I tried to dig up the old threads on this forum by using key search words of Cub Cadet, fires, burned up, in various forms and combinations. Though I got lots of "hits", none pertained to what I was looking for.
You might try some other search words here and get better hits than I did. Maybe another member will find the threads and link them back to this one.

You might try doing an internet search through your favorite search engine (Google, Yahoo!, Ask, etc) to try and find similar cases.

It boils down to this, Cub/MTD, and any other company is going to deny responsibility whenever the claim cannot be proven to be their fault.
So, until enough cases of fire, or better yet "nearly a fire", have surfaced for an owner, or a "class of owners", to go to court and prove "beyond a shadow of doubt" that Cub/MTD is culpable, the costs of the occasional fires will continue to be borne by the owner, in warranty or not.

If I had not been sitting on the tractor and smelled smoke and investigated, the grass on the mower deck could have caught fire and burned through the rubber gas line. It could have been something entirely different.

Dude. Pick up the phone. Call your insurance agent and get your claim processed. Anything else is nothing but a waste of time.

I suspect a stuck float alowing raw gas to drip or run onto the muffler. I too have questioned the design of an engine manufacture that would put carb. right above a hot muffler with no deflector to keep the fuel away from the hot muffler??? SO it may indeed be a manufacture poor design or a manufacture defect when the float stuck.
The owner normally can't see defect inside the carb.. He can only be alert when he smells raw fuel and of course keep the grass away from the muffler and off the deck. Not too many owners go over their equipment before use checking for loose or cracked fuel lines, leaking carb., chafing wires, or grass build up. Heck most don't even check the dipstick ??

The only things I can think of that would of caused the bursting into flames would be raw gas on a hot muffler or at the head where the exhaust pipe leads to the muffler? I would think grass would smolder some before you saw flames. based on his discription most likely it was a fuel fire???. The the other thing would be the fuel hose popped off or failed at the carb.

Now if the LT was 4 or 5 years old the maintainer could be inquestion, but you kind of expect a newer LT less than 1 year old or two not to burst into flames. Just cause you can't prove it don't mean it wasn't the manufacture fault? IMO the engine manufacture at the end of the trail would be the one lible under warranty IMO the smoking gun is BURST INTO FLAMES" That IMO is only a FUEL sorce based fire???

If someone buys a new tractor and suddenly the engine stops dead and will not even turn over, then the logical thing to do is to take it to the selling dealer for warranty. If the dealer finds that a con rod snapped but the dipstick showed the correct amount of used oil on it, then that's a provable warranty claim. A defective part was the cause.

All anyone on this forum has to go on, is the recounting of the story by the OP. None of us were there and none of us can even examine the tractor. Heck...we don't have so much as a single photo. You use the term "burst into flames" as if that's an established fact, when it actually is not.

The entire tale of woe is limited to ONE LINE from the OP and nothing more. Here it is. "My Cub Cadet LT1045 burst into flames while it was cut off after using for a short period"

All that can be gathered from that statement is that he was mowing his lawn for an undetermined amount of time, shut the mower off and at some, yet again undetermined amount of time later, he noticed his tractor on fire. For all any of us know, it could have been a grass fire started by exposure to the exhaust system. Initially, it smouldered and went unnoticed. It continued to smoulder and then ignited into open flames that burnt through the fuel line. Now the fire really had a good source of fuel and in no time at all, the composite hood began to feed the flames.

Can anyone here tell me that did not happen? The answer is no. We can all come up with scenarios for the fire, just as the OP has done. Every scenario is nothing more than pure speculation because none of them are based on FACTS. If your car burns up, it is automatically the problem of the manufacturer? Who's to say it wasn't arson? Who's to say that it did not result from a carelessly dropped cigarette? Who's to say that a modification was done to the wiring and no protection (fuse/breaker) was installed and a short circuit resulted?

We see such "claims" on the internet all the time and those claims are totally biased and one-sided. It is not reasonable or fair to publicly slam MTD in the absence of true evidence that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are trying to escape their written obligations to the OP. Yes, there is a warranty and the warranty states that if the tractor burns, the warranty won't cover the damage...end of story.

One could argue that the OP should have read the terms of the warranty prior to paying his $1700.00 for this tractor and if he did not like the terms of the warranty, then he should have bought a different brand. When he bought the tractor, he also bought the warranty and in so doing, he agreed to the terms set out in that warranty. He cannot suck and blow at the same time and that's exactly what he is trying to do here.

He expects MTD to fully live up to the fact that his LT was still under warranty but he doesn't want to accept the written terms of the warranty that cancel the warranty due to fire. I find that totally unreasonable. That's like trying to get your insurance company to pay for flood damage when there is a clause in the contract that specifically denies flood damage coverage.

The OP has a remedy at hand. It's called a "homeowner's policy". That's the thing that one buys in order to protect oneself against unpredictable losses such as this. MTD isn't trying to foist the problem onto anyone else. They're not doing anything wrong or underhanded here. The warrantee says what it says. If the OP want's to take steps to prove that the fire started due to a defect covered under warranty, then that's his right. If he can satisfy MTD on that issue, then they would be obligated to either repair his tractor, replace his tractor or give him fair market value for his 2 year old, 90 hour machine just as insurance companies do.

And just so you know, the OP took this story to MTF and posted on the CC forum there. It lasted for 95 replies before the Mods locked it down for review. The next day, the thread was GONE. WHY? Because of potential libel issues. You cannot run around the internet making wild accusations that you cannot PROVE happened in a court of law and even of the owners of a forum manage to escape paying damages resulting from a libel suit, they don't need the hassle and legal costs that ensue from having to defend themselves.

RC Moser! Did you or did you not refer to the plaintiff as a "scumbag" in a public forum?

As for the subject tractor, I think that it's a reasonable assumption that a 2 year old unit will have lost close to 50 percent of its value. At most, we are talking about a $1000.00 claim and most insurance companies will cut that cheque in the blink of an eye after the adjuster drops by for a 3 minute look-see. And if his policy has a "replacement cost" clause in it, then he's entitled to go out and buy the exact same model tomorrow or the equivalent to it from the manufacturer's latest line up.

In my books, that puts him ahead of any warranty that might have arisen from this claim. Now if he does not have insurance, then I'd have to say that he's about as bright as the tractor that got burnt.

I did not refer to the OP's as being a scumbag actually IMO I am the only one who suspects he did nothing wrong and it was a defect??? (weather it was a stuck float or a loose fuel hose put on by 3 world labor) I was answering the follow up post which was IMO leaning to the home owner fault, afterall he turned the key on and off. The manufacture the ones that refered him to the insurance which will not cover replacement cost most likely due to the high deductables that we have to have now to to afford insurance.

Actually I was giving him the benifit of the dought which I seem to be the only one on his side. LT don't burst into flames without something failing. That's why the put the prior to use inspection and the 10/25/50 hour inspection in the owners manual to releave them of any libility of there product due to unseen/unproven pre-ventive maintenance, which they really claim most of the time proof or no proof IMO.

I didn't see in this post where the LT was nearly two years old?? but, I'm old and blind I may of missed it? So yes we could say even a new LT tractor serviced from the dealer with .5 hours or more could burst into flames cause the prior to use inspection wasn't done and due to a fire the manufacture will not have no responsibility.

that's why I rarely buy new overpriced equipment, if I got to take a chance might as well be on a 300 dollar LT than a 3K one.

In this instance, I'm not trying to take either side. I agree that it could have been some sort of defect just as easily as it could have been something that the OP neglected to take care of. And if it was the latter, I'm not here to beat up on him for that because we all put off cleaning our tractors every time we finish using them. None of us expect that our tractor may catch on fire if we don't remove some grass that has built up under the hood or on top of the deck.

I already told you guys about his thread at MTF and that's where he revealed that the Cub was 2 years old and had 90 hours on it. So, you can take that for whatever it's worth. If nothing failed in the first 2 years and 90 hours of operation, it would seem as though the tractor and engine did get put together properly and with quality parts that are commensurate with the tractor's price-point.

That is not to say that a failure is now beyond the realm of possibility. We all know that failures can happen at any time. I don't think that you should become fixated on the phrase "burst into flames" because no one can say that is what happened. It might be what the OP saw but it is very arguable that he could have missed the smoldering grass that eventually led up to the bursting into flames when a small grass fire managed to get the gasoline involved.

You might be interested to know that the bulk of the MTF members were totally on his side. About the only course of action that was not suggested was a public lynching of the closest MTD employee or if one of them could not be found, then someone from HD to take his/her place.

Yes... he was told to take the matter to the attorney general in his state, to hire a lawyer and launch a lawsuit, to put the tractor on a trailer outside HD with a big sign on, to call the local newspaper or the local TV news department and so on. Of course, no one was offering to help him pay the attorney's retainer fee nor were they offering to cover his losses if a successful libel suit was launched by MTD.

If he came back on the MTF board and asked for financial help, all those big-mouths that encourage him to sue, wouldn't be seen due to the dust they created while running in the opposite direction. If the OP does have replacement cost insurance and his deductible is as much as $500.00, he's still ahead of the game. He'll have a brand new tractor for $500.00 and I can assure you that would not have happened if he traded in his old one to the local Cub dealer so he could buy the new replacement model.

I tend to believe people when they make statements if within reason. bursting into flames is definely a fuel related fire? I can't question that? I can think it, but wasn't there to witness it. One thing I would never do would ask for something from people, let along on a luxury item, so I can see why he didn't get no financial help. After all I pushed for the first 35 years which is probably why I don't have a gut that covers up my feet when I look down. Hee, HEE!

At the end of the trail he was very lucky he didn't park it in the garage after use and burn down his house or detached garage, which could just as likely happen to a brand new Hot LT after the first mowing.

IMO What owners manuals should have written on the front in big red letters "Buyer's beware can catch fire after shutdown, DON"T PARK IN THE GARAGE TILL IT IS completely COLD!" (now that I think about it it should be on every page! and labeled on the engine!)But, still some won't read or follow the instructions.

Engine manufacture know that 99.98% of there products will last at least two years under normal home owners use even if they do nothing but put gas in them, IMO that why they give a two year warranty knowing they will rarely have to eat warranty claim. Later on another post!

Whenever some sort of tragedy or accident happens, we are often asked to fix time to the stages of the event. In this example, the questions would be: "What time was it that you began mowing the lawn"....."What time was it when you stopped?.....Where did you go after stopping?....What time was it when you first noticed the tractor was on fire?"

Those are all fair questions but very difficult to answer unless you can relate them to another specific event such as: "I looked at my watch and saw that it was 4 minutes to 8 so I stopped mowing and went inside to watch Survivor. I couldn't have been more than 5 minutes into that program because they were still recapping what happened last week when I glanced out the window and saw my tractor bursting into flames."

On that basis, I don't doubt what the OP remembers but I think that everyone can agree that the above situation is far different than this one.

"I was driving along cutting my grass and I never noticed anything out of the ordinary until all of a sudden I got this strong smell of gasoline. So I stopped the mower to find out what was wrong. I no sooner got off to reach for the hood and suddenly the tractor just erupted in flames before my eyes. I ran like hell for the garden hose but by the time I got that sorted out, the hood was already melted all over the engine and the front tires were on fire."

To me, there's some real detail in both of those stories that would assist the reader in forming an opinion as to what actually happened. The latter fire was nearly instantaneous whereas the former fire took several minutes to become apparent. When the OP came here and to MTF, no such details were reported. It appeared to me by reading his initial post that his main objective was to disparage the reputation of MTF. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm no big fan of MTF.

Back in the 70's, I bought a brand new MTF made, private-branded LT from a local retail hardware chain and it was a piece of junk. The hood started getting stress cracks in it after about 10 hours of use due to vibration. The store replaced it with another new machine and that one exhibited the same problems. It went back and the money paid went back into my wallet.

So if anything, my bias is more negative than positive when it comes to this company. However, they are not here at GW to defend themselves nor is anyone here from the HD to say what they found when the local Cub dealer examined this machine. There is no balance to this thread and there was no balance to the MTF thread either. What is blatant here is that the OP has not returned to post a single word. Over on MTF, he's a member and has been one for some time. If he posted elsewhere, I'm not currently aware of it.

But we've all seen this sort of "blackmail posting" in the past. I think it was just last year that someone living on one of the islands in Hawaii was slamming MTD over her Cub because the blade/s fell of the spindle and a front tire kept going flat etc. That person posted everywhere possible and the objective was to embarrass and harm HD as well as MTD. Frankly, I find such postings to be absurd. If I was positive that MTD was not living up to their end of the warranty agreement and that I had proof, then I'd get three repair estimates, accept one of them, have the tractor fixed and then sue MTD in small claims court.

MTD would then have to decide to either fight the case or pay up. Their legal counsel would examine my "evidence" and make a decision whether they had a chance of winning or not. If they did not feel that they could easily win, then an offer to settle would be made and the rest would be negotiations.

Going on-line and whining about your problem solves nothing except providing a lively topic for forum regulars to chew on.

As for warnings in Op Manuals, don't get me started. In my estimation, 95% of the people never even open an Op Manual, let alone read it. We are all too smart to need such books. LOL

While mowing I heard a pop and looked down to find flames licking my seat. I was able to put it out before it spread to the engine. Basically the plastic cowling on the left side and the left side of the seat burned (the plastic very quickly produced very tall flames with lots of thick black smoke). Luckliy it did not burn through the gas tank. I'm still waiting to hear from Cub.

'nuff said. complainer obviously does not read or follow owner's manual - wonder what else he did on his own.