3206 Cub,the 3000 may have a bad rap.

[rustyoldjunk]

I almost always stick to antique and vintage garden tractors. I love the classics from the 60's and older. I have owned a lot of vintage garden tractors ( probably 300-400) over the years. I used to be a top rated Ebay power seller with a Ebay store and a local buy/sell/trade/repair antique/vintage shop. I have been in clubs and on forums for 15 years or so and I run a few fairly big Garden tractor groups on FaceBook now. I like the old 900 series MTD's from the late 60's until the early 80's ( they continued up until a few years ago but in cheapened up more complicated versions,IMHO),but I do not like any of the newer cheap MTD tractors. But having recently drug in a 3206 Cub,they may get a bad rap just because they are MTD machines. This machine is as heavy built as most and 70's garden tractor. It weighs 900 plus pounds without the deck. Heavy duty cast iron front axle with 1 inch spindles,front wheels with bearings,heavy duty twin rail frame with cross members,22 HP Kohler Command v twin,shaft driven to a cast iron transaxle,all steel sheetmetal,no plastic,option 4 way hydraulic front blade,optional CAT.0 3 point hitch,etc. Plus foot controlled hydro,diff lock,power steering,tilt wheel,cruise control,shaft driven attachments,etc. Granted some things like switches and controls are kind of cheap but go look at a new high dollar Simplicity garden tractor and you will find some cheap there too,it's the way of the manufactures today. I have to say as a GT and comparing it to my old school GT's I am fairly impressed and from MTD to boot,I would never have thought. This tractor is far off caliber of my Simplicity Sunstar and if you are familiar with the Sunstar "super GT's" then you know I think this is a pretty good solid GT overall. I was just surprised at the build of this 3206. I do realize that the have common weak spots after researching them some but every brand that I have ever owned and researched have had common weak spots.Anyway here is the 3206 that I recently drug in. It was parked in a barn by the original owners because after changing the blades it didn't mow good. They put the new blades on upside down. They paid close to $6000 for it new in 2002-2003. I have mowed with it once and I really like how it runs drives and mows. My only concern is,is the Kohler Command up to the longevity of the older engines. This tractor has about 340 hours on the meter. A friend picked it up from the original owner and I traded a antique 1 wheel garden tractor that I had about $10 in and a Winch that I had nothing in that I had used for years along with a set of Economy Power King front hubs and wheels with tri ribs on them that I had nothing in either. So I have about $10 in it so far. I had to fix the fuel shuoff valve on the carburetor,turn the blades over and I went and mowed. Now I have to replace the front PTO belts and fix a cracked PTO bracket and the biggie.... I need to replace or rebuild the hydraulic lift control valve. Mice got in it while it was parked in the barn and the urine has rusted the control valve completely stuck. Did I mention that these tractors also came with option extra spools of hydraulics ?...OK,I said on to the pictures so without further yacking.