Congrats on a nice machine.
It sounds like to me that you are getting this to help out around the house and not trying to start an excavation business so I think it should work out well for you. I'm thinking that the foot controlled hydro would be more user friendly in this application by leaving one of your hands free to work the sticks.
Dale C. is correct about roller bearings in the rear. They are HK 3020 and cost about $10 each if you need you replace them.
The front ends are built pretty heavy duty on these if you compare them to the 82 series and Cyclops machines. Any Cub built prior to the 82 series with a FEL would be toy compared to this.
IIRC those were the last FEL's built by KW. What a shame but new GT's are no longer built so the market went away.
Got any pics of how they mounted the pump?
Keep us posted on the steering issue. I've never heard of an issue with them yet but as others have said the FEL's put our little machines to the test.