The most frustrating part of refurbing these Cub Cadet RZT 50s (2006-2012) are the decks and how quickly they rot from people not blowing off the grass after cutting. It's very difficult to find one and I'm hoping to identifying an alternate from another MTD model that can be substituted even with a little modification. Has anyone come across one?
wrldtvlr
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I wish the yard I cut was just grass that would blow off after cutting. The problem I have is enough dirt/dust and wet weeds that the glass clippings turn into concrete by the end of the mowing. To clean the deck I have to get a lift out and spend 30 minutes scraping the bottom of the deck. That gets gone at my end of year maintenance before going into storage.
ChrisBFRPKY
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Any MTD 50" zero turn deck will swap over. I have one from a White zero turn under one of my RZT50 mowers now. Red/maroon deck and a yellow Cub, cringe but it does a great job with the lawn. As long as I get those "Attaboys" from the wife when I'm finished with the yard, I don't care much what the mower looks like. The "lawn tractor" decks won't work without some ingenuity and that's a shame because everybody and his brother has a 1050 with a bad engine to almost give away. It is possible though. I was looking at an i1050 I bought for parts the other day and studied the deck a bit. You have to mount some of the zero turn deck goodies and add some extra idlers to route the belt to the back instead of the front, but it's doable. I have a 54" deck under a Cub SLT1554 also with a bad engine that got me to thinking. I'm still undecided whether to rebuild the SV740 on the 1554 or pull the deck and start fabricating a RZT-54. Just a suggestion, do what you want but when you get a good deck rebuilt and ready to go for yours drill some drain holes in the pond area they created on the deck next to the spindle mounts.
you can buy/install a deck washing kit (adapter) on any deck to clean the underside. Just buy from Amazon, drill a hole, snap on the adapter and hose and go, follow this link:
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thx for the reply, i've refurbed and sold about 35+ riding mowers but am mostly focusing on Zero turns, especially the Cub Cadets, Toro and JD. I see the RZTs all the time with bad decks and I have to do a lot of cutting and mig welding to get them right. The LT1050 decks look right but need an additional pulley and weld I think
wrldtvlr
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My RZT-S54 actually came with a wash port preinstalled. Unfortunately, I found it not very effective and unless I bypassed the seat switch, I had to have something heavy in the seat to keep the blades turning. It sort of worked around the blade where the port was located but the other two blades weren't affected. Making the remaining grass even wetter seemed to be a bad idea.
ChrisBFRPKY
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Yep, those outer spindle pulley covers are grass traps. Wet grass on those decks rots them away. Learned the hard way. My spindle covers are hanging on the garage wall and they'll stay there, I'll keep em around in case the next guy wants them. Those deck braces for the spindle area are awesome BTW, if you haven't got a set for your's it's a great upgrade. I buy those things everytime they go on sale. I think the last 3 pack of spindle braces I bought were just a bit over $20. I found if you have a rotten deck you can install another set of braces on top of the deck under the spindles as well.