Independent Cadet dealers
 

When were Cadet dealerships first awarded to non IH dealers? The first one I ever heard of around here was about '92 or 93, they replaced the IH dealer my dad worked for. Dad and the owner both retired at the same time and nobody wanted the business so for a year or 2 we had no Cadet dealer in town.

1967 my dad worked in a body shop and cub dealer. No ih dealer for 30 miles. I don't know if that was common or not.

John,
There is a place by me that did the same as your dad's dealer did,they were an IH dealer,closed up and the two brothers began selling off stuff,they said it was around the same time ,93,94.
I guess I could ask them what happened ....

Weren't the yellow Cubs sold at Cub Cadet Dealers and the red ones sold at IH dealers?

In the late 80's we had a cub only dealer.

That's what I've always heard.

When I get home, I'll check my book, but it seems to me that is was in the late 70's that International began opening stores just to market their line of L/G equipment. MTD bought Cub Cadet in 1981, and there were already L/G only stores then.

I remember red and yellow on the showroom floor at the same time, or do I?
The dealer dad worked for lost the IH tractor sales contract sometime in the late 70's or very early 80's They were allowed to keep the parts contract until they closed in 91, however that was about to be revoked, Case-IH extended it to work with them through the close of business. Anyway, I remember 382, 982, 582 special and maybe regular 582 all on the floor in red. Also remember yellow, 382, 682 and 782. Maybe some red in the 6 and 782 as well. Maybe they got everything in red until Tenneco bought out IH? I'll have to ask dad that one.

Every other Cadet dealer I knew of (5 to be exact) was still a full line ag dealer. Of those 6 dealerships, only one is a full line Case-IH dealer, one is IH parts only. The other 6 have been gone for 15-25 years.

This was about the time the local grass mowing market was handed to Deere on a silver platter.

It was all yellow or all red until CCC bought out International Harvester in June of 81..

After that they continued to build red tractors for the IH ag dealers and yellow tractors for the Independent CCC dealers..

The red tractors ended all together when IH merged with Case in late 84 or 85..

All that is from memory.. so it may be off a little...:biggrin2::biggrin2:

Tenneco merger had no effect on the color of the tractors. IH was already out of the L/G market before that merger took place. They still sold Cub Cadets through their MTD distributor. Parts were handled by IH for a period of time, but it was a mess. MTD ordered the parts, IH housed and made some of them.... MTD finally began making their own trans housings and castings. That's when the aluminum ones came out. When MTD began building their own.

Yes, yellow and red in the '82 series were sold at the same time and available through both the IH and MTD distributors. IH generally stocked the red and MTD the yellow, but you could get them whatever color you wanted (customer and dealer alike).


MTD bought Cub Cadet from International Harvester. Tenneco bought International Harvester's AG line. Navistar bought the truck division, engine line, (and the logo I believe).