What were they thinking?

[notjustair]

What was the thinking behind the forward opening
doors on the factory cab later tractors (86 series,
etc)? We had a 966 with the doors that hinged at
the back. Sure, we had to weld them up a few
times, but at least you could lock them open during
the summer. After a year or two the stop would beat
itself to death and you would have to fix it. It
seemed like they got out of your way more to get in
as well. The doors on my 886 annoy me daily, but
mostly because I am 6'4" and have big feet.

Was it to keep folks from running with them open?

 

[pete 23]

Lots of complaints about those doors. My biggest one is that they are not sturdy. If they had put a curve in them it would stiffen them a whole lot. Used to spend a whole lot of time adjusting them on predelivery. I don't think I ever saw one that closed easily to the second latch like it is supposed to without adjusting. Sometimes that even meant bending the hinges to make a nice easy tight closing door. I used to take the bottom hinge off and latching peg off and then mark the door where it closed properly and adjusted to that point. Boss didn't always like all the time I spent on them. I did have one customer that really liked the forward opening doors as he could reach in the right door and operate the hydraulic levers as he was working on his equipment. He was pretty good sized fellow also.

 

[FBH44]

I've been an engineer in various aspects for a long time, and I can tell you I look back over lots of things I designed and at the time said "Well it just HAS to be this way..." and now I say to myself "What in the world were you thinking, you moron?? That was the dumbest idea..."

 

[[email protected]]

I have a 986 and 1486 and have never had a problem with the doors the idea I always thought was to close them and turn on the air conditioning, only thing I wish was different was the shifting moved to the right hand side of cab, I guess the hole thing is kinda like the owl cabs on jd tractors you just get used to looking at a post in your face all day and bad shifting.

 

[Owen Aaland]

Replacing the OEM door stops with the K&M gas charged units will allow the door to open farther and also hold the door open when to want to leave it open.

 

[fixerupper]

The K&M gas charged units are real nice and I think they will prolong the life of the doors. There is no more having the wind whip the door around, bending the hinges. When I bought my 1086 in 1978 I thought the doors might last a max of ten years. 37 years later they are still hanging on but I have had to do some black smithing, like peeling the skin back to re-weld both lower hinge brackets. I have also had to put a 2X4 in the right spot to spring the doors so the top corners touch the jamb again. They work OK now but being a kind of a perfectionist they still annoy me.