Cub Cadet RZTS 54 Steering Alignment

[Hammermechanicman]

Goes something like this. Starts out as Allen Bradley. From there sears acquires AB and sells garden tractors as AB suburban. That becomes Roper and then AYP. AYP then sold to Electrolux that spun it off to Husqvarna which became HOP husqvarna outdoor products who is owned by KTM AG. It is hard to keep up with when companies chenge ownership. May have missed a name or two in there.

 

[bertsmobile1]

A lot of what is in the web is out of date as things move very quickly
It has always been a problem that nothing has a creation date so you have no idea if it is current or 20 years old unless there is a date in the text.
Briggs are now bankrupt for instance. They are considering flogging off all of their wholegoods divisions which means in a few years all Briggs branded products will be made in either China or India or the brand will cease to exist all together just like Tecumseh .
Add to that lots of what is on the web is plain wrong
Then there is the distinction between "who makes" & "Who owns ", not the same thing and oft conflaited
And AYP is owned by Husqvarna but the only BRAND they own are Husqvarna & Jonsored all of the others are owned by private companies.
Then you get confusing things like Husqvarna owns the Poulan, & McCulloch chain saw brands, but not the riding mower brands .
When a company goes down the drain, the liquidators are bound to do whatever they can to recoup the most money for the creditors
So when a company like McCulloch fails they can sell the entire name McCulloch or sell each part individually so while you see McCulloch, leaf blowers , chain saws , walk behind mowers & ride on mowers, each is owned by a different group and that also happens internationally as the McCulloch brand name in Australia is not owned by Husqvarna but by a Hong Kong company who used to make McCulloch & some Ryobi products sold in the Asia -Pacific region
The Craftsman brand riding mowers is owned by RGS in Aust & NZ but not anywhere else in the world but RGS do not own any other Craftsman branded product including the push mowers .
The world of big business is very confusing and post Corona it will be vastly different.

 

[StarTech]

Just makes it a nightmare to keep with especially servicing the equipment as to who to buy parts from.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

For sure.
I needed a clutch kit for my IH 184 tractor. Decided to go with OEM from Case IH and not the aftermarket one from India for $150 that looked sketchy. The OEM was $325 and was the exact same India clutch kit in a Case IH box. Sice it was special order paid in advance i had to eat it. Last part i bought from Case IH.

 

[wrldtvlr]

I needed a clutch kit for my IH 184 tractor. Decided to go with OEM from Case IH and not the aftermarket one from India for $150 that looked sketchy. The OEM was $325 and was the exact same India clutch kit in a Case IH box.

Have some experience with this on the corporate side. The financial types see inventory as evil. It messes up their precious financial ratios. So frequently, as soon as a product goes out of production, a company will sell off all the remaining parts stock to a third party and license them to manage any future sales. Those third party companies are working on paper thin margins and that forces them to keep inventories as low as possible. Unless demand is unusually high, there's often a single manufacturing source that provides both the branded and generic part. Even if the factory swears with pinkie fingers they won't sell off label, somehow it happens.

 

[bertsmobile1]

It comes back the profit to equity ratio.
A totally meaningless measurement to a business but one that is used by managers to justify big bonuses

 

[mboessen]

Hi all:
not sure if anyone is following this thread anymore, but I thought I would post an update in case it would prove useful for anyone else purchasing one of these RZT SX 54 mowers. I started this thread because I was concerned that the front wheels appeared to not be correctly aligned. With just a measuring tape between the front and rear of the tires my front wheels were toed in about an inch. The general consensus I got on this discussion thread was that it was probably normal. Last week I removed the basically slick factory tires from the front and put something on there with better tread. This made the front wheels literally chew grass as I was driving, and they would leave tracks in the gravel driveway. I called our local dealership and took the mower in for them to look at. The service manager took one glance at the front wheels and immediately said they were not right. They realigned the steering, and now the front wheels are parallel and the mower drives much better. I thought maybe it was shipping damage, but they said there were no damaged parts and it was just incorrectly aligned at the factory.

 

[SueHender]

I used to have a model very similar to the Cub Cadet RZT 54 in all characteristics and I also had a problem with the deviation slightly more than you have. It was somewhere 5-7 degrees, for sure. After the inspection, I realized that this is not a mechanical problem and you need to look for the problem in the electronics. Since I'm not very experienced in this area I called an electronics expert and he said that you need to replace the Controller like here https://www.automationstop.com/shop/allen-bradley-plc/1764/1764-LRP and after that, everything will be aligned. After work, everything really fell into place.