New Owner Raptor SD 54" - Immediate trouble

[mhavanti]

If you're looking for a riding mower first thing I do is look for bolt on rear wheels. If you have to use a torch to remove the wheels after a minute. You are going to have much more work than simply hitting the lug nuts and gaining access to the axles. Not that is necessary often, however, it is cheap to cut a spline.

There are things you look for on a zero turn as well. Sealed bearings are a must. I don't believe there is one unit out there that has every item we all want in one mower. If so, I haven't found it and the prices have gotten ridiculous no matter the buy in level you're looking for.

 

[kraky]

The cheap box store Mowers actually serve a purpose..... if they are properly fitted to the property owner. In my little town in north-central Wisconsin We mow about 30 times a year.... the average homeowner in town has about a half acre lot and it's done in 30 minutes. Those $1,700 lawn tractors can actually easily go 15 to 20 years for those people. The guy across the street has been running a John Deere Sabre for 20 years with hardly a repair... he weighs 300 pounds and scalps his lawn down to the last inch and a half every time he mows. The guy next door to me has been running a Poulan lawn tractor for about 7 years without a repair and actually does a pretty nice job of mowing. Even though the lots are only one half acre there's only about two people on the whole street that still do it with a push mower... I'm kind of the king with a Hustler FasTrak 54 but my lot goes back a little further and is a whole whopping 3/4 acre. The king can only hope he doesn't get knocked off the throne by an errant breakdown of the Hustler in front of the peasants of the kingdom. Me thinks the peasants would quite enjoy it ....lol! Actually we're a pretty humble well knit neighborhood......lol

 

[mhavanti]

The local here sold Huskies, Toro, Troys, JDs and last year as all of them did, picked up Hustler. They've dropped the Toro as I said earlier, almost tripled their Hustler stock, only have 5 JDs and 4 Huskies when I drove by this morning to the Micky D's for the egg Mac.

One of the things I noticed on the Toro and Troys are the seats while sitting in the summer sun shrinks and pulls away from their crimped seat buckets. Looks bad and doesn't feel good. Makes it hard to sell when on the floor. Something that would be easy to fix, but would add to cost of manufacture. Doesn't keep the mow quality, only rider comfort and aesthetics.

I have no ill will toward a toro at all. Matter of fact, the contour of their seat fits my old broken back better than any other. That almost sold me on them because broken backs result in life long pain.

Enjoy your day Car!

 

[mhavanti]

I still have a 1996 MTD Yardman all wheel steer with a lowly Kohler Command 16 HP. 42" cut with the original deck belt. One of the spindle bearings is making an egregious noise that is telling me: Change Me, Change Me. Of course, after all these years and having to change the drive belts, rebuild the rear axle carrier and all the hood and side cover plastic breaking off. I'm keeping it because it takes care of a couple things the 60" RSD can't possibly do. The old mowers can still come in handy.

 

[michigan_Rapter sd]

I don't remember lowes ever selling toro around here. Home Depot sells them. I get mine at a dealer for less money.
Lowes sells junkdeere
Cub cadet owns mtd and still makes a very good mower. I feel cub makes the best riding mower. And their zero turns are very good for the money.

MTD owns cub cadet -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cub_Cadet

 

[kraky]

Mtd has owned Cub for a long time. I've been out of the John Deere dealership for over 10 years and it was a number of years before that. The Cub Cadet of old had a pretty loyal following.... it was pretty shocking for former owners to find out from our salespeople that MTD was making them. Mtd was also a master of making things look much brawnier than they were. Like bolting the rear wheels to a hub and then mounting The Hub by keyway on the axle... but the bolts did look good!

 

[BlazNT]

Not correct. MTD purchased Cub Cadet
"In 1981, IH sold the Cub Cadet division to the MTD corporation, which took over production and use of the Cub Cadet brand name (without the IH symbol), to present day"

 

[577jersey]

I don't remember lowes ever selling toro around here. Home Depot sells them. I get mine at a dealer for less money.
Lowes sells junkdeere
Cub cadet owns mtd and still makes a very good mower. I feel cub makes the best riding mower. And their zero turns are very good for the money.

Cub makes a great little walker too,,I have a buddy who puts 1000 hours a season on one..great little walk behind,,me...I like to sit now,plus there is nothing more
maneuverable
than a zero turn IMO.

 

[BlazNT]

"MTD Products, Inc., of Cleveland, Ohio, purchased the Cub Cadet brand from International Harvester in 1981. Cub Cadet was held as a wholly owned subsidiary for many years following this acquisition, which allowed them to operate independently. At first, MTD retained many of the same models from the International Harvester-produced models. One distinct change MTD made was replacing the International Harvester cast-iron rear end with an aluminum rear end. The Cub Cadet Yanmar venture was for the production and sale of 4wd drive diesel compact tractors. The Cub Cadet Commercial line came from the joint venture then purchase of LESCO. These statements can be verified in Hank Will's book 50 Years of Cub Cadet, and www.cubcadet.com. The Cub Cadet Yanmar partnership was modified in 2011."
MTD is now the maker of Cub Cadet. The MTD model is being followed by Cub Cadet.

 

[577jersey]

I remember my neighbour had an old cub cadet back when I was about 10 years old in 1980,,that tractor was sooooo fast man,,i loved it,,we would wheel around the fields on that thing like it was a four wheeler..it had to have gone 12-15 mph from what I remember,,the engine was a horizontal like the old Wheel Horse.