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Hi, I am Gary Pond (Cecils son who worked for Wheel Horse for many years until sold). My son Jonathon Pond, sister Constance, and I had the pleasure of visiting your annual Wheel Horse Collectors show in PA the year that Michael Martino came out with his 2nd edition of From the Horses Mouth. As my Dad was a number of years earlier, we were greatly impressed and proud to see the large gathering of the wonderfully restored old Wheel Horse tractors and owners. Michael tracked me down about 5 years before the 1st edition to see if Cecil was alive and could be contacted. He told us of the Collectors Club and the need for more accurate information. That started a long and happy relationship (friendship) between Cecil and Michael. A family member (Jonathons Mother) showed me a link to your blog. The Pond family wanted to say "Thank You" for all of the heart felt comments about Cecil, Elmer, and Wheel Horse Products. Our appreciation and respect to all Participants. The above photo shows 4th generation Jonathon Pond with a tractor that his Great-Granddad Elmer Pond designed.

Last fall I stopped at our local "bone" yard looking for a new set of wheels for my utility trailer. Got snooping around and found a nice 417-A sitting in his garage. He has a tiny yard that he push mows and has no use for it. I shot him a $200 offer and he agreed to it, and offered to hold it for me till I got through my back surgery and got back on my feet. He just call me and needs room.. $100 bucks takes it!!! I can't wait to get it home. I couldn't find a tag on it but it has the luvered hood, 1986? Pics are coming in the near future. :beer:

I've been very quiet during the last few months despite acquiring 2 C-105's, 1 C-121 and a GT-14. The reason is my workshop has been slowly deteriorating with a leaky roof, cracked floor and no insulation or heating (last winter it was between 9 and 15 deg F for 4 weeks). Heres a shot of the old one ! it could have been patched up, but we chose to start over... it's been over 4 months now and we are nearly there ! Here is the backside which was a 300 year old cottage until 1975 when it was demolished and a concrete pad laid on the top. I had a go at mining the old stone out during the summer ! Heres the building reduced to rubble... The plan was to re use the old stone and rubble to build the new workshop. Here we are at ground level. note the 12x3 ft pit for working under things. Or a swimming pool for dwarves and here we are making progress on the stonework I made all the hinges and metalwork - in order to maintain an authentic look. Our house is 400 years old with stone floors, simple doors and 3 ft thick walls!!! I made use of the e tank in reverse to 'age' the hinges... it makes a good job of rusting. Heres the stonework almost finished. the floor going in ! the outside being tidied up the upstairs... the kids wanted a crib ! now they have one the doors fitted further rustic hardware - up until 50 years ago all hardware used square head nuts and bolts. Here was my attempt at replicating. that crib came at a cost... hey kids, get painting and lastly.... I let one of the horses in for xmas to dry out Still have electrics to finish and heaps of tidying. Then comes the benches and bringing all my junk back in. More pictures to follow ! mark

my miller 200 le welder with an 18 hp onan got mouse nests in the wiring and about an hour & a half of welding on my porch i looked over at the welder and it was just starting to blaze got the air hose blew the flames out. then i took the covers off, replaced about 12 burnt wires and put it back in use. that was 8 years ago & i havent put the sheet metal back on the welder yet!

While considering this, IF it were to be hosted by me, it would be run in a VMWare virtual image on a Mac computer. The computer would be dedicated to running VMWare Fusion and *most* resources would be dedicated to running RedSquare. To put a couple things aside. Hosting here would likely be easier for me. The reason is backups. Currently I have to TAR the filesystems then gzip them and copy over the internet to my computer here. I then need to extract the database, and copy it. All told, our forum is currently about 1GB in size. Although it may not seem like much, consider that 2 months ago it was 150MB! Having a local server a USB drive could be attached for backups. Additionally VMWare images can be snapshot creating a virtual backup of the COMPLETE environment. Recovery in case of failure would take minutes! I do work from home already, and my computer equipment is crucial to me. My home network is extremely robust, and on complete battery backup as would be RedSquare. However the BBU would last all of 3 or 4 hours in the event of an extended power failure. My cable internet is rarely down (far more reliable than any of our current hosting partners) There IS a risk that in the event that something went wrong, if I (or a family member) were not around (i.e.: Vacation) that would be a definite issue. But again, my home computing environment is pretty robust but the risk is still there. I have older computer equipment too, but I would not run RedSquare on anything that is old. I am Mac centric, not just because it's a Unix operating system, but the hardware is top shelf stuff. We still need to weigh the cost, risks etc. What I can say is that on our current host our availability for the last 30 days is 94.5% and that is a VERY poor number. Over the last 30 days at my house, the availability has been 100%. In short, for me personally, hosting here is less work, but it is not without risk which I am weighing. Hosting with a hosting company we WILL be on shared servers, unless we want to spend over $100 / month which isn't very cost effective in the long run. One thing to keep in mind. I am an Architect with IBM and I do this EXACT thing every day (ok for very large corporations, but....) the right choice will be made.

After checking the fluids and draining the fuel,i found the reason it wouldn't turn over(loose ign. switch plug).I put in a good battery and gave it a small shot of starting fluid.She fired right up and runs decent!She's not pretty from being outside so long,but will be an easy project when the time comes.

Actually, mythbusters proved that you can! (sorry, couldnt resist!) Scot

Perhaps your engine rebuild trip can be done at the WH show in June...you could take apart the engine and rebuild it for a class! LOL! just kidding, I know you spent a lot of time, money and cursing but it really payed out. a nice rebuild!!

See if your local Napa has the oil filter cut out display. You'll never buy a Fram again. I worked at a Napa for 10 years and always "enjoyed" my exchanges with customers who insisted on Fram. I always won! :banana-wrench:

Shawn, after you get any bugs worked out of it you should really consider doing what this member did for his Onan 20. (click the link below) Get any crap out from under the engine tins and vent the beltguard so it runs as cool as it can. I think its something WH should have done. Mike..........

Compound and wax that oxidation away. Believe me, this is what you'll find under there. Forget the oil, all this takes is a little bit of elbow grease. :icecream:

A = 1-1/8" B = 1/2"

That's funny, and I don't even know Quassy. :scratchead:

For some reason I think Quassy may be missing a few buttons in the spring :scratchead:

Engine pulley is: 2 1/4" diameter, for 3/4" shaft, 3/16" keyway Idler pulley is: 2" diameter Tranny pulley is: 4" diameter, for 3/4" shaft, 3/16" keyway

Is this the one that was for sale here a few months ago, it was found in a barn I believe it was the guys grandfathers? those round things on the back make me remeber that one, I think it had them, the only pics were of a very nice I think commando, covered in dust, anyone else remember that one?

Here's another option...... steel wool & soapy water (or a Brillo pad) followed by clear spray paint. Before: After:

Not ruffling my feathers either way, I'm just sayin'...at what point is big brother's nose too far in our personal lives? Enforcing current cell phone laws with tickets and fines is one thing, but jeopardizing one's livelihood for the sake of generating revenue is just crazy talk. Really people, this is what we're doing now? How is this addressing the problem?