The maiden voyage

My new cab took its maiden voyage yesterday. It was glorious to blow snow from behind protective plastic. No wind. No icy needles of snow. No half-inch coating of snow on the insulated winter wear. Even with no heater it was just fine, but already I can identify at least one change I'll make when I can.

The sides are 20-mil clear marine vinyl. I close the left side with a hook and loop strip on the windshield post and on the vinyl. The right side is fixed closed. The change I will make? I can see already that I want to make some sort of door to enter and exit the cab. It will be wood frame, of course, and will exert less stress on the vinyl when I enter and exit in cold. By the way, the vinyl for the sides and top came from onlinefabricstore.net. Quite good prices. They didn't pay me to mention their name, by the way. I called and talked over my selection with a nice lady. The order arrived days ahead of schedule. She explained that fabric, like vinyl, is bought by the running measure, not the square measure. Who knew? Had I not called, my order would not have been right. My wife told me that, but I just had to call to verify. It was a very good experience dealing with OnlineFabriceStore.

The windshield and the rear shield are Lexan purchased locally. I was advised to use Lexan in case I ever wanted to wipe water droplets from it. I pondered putting a manual wiper on it but changed my mind. One bit of advice about buying Lexan. Don't give the vendor the size on the telephone. Go to the vendor with the size written legibly. Don't believe the vendor when he says he has the sizes right because he does this all the time. Mine were wrong, but we got it settled quite well when I had to return to the store to exchange it.

I mounted the Lexan loosely, with rabbeted and grooved wood strips. I had to allow for wiggling. This whole cab is mounted on the Rollover Protection System, which itself wiggles a bit. I thought of drilling oversized holes in the Lexan, but I didn't know how big to drill them to allow for play. Instead I did not drill the Lexan. The wood is rabbeted and grooved about a quarter-inch oversize. I mounted the strips so the Lexan will not fall out or collapse in, but has room to wiggle. I just had to play with it.

The vinyl top and sides are mounted to the wood frame with stainless steel screws, #8 x 1 1/4-inch, from woodcraft.com. I called there, too, to discuss my selection. I bought a hundred of the Kreg stainless screws for my exterior work, and used all except four of them. The guy, also very nice, very willingly measured the big head of the screen so that I would have an idea. I bought square-drive, round-headed screws. I love square-drive screws. My son introduced me to them, and now I hardly use Phillips head screws unless I have to or unless I want to get rid of some inventory.

The vinyl is loose a few inches on the bottom left side of the rear mount so I can reach out and crank the chute.

A quick note: I made sure to not drill any holes in any part of the tractor. I did not want to ruin the integrity of the Rollover Protection System nor the front-end loader.

In the next few days I'll mount a flashing yellow strobe light on the roof, and a white rear-pointing flood light. The white flood has a magnetic mount, but I don't know if it will suffice. I just may try to use the magnet rather than mounting it with screws someplace. The strobe light came from Tractor Supply. I cannot recall where the flood came from.

One thing I noticed on my first run. Sitting inside my cab seems to make the tractor louder. Maybe ear muffs, or stereo headphones will do the trick. It really isn't that loud, though, just different than sitting out in the open.

As for heat, I have read on the TractorByNet.com forum that people have used camp propane heaters. I'm reluctant to have open flame near so much vinyl. Also, I wasn't to anxious to cut into the tractor cooling system. I don't think I'll need heat, but if I do I'll look to get a 12-volt electric heater. I have seen at one of the big boxes store a heater that plugs into a lighter socket and sits on a car's dashboard to defrost the window. Maybe that would do. Without heat, however, I think I'll get less snow melting on the plastic, and will not have to jump out and squeegee it off.

The while wood strips you see in the pictures will get a coat of black paint, also. I couldn't coat them yesterday, since I just had to get this out in the snow for the first run.

Here are more pictures

For the past week, the cab project has been slow-going. The press of daily life has put it to the back burner for a few days.

I did get a coat of black paint on all the wood, and that does make it look a little better.

The 20-mil clear vinyl for the sides and the orange vinyl for the roof has arrived, as have the stainless screws I will use to fasten the vinyl to the exterior wood.

The Lexan front windshield and rear windscreen is on hand, and I got the rear one mounted. A consultant will be in tomorrow and we will talk about mounting the windshield. Its really an excuse to get a friend over to the shop for a visit.

In the meantime, I received a request for more pictures of the skeleton. These may be a help to others.

Building my own cab for my tractor

Last year I added a snowblower to my Kubota B2710 tractor. Its a good thing it wasn't a heavy snow winter because I tired of the snow blowing into my face no matter which way I pointed the chute. The ski mask helped, but I would rather not finish the driveway and have a half-inch of powdered snow caked on me.

This year is turning out the same, and I finally decided to get a cab so I could blow snow and remain relatively comfortable. Cabs cost from $2,000 to $4,000 for a soft cab. Hard cabs probably are more. I didn't even look. I decided to build one myself.

I saw some threads about building on the TractorByNet.com forum. All were pretty nice. One, particularly intriguing, was built with plastic pipe. I looked around the shop. No plastic pipe, but a bunch of wood. That's how I picked the material to use.

Some of those shown on the forum looked quite professionally done. From the outset I didn't think mine would look professionally done. I will settle for just getting me out of the wind, and I am sure after I am done there will be a lot of things I will want to change, or to have done differently. What I didn't want to do was drill any holes in the roll bar or in the support bar that is part of the front end loader. I used both of those pieces of original equipment to mount the frame, without drilling either of them.

I designed on the fly, and the cab has taken me more time than I like, but it will be worth it. Now that I have mostly built it, I know how I could have made it go much, much faster.

Here's the skeleton. I'll post other pictures as I progress and I'll offer some rough measurements.

After the trip

I do look forward to another trip. I don't know when. We want to go west, but are not sure we have time for it this summer. Bernie estimates we would need three months for that, but I think six weeks would do. It would be fun.

The traffic, although bad in several areas, is completely indescribable in Washington, on the Beltway. I have driven it many, many times and each time I am so extremely disappointed by the lack of driving manners. The sense of entitlement is even apparent in the driving habits of so many. So I just plopped the truck and Circus Wagon in the center of it all. They made room for me. Also, I did find several drivers who were extremely courteous and who blocked out some of the reckless pigs to let me change lanes. I made sure I thanked them with a vigorous wave.

I don't know why driving in the rain was so tiring. I am guessing the stress of moving fast with a lot of weight and facing the prospect of a sudden stop caused, again, by other's bad driving practices. I slowed way down, 45 in hard rain. I turned on flashers and was going to slow even further as visibility got very bad, but at just that moment the rain eased and I could see.

I always drive slowly in a rain storm, trailer or not, yet an array of stupid people were passing me at 65 or more in the blind. That made me slow down because I was certain I was going to drive into a chain reaction accident.

On those heavy rain days I made sure to stop at a rest stop or truck stop and relax in the trailer, crawl up onto the bed for an hour nap after lunch. It was great. And the rain would stop.

Our last day from D.C. to home was one long drive. I have no idea why I didn't stop for the fun of it. We had lunch at the Pilot truck stop in Breezewood, PA, and moved on. The Pilot was not that good. Next time we will return to our favorite truck stop there, the Gateway restaurant.

Maybe it was because that was my first long over-the-road trip with an RV, but I watched everything. I normally drive quite defensively, but more so this trip. I generally don't relax completely while driving, and on this trip I think I was even more alert because of pulling several thousand pounds of trailer behind me.

That doesn't mean that I was in a death grip on the steering wheel. I had plenty of opportunities to watch the passing countryside.

What did cross my mind, though, is the question of how tractor-trailer drivers do this day after day. With all the amateurs on the road, I don't know how truckers don't end up crazy.

It was a good trip, and stopping at campgrounds was nice. I discovered I like to stay put for a few days rather than drive day in and day out. We did a mix of that. I look forward to finding a nice state park and staying for three days or so before moving on, even if we do absolutely nothing except read for those three days. I think that is the fun of having an RV.

The trip home

Our route home yesterday took us across the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I had never minded traveling the turnpike, and I know I was in the minority.

The turnpike commission cured me during yesterday's trip. The highway is an embarrassment. The surface in many, many areas is unbearable to drive. I admit a bias here because the unevenness of the road causes an unpleasant harmonic effect between the trailer and the truck. I recall, though, when I drove this road without the trailer other sections caused harmonic bouncing in our Jeep SUV. (By the way, to experience an even worse highway, try I-86 in Western New York. It is truly dangerous because of the poor pavement. It's nice to know there is someplace worse.)

The Pennsylvania Turnpike has areas that seem to be meant to pull over for a short period, like during heavy rain and reduced visibility. You cannot use it because there are no signs that indicate a wide spot is approaching, and by the time you see the parking area, you've passed it.

That thought, of course, leads to another about driving safety. There are no rest stops on the turnpike. The only spots are the gasoline stops, which, of course, are spaced too far apart if all you want is a spot to rest your eyes a few minutes.

When we passed the gasoline stops, though, I noticed that the prices were not exorbitant as you find on so many limited access highways and turnpikes. I suspect the turnpike commission has something to do with that, and that is good.

The bottom line, though, is that it appears the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has not invested a cent in the highway in decades. There has been a lot of work on the road, I know, but the western portion, at least, is a terrible experience. This is disappointing.

As a young boy, maybe I was five years old, I remember my father taking me to watch the turnpike being built near Koppel, PA. I have always been proud of it, with that fond boyhood memory of my vibrant dad holding me up to watch the big dump trucks and scrapers.

After all these years, the turnpike commission has disappointed me.

It's time

I am ready for home. I am enjoying this being on the road, but it's time to move on. 

We had planned to go home by Tuesday, and that makes it time. 

You know when something is in your head, it's time.

The emperor was naked

We just got back after a long, overcast day downtown D.C. We went to an art exhibit at the American Indian Museum. I like the museum, but the exhibit showed me that the emperor was naked. Even though, Bernie and I enjoyed ourselves.

It's nice to come back to the RV. It's like coming home every night. We camped in Lake Fairfax campground. It is a Fairfax County, VA, campground, and we recommend it highly. It is remote and yet it's in the middle of a megalopolis. The only camping connection is electric, so you have to use your on-board tanks. Quiet, green and so relaxing.

We've had a wonderful stay with Bernie's sister in Reston and her Washington brother, but we will be packing up soon and heading into Pennsylvania. I don't know whether we'll make it all the way home, or be slowed by storms and have to stay out another night.