Best new muffler for 125?

[ACecil]

Originally Posted by Cub Cadet 123

Huh?....What did you say, Allen?

You're right. I don't think we can ever stress the safety factors enough on these machines. Proper safety glasses are essential, too. Several times while mowing, I have had debris ricochet off of my barn or trees and hit me in the face. My brother doesn't always practice good safety measures on his lawn mower with my nephew (his son), despite my repeated warnings, so I'm glad safety has once again been mentioned here. Thanks for doing so!!!

Cub Cadet 123

LOL...my glasses protect my eyes, I have to wear them all the time anyway.

[Petrus]

I got it in the mail today--$36.82 from Rock Auto with coupon code. It is actually manufactured by Stanley Muffler, part number IH-20, but it did come through Walker and it is still made in USA.

The new muffler weighs 2 pounds, 9.9 ounces. It feels like a quality part and looks like it was welded well. My old broken muffler weighs 1 pound 10.4 ounces.

The output is kind of disappointing because it doesn't have the downward bend and angled tip like the original ones. I park it in a shed so it won't really matter, although it does tend to shoot exhaust in your face if you are standing next to it. If your cub lives out in the rain then this is not the muffler for you. It will allow me to add on my own end piece though, and I think I will try to make one that points the exhaust forward and down.

The bracket near the output end does not have an integrated nut the way the original one does. That's not a big deal though because I have lots of nuts lying around and it wasn't too hard to reach in with a wrench to hold the nut. Otherwise it fit without any problems.

The internal construction is different than the original one but I am not a muffler expert so I don't know if it makes much difference or not. It looks like this new one will have less back pressure since there is a straight tube all the way down but maybe this will make more noise than the original design.

As far as sound goes, it is nothing special. The sound was horrible with a broken muffler but this new one is nothing to get too excited about. It does what it is supposed to do but I am not going to be getting rid of my earmuff hearing protection anytime soon.

Video before replacement: http://youtu.be/bTEOSrpGYss

Video after replacement: http://youtu.be/52JFSTmnCOk

Here are some photos:

[ACecil]

It sounds great with the new muffler!

[drglinski]

Thanks for the update on this. It def. sounds way better with the walker muffler. When I viewed the first video I wasn't sure at first what noise a cub could make to sound like a chicken until I saw it. I'm disappointed that the walker doesn't have the same end as the stock muffler; that tip design is part of the reason why I like the original muffler (design).....

[johncub7172]

That is awesome! I would have bought this muffler before I have bought the Cub Cadet muffler, no doubt! Good job on the parts research too!