Only Cub Cadets - New member from MO.

Greetings fellow Cub enthusiasts,

A big warm hello from northeastern Missouri. I’ve been playing with Cub Cadets for the past 4 years now. Recently acquired my second Cub back in November 2012. I must say, absolutely awesome tractors! This is what I should have started out with.

I suffered with a Craftsman LT for the first 9 years of my adult life. Got it when I was real young and didn’t know any better. It worked great for the 4 years or so that I used it in town for cutting half an acre or so.

Then I moved back into the country close to where I grew up on a 14 acre plot and started keeping about 4.5 to 5 acres cut. I also have to keep an 800’+ driveway clear of snow, and I heat with wood.

Mowing was pretty much the only thing it was good at. I bought a snow plow, weights, and chains for it, but it never did very well with snow over 4”. I blew the trans. case into 3 pieces one year trying to clear 8” with it.

I was tired of fixing it every few months, and wanted something more heavy duty but didn’t really have the extra $$ to get something good. A friend of my wife offered to give us an old 1993 model Cub 1430 LT about 5 years ago now. I was shocked that some one would be nice enough to give something like that away. It may well be the best gift anyone has ever given me though. It didn’t run at the time, someone had messed up the wiring back by the battery, and the PO just wanted rid of it since he had just bought a new John Deere. Some how they had hooked a ground wire up to the starting solenoid switching terminal along with the hot wire from the ignition. Once I got that figured out it fired right up and ran like a champ!

I’ve been using it since. Mows nice, doesn’t break (for the most part), and the hydro drive is awesome. Did some creative fabrication and made the Craftsman plow fit it. It came with 30lb wheel weights, and I added a bracket to the back and bolted 2 more 30lb weights and swapped over the chains from the Craftsman.

I was WAY impressed at how much better it plowed snow. It even plowed me out of the blizzard we had back in 2011. I remember being out in the middle of the storm plowing every 3-4 hrs for a full day. Snow coming over the top of the blade at a few points, and it kept on going!

Got a used p.o.s. dump cart around the same time and started making trails in the woods to collect wood for the fire place. Never missed a beat that whole winter. Then the following spring I finished off the splines on the hydro pump shaft while mowing. I figured maybe it was just worn out from years of use. Fixed it, and it lasted another year until it broke again.

Ok, I’m working it a little too hard. So I started keeping an eye out for an older GT. I finally found what I was after in Nov. 2012. Got a kind of rough, but all there 1981 782, with the iron rear end. It didn’t run either, but the PO seemed fairly honest, and I just had a feeling that it was a runner without too much work.

Brought it home, cleaned out the old nasty rotten gas, the carb, put in the correct and right heat range spark plugs and it fired up as fast as I turned the key. This thing is beyond awesome! I haven’t mowed much with it yet, but I have been using the crap out of it to collect the winter supply of wood. It makes skidding trees a breeze! Got some ag tires, and 62lb weights, and bolted another 104lbs on the back. It digs trenches if it won’t pull it. And it has to be a pretty big tree before it won’t pull it! It pulls as good as some 4x4, 4 wheelers I’ve borrowed to skid trees with.

It’s been repowered with a Kohler M-18. This engine seems like it has a lot of hours on it though. Plenty of power, but uses a fair amount of oil. I may be looking to rebuild or swap out for something else come mowing season.

I just wish we would get one good snow this winter so I could try it out. I modified the Craftsman snow blade yet again to fit it, but we’ve only had a couple of little snows here this winter (around 2”). It moved them like nothing, and about twice as fast as the 1430.

So the 1430 is back to all mowing duty which my son will probably drive now since he is at about the right age to start mowing. I’ll be using the 782 when he doesn’t steal it from me. He has caught the red fever worse than I have I think.

Anyway, I’m happy to be here, and hope to learn a lot from people on here. Here is a not so great pic. of both tractors, and a decent one of the 782.

Kevin