backup camera”:







Nice! Now I won’t have to try and twist my broken back and neck around to see behind the tractor when plowing.

The “lane lines” are internal to the camera itself. They look a little messed up because instead of it pointing out the back, I have it pointing straight down so I can get an accurate view of the distance to whatever I’m backing up towards.

It’s all Surplus bits I had lying around. The camera and monitor are ebay pieces I picked up years ago for a song and have been lying around ever since. Seems like a good way to finally get them off my parts shelves!

:)
 
#28 ·
There we go, windshield defrosting/defogging:




It does both heat and fan, but it’s mostly just for a fan. 12v heaters burn up a lot of power and don’t produce much heat.

I put it on the “flex mount” so I can point it at a side window if needed. If I really need to get it close, the on/off switch is on a handle that folds out and I can take it off the mount to point it (like a hair dryer) right where I want it.

Next up: figuring out a cabin heater...;)
 
#29 ·
Loving all of the gadgets. When you need to add a switch bank, you know it's serious!

Mike
 
#30 · (Edited)
Time to rig up some HEAT.

But being an air cooled engine meant I needed to figure out a creative solution. I wanted to stay away from the exhaust piping (CO concerns), so I went for cyl head heat instead:







Don’t mind the messy looking spot welds. The metal I used is very thin and hard to mig properly. Once fully welded, I’ll hit it with a flap wheel to smooth it out and then a shot of gloss black will make it look spiffy!

;)

The pictures don’t really tell the tale of whats happening in there very well. I made a new sheet metal shroud for underneath the LH cylinder. That will capture some of the cooling air from the engine fan.

The part you see with the hose clamp on it is actually a fan housing. I took a 12v motor with a fan on it, split a section of exhaust pipe in half, made a “spider” to hold the motor in the middle of the pipe, slit the top piece for clearance and clamped it back together.

The lower half is welded to the shroud and the upper half has a brace to the top engine shroud. A simple “on/off” switch will control the motor. If the fan motor ever packs it in, all I have to do is loosen the hose clamp, pull the top of the housing off and slip in another 12 motor.

For ducting, I took an old shop vac hose and the part that would have gone into the shop vac body fit the fan housing ID perfectly. Then I ran the hose out through the steering pylon into the cab area. All I have to do is put a round port on the access panel and connect the hose to the port. Eventually, I’ll put a postion-able/closeable louver over the hole, mostly so I can close it off in summer. I expect a little airflow through the hose, but turning the fan on will give me a quick charge of warm air and then turn the fan off when I’m feeling warm enough.

To be clear: the “heater” isn’t meant to make it “t-shirt” temperature in the cab, just raise the internal temps a few degrees to help with the window fogging and just a tiny bit of heat/comfort to take the bite off the cold inside the cab.

:)
 
#31 ·
I'm so confused. How do you draw in head cooling air without exhaust?

Mike
 
#32 ·
The exhaust points out the RH side, under the engine deck and rotated to about 45 degrees rearward. The air from the LH cylinder is on the opposite side and above the engine deck. The area I’m taking heated air from is a good 3-4 feet away from the exhaust pipe opening.

The engine fan is also blowing fresh air down over the cylinder head from the intake “louvers” in the hood. Thats the air I’m using to “steal” some engine heat.

Minimal chance of any CO making it into the cab. At least from the heater system it’s minimal. CO just finding it’s way into the cab on it’s own is a different story...
 
#33 ·
Ok
 
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