Hey guys thanks for the comments on the 1706. I was originally inspired by the 1806 I had a lead on last year but the guy wanted way too much for a roller so I looked around and bought a 580, better for the CI tranny anyway.
We have some steep hills here in TN and I'm constantly working the hydro lever so once I drove the 580 and realized how smooth and steady on the hills it is...well...here I am.
As for the hydraulics, ahhhh, lift levers just don't set well with me.
I bought a 54" GT deck for this and now I find that with the 26x12x12s and 18" tires in the front on a GT frame I'm about 2" short on wheel base. A 50" will work and I have one on my 1811 but...we'll see where it leads.
I'm currenty blasting a 54" power angle blade for it today so atleast it's serve some purpose for now.
This took me about 9 months to build in off time and I have yet to add up the reciepts.
One thing I've done with my cars in the past (cars are like boats these days to me, holes in the water) is I like to keep the factory colors and lines while adding my own personality to it. One thing I accomplished (I think) is to keep the fact that it has full hydraulics added without changing the factory look and most folks so far have not put the stick and hydraulics together yet.

BTW most of my time invested was spent hunting down parts and finding parts that will work with eachother and also finding good deals. I'll have to list all the parts sometime but it probably took about 9 different tractors to put this together.

Thanks guys.

Scott