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I’m leaning towards buying a Cub Cadet riding mower.
I understand the spindles can not be greased. It’s hard to understand why.
How often have other owners found that the spindles have to be replaced?

Quality mowers have greasable spindles except is California .
Residentials usually don't because they are all build down to a price.
A good set of quality sealed bearings should go 5 years if and only if you maintain the blades

It’s super easy to replace spindle bearings and the spindles with grease zerks aren’t for greasing the bearings. All that happens when you squirt grease in there is the void gets filled with grease, the bearings are sealed. You can get a six pack of bearings on Amazon for $20 and replace all of them when you sharpen the blades. It might take a little elbow grease to pop the old ones out but all you need to put the new ones in is a couple boards and a mallet. I would not base my buying decision on whether or not you have the “placebo” grease zerks.

Wes F. said:

It’s super easy to replace spindle bearings and the spindles with grease zerks aren’t for greasing the bearings. All that happens when you squirt grease in there is the void gets filled with grease, the bearings are sealed. You can get a six pack of bearings on Amazon for $20 and replace all of them when you sharpen the blades. It might take a little elbow grease to pop the old ones out but all you need to put the new ones in is a couple boards and a mallet. I would not base my buying decision on whether or not you have the “placebo” grease zerks.

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And they will be lucky to remain intact for the life of the edge of the blade .
Don't get me wrong , I love those bearings because so many fall apart and trash the housing, blades and even decks
I make thousands out of them every year and it takes a lot less time to swap out the complete assembly than to replace the bearings and the profit on each is the same and I end up with the Aluminium, blade bolt, pulley nut & spindle which I can on sell.
Love the customers who fit rubbish bearings, should be more of them.
Even better when they knock them in with a block of wood or just by tightening the blade bolt and don't bother to use either a drift or punch.

As said good quality bearings should last a long time but many of the bearings that are installed after market are either low on grease or packed poor quality grease. Here I pop the seals and repack most sealed bearing with EP2 grease. I don't know what that semi clear grease is but it tends to only last one season. I actually seen that stuff to harden causing problems. Even on spindles with grease fittings many arrive with sealed bearings. Upon rebuild if the customer has been attempting to grease them I pop the inner seals on replacement bearings.

I think one the reason behind OEMs switching to sealed bearings is that owners are not even greasing their mowers in the first place. I get many where front axles (spindles) are worn out do to lack of grease.

As for the installation yes knocking them in just any old way can damage them leading to early failure.

I can't speak for new CC spindles with grease zerks but the old ones like I have are NOT sealed bearings. Each spindle has a pair of opposed tapered roller bearings and grease is fed to them via drilled passages in the shaft.

I say depends on the model as I have seen both ways over the years. This is one reason need model numbers to look-up how the decks are put together.

Alas, my newish CC RZT SX54 has no spindle zerks and sealed hydros.

cpurvis said:

I can't speak for new CC spindles with grease zerks but the old ones like I have are NOT sealed bearings. Each spindle has a pair of opposed tapered roller bearings and grease is fed to them via drilled passages in the shaft.

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Yes ,
But the last thing MTD want is spindle bearings that last for 20 years & work perfectly provided they get proper maintenance .

wrldtvlr said:

Alas, my newish CC RZT SX54 has no spindle zerks and sealed hydros.

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It is called a disposable mower .

bertsmobile1 said:

It is called a disposable mower .

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Mower is repairable, It just not as end user serviceable as some are. Most ZTR and riders have sealed hydros. Doesn't mean they are not serviceable; it just that they must be remove to do so they are sealed as preventive maintenance measure, mainly to keep water and dirt out of them. I recently serviced a Tuff Torq K46 sealed unit. The oil fill had failed and oil looked like thinned peanut butter due water getting into the hydro. THe unit must be removed and turn upside down to drain the oil and replace the internal oil filter/strainer. Plus the oil pan is pull off upright the brake puck and a magnet or two falls out; upside down they don't.

The main problem I see would be the steering on SX54. I have seen one in person yet but looking at the IPL it looks rather involved repair wise. I prefer lap bars over this type of steering.

Sealed bearing with good grease and the appropriate amount of grease will last several years, just depends on usage level. I just rebuilt the spindles on 2019 17RIEACZ010 that the customer is using commercially. Of course they going to need more servicing.

Even the taper bearing spindles will still need the cones and cups replace sooner or later.

I recently had the pleasure of replacing the hydro drive belt on a CC RTZ. A bit of a PITA to do and probably not homeowner friendly. Replaced an idler and spindle bearings too. If you think CC is like the old CC stuff you are fooling yourself. Yellow paint doesn't make it better. And the steering linkage is too complicated plus the owner is going to sell it and get a conventional Z mower. Wife wanted the steering wheel but it is just a half a$$ zero turn according to him.

They make the RTZ in both versions. Yes changing the drive on any ZTR is pain as it usually requires removing the electric PTO clutch. CC and MTD has a bad habit of not using anti-seize compound on new equipment so a lot of the time the PTO and drive pulleys are stuck on the crankshaft. I have destroyed no telling how many CC ZTR drive pulleys over the years getting them off so I could the engines off and apart to service the internals.

bertsmobile1 said:

It is called a disposable mower.

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Perhaps a bit harsh, but understandable comment. In my case, I had just purchased a new house and needed a mower that could do two acres with the change left in my pocket. The RTZ SX price point was pretty much the top of what I could swing this year. Looking at the hour meter right now, I used it just under 50 hours for not quite a full season. If I can get 500 hours over the next 3 or 4 years without any significant maintenance, I'll be happy. By then I'll be in a better position to look at something more rugged (and expensive). Clearly, I'm CC's target market.

StarTech said:

The main problem I see would be the steering on SX54. I have seen one in person yet but looking at the IPL it looks rather involved repair wise. I prefer lap bars over this type of steering.

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In my case, the steering was an essential feature to handle the 20 degree slope the majority of my 2 acres has. The center of gravity on standard mowers was too high. ZTRs with lap bar steering (caster front wheels) would have dug up the grass too much and I wasn't convinced that turns on the slope would have been doable. The RTZ steering is pretty basic, but it serves a purpose for me.

If you intend to keep it for that long then make sure you regularly lift the floor plate and clean the debris out of the steering linkages

bertsmobile1 said:

If you intend to keep it for that long then make sure you regularly lift the floor plate and clean the debris out of the steering linkages

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Agreed. Have also been quite aggressive with the grease gun. Fortunately they did put zerks in key locations.