In light of PA Plow Day this coming weekend, I just wanted to update everyone on the status of the custom Cub Cadet 782 which has been my plow tractor the last 3 years. I brought it out of hibernation last week, greased it and mounted the Brinly 3-point plow (now sporting a custom suitcase weight bracket), in preparation for all the plowing events this coming season. I've made a few more changes to the tractor this past year, and finally completed the third phase of the "JD 318 Wannabe" build: dual independent brake pedals.

The two-pedal system was the last piece necessary to get this 782 spec'd out as close to a 318 as possible, in terms of features (the Onan engine, CV driveshaft, power steering, and dual remotes were all needed as well). In my opinion, dual brakes should have been standard equipment on the smaller hydrostatic 82 series tractors and their successors (782, 1811 etc) - they have more practical uses than most people give them credit for, and I wish they were still available on modern garden tractors.

I picked up a set of dual brake pedals that were removed from a larger 1872 super garden tractor (these require the welded mounting flanges to be cut out of the Super frame to get them off the tractor). Luckily the pedal shaft hangers/flanges on a 782 are bolted to the frame rather than welded, making the whole pedal shaft easily removable. I had to sacrifice the original pedal shaft to remove these flanges and also to mock up the connection/"eyelet" where the neutral return linkage connects - unfortunately, despite making an exact copy and welding it in the correct orientation on the pedal shaft, the linkage would only bind up, making the neutral return feature useless. I chose to delete it for the time being, but might try to improve this (and also add a parking brake) in the future.

The Super frames are longer than a standard 82 series frame, and the pedal pivot shaft sits further forward of the transaxle because of this - so to make these pedals work on a 782 (and clear the foot rests) they need to be extended about 8". I extended the pedals with some 1/2" stock and had to be careful to re-weld the pedal rods to their pivots at just the right angle - that way, the left pedal wouldn't rub the frame and RH side panel, and the right pedal wouldn't stick out past the right front tire.

To make the new brake pedals work correctly, they must fully apply the brakes (and stop the wheels turning) when depressed, but also need to be able to return to the "up" position when released. To make this happen, I eliminated the stock 782 brake pedal linkage (threaded rod with a yoke at the front, an eyelet at the rear, and a spring connecting it to the brake arm on each side), and instead carried over the linkage from the Super donor tractor (1/4" round rod with a threaded yoke up front and a 90° bend connected directly to the brake arm). This required adding a short spring at the back of the frame to help the pedals "snap back" when released. After a lot of fine-tuning, the pedals seem to grab pretty well and do a decent job of stopping each wheel individually - PA Plow Day will be the true test, though. I ended up swapping over another front axle and power steering cylinder/mount in hopes of finally fixing the ongoing steering issues, to no avail. At this point I think the steering column is the culprit, but removing it from this tractor is a chore so I'm just going to run it until the seals blow out of it.

Looking forward to seeing lots of familiar faces at Watsontown this year (some I haven't seen since 2019) and looking forward to a great time this weekend! See y'all there!