I vote you keep the 1772 and pass it on to your son someday, not soon though. On the brakes, my 1811 was the same way when I bought it and if you only work on level ground you might not ever notice bad brakes. I have quite a hill and noticed the poor brakes right away. All I had to do was look under the left side for the turn buckle and take all of the slack out of the linkage. Now the brakes are fine and the pads will probably last for many more years. I've heard pro and con on the side panels being on or off but I would think the tractor was designed to operate with them on and that is the way I would do it. Plus it would help on keeping out the dirt and debris from the engine area.
