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Here's a simple economical basic soil test. It won't tell you everything but it can get you in the ballpark. Pust some of your soil in a clean glass jar, add a half cup of vinegar. If the soil bubbles or fizzes it's alkaline. If there's no reaction clean the container thouroughly, add a second soil sample and mix in 1/2 cup of water. Add a half cup of baking soda to the sample. If it bubbles or fizzes, the soil is highly acidic. Amend your soil with lime or wood ashes if it's acidic. Amend your soil with sulfur or pine needles if it's alkaline. Amending soil takes time so make small changes and retest after a month or two.

I have had gutter guards for over 10 years. One of the best investments I've made. I have the Gutter Gard brand. They are solid aluminum, no holes. The problem with the type that has holes is that the stems of leaves will get lodged in the holes, making it necessary to once again get up on the ladder and clean them. The solid type will not trap small item, and they pass right over the top and onto the ground, while the rain flow into the gutter. I have not had to clean my gutters in 10 years. I do occasionally have the gutter company do maintenance on the covers to clean pollen from the edges, but they do that for free as part of their lifetime warranty/maintenance program. I also do handyman work which includes cleaning gutters. If you live in the woods, most the mesh type or covers with holes are worthless to the home owner, but are big money makers for me.

My Dad hired out on the Erie Lackawanna(EL) line as a brakeman when he was 19 years old. By the time he retired, had worked his way up to the engineers seat. Was an engineer through the entire Consolidated Rail(Conrail-CR) days, and ultimately retired in 2000 from Norfolk and Southern(NS). My Dad had many opportunities to break into railroad management, but couldn't bring himself to give up what he loved doing most...driving them trains. That man worked the rails his entire life long, God rest his soul. I miss my Dad.

Firstly and secondly I'd like to endorse the above . That's a nice little tractor you've got there and as it's all up together and running a fairly easy resto to get you into the hobby. If you enjoy doing it and are pleased with the results then there's plenty of time to move on to the 'prefered' tractors. I've been tempted several times now to get one myself so I'd have an A, B, C & D in my stable. The vertical shaft Horses were on the whole at the entry level of the market and I doubt it was envisaged that some of them would last for as long as they have. They were 'lawn tractors' for lighter work rather than 'garden tractors' for heavier use but in a way so what? It has the same classic 70s look and deserves to be loved and preserved by somebody otherwise one day there'll be no examples of them left. I say don't be put off - go for it and get into a really rewarding hobby. Andy

So long as you like it that is all that matters, no matter what you have you are always welcome here.. I'd love to see it all fixed up like new myself.

Hey everyone, here is the article that we ran in LAGT, Volume 3, Issue 5. A lot of controversy about this. Very interesting story though. Enjoy!

Well I finally got around to this tractor. It turned out pretty good. I had this for sale on my website before I did anything to it and didn't get any takers. I did one of these last year and sold it. I had to rewire this and I haven't painted the front wheels yet. I have repainted the engine since I took these pictures. I need to get some updated pictures yet after I paint the wheels. New paint, new decals,new battery and wiring.

I recently moved into my grandparents farm house, they have been gone for awhile now and a recent turn of events landed me back in my favorite childhood place... Grandma and grandpa's house. My grandpa's tractors are still here, two of which were puchased new by my great grandpa when he lived here. All three have been on the property since new. My great grandpa purchased the '38 Massey Harris 101 super and the Massey Harris Pony (year unknown). My grandpa bought the International Harvester model H in '47. I have some pics, some are as they sat in the barn, So far I have the 101 running and outside, the other two will be longer projects. First the pony The Model H And the 101 super (inside the barn) And the 101 super after I got her running and my uncle drove her out under her own power Let me know what ya think, I'll try to keep posting pics when they are outside to produce a much better picture.

I got this from the shop I work part time at to try on my yard and see how I like it the engine is a 25hp kohler command pro with 500 hours, it has a 60 inch deck this mows way faster and nicer than my old groundsmaster 52 the only complaint I have is that the controls are very sensitive but I have found a dampening kit that will take care of that problem. This thing opens up and is very user friendly I can service it from front to back in less than 1/2 hour without having to lay underneath it, the deck flips up for cleaning, blade removal and storage. I offered the shop $1,500 for it but was told I would get if for nothing more than cost which was $1,000 so I think I will be keeping it but will give it a good test drive before I make my final decision. If I decide I don't want it I am supposed craigslist it for $3,000 and keep half of the profit so it's a win win either way. I love working for a Toro dealer when I went to pick this up I also scored a pair of cast iron wheel horse rear wheel weights and a cab for FREE If anyone has used one of these or knows any problems I should watch out for please let me know before I purchase it so the potential problems can be taken care of.

Just picked up a 1975 original C 160 auto. At first glance my wife said she liked the look of it. When she heard how old it was she couldn't believe the condition, this woman has seen a lot of tractors in the past two years. Today she said she really likes the looks of it as compared to my 300s. Needless to say I have every intention of keeping this one. The original owner bought it with a 48" deck for his 1/2 acre yard. The second onwer only used it for grass for the last few years. An hour meter shows 500 hours and i'm willing to bet it was put on there right from the very beginning. Strong hydro, smooth motor, good original tires, and flawless sheetmetal. And the original seat is a home run!!! All she needs now is some minor tlc and off she goes to the family get away!

Very nice tractors you have! Jake

The Sears tranny with the Hi/Lo has been around along time and is a very good tranny. A Kohler Mag 20 cant be bad either. I think its a cool ride! Mike.............

what ever engine works for you,some guys even like the teccys,id rather have a briggs than a teccy

I would check to make sure theres nothing binding that may cause the intermittent problem. I too have had a cross shaft break. You dont absolutely have to take it all apart to replace the cross shaft. With patience, a magnet and a wonderful girlfriend to hold the flashlight it can be done! Joel

The wife or the tractor? Nice looking machine you got there! Duff :thumbs:

Tractor delivered today!! It's not the classic iron, but it's more user friendly so the wife can drive it. Still drooling over the 312-8 and 414-8 the dealer has for sale. Anyway, here are a few pics taken after I did some test cutting. Tractor handles nicely, gonna have to get a roller for the yard. It's bumpier than it looks.

Well this is about the final post showing construction. once you have the angle bent you are ready to attach it. Two ways come to mind. 1.Clamp it to the guard and drill 1/8 holes through both pieces. You could then Pop rivet both together. Or 2. Weld them. I chose to weld them as I had the mig. A spot welder would be ideal. A tig would be great too.Be sure to clamp the pieces tightly so the weld will penetrate. Also be sure the parts are clean. Okay, Here are the pics and I welded the bottom "tab" of the rear angle first and then mounted the guard on the tractor to check belt clearance. then finished welding it. Ok if you are building this and made it this far, Congratulations!! Your idler works! Go till some soil! I'll be following this up with a complete list of parts and the full-size scan of the guard .I still need to sandblast and paint my tiller mid mount idler assembly.

Both are nice lookin' machines, but you're right...there something just plain cool about that old '73.

You ain't seen nothin' yet Rich, but more on that shortly Today was more of "sit and grin" kinda day, but a bit of work on the ol girl has been done.. First thing was to bolt on the front right side axle.. HHmm.. I thought it fitted better than that the other day Getting the engine off the bench and on to the chassis was quite fun on my own, a series of ramps and office chairs soon-ish had it sorted though. The rope is for getting the engine in the right place and not for working out how the drive belt would run. The engine in the only position it would go.. It would be nice to move it a bit more towards the front, but that would mean raising the engine to get it to fit over the front trans top mount, which in turn would of lead to all sorts of aggro with the air cleaner and engine hitting the hood in all sorts of places!! So it goes where it goes. The parking brake pedal is going to need a few mods to get it to clear the engine, but not too much. As I thought, the hood stand will need a little trimming to clear the rear cylinder. At this point I could not resist throwing a few parts and wheels in place to see how the beast now looks with an even longer hood.. Not a perfect lengthening job on the hood, but it was never going to be using paper and masking tape It's looking longer.. The hood now sticks out in front of the wheels.. Now the "money shot" as they say.. Once I saw it from this angle I knew I was doing the right thing fitting the second trans.. The machine has gone from "slightly scary" to "screaming monster".!! I think if I saw this bearing down on me it would certainly be "change of underwear" time :D In fact I liked the new look so much I made a coffee (please not the engineers coffee table) and just sat down looking and grinning for quite a while.. Yep, I rather like it Another perk of fitting the second trans is it will give me somewhere to mount the gas tank, or battery or maybe even both. So why did that axle not fit where it should?? Because I was trying to fit it in the wrong place.. At the back it should go.. Loads of space... yep it's been a rather good day

Think I,ll take the battery out of that big C-160 stallion. That should keep him from roming around the mares stalls at night.

If someone doesn't like a Briggs, Imagine how they feel about Teckys!!!

Found the answer to my own question. Yes the rebuild kit still available from Toro but I got mine straight from the valves manufacturer. It was a whole lot cheaper by about 58 $$$.

I think that last wheelie would have left me with chili in my shorts for sure John

Thanks, it's nice to be cracking on with it again. They sure are Terry, Mark has done a great job on them. Hey Alan, welcome back to RS, How many coffee's did you get through reading all this thread? Question 1.. I get what your saying about Calling it a "Charger 20" would be more in keeping with the trans'ssss. I chose Raider 20 because I quite like the look of the body, and I had the part's (well most of them) in stock.. This machine is a right mix of different Wh bit's from many models.. Raider hood stand, I think half the hood is C-121 the other half unknown.. The chassis buried in there somewhere is C-125, both trans'sss are C-175 as is part of the hood stand.. You get the idea, a bit of a mixed years machine.. Question 2 is easier to answer... I just like the deep dish look to the wheels, they add a certain "meanness" to the look Hi Rich, it's update time My new ARC welder turned up so it was time to give that front plate a good zapping.. Trouble was the two bit's of steel had been cut from a box off-cut and had sprung out of shape a bit.. That and all the welding produced a lots of warping!! Knowing how hard that stuff is to beat back into shape, it was time to start again with some much thicker steel, yep that lump of angle. No cutting or welding action shot's but the new ARC does produce some rather nice welds A couple of chassis rails ready for welding on. The new chassis front plate ready to be welded on. This will come in handy for mounting the front of the hood.. Yep the extra two holes were drilled by mistake Welded... Some cross bracing was added to stop and sideways movement. These two bit's of box will be welded on to clamp the trans down even more.. A bit like the back.. Clamped, welded and cooling. While the above was cooling a took a look at the hood stand.. Won't be needing those slider things any more, they need to come out the way anyway to make space for the engine. That looks better, shame I cut a big hole out of it.. I won't "back fill" the hole until I know if I need to trim any length from it for the engine. Back to the chassis and a couple of diagonals have been added, the front of the chassis should be nice and strong now More to come later, it's time to vanish and collect a Chinese take-out :D

Glad to see you finally found one. I use the same straight lift link for my snow plow and grader. Good luck!

Just as my avatar says Crazy Train watchin WH guy from M I Grew up in Ohio our farm bordered the B&O Willard Subdivision just outside of the train watchers Mecca of Fostoria, If you stood in the right spot you could also just make out the Pennsy line to Toledo (Coruthers Secondary) Of coaurse by the time I was a teen it was CSX and Conrail-spin off to a short line operator called Indiana Hi-Rail (IHRC), now it is operated by the Northern Ohio and Western (NOW) I used to be in pretty good with the local engineer from IHRC and would get regular cab rides from one end of the yard to the other and occasionally a ride from their tracks out to the CSX interchange. A few times he would sit me in the seat hand have me blow for the crossings. For power they had an EMD GP-35, old AA unit it was in very bad shape and rodel like a tank. One year they had an Alco C-420 as the 35 was out for a rebuild, that thing was a Dream compared to the Chevy, smoked like a steam engine but what a ride and the sound of that big turbocharged 2000 Hp 4 stroke diesel was music to my young ears. One day they had borrowed an EMD SW-1200 from a local industry (regular power was broke down again) I was riding the cab as usual. The conductor was at the other end of a long cut of cars throwing switches and we had stopped to cut the power off to run around to the other end. The engineer jumped down to pull the uncoupler but couldn't as there was no slack on it. He yells up to me "go on get over there and pull her forward I know you know how to do it" like a shot I was across the cab released the train brake put the reverser in forward and notched her up to about 3. One of the greatest moments in my life was driving that 1200Hp switcher all of about 6 feet, solo. Been watching them every chance I get ever since, I sure do miss the days when you would get invited up in the cab to take a look around, my 8 year old Son will likely never know the thrill of that outside of a museum. If I ever win the mega millions I'll start model railroading again in 1:1 scale and store my Wheel Horses in old box cars. Oh yeah and I have tons of HO stuff in storage waiting on a basement empire someday.

I believe it is mostly O ring replacement. There is a lot of other information out on the internet. There is a video out there somewhere. Here is one of the manuals: http://wh.classickitchensandmore.com/Manuals/91%20520%20H/whlifhyd.pdf

No doubt about that. If I part with them, I'll probably keep at least 1, but they aren't for my year tractor, so no need for me to keep all of them. Send one to Terry the Vinylguy to use as a pattern to make repros (I don't think he has that one), and keep one set for yourself. Then find a nice 1076 to put them on :thumbs2:

DO IT! DO IT!

Sorry, here is a link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wheel-Horse/246428232128027 Thanks!!

yeah, The dog poo is the worst! Although when our Lab was a pup and he ate the kids sidewalk chalk it was kinda like finding easter eggs :banana-rainbow:

:teasing-blah: :teasing-blah: Three Thousand Times. Thanks for the moment of peace Steve. :teasing-tease:

I find that I just have to close my eyes and not even look, otherwise the herd multiplies. I also find that in the evening my resistance to temptation is non existent and I have to stay away from eBay and Craigslist. In the morning I am glad I did not buy another.

Hey Lars, I found out that they are storing your crate here................................... It's in a safe place......... Hope ya get it soon!

"You gotta keep 'em seperated"

Thought I'd continue on the guard fabrication today.We're going to start by using the left over steel from the guards to make the small almost vertical belt guard at the idler pulley. I took Martin's advice and was able to do a respectable bend on the part. If I had a sheet metal brake or a press it would have been perfect but the bend came out ok.With the piece being small I clamped it to a large angle and used a piece of 3/8" bar as a backer to distribute the force. Without the backer the bend was not as sharp.Did the bending with a wood block and a large hammer . Cut it off and now you have the basic part. It is easier if you don't cut it angle up like I did because the angle got in the way of the grinder. The next step is to measure 1 1/2" up on the side and mark a line for the last cut. Be sure to mark it as it would be on the guard,it's easy to get confused here.You will then make the cut into the wide side only! You need this cut to make the small angled bend for belt clearance. I used a T-bevel to measure the angle and you could actually bend it after the bottom is attached to the guard. Last step is to deburr and round over the corners so there are no sharp edges on the part. I used a belt sander but a file would be ok. That's it other than putting the two guard pieces together and that will be in the next post.

Andy, heres a pic of the strainer, dont remember but I think I made this strainer of brass and used original end caps, you can also see this case was cracked, so brazed it up, did a little filing, friend still using it today after 3 years, Guess I can Do Something Right Occasionally, Tim

:WRS: It may not be a garden tractor, but its still a , and built better than any lawn tractor you can buy today. It still has that classic styling as well. Are you going to fix it up? Matt :flags-texas:

Next time,duct tape a bucket to the blade, then put the mud bucket in that bucket and it won't fall off..... This is yet another case of improper red neck engineering. You used a bungee cord in an obvious duct tape application!

had a 5ft long 2x4, put an end under the tractor, lifted the other end with right hand, pulled out bucket with left hand. Probably wasn't the brightest idea either...

Here is my take on this and it is quite simple. I have mowed with both type decks over the past 30 yrs. and both do a decent job. The advantages and disadvantages of each deck have all been mentioned so I won't bore you. A rear discharge deck is boring! It just seems as though you are doing nothing but riding around the yard with one. Being able to watch the clippings come out of the side discharge keeps me entertained.