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Guess I'll get on board this time around. I brought my first horse home in 1978. It was a Commando 8 and I thought I was probably nuts for buying a 10 year old lawn mower. I used it to mow, push snow, dirt and gravel for the next 25 years. My son used it to mow lawns and saved enough money to buy his first car. I still have it today, refurbished and retired now. I pulled my second one, an 867 off a scrap metal pile in 1990. It was complete except no engine. It sat in the corner of the shed for about 10 years. The Commando 8 was getting tired and needed an overhaul but I was using it almost daily. So, I picked up another Commando 8 In 2000 to use while I fixed up the old one. I refurbished this tractor instead with the 867 following it. And now there are 25 that run and a few donors in the barn. Oh, well, it keeps me off the streets and out of the bars. I've quit acquiring them a few times, but that only seems to last until I come across another one. Most of mine, I have brought back from the dead. My workers now include a Commando 8 with dozer blade, an 867 for neighborhood association property mowing," volunteer work", as I mow my own yard, "much smaller now", with a Toro personal pace, and a 1057 equiped with a snow thrower. I thoroughly enjoy this hobby and have used this forum for an incredible amount of research, so keep up the good work guys. Larry

Wow these are some great stories with what seems to be a familiar thread "family". My addiction goes back to when I was around 4 or 5 and my father would sit me on his lap when he mowed with a Farmall Cub. Something like a 56 or 57 vintage. My family bought their first Wheel Horse in 63 or 64, a 953. At some point I think my mother convinced my dad that she wanted a smaller tractor and they purchased a Commando 8 (see signature). We had a AC 110 for rototilling but the Commando was the mower. I was probably around 10 when I learned to operate the 953 but my sister and I spent most of our summers mowing about 4 acres of lawn on the Commando. My father passed away in 1980 and my mother kept the house and yard up until 1984 when she decided to move into town. This was probably the hardest decision she ever had to make. So obviously she sold the Commando to a guy down the road. Fast forward to 1999. So I'm telling my moms new a neighbor about our families Wheel Horses and he said he has an old wheel horse and would be willing to sell it to me if I was intersted. Interested, h*** yea I was interested. So I bought a beatup 857 that for the most part only plowed his driveway and the city sidewalk on his block. His back yard which was his biggest yard was hardly wide enough to turn the 857 around. Don't know why he ever bought it. Maybe he was bitten So my youngest son and I restore this tractor to be our first trailer princess and find out about that crazy group of Wheel Horse collectors. After the 857 and a 1848 Workhorse I bought a 67 Lawn Ranger from my uncle. I always wondered what happened to the old Commando. One day my curiosity got the better of me and I called the neighbor who mom had sold the Commando to. They had moved years before but when they did, they sold the tractor to their neighbor. So I'm thinking what the heck. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. So I stop at the neighbors house only to find out that he is an school friend of my oldest son. Sure he'd be willing to sell the tractor. So about 8 years ago I purchase my families original Commando 8. After my mother sold it, it was not taken very good care of. It appeared to be kept outside a good deal of the time. However she ran like a top and I used it up until 2 years ago to plow snow every winter and grade my new lawn and driveway. I've nearly completed a complete restoration of the tractor. I've used two other parts tractors and have taken apart every nut and bolt and rebuilt everything but the generator. This one is not going to be another trailer princess. She's a worker (backup worker )but I think she'll be in better condition then when new. I'm working to have it ready for the show this year and hope to see alot of other family tractors there. This has been therapeutic in a sense. I'm sure my father would have been thrilled to be involved with it's restoration. Keep these stories coming. Dave

We got our first wheelhorse back in 1985 and believe it or not our nieghbor 2 doors up rolled a suburban with the plow out to the curb for garbage. luckily my brother and i saw it first so we quickly rolled it down to our house. We threw a little gas in the tank and gave it a few pulls it wouldnt start so we took the air cleaner off and poured a little gas in the carb and she fired right up. we couldnt believe someone would throw this away. It also had wheel weights on the rear tires and believe me we found out what a good little tractor this was the first time it snowed. My brother and i shared this tractor for many years and he still has it to this day. About a year and a half ago i finaly got one of my own a suburban 551 and im currently looking for another round hood for my son. but ever since that first little tractor ive been a round hood fan. I know one tractor doesnt make me a collector but you gotta start somewhere right. However my son and i intend to purchase and restore as many of these little tractors as we can find and afford so hopefully one day soon we'll have more to share in our posts!!!!

I usually keep a good eye on Craigslist, but have been very busy with work lately. Well - I finally get a breather and I scan the area around me and WOW – a new add! These are so rare around here that when one does pop up it doesn’t last long. The ad was only 4 hours old. Anywho – I scored this Workhorse for $100 When I arrived to pick it up we pushed it from his back yard where it has set outside for a couple years. I jumped it from my truck and poured a little gas in the carb just for the heck of it to see if the motor would turn over…. It started right up! The deck is in pretty bad shape – rusted through in several areas but - I’ll get it cleaned up and see what wonders are in store !!

yep those were the days,i was only 9 but was into nascar even then,and pearson was the man imo,ya it was neat to see bayne win last year and great for the wood bros,i was rooting for carl to win last years championship,im not a stewart fan,hes a great driver though,just dont like him,shoulda been cousin carl,maybe this year

when i was going to marry my wife my soon to be father in law give me his 604 wheelhorse as he upgraded to workhorse.thus the virus started.last count 12 have had 16 at one time

I bet a good percentage of "garden tractor enthusiasts" and collectors in the USA have typical rather small suburban "estates"! Sure, you do find the guys with several acres and small farms, but I would be willing to bet a large majority of Wheel Horse owners are running on less than an acre! I have ten twentieths of an acre myself, and I intend to use that acreage to "support" three or four tractors! Scot

Functional or Embelishment, it's your call. I went for (detachable) bling on the 72 Raider , as it only gets light duty towing and no Mud. A challenge to 'Blister' each Hole, but the Sheet Plate was free!.. The current 'Worker' Project will most likely have Sharp Sand set into patches of Resin on the Foot Plates and Skateboard Tape for Scuff protection.

The diamond plate ones are nice, but they don't stay shiny for long. Mine didn't, anyway...

1974, first year AMC was in ownership of the brand. Really nice score there Jake, especially considering it was FREE. :thumbs:

I was out in the sandpit across the street yesterday target shooting - walked in mostly sand. When I was leaving, I had to wait to cross the road because a guy on his Harley was going bye! A motorcycle in February in Maine - weird :eek:

Paul, This is a quick pic of what the battery plates look like inside a lead acid battery. Again, there are some artistic and technical liberties taken here but basically you are dealing with a honeycomb style metal grid with a lead "paste" applied in between the honey comb cells. If all the cells are in good condition (represented by grey area in the center of the diagram, electrons from the battery charger cling to the lead paste and are available to leave the plates to "work" for you. Electron flow will spin starters and light lites, etc. As you consume electrons from the battery, the sulfuric acid in the electrolyte has to give up sulphate ions to allow the electrons to flow from the battery. This chemical "giving up" of sulphate ions does 2 things. First, the sulphate ions given up by the electrolyte weakens the electrolyte (the sulfuric acid electrolyte becomes weaker - you can measure this process with a hydrometer.) Second, sulphate ions given up by the electrolyte deposit themselves on the lead paste in the form of lead sulphate. This is the process called sulphation and is the yellow area on the above diagram. Sulphation temporarily inactivates the lead paste where it is deposited. The net result is less active grid material and an ever diluting sulfuric acid electrolyte - your battery is getting weaker!! When you connect a charger to the sulphated (discharged) battery, the electron flow thru the battery removes the sulphate ions from the lead paste and replaces them with electrons. The sulphate ions go back into the electrolyte and restore the concentration of sulfuric acid in the electrolyte (the hydrometer floats higher). Seems like a dream come true. Here is where the problems come in. For the sake of conversation, say some of the water evaporates from the electrolyte (due to sitting for prolonged periods of time) or water boils out of the battery due to improper charging. If the battery is allowed to sit uncharged with sulphates on the lead plates, the sulphates become "hardened" or crystallized to the plates. If you don't refill the electrolyte to the proper level, this plated area of the grid will never be exposed to liquids and therefore the sulphate deposits cannot be reached by charger current. You have now lost say 10 - 20% of your grid material thru neglect. Your CCA's have dropped from 230 down to 190. But because its summer, the CCA 190 starts your single cylinder just fine. You never think to check the battery and keep mowing week after hot week for hours at a time. More electrolyte evaporates, more grid becomes exposed and sulphated and the old exposed sulphated grid becomes even more hardened and crystallized. Maybe by the end of summer, CCA's are down around 120 or so. But that is still enough to crank and start a one cylinder engine in warm weather. Late fall arrives. Temps are down in the 40's and under. SAE 30 starts to get thicker. Your battery chemistry suffers too. Remember high school? Chemical reactions slow down in colder temperatures? Get out the vinegar and baking soda if you don't remember. Now the 120 CCA's you had in summer are down around 100 or less - actually about 60% less when temps hit below freezing. This is when the sulphated areas on the battery grid really come into play. You now have a battery with grid area so small and electrolyte so weak, it cannot start a single cylinder engine. Out comes that battery charger, you are in a hurry so the charger goes on the highest setting. The result is a very high current flow to the remaining good sections of the grid. The sulphate coated plates still sitting in the electrolyte will recover but the sulphated plates exposed to air (almost half the plate cause no one ever checked the electrolyte) crystallized plate areas will not recover. The charger is hooked up, ammeters are flying up to high readings and battery juice is cooking - LITERALLY - due to your impatience, you are forcing so much current thru the good grids they are overheating, flexing and maybe even popping off lead paste from the grid. Some of the good plate material is now blown off the grids due to excessive heat warping the grids (shown as missing / damaged cells in the diagram above). The conductive material settles between two grids and shorts out a grid or two from the cell - again you loose capacity. The end is near for this cell - and if the battery happens to survive the fall temperatures and is stored in the shed, the electrolyte is more like water than sulfuric acid. Water freezes at 32 degrees F, electrolyte at about -90 degrees F. What remains of the plates are now buckled from the forces of expansion of freezing electrolyte. The horror. The horror. The little guy never stood a chance.

Back in the late '90's,I needed a rider to mow a large lot that I purchased, next to my mother's house, located in a small town about 30 mi. away. A guy I worked with said he wanted to sell his mower and, knowing nothing about riders went to look at it. It was a B60 with a 36" deck. I bought it for $250, it was in great shape. Man, I was in hog heaven not having to push mow that lot! Then I started noticing the quality and simplicity of that old Wheel Horse. Everythings out in the open, easy to get to, easy to drop the deck, easy to maintain, and that little K161 sounded like and old Johnny Popper when idled down. I was just flat SOLD on how these things are built. When the kids got into to high school and college, money became tight, and I had to get scale down from cars, '46 Ford coupe, '60 Caddie flat top,,,,,,, Needing something to wrench on, I started looking for more garden tractors since they weren't the money pits cars seem to be. I've been doing Wheel Horse and small farm tractors ever since. I've settled in on Ferguson(before Massey) farm tractors as my other sickness. I still have the old B60, have added a few to the stable, and sold a few along the way. Its a very self rewarding hobby and I've met so many great people along the way. Haven't met a tractor guy yet I didn't like. That's my storry and I'm sticking to it!. Tom B Rossville Ks.

I grew up on a dairy farm and the only tractors I was ever around were Fords. When I was 15 Dad sold the farm and shortly after that we started buying and restoring old Ford tractors. Alittle over 11 years ago one of the guys I work with asked me if I new anything about Wheel Horse tractors. My response was no, Turns out his Dad had restored one and the other was torn apart. His Dad had passed away and he was looking to clean out the storage bin they was kept in. So we made plans to go over to the storage bin where they were kept the following nite after work. When we got there the I discovered a restored 552 and an 854 partial dismantled. After checking them over we made a deal and loaded what we could into my truck. It took two truck loads to get the two tractors and all the spare parts home. The WH's set for about a year until I built a house and used the 552 for the first year to mow about 3 acres. Right after building the house I needed to move my Ford Galaxie around into the garage. I had blown the tranny out of it so it couldnt be driven. The only thing I had to move it was the 552. I grabbed a chain, hooked it to the 552. The 552 pawwed and digged until it started to move the Galaxie. It wasnt until I had dragged the car about 3 feet that I relized I still had the emergency brake on. I couldnt believe that little tractor could drag 4000 lbs like that I was totally amazed at what these little tractors could do. No wonder I ended up owning and building 4 WH pulling tractors. So that was the start of my "ADDICTION". Since then I have owned over 70 plus Wheel Horses. Not all at one time! lol Buying and selling them, keeping the ones I want for my collection. I have even went as far as 6 1/2 hours one way to pick up a WH (867). I think the one thing I enjoy the most about collecting these tractors are the people you meet. I have made so many friends over the past 10 years and I am sure I will make many new ones in the years to come.

I guess it's time I cover this one. I wasn't ignoring it Steve, honest! You know I always enjoy your posts and your views on the world of Wheel Horse. For myself I guess, ........well, .....IT"S GENETIC! I'll use that as the excuse since I can blame my parents that way. (Isn't that the essence of modern society? Blaming others for our actions and not taking personal responsibility!) Dad grew up on a "church farm" so to speak. They lived right by the church and took care of the cemetary and grounds. This meant lots of mowing of course, so (fortuneately for dad) my grandfather picked up a pair of or combination of RJ-58/400's. I recall that these were the first riding mowers they had and they had walked it all previously. Dad wasn't allowed to mow with the "skid decks" on the mid engines because they would tear up the tops of the fresh graves. I recall stories of his pap rolling them a time or two as well! It wasn't long until the "roasters" were replaced with a 702 and a 633. The 633 was bought brand new with an LMR reel mower and also fitted at some point with a 42" sickle bar. We still have a pic somewhere of it with the sickle attached. He spent countless hours riding those horses, mowing that cemetary. He'd get so damn bored, he told me he would sit on the hoods and mow backwards just for a change of pace! (Now we know how all those old round hoods got bent up.) The Wheel Horses stayed for a few years and were then eventually replaced with other various machines. My grandfather never kept anything real long and was always trying something new. I guess the Horses left a lasting impression with my father though! Mom grew up in the presence of a "roaster" as well, which was also replaced by a 702. Her dad bought this one around 65'-66' slightly used with an RM-366 deck, BD-4263 dozer and AC-671 cultivator set. An LTD-242 cart was added soon after. This machine has been in the family ever since and he used it religiously till the early 80's when he let my father have it for awhile. Dad used it awhile and then it went back to my grandfather. I soon took an interest in it and sort of "adopted" it as my own. This tractor is the key that started my desire to know "What other old Wheel Horse's are out there?" Thus the addiction began at an early age! The next addition was a 401 that I received as a Christmas gift when I was 12 or 13. (the greatest gift I have ever received bar none). This is the first tractor my father and I restored together and both this and the 702 will be treasured for the rest of my life. They created a fantastic friendship for my father and I at a time when I was becoming a typical teenager. The last 20 years has just been tractor after tractor, adventure after adventure and story after story. I've actually witnessed first hand how these machines have grown into an enthusiast hobby and find this to be incredible. I've had many other hobbies and interests, but these little tractors are so deeply rooted in my blood that I will never give them up. they've brought me great joy and tie me to my past and also to my parents past in a way. My "Pa" has been gone over ten years, but all I need to do is spend a little time with his ol' 702 and he's right there with me. So yes, for me it's genetic. Not a passing fancy or a fad. I know no other way!