Kubota L3010 Shadlicker (homemade) Cab

I have a Kubota L3010 tractor I've had for about 10 years. I use a front blower in the winter to do my driveway and a few neighbors' drives. Last year I contracted out to do snow removal for an association in my neighborhood. By about Jan. 1 of last year I had decided I really wanted a cab. Unfortunately, the Curtis model for my tractor had been discontinued and the Sims model was about $3,000 by the time you added safety glass, wiper, heater, work lights, etc...well out of my budget. I found some cheesy canvas type cabs online, but to get anything with a wiper (which is necessary) the cheapest I could find was about $1,800 and it looked really cheap (a universal fit type deal).

Around Thanksgiving this year, I decided I should just build one. I did a little research and found 3 or 4 guys on here and another site that had built some nice looking cabs out of plywood. Since I have no experience with metal or welding, Plywood was my choice! I modeled my cab as kind of a hybrid of what I had seen on here and how the curtis cabs function. I finished up last night, and I'm pretty darn happy with the outcome. I've not yet pulled the final tally, but I'm well under $1,000 and I'm hoping under $600. The main expenses were the front glass ($60) the plexi for sides and back ($140) the windshield wiper ($50) the heater ($45) and the epoxy and paint ($100)

I started with the main structure...this I based on the Curtis Cab...Front, roof and rear are one piece, then the left side and right side door mount on. Due to the hydraulics I had to make my front into two pieces. So...the entire cab comes apart into four pieces (front base, winshield-roof-rear panel, door for the right side and matching panel for the left) and can come off in about 15 minutes and be re-installed in about 30. The main structure is 5/8 plywood, the sides are 3/8 reinforced with 5/8 and the roof is a double layer of 1/4" laminated with West System Epoxy. The entire exterior of the cab got a heavy coat of west system epoxy (double on the high weather areas, triple on the roof) then two coats of oil base. I ran out of epoxy so the interior didn't get that, but should be well protected. Front windshield is 1/4" safety glass, side windows are 1/4 plexi and rear is 1/8 plexi. I've mounted a switch plate with five switches (strobe light, front flood, rear flood, wiper and heater). I have a universal Jeep style windshield wiper and a small electric heater with good fan to keep the windshield clear. I'm curious to see how well the heater works...it did well on my test drive, but it was like high 30's out.

Anyway, I thought I'd post some pics and maybe help someone else out who's trying to do something similar. This was actually easier than I expected, but much more time consuming. I just wish I had built this about 8 years ago!