46GT Rotary Mower and Triple Bagger

I had been looking for one of these decks for awhile, and finally found one during the summer of 2009. It was originally on a 1541. The 46GT deck is a deck designed by MTD that appeared on several MTD products, including Cub Cadets. It is the best-cutting deck I have ever had. It is a 'high-vacuum' deck that is capable of using a bagger, and is the only deck that will fit a pre-1997 Cub Cadet garden tractor that can use a bagger. I have heard of a fan-assist bagger for the 44/50" decks, but I have never seen it in person. I imagine that would be extremely rare. Anyway, this deck became available sometime in the late 1980s and was an option on most of the 'cyclops' tractors. If you go looking for one, know that there are two versions depending on which PTO clutch the tractor had. The PTO clutch diameter changed somewhere in the 'cyclops' production run. For IH 82 series and MTD/CCC tractors through the early 'cyclops' models (before the PTO clutch change) the 190-336-100 version of the deck is correct. For later 'cyclops' models with the large PTO clutch, the 190-321-100 version is correct. Those numbers are found on the serial number tag that is visible on the back left corner of the deck pictured above.

Notice the height of this deck- it is very tall compared to the earlier decks, so there is probably no way it would fit under any NF tractor (as in any tractor previous to the 86, 1x8/9 series). Even on an 82 series tractor, it's a bit of a challenge to install the deck. The deck must first be slid under, and then the carriage installed. The later 'cyclops' tractors had a taller front axle that alleviates this problem.

The correct bagger for this proved a bit hard to find, but my Dad stumbled across the bagger for a Cub Cadet lawn tractor with this deck, which was pretty easy to convert. All I had to do was come up with some brackets that bolted to the hitch plate to hold the bag holder/cover. I bought new bagger blades and tried it out. This works GREAT compared to the 382H lawn tractor and bagger my Dad has. This thing is nearly impossible to clog, even when the grass is damp, and the three bags provide a lot of volume. Having this on the 782D is also very economical; I can bag for 1.5 hours on a couple quarts of diesel. This deck pulls pretty hard...it will make my diesel smoke until it comes up to speed.

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