97ish cub cadet

Not quiet sure how to start this off so bear with me.This is my 97ish cub cadet i picked up one day on CL for 90$, The guy said it dint run but i jumped the solenoid and it fired right up when i got home. Its got a shaft driven hydro gear behind a 13hp kohler.
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 A few things ive done already are.
Move the front axle forward about 6 inches
Made some pretty neat steering arms
Made a rear plate for shackles to hook to
Slapped some alright tires on it
Currently re-doing the dash and wiring.



And much much more planned.

That long arm looks like it would be a great brake handle. Good deal for $90.

Pretty good for $90. Something like that around here would cost upwards of £300. What's the Craftsman with the ATV tyres in the backround?

Cool! I'd be interested to see how that drive train would do for all-terrain use.

Hydro's burn out very quickly when sped up, so not very suitable for off-road. But if you enjoy running around at stock speed, it could work, who knows?

Cub hydros are pretty quick. If its not the belt driven driveshaft it should do great.

Looks a lot like the one @TheGreenHornet and I tore apart. The hydro is shaft driven from the flywheel correct? Some people build pullers with these things, they're the exception to the "hydros are weak" rule

the craftsman in the background has a hydrostat also. not sure what year or model but its a trooper, i drowned it a few weeks ago and put new oil and gas in it and it fired back up no problem...i check water levels now before i dive in...
And the transaxel is a sorta good but sorta bad deal. the long lever was for the pedal so you wouldent have to use youre foot, but people use it as a speed controll which its ment to be mashed. this wears out the clutch packs from what ive read  but a washer added to the disks fixes it like a shim. its not slipping too bad in the mud and water but when i have decent tires on going up hills i have to put it in 1st. ill be shimming it when i weld the spider gears which is a must for this thing.

and yes the drive shaft comes off the flywheel into a hydro pump clutch deal which goes to a geared transaxel from what i understand from reading.

Looking at your profile pic, it doesn't look like you waited long to beat on it. How's it do?

A tough hydro! Finally my life is complete. LOL, hope you have fun with it. Wish there were more shaft driven lawn tractors out there.

its pretty decent its got its moments that it shines and moments when it sits like a turd. it needs more wheelspeed in the mud but does good on trails plowing over stuff. i need to replace a valve stem and i can test its lengthened wheelbase sometime today

so today i found out i lied about it being a hydro... i thought sense it had the pedal and was called a hydrogear it was a hydro. Instead what i thought was the pump is actually 2 clutch packs (forward/reverse) which is why it has the pedal. ive taken the clutch housing apart to shim the clutch packs and wow its an interesting transaxel. hope i can go up hills again after this. all and all today was a good day. almost got my wheels turning again and got lucky and picked up a 18.5hp twin opposed cylinder for 10 bucks just needs a carb figured why not. if it runs i may start on a custom frame mower and slap this (i think) peerless 600 series with the 18.5hp.