When I got it home a few weeks ago, I was home for five days before hopping (back) in the car and going back out to NY for another three weeks (Got home 2am Sunday, worked all week, and left for NY 7:30am Saturday - all told, something like 5000 miles in five weeks). Now that I'm finally home for the long haul, I'll be able to start tinkering with it.
Here is the 125, with the deck off:
I've degreased the heck out of it and pressure washed it, so it's a tad cleaner now. Prior to me starting it and bringing it out, it probably sat for at least two years.
Here is the deck. It measures 48" from edge to edge. I haven't measured blade tip to blade top, so my guess of 44" cut may have been off, but it's definitely 48" from edge to edge. Yes, it needs to be cleaned
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The way it's sitting with one wheel off the ground may be related to the round stock guards and how they're sitting - not really sure what you'd call them (Both rear wheels are in the same hole). I can't imagine the deck is actually bent. The ID Plate, which I'm pretty sure would be on the right side of the deck (looking at the picture) is gone. Probably rusted away.
And of course my daughter, wanting to drive. She loves riding the tractor
I got some goodies from Kirk Engines (I've seen him referenced here a time or two) to add on and hopefully improve steering and engine run quality. But ultimately, the engine will need to be rebuilt. Where I'm 'conflicted' is do I do it myself or have J-Mech do it? Or do I grab the extra K301A that's still in NY and rebuild that myself and see how it goes, and if badly, have J-Mech rebuild the one in the tractor now? I'm not a stranger to engines, and while I've never done a full rebuild on an engine, I've had multiple engines down to the shortblock and re-assembled from there back to running (Ford 4.6 OHC, GM 3400 V6, Dodge 3.8L V6, 6.6L Duramax, etc) - every one still running happily.
I also need to figure a way to rig the trac vac boot (The black thing to the left in the pic with my daughter) onto the deck, ideally without permanently modifying the deck. I may want the CC to take over lawn mowing duties from my old Lesco, but I definitely want to be able to use it to deal with the 52 tons of leaves from our yard full of trees. I have some thoughts, but I'll have to sit down and tinker with it.