Waaay up north, and you are up there; I know, I've been to Acadia NP many times, along with Nova Scotia and that longest bridge between the two provinces, I even have a Maine town named after me
, no really, I do.
My words....cab, cab, cab, cab, cab. Crap, have I said it enough? If not, CAB!
You are always more productive in climate extremes-cold or hot as it generally is for us here in the South.
The cab does not just nearly pay for itself by the time you add in increased productivity and resale-it pays plus a return. This obviously assumes you use the machine nearly year round-or a 85% climate usage factor.
Holycrap man (thanks Jr.!), CAB.
Short story as example. We just bought a small, brand new Komatsu PC35MR-3 earlier this year. Debated about cab or open, our larger machines are all cab as most are. I personally took this mini-ex into a cramped section of the woods to excavate for a utility electric service.
This is no lie, I had the doors/windows open in early fall, with the first scoop I hit a ground based yellow jacket nest. They came boiling out of there mad as h*ll. I saw them, stopped, closed the windows and doors, turned the AC on, and spent the next hour with yellow jackets swarming the machine while I excavated the primary electric service 42" deep.
Nice.
