New to me....3225 FEL!!!

[dale c.]

your tractor should have the aluminum rear end they have needle bearings at the outer end of the axles that have grease in them from the factory which depletes with use my local dealer recommends replacing after 500 hrs. I've been cleaning and repacking with good grease but they don't hold much. if they go dry it will tear up the axles , and the diff. gears ..pretty big $$$$$ if it was mine I'd take the suitcase weights off and add weight in the tires to lessen the weight on the bearings

[CubDieselFan]

We seem to be raining on your parade, but the 3000 series Cubs are not built as well as the others you have. FEL's are hard on all of them.

[ACecil]

Nice find on your cub and FEL!

[aagitch]

Very nice find, good for you!

[Oak]

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.

[inspectorudy]

I have put FEL's on several GT tractors and they work just fine if you understand what they are capable of. Here in GA it is not possible to use a GT tractor with an FEL on it to gouge out and level GA red clay. It can be done but you have to get a little speed and then ram the ground with the bucket. Needless to say it is very hard on the front end of the GT and the whole tractor takes a beating. If you buy a truck load of soil or sand and want to spread it around then the smaller FEL's are just fine but you should go with a smaller bucket than 48" and that are deep. Also try to keep the dead stop, bucket loaded turns to a minimum. That puts a tremendous load on the steering system. If you can make all of your turns while slightly moving the strain goes way down. I found them to be a real back saver when I needed to move things around the yard like stones or fire wood. They are great tools! I would suspect that the bushings/bearings are shot on the front axle and any other worn parts might need to be replaced. Check out the hydraulic steering ram by watching it where it joins the front spindle and see how far it moves when you turn the wheel before the spindle actually moves. If it moves quickly then you have a wheel issue. If it doesn't move for a few inches of steering wheel travel then you have a PS valve issue. Also, the horrible back and forth of the front wheels when moving can be due to being out of tolerance for toe in. If the toe in is set too far outward the tractor will be real "Darty" when on a straight and smooth path.

[J-Mech]

Originally Posted by inspectorudy

I have put FEL's on several GT tractors and they work just fine if you understand what they are capable of.

Ok... but what make of tractor did you put them on. I know your a "green" guy. JD's front ends are built better than the CCC ones are. (Sorry boy's, but they are.)

[Bsmith]

Originally Posted by Dirty Steve

Congrats!! Nice looking rig you picked up and a hell of a nice heard you have!!!

Thanks Steve. They do seem to keep multiplying though.

[Bsmith]

Originally Posted by Rescue11

Your steering, front axle bushings, pins, spindles, bearings, ball joints... basically anything on that front end will wear out in a hurry with a fel. Not saying loaders are bad, but cub cadet gts and sgt were not built for front loaders. Notice the lack of oem cub cadet brand loaders for gts?

Simply put, your loader will punish that garden tractor same as if you dropped it from a 3 story building on to cured pavement. Good luck, nice looking machine, first i have seen a 3k machine with a loader!

Rescue, I agree a loader is hard on a gt but I feel proper maintenance and caution while operating it can go a long way in minimizing the toll that they take. For example I do not plan on driving it off of any building roofs.

[Bsmith]

Originally Posted by J-Mech

^^^^ X2

It's not likely the steering cylinder is bad. It's likely that the front end is already shot.

J-Mech, the spindle bushings and tie rods look ok. The front wheel bearings also look good. I did find that the ball joints on both ends of the steering cylinder were loose along with the cylinder bracket that mounts to the frame. I have tightened these up and the improvement to the steering was dramatic. I am leaving the cylinder alone for now and continue to monitor the front end.