2007 GT2542 190-002 30" Hydraulic Tiller

[Saddleman]

I'm curious if anyone has or knows of anyone who has mounted the 190-002 hydraulic tiller to a GT2542. I have read every thread on this forum (found a few people asking about it) and spent hours googling this and can't find anyone who has actually done it. The manuals suggest that it should be compatible but I just got off the phone with Cub Cadet and their "official" reply is that they are not compatible because of the smaller wheel diameter vs. the rest of the 2500 series; they claim the smaller diameter wheels wouldn't allow for the sleeve hitch to raise the unit high enough to clear the ground... I have mounted the tiller to the sleeve hitch and the ground clearance is fine! The problem I am having is with mounting the hydraulic pump assembly underneath the frame. You should be able to see from my 1st picture that the distance between the front and rear mounting brackets needs to be 21"s. The second picture shows where I attached the front and rear mounting brackets. The rear bracket is mounted to the only cross member available, and the front brackets were mounted 21"s forward from this point where there were conveniently provided holes on each side of the frame. Sounds great so far, until you try to raise the pump assembly and the hydraulic pump hits the Steering Bracket Support (703-05830)... they overlap by 2 1/2"s so it's not even close. My front brackets are actually in the wrong place according to the mounting instructions in the tiller manual. They should actually be located just behind the pivot point of the Forward Pedal (the yellow arrow shows where the front brackets should actually be mounted and the green line is the required 21" distance between brackets) . There are two holes in this location that have bolts in them for no particular reason; this would move the brackets 5"s towards the rear of the unit and allow the hydraulic pump assembly to be raised without hitting the Steering Bracket Support. The problem is I would have to move the rear bracket back 5"s to maintain the 21" spread between front and rear brackets but there is nothing to attach the bracket to. I checked the specs on the GT2554 (which Cub "officially" says is compatible) and it uses the same Steering bracket as the 2542 and has the indentical wheel base and overall length. The only thing I can think of is that the cross member on the other 2500s is mounted further back which I find unlikely if it is there to add torsional rigidity to the frame. Either way, the only solution I can see is to fabricate a rear mounting bracket that extends back 5"s further than the original one and there is enough room to do this without running into the rear axle (picture 3). I don't mind doing this but am worried it may create unintended problems. If anyone has any thoughts or experience with this problem, I'd love to hear them.