http://flickr.com/photos/wsdot/2671894871/ Pretty nice dozer. I need a heated cab though or I quit.
ya we are very spoild these days,watching that made me think of when they would reverse the fan so you could get a little heat,or put an elephant trunk on there and call it good.
Hey, it's not as hard as it looks... Didn't someone else on here have a pic of another one plowing?
Cab!! I really don´t think we are very spoiled TODAY. In Europe we have had cabs on most machines, including dozers for over 40 years. I must say you Americans are real vikings! At least I wouldn´t want to have some dirt or debris thrown in my head by a fan.
well i have had the dirt and gravle thrown in my face,froze my butt off i'm thankfull for cabs,a/c,heaters,stereo,noise reduction compared to the old boys we have it very easy as far as operator comfort.i'm glad you have always had a cab :drinkup imho.
There goes an undercarriage. I hate pushing snow it takes several hrs off of the u/c. I have pushed snow on several occasions with an open cab and its not that bad as long as the wind is not blowing, generally the heat from the tranny and motor will keep you toasty.
I've said it once and I'll say it again, the generation that grew up with NO heat, cabs and creature comforts are still the toughest SOB's to walk the face of this earth. I for one agree that cabs are nice but you become to soft working in an "office" setting all day long. Really it all depends on what I"m doing, call me crazy but when I'm running the road grader plowing snow I ususually have th heat off or on VERY low, otherwise the windows keep fogging up. On a dozer, we have reversable fans on the 15's and with the side boards, they keep you quite warm. I look at the ol' timers and you see how they did what they did and I will say I look at both my grandpas and see the two toughest men I have ever known, and they didn't have no cabs. Trbo
Amen! Hi, Ez Turbo. Amen!
winter 63 my dad was snow clearing in 1963 when the UK had a bad winter with a D4C with no cab ,he had a small hammer with him to keep his donkey jacket from freezing solid , he has a news paper cutting with a picture ,i will see if i can scan it
Hi EZTRBO Picture this situation: An open or no cab, Mid winter, heavy wind, the cold rain is nearly vertical, it soon turns into sleet, well how long does an operator last in such a situation? And be productive? Well nobody in this country did, still the vikings are supposed to be our ancestors! Hjolli
Well if i want to be a smart *** about things I would comment that good operators are also smart enough to know it is not as productive to be out in those elements(no matter what the machine is) and wait until it does become fit. Quote from my dad, "working in the winter can take you twice as long to do a **** Poor job." I will say when a cab machine is around its nice to have and I will use it if the machine is the one needed for the job, no since freezing your tail off if you don't need to. However, I do know that my grandpa and uncle spent many days on the old TD-14A and 15B's plowing roads in near whiteout conditions. Grandpa talks bout how your eyelids were actually frozen open and it hurt to try to blink. And by god they toughed it out. Also spent many many days in sleet and snow trying to crush rock or work on frozen water pipes for farmers. Go take a look at the Diesel Gypsy's website, he has many wonderful photos and links to the early days of the ice roads, for the most part the dozer operators were in the open. For today, take a look at the KING of Obsolete, all open cab machines. For one more(not on machine), I spent 12 hours in nothing but carhart bibs, teeshirt, hooded sweatshirt and,regular socks, my hunting boots, hat(baseball style), jeans and gloves working on freeing a stuck milk truck while it was -15F with -40 windchill and snowing and spiting sleet. Got my face frostbit to hell but we all toughed it out and got the job done. We have argued on this before,cab or no cab, and there is no since tofight about it cause you have your own ideas and I have mine and I guess we could just agree to disagree. Sound fair enough? Trbo
wow, i did'nt think this thread was going to turn into an argument,for me the picture brought back some memories.
I'm old school, no doubt. I believe cabs are awesome if you have access to them, at the same time I have used rop type machines (977 Cat.exc...) that kept me plenty warm till the Michigan winter winds would blow extremely cold so that a reversed fan could help for sure. It's just a feel thing I have in an open cab situation that makes me SO much more comfortable in open enviroments. In extreme heat, yes AC makes life very good, but the cab feel on a 35 degree day makes me want to open the windows so as to get a better grip on whats happening all around me.
Hmmm. Looks like a nice beautiful day to be sitting on a dozer to me. Makes a huge difference when the sun is out. I have been out breaking trail with a jd 450 on a powerline @ -26C wasn,t too bad except for my hands keep freezing.
Give me the cab, every time. Iv'e spent many years on both, open farm tractors and machines as well as heated and air conditioned cabs. We don't have ice and snow here, so I can't relate to that, but we do have cold windy winters and hot summers. The biggest problem we have is wind and dust and with so much glass, machine cabs heat up very quickly so a/c is a must. But at the at the same time, on a nice spring day, there is nothing better than to open the windows or operate an open machine where you can smell the freshly turned soil and get a complete feel for what is going on around you. This reminds me, back in the seventies, all the farmers in this area still had open tractors pulling pto harvesters and even a lot of the self propelled headers (combines) had no cabs. The Waite Institute released a new high yielding barley suitable for malting (beer brewing) which really improved the productivity of this area. The problem was, this barley was as itchy as you could get, as bad as oats and it had little hairs that just got in everywhere and the more you sweated the worse it was, it would penetrate the pores of your skin. Some farmers broke out in quite serious rashes and others would put talcum powder all over them in the morning to try and help stop the itch. We would have given anything for a/c cabs in those days. Rn'R.
I will agree the cabs are nice and are easier on the operator, as well as more healthy. I do like those days when its hot as can be to have the ac turned on in the excavator and all closed up. But I feel like I just can't see as good as I could so usually end up with the doors all open, same with the dozers(wait a sec, have never ran a dozer with a closed cab). Its kind of one of the things, make do with what ya got. Trbo
One thing I have noticed, is in Michigian we seam to have a a much larger ammount of open station dozers, vs. enclosed machines. Untill recently a cabed dozer was a rarity, I guess we are just tougher in Michigian.............or just too cheap and dumb to know better???
Sweet Video
http://flickr.com/photos/wsdot/2674760554/in/set-72157605703374272/ That guy dosn't like Heaters either, door wide open...
http://flickr.com/photos/wsdot/26747...7605703374272/ I don't know what the purpose is here or other needs... ?? Just ass-uming that the purpose is to move the snow out to where a dozer or snow thrower can get to it, wouldn't it be more effective to have the machine down on the pavement and reach and pull instead of scoop and throw?
Well the blower can only blow 6ft of snow. I would have done what they were doing on the other side and used the snow cat to push it. Im not sure why they even have an excavator. Here is another one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY4I60TY4w4 Here is what they are doing on the other side of the road. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPoyAb2fWBE&feature=user
No cabs in Michigan. Hi, Dr Ernie. I heard it explained as being due to a lot of dumb, tight-fisted Swedish farmer stock, not smart enough to recognise the benefits and too tight to spend the money. Would that cover it?
Again, I ass-ume they know what they are doing and have their reasons for doing it that way. I don't know if there are rocks or walls or something else there that they need to be up high to be able to see/look for. I still think it would be more efficient to reach and pull and be done instead of reach, pull/scoop, swing, dump; moving the material (snow/ice in this case) twice the distance. I haven't been the boss to have to make the decisions about how to do it. I'm just doing some 'hmmmmm?'.
Deas Plant,* I think it has more to do with the German influance....
There is a guard rail and a couple shacks out there that are completely burried, seen in this pic. #1 WSDOT Communicator Bronlea Mishler stands on top of a restroom roof at Artist Point #2 I wonder if that sign is necessary. The road IS closed. #3 Tabletop mountain is in the upper left corner of the picture. You can also see the dozer and snowblower. And, standing in the foreground are Bill Joyce (on the left) and Rod Morgan (on the right). #4 Love that diesel smell in the morning. #5 We get to see this on a daily basis where I live and up in the mountains (where I live)