Cub Cadet FAQ's

Higher Deck Lift on 82 Series Tractors

Info by Richard Christensen

And stolen from IHCUBCADET.COM on December 09, 2005

Here is something that might interest 782 owners. I think everyone has problems with the amount of lift when you have a mower deck installed. When I got my 782 it couldn't lift the wheels off the ground, I found the lift arm bent on mine like many others have found, I fixed it but was still not impressed with it after having a Quietline. I can only get the mower wheels about 1 inch off the ground and sometimes you are transporting it and hit some gravel with the front swivel casters and it doesn't do them any good. This lift height is only critical when you have a mower deck as you can modify a blade lift arm to get the required results.

The Quietlines have a ram with about 4 1/2 inch travel, while the 782 ram only has a travel of approx 2 1/2 inch. The lift mechanism's are somewhat different but the final output is the amount the lower lift arms raise. Here is a picture of the lower lift arms on a 1450 on the left and a 782 on the right and you can see the difference in the lift of the arms. There is a good inch difference in lift at this point.



I looked at different ways to improve it, didn't want to buy another ram, hated to move the ram back and have to re-drill mounting holes. I'm not concerned with the amount of drop as that is more than enough, so I just wanted to move everything up.

The simplest place to modify it seemed to me was the point where the upper lift arm hits the pin on the bracket that attaches to the Ram. This way I could install something without making a major change to the lift system.



I built a metal bracket out of 1/2 inch steel that just mounts in the rear pin of the bracket from the ram. Picture of the bracket I made on the left and installed on the right. This moves the lift arm back about 1/2 inch and provides a flat surface for the lift arm to push against.



The end result was the rear mower deck mounting bracket that would lift to 8 1/2 inches before will now lift to 9 5/8 inch. The extra 1 1/8 inch helps save the mower deck and wheels.