Gonna be hard to find a metal hood in today's marketplace.

Since you seem satisfied with the service from your JD160 If I were you I'd tale a look at a JD X310 or X320. If you really want to splurge scope out a JD X500 garden tractor.

All those models have decks that can be removed and/or installed in 5 minutes once you get the procedure down. The X320 and X500 models with the 48" and above decks are really easy cause the anti-scalping wheels turn 90 degrees so the deck rolls easily out the side instead of muscling it out from under the tractor..

We looked up the X320 and X500 tractors and are leaning more towards the X500. I'd have liked to see them in person, but the local JD dealers close early Saturday, Will make a trip later.
48 inch decks will make it hard to get through some areas, but I think I can do it.

What do people not like about these tractors?

"What do people not like about these tractors?"

Like pretty much all things today... the price. After careful consideration there was nothing in the price range of the X500 that could do what the X500 could do with parts support for decades and the resale value of a John Deere. I pulled the trigger and have been happy with the X500

The only negative I found with my X500 is the foot pedal lift when you use a snowblower. Foot pedal lift works fine for the mowing deck but the blower weighs a lot more.

One solurion is to move up to the model that has hydraulic lift but that comes with power steering but I don't like how it works in the X5xx series. The manual steering on the X500 is effortless even with the snowblower mounted.

The solution I chose is the electric lift kit. EZ to install and works PERFECT for front blade or snowblower. Costs a lot less than moving up to the hydraulic model.

http://www.superior-tech.com/front-attachments_03.php