A Tale of Two Cubs

It was late July 2004 and I was in the process of buying a car, buying a house, and needing to work on both as well as working on the old house to prep for sale. The car, a Volvo 960, was purchased wrecked as a salvage title so I was looking to round up parts to repair the front end damage and the house needed electrical and general maintenance. I had four other cars to keep up with and a 1974 Honda motorcycle, two three wheelers and a dirt bike. As you can see, I needed another project like I needed a 6th hole in my head. But I did need a bigger lawn mower. I was at the time, mowing my 200 by 100 foot lawn with a very smooth quiet Honda 30” L1011 mower. I paid $350.00 for this one and used it for 3 years with no mechanical trouble. It was a good machine overall but it would not be able to handle my future 1.5 acre lawn task. I sold it for $350.00. Not a bad investment, but now I had to invest this in something…but what?
I had been pretty much given the go ahead by my financial advisor (wife) to buy a new mower. Being the eternal tinkerer and tightwad I couldn’t see myself letting go of upwards of $1500.00 for a new machine. The only things I buy new are clothes and that is rare. New stuff bores me to tears as I live in an eternal ADHD fog and new stuff rarely gives reason to disassemble and stress over it. I was offered a broken Craftsman with a new engine and a couple of other mowers in various states of disrepair. Nothing sounded interesting to me until my Dad told me of a friend of his with a couple of Cub Cadets under a tree in his back yard for $50.00. At first I was indifferent as I had not heard of or seen a Cub Cadet since the Cub Lowboy the priest used to use at the Church years ago. But they kept coming up in conversation. I was told of the solid construction and the stories of how these were the tractors everyone wanted to own “back in the day”. He said they could be fixed so I went look at them. I will describe to the best of memory this sunny summer afternoon in South Louisiana. We drove up to the house and the owner wasn’t home so we went to the back yard. There under a large oak tree were the machines. There was a 1200 three speed and a 1250 hydrostatic transmission. I knew NOTHING about these particular units. The 1250 had no hood and one flat. The 1200 had more flats and a boat seat bolted to the seat plate. I inspected them cautiously. One had a good deck (very important), both had beefy rear ends, and big 12HP engines of heavy cast iron construction. Overall, I figured I could make one out of the two and a 44” deck was about right for the future yard. Would they turn over? Were the old late 70’s Kohlers forever frozen? I put some Mystery oil in the cylinders and connected a jump starter. Turned the key on the first one (don’t remember which) and heard a click………..pop and it spun. It went about the same on the second machine. The owner showed up and I put on my best skeptical future owner face. “I don’t know, they need a lot of work,” I said. Finally, he told me to just get them out of his yard. I would of course take them at that price. I told him would come back with a trailer in a week or so. Being impatient and as mentioned earlier ADHD I was back the next day. I brought a trailer and we loaded them on by the hardest as most everything had frozen solid with rust. The trip home was uneventful except for a couple of Mexicans towing a minivan careening off the interstate and into oncoming traffic in front of us. The cubs had a new home in Lafayette.
I HAD to hear these things run! I filled the cylinders with that mysterious oil and had to wait till the next morning to fire them up if they would. That night I found a website called ihcubcadet.com. There I started to read of the quality of these American built machines and the knowledgeable folks who owned them today. Of COURSE, the next morning I was up at 5 A.M. and ready to rock and roll! Within an hour I had the neighborhood filled with oil smoke and the sweet sound of a Kohler 12 horse with a busted muffler. Surely the neighbors loved this as much as I did, right. In the next few weeks I got them both working and at one point actually expected to get both units fully functional. I eventually settled on getting the 3 speed running well enough to mow through the summer and restoring the Hydro over the winter. This plan worked well for about two months. Then it started to fall apart. First, the clutch went out and you had to grind it in gear or start it in gear. Then one evening as Brittany was mowing I heard the engine sputter and die a few times, then it died for good at the roadside. I choked it later that night and sputtered to the garage. That was it; it was time to rebuild the Hydro.

This tractor did run so I drove it, smoke-a-belchin’ into the garage for disassembly. I took apart both machines completely. All the best parts were going on the Hydro. The three-speed engine had massive oil leaks but did not smoke. There were various other parts that when strewn across the garage floor and inspected closely were chosen for use on my obsession. Wheels were blasted and painted, fingers were smashed, paint was sprayed, money was spent wildly, and finally a tractor was reborn in my little version of Monster Garage. Or would it be Pimp My Cub? I installed new tie rod ends, new engine gaskets, tires, seat, and many other items. I managed to save the original decals. To top it off the tractor got a chrome steering wheel and a skull forward/reverse knob. The grille bears the hood emblem from a 1957 Cadillac as I have often called the Cub the “Cadillac” of lawn tractors. As for the 1200 tractor, it lived a good life, but in the end it gave up its engine and a few other body panels that were in better condition. It is now a rolling chassis and a pile of parts.
These machines were built in the U.S. and are of the highest quality. It can be seen, felt, heard in using them. Working on a machine like this had sort of a relaxing quality to it because you know the work is not in vain. It would seem that they are unbreakable and some parts actually are. I do believe I will get many more years of use out of this old machine from 1978. It needs more chrome though.

 

Paul Brouillette 12/04