Strengths Starts and runs great when the belts stay on.

Weaknesses Pain in the @$$, belt problems as mentioned before.

Overall Very dissappointed with what was expected of this unit. Too costly to have so many problems. Why hasn't there been a class action suit against this company? WE should start one.

Strengths Powerful enough for my purposes. Cut about 2 acres with it. Keep it clean with the deck hose attachment, etc.

Weaknesses The owners manual is poor. It doesn't give enough info to properly maintain the tractor. There are no pictures of where the spindle grease fittings are and no explanation of what cold water will do to a hot spindle. If you wash the deck, you better add grease each time you use it or the metal expansion/contraction will leak the grease out. The manual only says add grease every 25 hours. Lost my 1st spindle at 80 hours. There was no grease in the fitting. Thanks Cub Cadet... After one year, the reverse/cutting feature no longer worked.

Overall It's in the shop right now. Wish I had spent the extra cost on a John Deere instead of this thing.

Strengths Starts every time. Large filler neck for gas.

Weaknesses Belts are crap. Replace deck belt every time I mow. Weak engine. Foot controls for hydro are a pain in the butt, very uncomfortable to use when backing up. Slug a hydro transmission belt and destroyed cooling fan

Overall NEVER BUY ANOTHER CUB CADET. I still have and use a back up an old 20hp Weedeater rider. No problems ever except worn out deck belts. IF YOU HAVE AN OLD RUNNING RIDER KEEP IT BECAUSE YOU WILL SURELY NEED IT FOR BACK UP BECAUSE THE PIECE OF CRAP CUB WILL LEAVE YOU STRANDED EVERY TIME YOU MOW. MY 1ST AND LAST CUB CADET

Strengths chela

Weaknesses Needle in float valve keeps getting stuck open. Replaced needle and float bowl, no help. Backfires all the time. Replaced carb , no help. Engine seized the other day. It cost $800 to fix.

Overall Would never buy this again.

Strengths hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Weaknesses LITTLE SLOW GOING UP HILL. NO BIG PROBLEM. LAST YEAR BROKE A FLY WAY KEY IT BACK FIRED WHEN I SHUT IT OFF NEXT DAY IT NOT START. EMAILED KOLHER ENGINES AND ASKED WHY IT BACK FIRED THAY SAID I SHOULD NOT THROUTLE DOWN ALL THE WAY? THAT CAUSE THE BACK FIRE AND BROKE THE FLYWHEEL KEY I HAVE S600 ENGINE IN MY OTHER THEN THAT I LIKE MY CUB CADET AT THAT TIME IT WAS STILL UNDER WARNTERY

Overall KOLHER ENGINES SAID A ENGINE WITH A ELECTRIC SOLNIED UNDER THE CARB IS WHY YOU CAN NOT THROTTLE IT DOWN ALL THE WAY?????????

Strengths Large gas tank. Can't think of much else.

Weaknesses I have owned this mower for three years.Didnt take long to stretch the belt.Deck belt jumps off constantly.Its pathetic ! Bought a new kevlar belt and didnt last very long before jumping off. Was told by a mower dealer to buy a c cadet belt, so i did, same thing thing after a few mows.Belt keeps jumping off at lower than number 3 setting. I am a machinist and mechanic, looked at everything from pulley aligment to belt angle and so forth and so on.Cub cadet customer service is a joke. They know there is a problem,but don't want to help,just wan't you to go to a dealer. What I found is this. New belt seem to stretch quickly, possible cheap production material now a days ? After stretching there seems to be little tension on the belt and the idler spring is almost completely relaxed. This leaves the belt loose and prone to jumping off. I stretched the spring to the front of the idler bracket and the belt has not jumped off at all. And tension on the belt is where cub cadet wants it at 1/2 inch deflection.This spring stretch can be accomplished in many ways, shorter spring,put eye bolt in original spring mount and you have about 3/4 of a inch adjust,or eliminate the spring and put in a turnbuckle and keep 1/2 inch deflection on belt. Hope this can help since everyone but one guy seems to have this problem with this model. The other problem with my mower is the steering shaft bushing at the frame. Have wore this out twice. Just poor enginering with a small and thin bushing.

Overall Would not recommend this mover to no one. Had two cheap montgomery ward mowers in maryland that outperformed this one hands down. Need suggestions on belt problem Jowrench55@hotmail.com

Strengths Over all

Weaknesses splined spindle shaft and belt pulley. this was a constant problem. had it repaired 3 times by local company before I got fed up and did it myself. the shaft and pulley would both strip out on the same left spindle. come to find out the spindle had never been greased by the factory or the shop that had worked on it, but that was not the real issue. the spline on the shaft was keeping the bolt from tightening the pulley correctly. simple fix - added a spacer between the pulley and castle nut. poor design but simple fix.

Overall

Strengths I really liked the mower until it threw a belt. I have 1 acre of grass and it seemed to be operating good for the first 9 hours.

Weaknesses Threw the deck belt two times in the first 10 hours of operation

Overall I have searched for the pulley repair video on www.youtube.com but the site says that it has been removed. Does anyone have a copy or new link to this video?

Strengths

Weaknesses Doug, glad I could help with the deck drive belt problem. I know how frustrating it is to have an undependable piece of equipement. Been mowing all summer without a problem, other than a little shy on power going up the hills, but I guess the automatic transmission uses a certain % of the power.

Overall Can't complain!

Strengths Good engine. Strong Frame. Good strong Transmission.

Weaknesses Speed

Overall Very good tractor. durable for all sorts of jobs.