I didn't really want a HABAN deck on my 982, luckily I found a tractor with an IH 50" deck. I'd had a 129 with 44" deck for 15 trouble-free years and talk about a tractor that was run HARD and put away wet, THAT 129 was IT. I don't think I ever even sharpened the blades but I must have, I know I never replaced them.
I had a watetpump bearing start wobbling inside the bearing housing on my 50", I bought the parts locally, I needed to finish mowing. NEW water pump bearing, top & bottom hausing parts, even a new key for the pulley, $178 and some Cents including tax. The wobbly bearing really wallowed out the bearing housings! But it was impressive how nice the 50C deck mowed afterwards. I did buy the weld-on front caster wheels I never installed, but I did fix up a center roller to mount under the deck behind the center blade and it was impressive how nice that deck mowed after I did that! But once I flip the switch on the pto on the 982 and compare the sound to the Zero turn, the zero turn runs about 30-40% faster than the 982 deck. The result is the zero turn blades stay sharper longer, throws clippings twice as far, I've never seen it leave a windrow, mows much more level. After about two mowing with the zero turn my wife actually said," your new mower REALLY does a nice job of mowing, you shouldn't use your old mowers anymore." MY only regret is I had my choice of a 54" deck and a 60" deck and I took the 54, my 50" deck didn't fit several places, and of course the 54 doesn't fit in even more places, a 60 inch would basically fit wherever the 54 would and cover 11% more area in the same time.