(By Greg Rourke) – For various reasons, I haven’t built any cool rods are done much noteworthy for over 30 years. I always read all the magazines, attended a few races and car shows, and kept myself entertained spinning wrenches trying to keep our junk daily drivers on the road. Speaking of keeping life going, I discovered Cub Cadets.
Cub Cadets are an immensely popular garden tractor. The real cult following is devoted to only the pre-1982 models that were still built by International Harvester. And we mean garden TRACTOR, not a riding mower. These things were built like tanks.
I had a little house on a big lot. I needed more than a push mower, so I went to Sears to look at tractors. I wasn’t impressed, and they were a bit spendy. I then went to a Cub Cadet dealer to look at used stuff. A 124 Cub Cadet made in 1969 was almost as much as the new Sears units. The dealer explained to me why these old beasts would still be running and working long after the shiny new stuff was being fed to the shredder. Then he took me behind his shop and showed me about an acre of his Cub Cadet wrecking yard and several buildings full of used parts. Sold. So while I wasn’t racing or building hot street machinery, I had fun with collecting a few Cub Cadets.
I told you that story to tell you this story. I learned about Brian Miller while researching steering boxes. Brian is Smokey Yunick, Grumpy Jenkins, and Austin Coil rolled into one, when it comes to small engines in general, and Cub Cadets in particular. He knows everything about them, every detail from every model. He has made lots of performance parts for them. He built a dyno for small engines, capable of 200 horsepower and 12,000 rpm. When he had a falling out with the local tractor pulling organization he built a sled and started his own. Everything happens out of his small shop in rural Missouri.
I couldn’t possible describe everything he does, but fortunately Brian has a few web sites to spend many hours perusing. Even if you cut your grass with a Lawn Boy you can appreciate this stuff.
CLICK ON THE PHOTO BELOW TO SEE THE ENTIRE SITE –
Being a gearhead and a multi-Cub owner (from an Original to a 782D both in regular use) I can’t understand why you didn’t at least use a Cub in the picture for the article!!!
IH had a great tag line for Cub Cadets ” Built to withstand the most destructive force known to man: The teenage boy”