Whats a lot of hours
 

On that 1450 I bought. It has one of those hard to understand hour meters on it. The round type with the red, yellow and white needels on it. If I read it correctly, it has apx 170 hrs on it. Could it be possible for those type of meters to go all the way around and start over agian, Do you guys change these out to a newer easier to read style?

Here is the link to learning how to read the meter. http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/s...ead.php?t=2931

And yes the meters just keep going around and around, so there is really no true way to know how many hours are on the mower and engine, etc. You can get a good judge by how well the motor works and the transmission. My 1250 had somewhere around 500 hours if I remember correctly, but I found out that the motor had been changed out with a 14 hp unit at some time. Other than that it was in excellent original condition and ran great. Swapping out the hour meters is pretty straight forward. Just need to pick on up at an auto parts store.

I never even bothered to look at the hour meters on the tractors I bought. My thoughts are that the hours they were left sitting are going to far outweigh the hours they were running, and letting it sit to rot is the worst thing one can do to it.

Thats what I thought about it just keeping going around. I have a smaller numerical one that I was going to wire in andjust leave the the original one in the dash as the new one won't fit the hole. I was going to find room under the hood to tuck it somewhere. But, what is considered a lot of hours?

Abused=100hours

Taken care of=over 1500 IMO.

We have had quite a few Cubs with well over 1000 hours, and they were in better condition then later ones with fewer hours and abused. Like anything take care of them, and they will last along time, with general care.

Jeff

I will say this.... I think older machines can have a lot more "abuse" hours on them and still go pretty strong vs. new machines... the tolerances just aren't there anymore.

My 1211 has 1200+ hours on it, and has been well taken care of...still runs like a dream :)

Jeff (teet)

The reason I was asking was that this 1450 I bought dosn't look like it has a lot of seat time, (don't know if it was replaced) and that round style of hour meter shows less than 180 hrs, so thats why I was wondering. The guy I got it from is elderly and as a hobby finds cubs and fixes them up, gives them some paint and puts them in his yard for sale. As I've had the tractor longer I am starting to see things that maybe indicate a lot more than the 180 hrs which means that the meter has spun around a few times. Indicators like loose (wore?) front wheel bearings, front tires that are like 3/4 plus wore out, hole in hitch plate oval shaped, just that the tractor was used. From reading on here it sounds like the trunion(?) needs welded up. I don't know about the abused, tin is all staight, no dents dings ect. What is considered abuse?

My gauge has the three, 4 different needles to it. It's really confusing!:angry:

You have to also consider the hour meter may have been replaced also. I would make the tractor completely mechanically sound and put your own new hour meter in it with documentation of what work you did.