Blowing off steam/RANT

[bborchers]

Every once and awhile I take and sell a rider/mower. I rarely get a new one in to fix up. So here is my rant of sorts. I placed a local add and have been getting people who say they are interested but once they find out the age. They loose interest stating its to old. Why do people want new? They are nothing more than a cookie cutter pressed frame piece of

. Age is a good thing, better built,better material, better quaility. Thats my rant.

 

[jsdavis]

I Think its because of just not knowing what they are buying.i think the average person only sees the shiny riding mowers at the box store!!Educate them in your ad a bit!!!Before I got into cubs,or any old peice of equipment for that matter,if I was considering a purchase I was going into it "thinking" I will Have to work on this thing to get it to where I can use it reliably.With our cubs most of us get we have to do a little tinkering,normal maintenance,that hasnt been done for fifteen years ,but they always,almost!,start right up.They are faithful and strong runners.The ones you sell I assume run and are probably gone through a bit,good for another forty years!!
Jason

 

[mbounds]

Brad B...you ever buy an old box-store MTD or Murray?? They are throw-away junk. That's what most folks are familiar with and so don't want old stuff...and you can't blame them. They have no clue about the long gone IH and the quality of the Cub Cadets they made 25-40 years ago.

Moreover, old isn't always good..did you ever work on one of those cars Kaiser Motors sold through Sears & Roebuck?? Or some of those 60's/70's Chrysler products?? Or how about a Yugo??

Ya have to educate 'em about the quality and sell it....

Myron B

 

[rpalmer]

Jason,
"With our cubs most of us get we have to do a little tinkering,normal maintenance,that hasn't been done for fifteen years ,but they always,almost!,start right up."

Being new to Cub Cadets and only owning two (one followed me home) I was dismayed at the neglect and abuse these machines have suffered.. and like you say and it bears repeating they still run and work. I do not believe there is a better garden tractor available at any price.

So Brad, listen to and believe what Myron and Jason have to say. They know!

 

[dfrisk]

Several people I've worked with have had Cub Cadets, the OLD ones, 122's, 125's, etc. Those people all lived on large rural lots, had big gardens, worked their Cubbies pretty hard. The two people I have in mind who were older engineers realized what these CC's are all about and maintained them, rebuilt the engines when they were worn. The younger people ran the wheels off of them and as long as they had gas in the tank expected them to run. Eventually they started having problems with them and ended up with a new mower from a Big Box store. Most cases when their new mower was only a few years old and worn out they all end up buying another NEW mower again.

I tried selling My old 129 off the end of My driveway about 7-8 yrs ago. It looked decent, ran good, and was My tractor of choice for mowing and other yard chores. I had two people pull in the yard over the course of the month I tried selling it. Lady on a large horse farm with a 4-5 yr old small MTD CC lawn tractor that was worn out. She couldn't see the value in a tractor that still worked & ran fine after 30 years of HARD use, prior owner ran a lawn mowing service with that 129 before I got it, it'd been over THOUSANDS of acres of lawn every summer for 3-4 yrs before I got it, when HER CC was wore out in only a few years and needed a whole new engine and other expensive repairs.
Other young person who stopped in to inquire about the 129 pulled into the drive in his new Land Rover Discovery (Big $$$$$) and never even got out of the car and asked "How much $$?" I told him, and he instantly shifted His car into reverse, mumbled something very unkind about My Mother who I'm positive He'd never met, and left. That ended My attempt to sell the 129. I ran it four more years and sold it at Dad's auction in 2006 with 5-6 of His CC's and got about $200 less than I was asking for it in 2002.

 

[rchristensen]

When I first moved here in 1990 I needed a Lawn tractor imediately, and went down and bought a shiny Red MTD. After about a month I told my wife "this red piece of crap just isn't going to hack it". It was gone in less than 2 months.

Then my brother told me he had read in some consumer magazine that the old Cub Cadets were some of the toughest lawn tractors ever built. I was watching the paper and ran acorss a 128 someone had brought from OHIO and they didn't need because they had a rock lawn in a housing development. The guy wanted $1250.00 for it and it looked like new. I was the first guy there in the morning, gave him some cash to hold it and ran to the bank, by the time I got back there were others there wanting to out bid me but he sold it to me. I fell in love imediately and couldn't help myself when about a year later a 1450 appeared in the paper and I convinced my wife that if she ran that one and I ran the 128 we could get the mowing done much quicker.

Since then I've added quite a few more Cubs to my fleet. I lost the 128 in a garage fire but still use the 1450 almost daily.

I've only sold two Cubs in my life. One was a 1450 that I had rebuilt and my neighbor came over and begged me to sell it to him. He had been through a couple of Craftsman's by then and the rear end was out of the one he had at that time. The other one I sold was an Original that I had been saving to rebuild, one day I got it out and was going to start on the rebuild and I looked at it and said to my self (I don't care for these Original's at all). Put it on Craigslist and the first guy here bought it.

 

[jsdavis]

I tell the guys at work that international built our cubs so well they put themselves out of buisness!!!Maybe not true,I dont know the story, but it seems besides norml filter,fluid ,points,spark plug,ect they dont go down,and if they do they are very used and abused,or its something that is fairly simple to remedy.
Dennis What a story I would of lost my temper and thrown a rock at the guy in the rover!!

 

[dfrisk]

JASON - His check would have "Bounced"

 

[jclazar]

like a '69 f-350.....so are our ih cc's. when a dollar was worth how much???? i baby the heck out of my 71. when it gets dirty i wash, dry then i spray w-d 40 all over it. then wipe off. sounds cornnie....but it sure looks good!

 

[klejeune]

Back in 2004 I was tired of borrowing my dad's Murray and wanted to get my own mower. There was a 1450 sitting in a yard on my way to work. I stopped to ask about it and it was priced what I thought was high at $1100. So I left and started doing research and found this and another site and read as much as I could about old IH Cub Cadets. I was sold! Finally talked the seller down to $1000 and came back on the weekend to pick it up.

I've followed up with 3 more and won't own any other brand than old IH iron.

Oh, dad wised up at least a little and bought a new shaft drive Cub Cadet a couple of years ago.

 

[lhinds]

I have been using Cub Cadets for fourty years now. I have never owned any other brand. I bought a 100 in late 1969 for 500 and used it until 1980. I then bought A 147 for mowing and front blade work. I will always regret selling my 100. I lost track of where it went to so i can't buy it back. It had creeper and rear P T O with a water pump mounted for irrigation. I probally spent less than 100 dollars maintenance on this tractor. Used it to pull the kids on a snow sled until they got to sleepy to hold on. Would have 20 or more neighborhood kids here to sled.

 

[lkortkamp]

My .02.

I had a '66 CC, back in early 80's. Rough old piece, but ran well. Finally locked up the motor(dropped the dipper off the rod), put a new rod in and ran it more. Finally gave it away in early 90's as it needed full resto and I had no real use for it at the time.

Moved 6 yrs ago and now have a decent yard to mow. Bought a Lawn Chief from old neighbor as it ran well. It's JUNK! Nice running 12hp B/S, but the rest is JUNK!! (did I mention it's wore out junk?). Sad part is I've tried to destroy it completely but it won't die?

Finally got myself a '72 149 CC, and am waiting with baited breath to finally get to use it this summer!! We'll be "stylin".

 

[T-Mo]

I think what most consumers want now is disposable stuff. When they see a $800 new, shiny MTD at Walmart, they can not see the value in a not so shiny, 30-40 year old machine. But, what they don't figure is that they will go through one of those shiny, new MTD in about 2 years, and then they will go back to Walmart and buy a $1000 shiny new MTD. Then after that one implodes in a couple of years, they go to Sears and get a Craftsman - yeah, a "real" lawn tractor for about $1200. After 3 to 4 years, when the Craftsman goes ka-plunk, then it's off to Lowes or HD to buy a $1800 tractor. After about 10 years they spent several thousand dollars and still haven't learn anything and they still need a mower.

 

[dfrisk]

TERRY - My Dad used to help a "Mechanically Challenged" Neighbor try to keep His Crapsman lawn tractor running. The parts are "Flimsey", the design is made to break, repair parts are very expensive, service work is too. Most years that neighbor mowed most of the time with Dad's loaner CC's. He had about six, one for each attachment! Two mowers, one for Him AND the Neighbor, tiller tractor, sprayer tractor, and a couple spares.

 

[T-Mo]

Dennis,
That's the problem with most of the newer stuff - filmsy. And another problem is the consumer habits - they are in a disposable frame of mind, so maintenance on these filmsy tractors are mostly non-existent. So, cheap materials, shoddy workmanship, poor designs, little to no maintenance means disposable in a few years.

 

[kide]

Terry:
Back in '85, a guy I worked with had a '73 129 that he wanted to part with because he had arthritis and the deck was too much for him to handle.. He was going to trade it in on a Ford brand that he thought was a better deal (????). I was using a worn out Massey Ferguson 7 horse hydrostat (another tough one), but times were really tight and so I tried to get the next door neighbor to buy it to replace his '67 12 horse Sears.. He balked on it and bought a Deere at three times the price. I gulped a couple of times and went to the credit union for the $850.00 - what the Ford dealer was gonna give him on trade in - a lot at the time. I was lucky enough to realize the value of industrial quality equipment. As I've mentioned before the Deere is long gone..
About four years ago, I decided I needed a Zero Turn (probably a dumb move) and looked for something equal in quality - I didn't buy a Cub (more because of the dealer than the product) and spent 10 times as much as the 129.. (I did get a hat and a nice German pen in the deal)
I agree with your frustration and the conclusion that the general public doesn't appreciate quality or longevity (it's all about bling)...

 

[rpalmer]

What has me honked off big time are some Cub Cadet owners who make their own modifications with a welder and or a grinder. It is true that I am new to the Cub Cadet product line, I am not new to a tool box, shop, machining equipment, diagnostics or logical deduction. These people are not doing the good name of Cub Cadet any good. I'm sure they have given their particular problem some thought. But in no way have they out thought the engineers that built the Cub Cadet and worked eight hours a day, day after day, year after year to build the best product around. This is my rant after finding a perfect 3/4" notch cut half way threw my rock shaft. And if I weren't new to the product, I'd have more to say on welding. PLEASE think of the next owner and serviceability when repairing your great tractor.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Then there are the Cub Cadet owners who spend countless hours in their home shops and come out with stuff like this:

 

[rpalmer]

True! And those get raved over. Bless every one of em.

 

[dfrisk]

RICHARD - You didn't give any specifics but on earlier CC's, until about the mid 1970's the scissor linkage on the mule drive rode on the rockshaft and wore a notch like You described on mowers that had been over COUNTLESS acres of lawn. I've welded up My rockshaft on My 72 twice in the 28 yrs I've had it. The last time I modified the scissor linkage kinda like IH did on the mule drive for the 44A deck I had on My 129. Instead of the edge of the 1/4" thk arm wearing thru the rockshaft I put a piece of 1/4" thk X 1-1/4" wide steel on it to bear on the width of the piece instead of the edge of the piece. The wear has slowed DRASTICLY.
Groove in Your rockshaft may just be normal wear & tear, not the act of a prior owner.

I've been around IH equipment of ALL types, tractors, trucks, combines, corn pickers, plows, discs, ALL kinds of farm equip, construction & indstrial equip. and Yes, They did have some VERY good Engineers, but they were spread VERY thin working on all kinds of projects decades ago as the company was structured. Plus their marketing dept. was relentlessly pushing them into new markets trying to design SPECIAL equipment for special conditions they would only build a few hundred units for over 10 & 20 years. The would design 60 & 80 HP ag tractors using basically a 36 HP tractor drivetrain with legendary POOR results. IH didn't just want to compete in the market place with JD, or CAT, or Massey-Ferguson, or Ford....NO, They wanted to compete and beat THEM ALL, on tractors, trucks, combines, garden tractors, all tillage & harvesting equip. When IH put the resources necessary to a project they had great results. When they didn't or they hurried because Marketing wouldn't let them test long enough for durability they suffered. They were truely a WORLD CLASS manufacturing company, especially from about 1900 till about 1950, even into the 1960's they probably had the Highest percentage of in-house mfg. parts of ANY company in manufacturing. They not only operated MANY foundries to make iron castings they also had their own steel mill and forge shops, and two iron ore ships on the Great Lakes, and their own logging operation to make lumber used in quite a few of their product lines, and they made their own coke to operate the furnaces at their foundries. They made their own carburators & magnetos and distributors. They just tried to make the old FARMALL H & M tractor for too many years into the 1950's and the competition caught up with them. After about 1957 or 1958 IH never had the largest selling ag tractor in the US again. And lots of their other product lines were revolutionary when they first came out with them but they built them without changes and improvements WAY too long.

That all said, about 1968 when IH released the CC 72/104/105/124/125 they set the high water mark for design on garden tractors. The 70 & 100 were great tractors also.