NIC - I don't pick on the pullers hardly at all. Only ones I pick at are the ones running some other color sheet metal on a CC chassis.
I've thought about making my 72 into a puller many times. All I need is another hobby to pour money into.
Once you get to a certain level, it's almost cheaper & easier to BUY a puller in pieces out of a catalog and put it together isn't it?
STEVE - I think a T/A in a GD would be more useful than a 2-spd in a hydro. Depends on how it's geared I guess. It's nice having 0-8 MPH with the push of one lever. If the 2-spd was 0-5 MPH in lo and 0-10 MPH in hi it would be good.
But a diff lock would be a great feature. Back years ago I always used the diff lock when plowing & other fieldwork on 4020's. Sure wished there had been one on 4010's.
Far as me ever owning a green tractor, well, that will never happen, especially a green GD. I drove a nearly new 110 at my cousin's place 40 yrs ago and thought the variator was a nice feature, but it appears to be more troublesome than a T/A in ANY IH tractor ever thought of being. My Uncle, cousin's Dad had a WF at the time, 149 I think it was, Guess my cousin got the "Short Straw" on seeing who got which tractor!
And the green tractors seem to be a little weak where the rearend bolts to the frame. And everything that bolts to the frame is diecast aluminum. Granted IH & MTD/CCC switched a lot of components to diecast, but they still kept six well spaced points of attachment between the rearend & frame. The frt half of the green tractors were made from heavy steel, but they're welded in several places! Just adds mfg costs and any weld is just a chance for a weak spot. And things like tie rods & tie rod ends were bigger, but you replace the OEM tie rod ends on a CC with heim joints and they last about ten years longer than FOREVER. I replaced the rod ends on my 72 with heim joints in 1983 and they're still tight as when I installed them.
I could never figure out why they used fiberglass hoods. Can't be for weight savings. And they're really fragile. Seems like they put metal and weight into places where it made no difference and didn't put the beef where it needed to be. I could never see the need for two hyd circuits on a garden tractor till I got the 982, but I still can't see the need for three. But then I plug my dump cart into the frt remotes on the 982. The two pcs of hose was cheaper than adding a set of rear remotes.
Most of the problems CC's have the green tractors have also because the componenets are the same or at least very similar, plus a few more problems on the green tractors besides.
Like I always say, I'm still trying to wear out my 48 and 45 yr old CC's. When they're too wore out to bother fixing I'll worry about buying something newer. Few years ago my new tractor would have been orange, but that dealer closed five years ago.
