Not sure if I am on the same track as what you are looking for but my experience has been with a Series LT1018 bought new in 2003. We live on 12 acres, the big stuff gets the Kubota and brushhog but we have about an acre or so within a low fence around the house to keep pets and kids (somewhat) corralled.
The tractor is kept inside and gets complete maintenance (oil/filters/lube/etc) every season, no exceptions. This comes out to service about every 30 hrs or so. It has had an easy life.
Like:
- hydro transmission, no problems at all, very convenient to not have shift linkage for direction/speed.
- B&S 18.5 hp engine, pressure lubed. Has run very well, I use Pennzoil Platinum 10w30 in it. It is fueled via vacuum operated fuel pump that has worked fine. I have had an issue with the routing of the spark plug wire - it eventually chafed and caused a no-start, but was easily remedied. I do think that they could have done a better job protecting the wire.
- seating position is more like a driving position, on other mowers it seemed like I was hunched over the wheel and I'm not that tall.
- plastic and paint seems to have held up well.
- cast iron front axle has been good.
- since the engine has a fuel pump, the carb does not need a diaphragm style of gasket to pump fuel. It's set up like an "older" style with float bowl, inlet needle, etc. Should not need maintenance that often, especially since the system has a fuel filter too.
Dislike:
- electrical system. Have had problems with the starter solenoid over the last year or so. Despite replacement of solenoid, starter, and battery it still gets an occasional hard start situation. Personally I think that the wire sizing is adequate but just barely.
- dash mounted "info center" has never worked properly. I didn't really care since I thought it was kind of gimmicky anyway.
- steering. the steering shaft has a gear on the end of it that meshes with a toothed sector plate that in turn moves the tierods. The steering gear wears out after several years and makes for very loose steering. Not an expensive part, but a pain to replace.
In general, for the money it's been ok but I consider it a 5-6 year machine before things start wearing out. My opinion is that this is due to cost cutting measures when selecting materials. I am on the 3rd set of drive pulleys due to the center bearing burning up. The bearing is not replaceable unless you do some mods to the pulley. Belts and blades have been ok, as mentioned blade overlap is in height only.
I work on all of my stuff so I have gotten familiar with how to work on this but for a person that may need to take it in, I think it may start costing you significant dollars at that 5 year mark. However, at the time of purchase I had compared this range of tractor based on a limited budget and thought that the Cub had more features than similar models. I think that they are all MTD/Troybuilt/Cadet now anyway.
If I was looking again tomorrow I would probably go with a higher-end Deere or Kubota model I think, but then again I have not researched things lately.
