Farmall Cub

Hey folks. I hope everyone had a great weekend. With the beautiful fall weather, I had a blast!

On Sunday, I had an unexpected power outage at the house. I'd already taken care of most of my chores on Saturday, and now with the power out for an extended period of time, I was left looking around for something to do that was ah, let's see....quick?

I was in transition with the Simplicity for doing fall/winter maintenance, so mowing with it was out of the question.

Guess what? I hadn't really tested the 1200 Cub Cadet since the rebuild, and I had a passel full of oak leaves laying on the ground. I had plenty of time, so - what the heck? I peeked at the gas tank, yep there's about an inch and 1/2 of gas in the bottom of the tank. Checked the oil - right on the full mark.

Opened the gas shutoff, let it sit for about 30 - 45 seconds, pulled the choke and hit the starter. About 1 1/2 revolutions later, it roared to life. Out to the area for mulching leaves.

This tractor has the 44a mowing deck on it, and the blades must have been on it from the factory. Yes, they are in sad shape, but for a test drive, they did more than a reasonable job. Those large white oak leaves were pulverized into pieces the size of quarters or even smaller. I made several passes trying to not only chop up the leaves, but to drive them closer to the mulch piles.

When I was finished, it almost looked like someone had vacuumed my yard. The place looked great, and the new grass I had seeded in September was showing great signs of promise too. The bare spots in the yard are becoming more and more populated.

Anyway, for a first time try out, I was impressed with this mower/tractor setup. I'm now thinking about possibly buying a new, factory mule drive belt and maybe some gator blades. Has anyone used gator blades on this style mowing deck?

If so, how well do they cut?

All in all, I enjoyed the dickens out of my new mowing experience. All that hard work to restore my 1200 Cub Cadet has finally paid off.

Thanks for the help folks! Oh, I didn't run out of gas, and after I finished putting up the Cub Cadet the power was back on.

Life is good.

SundaySailor wrote:... Has anyone used gator blades on this style mowing deck?

If so, how well do they cut? ...

I've got Gator Blades on both my mowers, Woods 59 and Cub Cadet 42". Any blades I replace on a mower, from now on, will be Gator Blades. They cost a bit more but I think they are worth it.

Bill

Great job. It doesn't necessarily take sharp blades to "beat the leaves to death". More like a hammermill effect. I have used gator blades on my 60 inch JD grass cutter. They work great!

Bill Hudson wrote:

SundaySailor wrote:... Has anyone used gator blades on this style mowing deck?

If so, how well do they cut? ...

I've got Gator Blades on both my mowers, Woods 59 and Cub Cadet 42". Any blades I replace on a mower, from now on, will be Gator Blades. They cost a bit more but I think they are worth it.

Bill

Thanks for the heads up Bill. Much appreciated. I also have Gator blades on my Simplicity. What a difference they made for an already great mowing machine.

I guess I'll get started trying to find the part number cross over for the Cub Cadet mowing blades. You can't have enough good cutting mowing machines.

Denny Clayton wrote:Great job. It doesn't necessarily take sharp blades to "beat the leaves to death". More like a hammermill effect. I have used gator blades on my 60 inch JD grass cutter. They work great!

Thanks Denny. This is the kind of information I needed. Time to look up the parts numbers and see what I can come up with.

SS

Ok folks.

I need another pair of eyes please. I come up with this: 759-3812 Blade, 44 In. Mower standard, and 90-957 is the gator number.

Am I correct here? Also, does anyone have a favorite vendor/and/or best price for ordering blades?

Doing a quick check (google), I can find prices all over the place. Anywhere from ~$36.00/blade to as little as $11.50/blade.
With my bad eyes, something tells me something is a bit wrong with prices that far apart.

Agri-Supply in NC has them for ~$15.42/blade + shipping. But, with the price differences varying so much, are they indeed the same blades or some cheaper blade that is thin as paper so to speak.

Yes, I believe in the old saying, "You get what you pay for". I don't want to have to dismount that deck, install the blades, and then have to do it all over again because of cheap blades. I'd rather pay a bit more and get the nice thick ones like I have on my Simplicity.

Ok, your turn. What say ye?

Can't tell you a part number. I go to my favorite Woods dealer and tell Tom what I need and he goes to the back and, 'poof,' three blades that fit like a glove when I get home. Costs me ~$15 a blade.

Bill

Thanks Bill for the heads up. I do have a woods dealer nearby, so I'll check with them also.

Cheers!

I been wanting to setup one of my cadets with the creeper tranny with a mulcher for doing just leaves. I wanted to install twin blades but there isn't enough treads on the spindles.

I installed twin 30'' thinner blades on my gravely mower and it chewed up everything very fine.