Allis-Chalmers Cab "Looks Great" On New Holland Tractor

Allis-Chalmers Cab "Looks Great" On New Holland Tractor TRACTORS Cabs 22-5-29 "It's nothing fancy, but it protects me from the weather and cost far less to install than a factory cab," says Alvin VanValkenburg, who mounted a used cab designed for an Allis Chalmers tractor on his 1998 New Holland 1720 tractor. He bought the New Holland tractor with-out a cab because the company wanted $5,200 to install one. Instead he bought a used cab made by the Xcel Co. at a sale for $300. The cab frame was all bolted together including the two sides, top, rear, and front. After making some measurements, he found that the cab was 1 ft. too long for the New Holland tractor. He took it to a fabricating shop which cut 1 ft. off the front part of the cab and welded it back together. The original left side window was too big so he moved it to the rear. The window is hinged on one side. The roof had a set of blowers on it which he removed. He had a tinsmith make door and window frames for the left side of the cab, then cut plexiglass windows to fit inside them. He used angle iron and sheet metal to fill in 9 in. on each side at the back of the cab where he installed two amber lights. He also installed a pair of amber lights on front. He used galvanized 28 ga. sheet metal to fill in the front part of the cab (where it meets the tractor hood) and filled in with silicone caulking. He mounted windshield wipers on both the front and rear of the cab. And he installed two side-mounted, lift-assist door handles from New Holland. The cab came equipped with a rollbar, which he left on, and with three steps, two of which he removed. He also fabricated a floor and bolted it to the platform in front of the seat. The last step was to sandblast the cab and paint it New Holland blue. "I'm happy with the way it turned out," says VanValkenburg, who made the conversion last summer. "It took me about 220 hours to complete it and about $1,800 in out-of-pocket expenses. I didn't have to make any modifications to the tractor at all. I looked at three or four other cab brands, but they all were welded together and by the time they were cut up there would've been nothing left. The man who sold me the cab was quite surprised - he had told me the cab wouldn't fit my tractor." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Alvin VanValkenburg, 4194 Airport Rd., Box 12, Longford Mills, Ontario, Canada L0K 1L0 (ph 705 326-2265).

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