NOS Deck

[BritshIron]

Roland, I ordered my new deck today (NOS). In the interest of being a good member of Only Cub Cadets, I was wondering if you could advise me on whether to post my success at my Welcome to OnlyCubCadets thread, or open a new thread in discussion forums?

Here's my story. Thanks to your original responses to me, I searched hard to see if my deck was every officially used on other CC garden tractors. I found that the same group of decks (19A40012100, 19A40013100, 19A40014100, 19A40015100, and 19A40016100) were not only used for my GTX 2000, but also for a later model garden tractor, the XT3 Enduro. The only difference was the Enduro decks were black, and therefore the "A" code (yellow decks) in the deck number changed to "B."

I had several phone calls and email exchanges with Rob Houtz. He advised that I just pound the internet, and utilize both yellow and black codes, and any other replacement part numbers that came up during those searches. I did that, and found something interesting. Cub Cadet direct sales, and all the high volume dealers (Parts.com, Power Mower Sales, etc) are only offering to sell deck shells. No one is offering a fully assembled deck with blades, spindles, wheels, pulleys, chute, etc.).

I got in touch with a guy named Marlin at IHCCW.com, because he had several fully assembled decks shown on the web, including the one I asked you about. Marlin says he buys out Cub Cadet dealerships, and often gets a number of these fully assembled decks as part of the deal (NOS units, usually a little shop worn, but never used). Marlin was super helpful--he just had sold the deck I needed.

So, I just got on the phone and started calling the larger Cub Cadet dealers in the USA. I found a dealer who heavily sold the XT3 Enduro line, and bought a black 19B40015100 from them today. I paid the dealer MSRP of $999 for this completely assembled deck, and this is the same price as Cub Cadet is now asking for just the shell. Cub Cadet shows a fully assembled deck on their website, but when you call them, they confess it's just the shell for sale.

I find this pretty interesting. It seems Cub Cadet once made these fully assembled decks available to their dealers, but maybe just recently changed their policy and now sells just the deck shell for the former MSRP price. That means, to me, the only way to buy a fully assembled deck is to find a dealer who has a stack of them formerly purchased from Cub Cadet. I'm not sure even the dealers know they are sitting on relative bargains with these fully assembled decks, as the outfit I purchased from had no clue, but were willing to let the completed units go at today's MSRP for the shells.

Sorry to be so long winded. You helped me a lot in finding this deck. Let me know if I should post the above (or a shortened version) and, if so, your advice on the most appropriate place to post would be appreciated. Aloha, Robert P. Smith, Volcano, Hawaii