The middle blade is still longer on the 48" decks.

I was going to ask if the covers are universal between that style of deck. I have a spare cover or 2 laying around. We have the bolt for the idler arm its just out of the picture.

Are these "good" decks since they are rare, and don't have wheels? I originally though that someone had just taken off the wheels, but then seen that it doesn't have holes to bolt the brackets there. I have another deck that I think would work that has wheels if they mow better.

Pretty sure the 48” covers are universal between different model 48s. The 38/42 decks have different covers (they have two holes instead of one). I think the 38/42 ones are a little smaller but I’ve never tried to swap them.

48”s that had wheels had welded on brackets for them.

They are pretty good cutting decks, depending on how good the spindles are and if you’ve got good sharp blades on them. They are “rare” because they tended to get beat up a bit more than the smaller ones, and not all the tractors could spin one very well (12hp+). There are also some weak spots by the discharge chute that tend to rot out on these.

The wheels are just for controlling scalping on those, not for it to ride on. Scalping is a problem that all the older cub decks have for the most part.

I don’t know that the skids vs wheels makes a huge difference other than being able to adjust how far off the ground they hit, but the only 48” I’ve mowed with had wheels so I can’t really compare the two.

I'm really not trying to be a smarta$$, but all of the part numbers for everything you need are on the link I posted. You can literally click on the link and look up the part numbers for each deck by picture/number, and then cross reference it with other decks...

Perhaps you didn't know this. Or perhaps you did. The information is there, you just need to look at it. Again, I'm not trying to be rude, but all we are going to do is look it up. It just seems to me you might want to do the same.