[sparkycuda]

Well, seems my brain was a lot slower than my fingers on the keyboard! The 300 Series (300-H/350-H late 1970s) excavators had fiberglass cabs... The 30-H/40-H models were just before 300 Series. I've never heard why cabs were located but a discussion thread on Heavy Equipment Forums about 5 years ago gave information that no standard existed in the early years and manufacturers followed what they had done before on cranes. Seems the left-side standard may have started when the Japanese started leading the world in excavator engineering, and everyone followed after that. But still no actual reason why left verses right that I have found.

Ken