I have been using a 54 inch deck on my 2364 for close to twenty years. I have close to 2 acres of crass to cut. The deck does a great job. It finally started to rust through a couple of years ago.
I was able to get a NOS deck from IHCCW a few years ago. It had some surface rust that I sanded off and applied primer. I left it sitting in my garage until a finally found time to work on it last year.
I always liked 324 deck, but it had a few issues that I wanted to fix.
The front gauge wheels are mounted loosely. The gauge wheels bounce all over the place and the support arms like to break. See my post on this.
https://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/...ad.php?t=57120
The rear gauge wheels are off center which can cause the mounting parts to bend.
The gauge wheels that CC uses are not very good. They wear out pretty fast.
Up front I modified the mounting system to accept the gauge wheel assembly from the 3000 series. In back I remove the 3/4 inch mounting tubes and replace them with 1 inch tubes. I am now using JD gauge wheels in back.
Here they are unpainted. Finding tubes that were exactly one inch in diameter was harder then I thought. I never knew there was such a thing as Drawn Over Mandrel. I was able to get foot of DOM tube for a reasonable price. I cut the tubes and mounted them to the assembly and had them welded by a local guy. I had to extend the left one an inch for the gauge wheel to clear the deck.
More to come.