Thinking of horse trading for a 127 hydro

[tinkerman73]

A local junk shop has a decent looking 127 hydro with I think 44 inch deck and snow blade. Runs and hydro lift works, both front and rear. He is asking $500. I am asuming this is a decent price? I am thinking of trading a good 1315 with 38 inch deck and some other things like a truck tool box and other stuff. Just looking for reasurance that this may be a decent deal as I know I have really been wanting a GT. How hard are parts to get for these if the hydro rear end goes or lift? Also how pricey do they get? Any words of caution before I strike this deal in stone? Thanks.

[Yosemite Sam]

Unless a PO installed a hydraulic lift... The lift should be electric. 127's are very good machines, however it really all depends on how the tractor has been treated/maintained, and what repairs have been done (and if they were quality repairs).

I'm something of a pessimist with an optimistic outlook. I never buy a Cub Cadet without first assuming (I know you shouldn't do that) that it will need the pto, steering, clutch (for gear drives) trunnion repair and release valves repaired or replaced (for hydros) points, condenser, coil, voltage regulator, starter/generator, carburetor, and perhaps the engine all rebuilt/replaced/repaired. If you are willing to to do whatever it takes and/or spend the money to put this tractor back into good shape, then ANY IH built Cub Cadet will make you a FINE machine.

$500.00 sounds a little spendy to me, unless the tractor is in pretty darn good condition. However if you are trading off stuff that you don't really care too much about, then it may not be such a bad deal.

Drive it around, cut a little grass with it and see for yourself how it works... Keep in mind that if you were to "go through" this tractor from one end to the other, put it back to NEW condition you could spend as much as $2000.00 on it, BUT it will last 40 years. OR you can go spend $2000.00 on a brand new machine and then throw it away in 5 or 6 years. Not a difficult decision in my book...

But then again... What do I know???

[Matt G.]

$500 is a little steep in my opinion. Back before the economy crashed and burned, I had trouble getting $375 out of a 'fixed-up' 127 and deck. I can almost guarantee you that if you buy a tractor that the owner can't prove he's gone through and fixed all of the typical problems, you will have to go and fix all of those things. I never pay top dollar, or even average prices for these things because I know they will not be up to my standards without some work. I don't think I've ever bought a tractor that was claimed to 'need nothing' that I couldn't find one (or a dozen) things that needed fixing or replacing. Last one was my 1872...seller claimed it was 'ready to mow'... after six weeks, $300 in parts, and a new rearend, it was 'ready to mow'...

[tinkerman73]

Thanks for the comments so far guys. The only one thing he is wanting is one of my other cubs. I kinda like to keep the LTS since they are both working good now. But we will see. All of the other stuff was free to me and I have it out for sale anyways. My long term desire is to restore it! The hydro/electric lift. I guess I learn something new. LOL. Yes, it is a push button thing. I have not had a good chance to go through the tractor yet and try everything out yet. I know I like the auto(hydro) rear end, the idea of the I guess electric lift, for deck/blade as well as the one in the rear along with the lights on it and possabilities of adding more equipment in the future! Heck, I would be willing to give up the old iron horse(troy bilt rototiller) to get a rototiller for that cub!(Though its engine would be a good back up engine maybe?) Downfall as you guys have pointed out, will cost a fortune to rebuild! My idea of rebuilding also, is to use the tractor and buy each part at a time and rebuild those, then once I have everything, or as I need them, put them on the tractor. Of course, doing that then eventually I would have a complete second tractor. LOL. Anyways. I may get a chance to spend more time there later and check it out more. I did note one thing, there was some old dry oil residue by the head. I am not sure if this is from it leaking then they parked it, so it still needs to be adressed, or if it had been taken care of is why its dry. I will assume the first. Otherwise, in appearance without it running, everything looked decent other then the seat.

[RChristensen]

Any dry oil residue by the head tells you the head gasket is, or was bad at one time. If it was run for a long time with a bad head gasket the head could be damaged.

[JayBrd]

A side from the general maint (or the possible lack there of), you are looking at trading a LT for a heckuva lot more solid GT.... I would say jump on it if he will trade for the 1315..

[jmroy]

Its a flat head, there shouldn't be any oil coming out from the head. Had to have been coming from somewhere else.