Last Year, I purchased a Cub Cadet Walk behind string trimmer with the biggest engine I could find, the Kohler 173CC engine. Found it at Tractor Supply, It is/was a BEAST and kicked A$$ on the biggest of weeds on my land, some were 6ft tall. Ok moving on, I go up there this year and I need to cut the weeds again, about 2 acres and I'm thinking how nice it would be to have another one of these so 2 people could knock this out faster. Can't find one ANYWHERE! Cub Cadet has now put a smaller motor on it??? The same damm trimmer! . Why in the Hell do they ruin something that works GREAT? So, now I'm on a mission to find a machine with the Kohler 173cc Motor on it! I found 1, a Craftsman 40 miles away at Lowes. They had 2, I now own 1. The weird thing is, if you look at both of them, they are Identical except the handle is a bit different and the paint jobs. Anyway, The Cub Cadet machine is a beast and I don't understand why they screw something up when it was just fine.
I'm convinced that every time they hire new engineers they have to go around and "pee on everything", just to make their mark!
I have a similar one Dave, but with the Cub engine. I think it’s 140cc? I can check. I picked it up a few years ago as well. I didn’t know these came with a bigger engine.
Truth!!! At one of the first dealerships i worked at we got a new parts manager. Within a month that whole parts department was "organized" and rearranged. Things that were in the same spot for year, moved. Seen this at least one more time in my mechanic history.
The 173cc version is listed on the Cub website as a "prior year model"...so no longer in production. Cub Cadet ST 100 Wheeled String Trimmer | Cub Cadet US
I gotta tell ya, it's an animal and I cut stuff/weeds that was 6ft tall I have always had stuff with a Briggs or Honda motor on it but this Kohler motor is tough! That's why I found another one in the Craftsman model.
I got thinking, maybe they ran out of Kohler motors in their contract and found a different/cheaper motor.
