• This community needs YOUR help today!

    With the ever-increasing fees of maintaining our vibrant community (servers, software, domains, email), we need help.
    We need more Supporting Members today.

    Please invest back into this community to help spread our love and knowledge of all aspects of IH Cub Cadet and other garden tractors.

    Why Join?

    • Exclusive Access: Gain entry to private forums.
    • Special Perks: Enjoy enhanced account features that enrich your experience, including the ability to disable ads.
    • Free Gifts: Sign up annually and receive exclusive IH Cub Cadet Tractor Forum decals directly to your door!

    This is your chance to make a difference. Become a Supporting Member today:

    Upgrade Now

54" GT deck on 882

IH Cub Cadet Forum

Help Support IH Cub Cadet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jmhill

Active member
Joined
Dec 1, 2015
Messages
42
displayname
John Hill
Steven Blunier, or anybody else who's put a 54" GT deck on an 82 series, what all did you have to do to make it fit? I'm planning to retrofit a cyclops front axle for additional clearance. What did you do about pulley sizes? Mine is going on an 882 diesel. Thanks!
 
John,

I put one on a std 782 without super steer. Changed center deck pulley for one off of a 44/50C to match PTO/deck pulley sizes.

All I had to do was roll the front lip of the deck a little bit for clearance on turns......no big deal.

312806.jpg

312807.jpg

312808.jpg

312809.jpg

312810.jpg

312811.jpg

312812.jpg
 
I put one on my 782 about 15 years ago when I did the cyclopes super steer and power steering upgrade.
My front clutch was getting pretty worn so I just replaced it with a new heavy duty one with the larger drive pulley.
I really like the 54GT deck. It mows a lot better than my old deck. I just need to strip it down and paint it white one of these days so it matches the tractor better. Mine looks about like Steve's with the yellow paint coming off.

The larger drive pulley has worked great for me since it also speeds up the snow thrower without having to modify the thrower pulley. I just have to remember to order the longer size belt that fits instead of the one listed.
 
You need the lift linkage also?
Yes ,I answered my own question. As shown in Steve’s pictures I put the lift linkage for the 54” deck on the 782 mule drive. Need to use the 50 deck drive pulley. I also almost psyched myself out. The 54” GT deck is physically narrower than the 50c. After measuring the blades and the distance between the outboard pulleys I determined I had indeed drug home a 54” deck.
 
Next issue: Drive belt. My 782/54” GT deck project is done like the one in the pics above. GT lift linkage pinned to the old 82 series mule drive with the 44/50c deck drive pulley. Now the belt slips. Not enough take up in the mule drive pulley adjustments to get it all out. Shorter belt perhaps?
 
Finally finished this project. The GT 54” deck is definitely worth the trouble. Blows grass out the discharge like a forage chopper. And still leaves a very nice cut. Floats much better than the 50c. Which is nice around rough farm stead mowing.
 
Glad to hear it worked out....was the belt length correct?
 
Glad to hear it worked out....was the belt length correct?
No. But thank you for putting me on the right track.For some reason I needed longer. Napa did the exchange no problem. PTO pulley must have been bigger. Came with the M18 engine I guess.
 
Did you swap the center deck pulley for one off of a 50C? If not you would need a longer belt.....mower wont perform well with 6" deck pulley and 4" clutch pulley....under driven
 
Did you swap the center deck pulley for one off of a 50C? If not you would need a longer belt.....mower wont perform well with 6" deck pulley and 4" clutch pulley....under driven
Yes,I did. Well, I took one from a 44c I had because I didn’t want to part a decent 50c.
 
Good deal!
I think I may have figured out why I needed the longer belt. Because of the Super Steer and 26” rears my deck hangs lower relative to the tractor. Further from the mule drive. I also had to use longer deck hangers to drop the deck down into position.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top