Cozy cab heat?
 

I have a cozy cab on a cub 1250. I need heat in it. I wont do electric because they wont keep up, and using propane is not safe. My 2 ideas are wrapping the muffler with 5/8" copper tubing, cover the tubing with sheet metal, running the tubing to just outside the engine cover and running heater hoses to a atv radiator in the cab. From there the fan will blow the heat to the windshield. The other option is running a 3" duct from the front of the engine to a fan that will suck and blow the air into the cab. Any ideas?

I like the duct from the front of the engine to the cab option better.

Eat beans the day before.:biggrin2:
There is a discussion here on the issue of heating a cab.

http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=29182

I'm just wondering if the muffler would heat the coolant hot enough to heat the cab.

I don't know how safe it would be to duct air from the front of the engine into the cab. If you have a leaky exhaust or head gasket you might end up piping carbon monoxide into your cab.

Exactly my concern. I think that would be a bad idea.

Do you think the muffler would get hot enough to heat antifreeze in coiled copper run to a heater core?

I think it would. Maybe not HOT, but it wouldn't be COLD.

I'm thinking the muffler gets at least 300 degrees, wrap coiled copper around that and another shield over that, regulate the flow through it and i would think it would absorb plenty of heat.

Take lots of pics! Keep us posted....

:popcorn:

If you have any welder friends, they might have heat sticks. They are "crayons" that melt at a specific heat. That would help in knowing what temperature you're working with.

Here's what I'm talking about
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Welding-Temp...item27b79ef367

For safety sake, I hope that you do not opt for the duct work and exhaust....not a healthy option (besides, you will be "exhausted" in a short while). Why not just invest (about $50+...depending on what you want) in a set of coveralls or the like. I plowed on my 73 with them without a cab for about an hour and never got cold in 12* temps today.

If you really want to run ducts, then you could route them from the head with a clip on fan in the cab to pull the warmer air inside (but if your head gasket is leaking, this isn't any better of an option). Eager to see what you come up with!

Cub Cadet 123

A guy in my area just died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Not tractor related but makes me think that ducting air from the exhaust area is a real bad idea. It seems that every winter several people die this way usually running generators or heaters. Carbon monoxide is evil stuff

My concerns would relate to those already listed.:bigthink:

Fooling around with exhaust is not worth the possibility of something going wrong? As mentioned; a head gasket starts leaking? It wouldn't take long to get sick from carbon monoxide fumes, & you wouldn't know it at the time.

IMO! Dress properly.

Buy a pair if Carhart overalls & be done with it. Wear a full face covering for the your head. I'm toasty as can be as I was plowing yesterday except for my hands. Looking into investing in battery operated gloves for a little heat. Old injuries, broken knuckles, fingers are taking their toll in blood circulation as I get older & older. :bash2::bash2:

NIK,

Or? Look into some ice fishing shanty heat? They've got small one man heaters for dem'dere shanty s that work quite well. Small propane bottles that last at least 2/3 hrs..???????

Propane heater produces carbon monoxide also.
Virtually nothing that burns fossil fuel does not produce carbon monoxide.
You have to have 100% combustion which is very hard to achieve.
http://www.propane101.com/carbonmonoxideandpropane.htm

Why not try the duct work from the engine and spend $25 for a battery operated carbon monoxide detector for inside the cab?

With the detector, you can safeguard yourself which ever way you go.

You could also use the detector to see if there is exhaust/CO leaking into the engine area before you go with the duct. Just place the CO detector in there somewhere and then close it off as much as possible with whatever.

Wrapping the muffler with tubing............how does the fluid get circulated?
A 12V electric pump?

What about an electric heater in the cab (hear me out first)?
use a cigarett lighter one that you are comfortable with the load draw, but preheat the cab with a standard indoor heater before you go to use it.

Your radiator idea is interesting, and would certianly pull some heat, but that could
Whatever you do, NO NOT pull off engine heat, way to easy to CO poison yourself inside a cab.

That said...Cub Cadet 123 and Nickster are right...dress warm enough. No matter how you try to heat your cab, you will not get great heat distribution, your feet wil always be cold, or something.

I agree, piping anything from the engine compartment has so many possibilities of something going wrong (dead wrong)! Your in a cab out of the eliments, dress appropriately and I bet the biggest problem you will have is the windows fogging up from the heat YOU produce. If anything you will need a fan to move the air around and help prevent the windows from fogging up. Check out the guys that have cabs on here already, see what their set ups are and ask them what, if any issues they have using them. Unless your working in t-shirt and shorts, you don't need heat in your cab. If you don't like the electric route and you can't heat it with a normal cab heating system using coolant (which you won't have on an older Cub) - dress warm. I don't believe your traveling to the North Pole to do snow removal with your Cub are you?

Think safety, its your life.
Just my :TwoCents: Not out to offend anyone, just rather talk to you, not about you after seeing your obituary in the paper.

Hmmm.....not 100% sure of this, but it seems like I heard once that if you don't want your windshield to fog up, then you can smear some toothpaste--Crest or Colgate (forget which one it was) on the window and then wipe it off with dry towels. I'm not for sure where I heard that, but it seems like I was reading somewhere about tractor "tricks", like if you are storing your cub over the winter in a barn or garage and you want to keep the mice from nesting, then take a netted potato sack and fill it full of onions and moth balls. Then place it on the top of the engine, but just don't forget to remove it before starting your cub!

Anyone else ever hear of either one of these.....maybe I'm just imagining it. :bigthink:

Cub Cadet 123

Foggy windows:
wipe down with Rain-X.

Ok, I have to say it.
I think you guys who are worried about a leaking head gasket and carbon monoxide are nuts. I have spent way too many hours in a fully enclosed cab with a heat-houser to think it was a concern. They made enclosed cabs for tractors that also had canvas that wrapped around the engine and pushed the air from the cooling fan across the engine and into the cab. The cab wasn't air tight enough to worry about. Neither is the cab on the cubs. You can see daylight in big gaps around most of the edges. Besides, most of them have a window, and I usually end up getting out every so often. It's not an air tight cab like on a car! As far as propane heat and CO is concerned, I LIVE in a house that only has a vent-less heater in it. We use propane. Other than some electric heaters it's all we have. CO detectors in the house and we are good. There is no way either of these two options would ever get enough CO into that cab to even make you sleepy. Besides, if you had an exhaust leak of any kind, as rich as these air cooled engines have to run, your nose and eyes would be burning so bad you wouldn't be able to handle it before CO ever got bad enough to make you pass out. Just my :TwoCents: But a little common sense goes a long way on this one. If you feel sleepy, or light headed... OPEN THE DOOR OR THE WINDOW! I'd heat my cab with either of these two methods and never think twice about CO.

End of rant.

Attachment 45875

I was remembering the guy who built his cab 100% custom. He planned heat long before he scored the diesel engine. I don't know how well it works but here's the thread...

http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=20797

I was going to say "what about all those heat houser cabs used for years" like J-Mech posted.
I always thought they were open back cabs tho.

The heat housers, or "weather breaks" didn't. But there were others that did.

The heat hausers pull heat from the engine, but not from the exhaust. They do not envelope the exhaust or anything like that....and they don't pull a whole lot of heat from the engine. I still say err on the side of safety and disagree with pulling anything from the exhaust that involves CO. The CO attaches quickly to the hemoglobin in the bloodstream causing dizziness, confusion, vomiting, etc. Dress sensibly for the job you are doing, just like having the right tool for the right job--your attire is part of that.

Cub Cadet 123

The heat housers utilize whatever warm air can be channeled to the cab from the rad, a now enclosed engine compartment back to the operator.

I don't think anyone suggested blowing exhaust fumes into the cab area on a CC.

The HH thing could be done on a CC the same way as on a fullsize tractor.

Except for the fact all the heat on a cub goes out the front. You'd have to wrap the whole front.

Plus you would want to wrap under the frame too. At least in front of the engine. Might actually get too complicated trying to harness the air coming off of an air cooled Kohler without overheating problems.

How can wrapping copper tubing around the front muffler can bring CO in the cab? I'm not even sure if he can get enough heat out of this setup, but there is no way CO can't get inside the copper pipe.

This solution anyway involve to much fabrication and money to just guessing the result, since you deal with a air cooled engine a electric heater directly connect to a extra deep cycle battery is the best solution, a small 12v 300 Watt electric heater is more then enough to heat 15 cubic feet. On the lowest setting this heater need only 8.3 A/Hr

Here a good small one (220W) made in USA

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-THERMAL-S...-/321284884657

How about a little diesel fired heater that they been putting in semi trucks for years. You could probly pick a used one up for a couple hundo.

You can capture some of the heat from the muffler for sure using copper tubing,if you can loop the copper tube fairly tight. The longer the distance air would have to travel through the copper pipe and get heated , the better. Now I don't think you would get hot air, but if it warms up even a little and you recirculate the air from the cab,it will heat up more and more in no time.If you pull in cold air from the outside and hope to heat it up,I don't think that's going to work.If both the air intake and outlet are in the cab,I don't see how you could get any carbon monoxide in there.But you could always buy a carbon monoxide detector for safety.

My brother ran copper tubing through the walls of his wood fireplace with a computer fan at one end. Heats up the house like you wouldn't believe.

There is several youtube videos of homemade GT cabs. One guy put a heater in on his John Deere and I think he was pretty pleased with it. Just youtube search "homemade lawnmower cab" and I think it should show up you may have to dig a little for it though.