Hello texwelder, that is a really nice job that you have done there. I am just a bit surprised to see that sort of thing for a machine in Texas. In the Pacific Northwest guards like that are common, yet even more substantial. They will generally have cab risers(in some cases these are designed to be tilted forward for transport purposes to prevent exceeding heighth restrictions), they use an exo-skeleton to protect the operator and machine from falling trees, they also incorporate under-belly pans and rockguards in the track roller area to protect these from land materials that might rip out hydraulic hoses from the underside of the machine and damage or derail the tracks.
I would say that you are building yours right for whatever reason they are being used in Texas(I'm guessing land clearing or other sorts of clearing/demolition). Cool thing about something like that is the rolling advertisement that the finished machine provides. I am also guessing the reason that you have done numerous ones of these is simply a word of mouth process, folks are liking what they are seeing. Once again congratulations and best regards, Allan