? for Lance S or Tom A or Brendan-ks

On the subject of garden versus lawn tractors, There is a GTX 1554 CC on a sale comimg up looked it up on tractor data, read some other reviews on it I would guess this would be a suitable tractor for using sleeve hitch equipment? I'd love to run across one of the older tractors but they seem to be few and far between in this area (so. Ill). thanks for any replies and advice.

To be perfectly frank, MTD has never impressed me as a manufacturer other than the old 990 model they put out years ago. That was a true garden tractor. When Cub Cadet was owned by International Harvester, most of the models produced were garden tractors and they were tough. IMO the GT1554 barely qualifies as a garden tractor but it does have a sleeve hitch available for it. I believe that the hydro is made by Hydro-Gear but I have not been able to pin down the model number. I am also not sure if that hydro has an oil filter and drain plug on it. Sealed hydros are junk. Changing the fluid regularly is the way you extend the life of a hydro and a filter keeps the particulate from chewing up all the internal parts.

Prior to jumping at this one, I suggest you do more research. For example, My Tractor Forum or Garden Tractor Talk of TractorbyNet all have Cub Cadet forums that may be able to help.

I'll have to agree with Tom... except on one point... I have, and have had both a 960 and a 990 MTDs... I kept the 960... it will practically pull the house off its foundation, the 990 would only pull the garage.LOLOL

Just because a tractor has a sleeve hitch doesnt mean it can do all the garden duties, it doesnt take much of a tractor to run a tiller for example, but try dragging a 10" plough with that 1554 and you wont get far. I didnt see the GTX 1554 on TD.com but Im guessing its a mid to late 200X... weighing in about 600 lbs... thats not something I would expect could stand up well.

If you plan on working a tractor hard I would suggest something with weight, at least 800 lbs and a transaxle, some older hydros are very capable also but they work best with higher rpm's, a comparable tractor with a gearbox will usually do the same job at half throttle... which means less wear/tear on the engine, and less fuel. For another example I have a '74 Ford LGT145(14hp hydro) and a '72 LGT100(10hp gearbox)... the LGT100 is a better "Tractor"

You dont have to go back into the 70s to get a tough tractor but I think unless you have pretty deep pockets you would wise to go at least to the late 80s and early 90s when there was still quite a few models with some decent weight that you buy for a reasonable price. Once you get much newer than that you need to look at CUT tractors to do the same chores and older garden tractor would do and then of course the price go up along with the size.