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Well it looks like we have a big reveal date. It is just about done with just a little tweaking that needs to be completed. My daughter is in kindergarten and they have a class wide show and tell each Friday. This week is the letter "t". I noticed this a few weeks out and thought it would be cool for her to show off her new tractor to all of her classmates. The big reveal will be a little after 1:30 p.m. EST and I will make sure there will be a camera in tow. I will try and capture as much as I can and post them up here Friday night or sometime this weekend. This will be a blast!

Hey Guys, remember back on the 13th I wrote about the road trip I took to bring home a 416-8, only to come home empty handed? Well that was a good thing afterall because today I drove about 145miles to Unionville NC and returned with a nice, one owner 1986 417-A. Short story is the original owner died about six years ago, friend of the deceased man recently got the 417 running for the wife who was ready to sell it along with some other stuff and move on with her life. Anyway, talking with them about the 417 I found out the drive belt to the hydro pump had finally aged out and broke. Remembering that DUKE has a 417, I gave him a call, and he found the Gates part number on his belt, relayed that part number to me, I got my friend Bob at the local NAPA store to cross reference it to their number, bought it, and took it with me today. It was a perfect fit! THANK YOU DUKE!!! YOU ARE THE MAN!!! Anyway, that got the Horse moving under its own power. It has a hydro deck lift and a 42" side discharge deck. If any of you guys need a deck, let me know. I have a 48" side discharge deck that I will replace the 42 with. It has a nearly new NAPA battery. The Kohler Generation II twin cylinder engine cranks right up and runs good. Seat is perfect, lights work. I did break a tailight lens when a gust of wind caught the seat/fender pan and blew it back on the lens ( I had the seat pan unbolted to get the drive belt on the hydro pump ). Thats OK, I have a spare. It has the louvered hood and chrome/polished air cleaner assembly. The rear wheels have covers, the front do not. Even got the spare key and owners manual. I know you guys want pics. I am working on how to get some pics on this thread for you. I want to show you my 312-8 also, and the 36" tiller that goes with it. So anyway, I'm happy now. And oh yeah before I forget, the nice people sold it to me for $500. I thought that was very fair. I can sleep good tonight. Van

I feel good, whoa-oa-oa-oa I knew that I would, whoa-oa-oa-oa

The plow bracket is built in to the frame, all you need to do is add the latches, if you look at it you will see what I'm talking about, and the plow rear cross bar will have to be made longer it will hook up on the outside of the plow frame not the inside like on a normal long frame plow.

Now I need to rebuild my mid Tac-a-matic, 35 years of use with a 48" mower and it has a lot of play. Will have to weld it up and grind it back in shape before I can go play. There is enough movement in the hitch that the left side is touching the floor and the right side is 4" off. I had a 60" road grader blade that I cut down to 48" and some 2" channel so here is what iI built. All this metal has been on the farm for the 30 or 40 years.

You mean like these?

The Afterburner has been turned off, following your advice Mike, I found the points gap out, set it at 0.20, adjusted the carb according to the manual. Having drove it around the yard for 15-20 mins all seems fine. Thanks for your help. :handgestures-thumbup:

Whew!! Don't know what your are shoeing up there....26X12X12's take a pretty wide rim that you will most likely have to custom make unless you put some different hubs on your axles. Some guys put dual wheels on but there are some transmission failures from them also. Why don't you give the forum a little background on your situation.

I payed $500 for my little suburban 1 year ago this Friday and it had the wrong tires and front rims on it, Other then that it was complete and ran good. I thought it was a good buy.

between you & donamy you are building a fire under me to do my raider 9 , hope it looks as good as those two tractors. jay

Dicey question but the first tractor that had the Wheelhorse name on it, (that I know of), was the 1955 RJ35. Elmer Pond created the Ride-a Way Sr. but it was generally regarded as a "Pond" tractor though many would say it's a Wheelhorse!

Ed, The quick answers, 230 CCA in good condition is fine for what we need and the tester is about $30 - $50 from places like Harbor Freight or on Ebay. The whole CCA issue does beg a conversation to fully understand what the rating is and how insignificant it is in our application. A 230 CCA claim is simply this - This battery can support a discharge of at least 230 amps for 30 seconds at a temperature of 0°F before the battery voltage drops below 7 volts. . Let's dissect that statement as it applies to our tractors. 230 amps - well sir - the little starter motor on a single cylinder engine is not going to draw more than 50 - 75 amps of current before suffering internal damage, so strictly speaking, the 235 current rating is actually OVERKILL. Yes, there are mods that can be done to an engine that require a car starter to crank it over even in warm weather, but lets stay with a stock engine discussion. 30 seconds cranking - something else needs to be looked at if it takes you 30 seconds of cranking to start the engine. 0 degrees F - that's cold - not the coldest I have personally experienced (-40F), but cold enough to prepare some alternate plans to better assure success in starting your tractor at this temperature. How about indoor storage of the tractor or a magnetic heater attached to the underside of the BATTERY - not the oil pan. And consider using an approved lighter weight of oil in the engine - you didn't leave the SAE straight 30 in there - did you? Heating the battery to a higher temperature will help start the engine much faster than heating the oil. Guess what the Chevy Volt does before it uses battery power on cold days ?- yep - fires up on gas , heats the batteries and then switches over to the battery power. Sooo... to make this CCA concept a little clearer. let's relate 230 CCA to water flow. This battery claims "I can pump 230 gallons of water starting at 12.6 psi and over the next 30 seconds the water pressure wil not drop below 7 psi.". You say "Hey battery manufacturer, I only need 75 amps for 10 seconds, maybe 20 seconds. OK, so I left the old SAE 30 in there from the summer. Can't you just put a simple label on a battery that tells me if your battery can do that?" The response has always been So the average guy, not knowing what all these numbers mean, starts to think bigger must be better. Hard to disagree with in some cases. But I digress. In this case, the CCA rating of the battery means NOTHING to Paul's starting problem. The condition of the battery (and wiring of the start circuit) means EVERYTHING. Back to the water analogy. We need a 12.6 psi pump that pushes out 50 to 75 gallons in 10 - 20 seconds. The battery manufacturer says he can do 230 gallons at over 7 psi for up to 30 seconds. Fair enough. This should get the job done. If we use a 230 "gallon" battery and pump out 50 "gallons", the engine starts. The charging system will then pump back in 50 "gallons" at a 15 "gallons" per rate (15 amps from the regulator unit). ** I have taken ALOT of technical liberties with this explanation but it does get the point across on how insignificant CCA rating can be in a single cylinder tractor application *** I can see all the astute students with their hands up already shouting "Wait. We have to pump from a reservoir and we don't know how full the reservoir is. Does it have 230 gallons in it? 75gallons? 10 gallons?" The only real way of testing the "level in the reservoir" is to put it to the test under actual operating conditions. In comes the load tester. The load tester places a known load on the battery and monitors the voltage of the battery while its under load. Here is a link to a test I did on a highly sulphated (old and ignored) battery. Notice the voltage starts at very near the 12.6 volt ideal level, but falls rapidly under a 50 amp load presented by the load tester. This particular battery charges back to 12.6 volts just fine, but just doesn't have the "staying power" or RC (reserve capacity) to power a 50 amp load for more than a few seconds. http://s880.photobuc...=Movie_0001.mp4 Why a battery goes bad and what can be done to prevent premature failure of a lead cell is a whole nuther conversation. Later dudes.

A proper electric fence (e.g. not some do it yourself electrical parts) is perfectly safe. The kids and dogs will learn to leave it alone! :D

Images taken and shared with me by Russ MacNeil... Truck photographer.

Spring delivery!