My Cub Cadet LTX1050KW is on it's fourth year and has served me fine. It has a Hydro-Gear transmission with a Kawasaki V-twin engine that was made in the U.S.(carburetor is Chinese though) All three deck spindles have grease fittings. Even the deck wheels have grease fittings.
The deck is pretty thick if you ask me. No it's not commercial mower thick, but it's still pretty heavy.
You can buy parts directly from Cub Cadet or MTD. They also provide exploded parts diagrams with part numbers so that you can search online for that part for a cheaper price if you want. It probably won't be much cheaper from some other place after you factor in shipping though.
It sounds to me like Red gets all the cheaper MTD mowers to work on that people don't take care of and then he dismisses the whole line.
If you don't like Hydro-Gear, and you don't like Tuff-Torq, just who is left that manufacturers transaxles for residential mowers that you can buy at Home Depot, Sears or Lowe's?
Red also doesn't like the old style 31cc MTD made trimmers(Such as a Craftsman one I have), but he likes the old style Garden tractors that were designed in the same era.
I like my Cub Cadet enough that I went and won an auction on a 2003 Cub Cadet Tank commercial mower that had a locked up Kawasaki (FH721V bad upper bearing, Kawasaki changed the design in later models) in it from a school. The deck on that thing is overkill for a homeowner, but it is a commercial mower.
Oh and the bolts on both the 2010 LTX1050 and the 2003 M60 Tank are almost all cadmium plated to resist corrosion and are standard sizes. The Kawasaki engines have the only metric bolts on either mower.
Red may know how to fix mowers, but some of us get along fine with MTD made stuff and continue to buy them.
