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THIS IS THE ANOTHER PICTURE OF ME, MY BROTHER AND MOTHER ON THE TRACTOR. MY BROTHER IS SETTING ON THE SEAT AND I'M STANDING ON THE DECK. PICTURE IS DATED DECEMBER 1959. THE PICTURE WAS IN THE SUMMER OF 1959 I THINK. I WOULD BE 4 YEARS OLD,MY BROTHER WOULD BE 6 YEARS OLD AND MOTHER WAS 35 YEARS OLD. HOW TIME FLIES BY. BOWTIE IN OHIO

As the saying goes "To each his own." ask 100 people you'll get 100 answers. I have a 655 done up about as close as I can get it to original but with SS fasteners and I am not ashamed to admit that I drive it around all year get dog crap on the tires and scratches on the hood, about a week before the MI show I drag it out give it a good bath and touch up the scratches. From 10 feet it looks great get any closer and you will see the worn and bent steering wheel, wrong dash decal, never did do the rims, a little rust on the hub caps and the deck sounds like hell. But it is still my baby and a trailer queen in my eyes. I also have a few others that go from workers to wrecks to rollers with no engine or non running and a ratty old puller. But the other tractor I bring to the show is my C-125 worker that is more of a C-175, it's ugly, mean, and nasty but boy is it fun to drive around all weekend. Will I ever turn it into a trailer queen..Hell No! And if you try to judge either one I'll probably tell you where to go. Point is this hobby is too much fun to get all technical and the documentation for such probably doesn't exist. Toro can't even track any of the serial numbers cause someone tossed the records out years ago if they were even kept at all. Each dealer did their own version of prep and installed options after they left the factory, and it wasn't as if they were made in the millions like autos or even close to the numbers that the more popular of farm tractors were. They were a smaller regional manufacturer with no distributors out west and in the deep south, yeah they made em under license in Europe but they didn't have the following or backing of a JD, Cub, or Sears. For a company that started out in a garage and was eventually buried and died under corporate greed it is amazing that they are collected and restored at all to the degree that they are now.

Here's where my head is at...... People need to quit over-thinking these tractors and have fun with them.

As has already been said, part of the fun of this hobby is in the work of "restoring" the tractor. As has also been said, "restore" seems to have many different meanings where GTs are concerned. I make some modification to each and every tractor I work on. This is partly due to a lack of OEM parts here, as well as a tendency to think I can somehow make an occasional tiny improvement to MY tractors for MY use. Some of my machines are what I consider highly modified, but I try to make the work look at least "correct" for the style and use of the machine at the time. In my opinion at least, until some type of cash awards start poppoing up for shows (which I hope NEVER happens to our hobby), then my restores will be to MY personal satisfaction first and foremost. If someone else likes it, great! If not, that's OK by me too. That's not to say I haven't asked others for their opinions, it just means in the end that I have to be happy with the outcome of my work. If there are any "Wheel Horse Police", they can go fly a kite. As a side note: I've seen many restorations at the PA show, and many of them by far exceed the quality of work the factory produced. Better paint, better attention to detail, and far better hardware and components than any that EVER rolled off the assembly line. Personally, I think it's a testament not only to the skills of some of the collectors, but the love for these little tractors as well. I think such things as this are far more important than someone elses idea of a "perfect restoration". In short, my opinion of a benchmark restoration is the one that makes YOU the happiest. Paint it whatever color you want, make any changes you want. In the end, YOU have to look at it in your shop and get a case of perma-grin. What others think can be icing on the cake, but if you don't absolutely love it- what's the point of doing the work?

Well, this is the first time I have plowed with a Wheel Horse since 1989. Father-in-law is a Pastor and had a plow truck that was stored at my house. Sold the church and didn't need the plow truck any more. Used to plow with my Dad's Horse when I was younger. My little Suburban did a nice job. We have a fairly long circle drive that is paved. The so called blizzard we had couple weeks ago didn't leave much for plowing. Only took 45 minutes to clear the drive that day. Used the duals for plowing that day. The snow storm we had last Friday was heavier and more abundant. Took 1:45 to clear the drive last Saturday. Had to take duals off and put chains / weights on for that plow job. Had so much fun that I cleared 4 other drive ways for free. Plus, they were elderly people so was doing my good dead for the day.

Sorry, I missed the deck and blade part...I would go for it. I don't like to say this, but I like the Tecky/Lawsons...separates the men from the boys. :)

Seat wasn't bad at all but had Carhardt bibs and several layers on. Funny how when the little Horse started to get stuck....just put my feet on the ground like Fred Flintstone and away we went. Neighbor down the street had a 4x4 Kubota with blade and was spinning all four tires trying to push the side walk. Just laughed when I went by...wife said "what is so funny" My response..."all that money and can't push a little snow".

Wouldn't it be nice to see an NOS RJ right out of the box without a single scratch on it? I'm afraid that every single supposedly correctly restored RJ out there would certainly be "over restored" if such a thing as an NOS RJ existed to compare all the rest to. I'd be willing to bet the farm that the paint jobs out of the factory looked like crap compared to what we see now at the shows that are supposed to be "restored correctly" (or even just an average paint job by today's standards.) Who is going to want to do a sub par paint job to try to copy how it was done back in the day? I can hear the comments from onlookers already, "man whoever restored this could have done a much better job on the paint job! That is what is great about Wheel Horse's and the guys and gals who own them. We don't get our undies all tied up in a knot if something isn't just so. Ask a Wheel Horse guy what color red is the correct color and more than likely he is going to tell you to paint it red and it'll be close enough. As far as points judging goes, no thanks. A guy can do a real nice job making everything on his tractor original and as close to the way it came out the factory's doors as humanly possible, rebuilding all components himself along the way, BUT, if he paints the tractor himself and he lacks the skills to do a killer job on the paint he'd fail miserably if there was a points system at our shows. And that would suck in my opinion. Fact is, most cars that are judged at car shows were painted at a body shop and the owners probably took out a second mortgage to get the work done.

My son managed to dig up a copy of a CD I'd been looking for lately, and gave it to me for Christmas, and I can't put it down. It's from a band called Nuclear Valdez that was around in the late '80's and early '90's mostly, a group of Cuban-Americans playing some pretty passionate rock & roll, great songwriting and musicianship. They returned to their Latin roots after their first album, and I lost track/interest, but I understand they're still around playing music in one form or another. This tune's called Summer, the first track on the I Am I album, hope you enjoy it: YouTube is funny. There's a 55-second clip of some kid in his basement playing the guitar solo from this song. He nailed it! And I love reading liner notes, you find out all kinds of interesting stuff. Like, some of the keyboards on this album were played by Benmont Tench, long-time member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Cool.

I don't know of any 4x4 Wheel Horse's but back in the day when I was into Cub Cadets one of the guys on the forum I belonged to built this sweet Cub 100 4x4. He built the scraper and he also built a Cub 100 crawler. To say he was a craftsman is an understatement!

For 2013 we are going to again offer a members discount with two changes. This year I have increased it to 20% but there is a minimum order of $50 or more The discount code is simply 2013

Started Tinkering today with my latest aquisition, a 1965 Lawn Ranger. When I bought this tractor a few weeks back , The weather was warm and everything seem good on this ranger. I pushed this tractor in the corner for a couple weeks and after our cold weather hit suddenly the Transmission is "locked up" My first thought was something is wrong with the internals of the trans. I also thought maybe its frozen. Well today I verified the second....a frozen transmission . One of the things I thought I'd do was warm up the garage , attatch a 200watt magnetic heater to the bottom of the trans. casing and drain and refill with some fresh lube. well , for about 30 minutes nothing came out...OK, it gets worse. Then slowly,but surely, water starts dripping out the drain hole. Last time I check just a few minutes ago there was about a quart or a little less of Nice clear water with a little oil mixed in. The water still dripping out last time I checked. I was going to use this ranger to play in the snow but I'm guessing that wouldn't be a good Idea for a while. Forgot to post some pics of the ranger when I got it home but here it is today. And i'm kicking myself for not checking the trans oil. The good part is I made and installed the missing linkage piece for the lawn ranger snow plow ,but it may be a while before I get to use it. Here are some pics of the tractor and the water just starting to drip from the transmission.

That engine turned out fantastic matt! :bow-blue:

She asked for one for Christmas. :)

Matt, that engine turned out AWESOME!! where i got the polished aluminum Idea was at the old ford tractor shows, I see some of the old ford tractors with the rare cast aluminum hoods. the owners during the restoation process polish them up rather than painting them and they look really cool..... again, NICE JOB!! :handgestures-thumbupright:

Matt, I always put Clintons on my RJ's but my ProtoType build required me to locate a Model 8. I was lucky enough to come across two... one was an air-vain and the other was a machanical governor. The air-vain Model 8's bore had been bored 30+ already and was worn from there. The machanical Mobel 8 was in super condition so that one is going on the RJ biuld. The only thing I can say is from my opinion Briggs' aluminum was kind of not the highest quality in the early 50's. Here is a vid of my Model 8 build... not much progress has been made since this vid though.

Thats a great looking motor. My Briggs Model 8 (close cousin to the N) has a machanical governor also. Kind of a cool trickie set up IMO.

Looks like a nice one Matt! I have an aluminum recoil case/houseing for one of my old Tecumsehs... How much work is it to polish up aluminum parts? Might look sharp polished aluminum rather than painting it. any thoughts?

Now if this was a 1969 Chevy Camaro ZL-1...then I would have everything part back to complete OEM. otherwise these are "drivers" or AKA "workers"

On another note, Here is a pic of the linkage piece I needed and made for the plow. Thanks Lane!!

its actually fairly warm in a cab,out of the wind and snow

Overall it looked real solid and the hood looked really nice except that it was rusty. I didn't get a good look at the deck but it is supposed to be solid and the plow looked good. I would have bought it if I had the money but I have to wait for to get it for awhile.

Real nice looking suburban...still waiting for that first snow here so I can join in the fun. Size doesn't mater.... :woohoo:

Now you need to find that pedal so you can index the blade from the seat.

Thats a nice looking tractor, it makes me laugh when I see other people buying big horse power box store tractors that won't do what yours will. This proves size doesn't matter, it might take awhile longer but they still get the job done and I bet they don't have as much fun as you, Gene...

and Brrly and I are moving up :)

Oh no, I'm down by Jim now. Dang it ! -bk

The more I read about uncontrolled sliding, the more I'm liking my winch idea :eusa-think:

This could be a very interesting 2013 project. My wife asks me if it's raining outside. So I send the dog out and call him back in. He is wet. "Yes dear, it is raining outside." "You're so lazy!" she says. Wonder what she will say if I park one of these in the garage. http://www.youtube.c...p?v=tPg1ZMiC9pA

well this past weekend i got the machine ready for "cold storage". greased everything up and rolled her behind the barn and under a tarp. I didn't get a chance to check the wheels, but I'm pretty sure since this thing was sitting in the woods for who knows how many years before it came into my possession there is a good chance there is rust or dirt preventing the wheels from seating right. it was cold and rainy when i put the wheels on at first so i wasn't too concerned about cleaning the hubs at the time. I was able to find an engine, well 3 engines actually. I had a guy contact me about having some old clintons and kohlers. he wants to do a package deal for all three. I'll probably pick those up and see if i can get them all running. Use what i want then keep the rest as spares or sell them off to recoup some of my costs. Also, can someone give me the correct belt sizes for this machine? it has the 6.5" OD pulley on the rear. I had read somewhere that a 37" for the rear belt and a 20" for the engine is right but i think that was for a 7" rear pulley Thanks! Justin

Congratulations on five years Ian It just goes to show how how good this site is ,by how many people have joined in those years & its people like yourself that make it what it is today by contributing some interresting posts I have often wondered if this hobby is really about the tractors or just that you get to know some really interesting people & characters even though you have never even met that person . to the next five years

Are the threads stripped on that screw (or where the screw threads in) that holds the points to the proper setting? If those threads are stripped then changing anything else is a waste of time until you get the points to hold their adjustment.

Without 4-wheel drive, try a winch. You won't need it often anyways. Might be useful retrieving other stuff; i.e.: logs.

when snowblowing during a storm....priceless

My opinion is "what ever makes you happy". There are no Wheel Horse police out there to ticket you for doing something "wrong" Sent from my MB520 using Tapatalk 2

Suburban Tractor from Norway?

Or you can go totally of the wall the other way and do something like this

I am fairly new to the WH collector hobby having acquired five round hoods in the past two years. From what I understand, tractors from the factory didn't necessarily have perfect paint jobs to begin with. Parts were mixed and match thus factory built tractors may not have looked like the sales photos. I am restoring my dad's original 552 and I am by no means doing a "professional" restoration job. I do what I can, with what I have, when I can. If my tractor looks good to me, that's all that really matters anyway.

Honestly, as long as you disassemble the tractor right, do proper metal prep (sandblast/strip etc) and do basic repairs such as welding cracks and fixing dents, use a decent quality paint (doesn't have to be base coat clear), use a HVLP gun, not a brush, use close colors, correct decals and placement and don't bling it up in chrome and dumb decals, you can't go wrong! This isn't like building a hot rod car. If you want to modify it, go ahead, otherwise inspect the originality as you disassemble it noting painted parts, bolts etc and you're fine. It will look sharp. Manuals weren't always accurate for reference pictures. They were usually prototypes on the cover so there were differences. Take for example the RJ58 manual and the 1961 manual. Those tractors are different from production in several aspects. Mainly, HAVE FUN DOING IT! Shoot for reliability before you consider looks. See plenty of beautiful paint jobs these days on tractors with leaky, whining and grinding transmissions and smokey engines with half a turn of steering play. Just my input here. We all have opinions.

There's not too many people here doing a restoration that is exactly correct to the factory. Many people just have different taste or different abilitys on restorations. For example. Martin is able to powder coat his tractors and they look fantastic! I myself paint with automotive base coat/clear coat paint because my parents run a body shop. People have also had very good luck with spray paint and if they do a good job you can't really tell the difference of a job like automotive paint or power coat. It all just depends on what a person likes and there ability and amount of time they have to spend on a tractor. ~Jake

Bingo! Bingo, Bango :text-yeahthat:

I've just started restoring the 854 I recently purchased. I too have been wondering how far to take the restoration. However, the S/G guard on my tractor was literally ripped in 2 places with several large dents. I couldn't locate a good replacement part, so I filled the rips with JB weld and used some body tools to pound out the dents. The result looks pretty good, but if you get real close with the light at the proper angle, you can see the repairs. I've decided that the job is good enough for now, and if I find a better replacement, I'll use it. Because my tractor is not rare (ie: 754, 1045, etc.) I plan on doing about a "5 foot" restoration, so I can use the tractor to mow and pull carts occasionally. As others have already said, it would be a shame to restore the tractor to a high standard and be too afraid to use it for its intended purpose. My :twocents-02cents:

Do we really need a benchmark to just have fun?

I am curious about the chain routing on the 4 sprocket blowers. I know some older ones had only 3 sprockets (drive shaft, auger and one bottom idler). Is there a difference in routing path 3 vs 4 sprockets? The three different blowers I have owned over the past several years all had the routing per the link by Terry above for 4 sprocket blowers. My chains pass over the drive shaft sprocket passing under the large auger sprocket then up over the top idler then under the bottom idler. This yields a direct Jack Shaft to Auger chain connection. Should the auger hit a curb or other object the full force of the dirve shaft gets transferred directly to the auger large sprocket with minimal length of chain between them. The drive shaft is directly pullin on the auger gear and other gears have loose chains under load. There is another routing that works on 4 sprocket blowers. The chain from the top of the drive shaft can pass above the auger sprocket directly to the top of the top idler on 4 sprocket blowers, passing over the top sprocket, then back around the top of the large auger sprocket, then over the top of the bottom idler returning to the bottom of the drive shaft sprocket. Drive shaft spins counterclockwise so the auger still spins clockwise correctly with this routing. I am curious whether this routing takes the same chain length and if there are any negatives to this routing. I see in Ralph Lanes gallery photo under Implements - Blowers his close up of an ST-324 chain routing shows the chain passing under the large auger sprocket to the lower sprocket. Cant tell if there is an upper sprocket or only 3 on this older blower. Either way the auger spins correctly. Is that because there are only 3 sprockets and the chain only engages about 8 to 10 teeth on the auger gear so they modified it on newer blowers to 4 sprockets so the chain engages many more auger teeth? With this chain route on 4 gear blowers if the auger hits solid stop condition, the drive shaft energy has to pass through the upper idler in a 4 sprocket setup, then to the stopped auger. Not sure if the ST-324 has 3 or 4 sprockets? Regardless, I am curious whether there really is any difference on the 4 gear blowers whether it takes routing #1 or #2 above? Does the chain length vary between the 2 routes? I know that curiosity killed the cat, but we are dealing with Horses here and some dumb things can bug you until you find the answer (short of freezing my butt to try removing the chain and re-routing it on my current 79360!) Someone I bet knows this answer. Wyatt

Here is three really neat communications from Wheel Horse to it's dealers back in 1964. Thought you might enjoy. Thad (Ohio)

well finally got it in the barn tonight. had to tear all the steering apart to free it up but now the front axle and steering is all free and working. put a set of rollers on the front for now just so it can be moved around. everything in the drive line seems to work just fine. the variable speed pulley greased up and the moves like it should. once i loosened the rear brake it pushes just fine now. as for the pulley size, its a 6.5" diameter. one thing that i noticed is that the rear wheels seemed bowed. i jacked up the rear and spun the right tire and you can clearly see it wobble as it spins. I would assume since the hubs are cast, there is no way they could bend. is there a bearing in there? or maybe the wheels I am using are wrong for this style hub (they came from a 654) I'm thinking this has been repainted at some point because the paint just looks too good. also the rear pulley has very little wear, there is still paint in the inside of the grooves. also are the front wheels supposed to be angled out when at center? here are some pics and a video of that tire run out

Attached is a couple of pics of the speed selector I made for my RJ project. It is an exact copy of an original.

it showed up in the driveway just a few hours ago. Looks to be quite solid. Front tires are shot but most of the moving parts move. i threw a spare set of AGs on the rear so i can at least move it around. looks like the motion lever is gone, the hood, and engine, but there is still a lot there. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. Might just put it under a tarp for now and deal with it after the holidays. I have a gut feeling if i sell it i will regret it (like most tractors i have let go) anyway, here are some pics (little blurry, cell phone and it was raining)

Early 70's newer home with almost two acres. Purchased my first "thingy", Craftsman. A friend stopped by, I showed him my "tractor." He couldn't stop laughing. He left water runnin' from his eyes, laughing insanely. He returned in short order with a pickup load of what looked like "junque." My first Wheel Horse. Forget what model but had a pull start, Briggs I think, and a rear discharge mower. All in awful shape but free. A sheetmetal foreman at the time, I made every part I could, 316 SS. Including the mower deck. Our machine shop reproduced lots, all 316 SS. Northern Hydraulics shipped me a new engine, belts, whatever. A magnet wouldn't stick to most of this little Red Stallion! But, we needed a Parker or Jackson sweeper, didn't we? Paint shop painted all WH red. Sold the Craftsman, never went back. Joined Rough 'N Tumble in Kinzers, PA. I really needed the '32 Farmall, didn't I? My boys 'n I could fit in on my Eager Beaver 20 ft. trailer (shhhhhhhhh, quiet, didn't tell the Mrs. I bought the trailer to get the Farmall home), anyway we needed it. TD (tractor disease) was settin' in. We're siccos! Had to install a wider gate to get out back, the gang reel set was too wide. Fixed that in a jiffy! Red is for the blood we shed so, for the WHG (Wheel Horse Gang) I purchased in '73, a demo from Ford in KC. Red (of course) F-250 Super Cab, 11,100 GVW, 10 ply tires on 17" split rims, "needed it" for the tractors. The Super Cabs went public in '75 after they saw mine! Wanted a crew cab but, those only had 6 ft beds at the time. I really, really, really needed the Super Cab to take the Stallions out for a ride once in awhile. Of course I did! Had to sell a trailer load of Maytag gasoline washing machine motors to "finance" these problems. Of course the Mrs. understood. Or, did she? Traveled, owning homes in AZ, Florida Keys, wherever. No tractor 'cause I hired some gorgeous gals to keep the grounds trimmed nice, I liked watchin' them work. Should have put a Beer Meister on the patio for the crowds watching my lawn bein' trimmed. Retired early, decided to take over the landscaping myself at my "new barn." I needed some equipment didn't I? Found a '68 Raider 12 last summer, back to the Herd. Month later, tripped on a '73 no name automatic, 12 hp. Both were fixed up, working beautifully. Not funny but I'm down to my last two backpack blowers too! Then, a freebie, '88 414-8 with deck 'n plow. HH (Herd Hobby) again. Havin' fun. That little job almost done, is now. Nothin' to do but oil, grease 'n clean. WHD (Wheel Horse Disease) set in. Another, almost free, shed find, a '85 416-8. WHI (Wheel Horse Insomnia) set in. Need a trip to the paint shop, decals ordered, belts, more gear lube. Needed the fourth Stallion 'cause I have four weed whackers, didn't I? I just spent an hour loading a plastic bag at Lowes with more stainless steel hardware, WHC (Wheel Horse Crazy). My four kids, late 30's and mid 40's, love the memories. Those darn boys of mine! Talk all the time 'bout doin' wheelies on my Horses! Love 'em. Merry Christmas Y'all! Remember, Wheel Horse Parking Only, All Others Will Be Mown Out Of The Way (or over). Grandson is takin' over (behind my bank barn). Wants drivin' lessons. And, "I need them NOW Pop-Pop!" P.S.: A friend has a produce stand, think he's overcharging me! I better get some implements, plow, cultivator, disks, spreader, maybe a roller for my gravel drive. I'll show him the manure pile! I'll still buy his eggs (the foxes and my mini-Schnauzers got my Rhode Island Reds). Gotta run out now, need some more Brasso for my WH baby moons.

Kelly maybe you could send me a little of your expertise I need all the help I can get. The C195 should be a Beast. :hide: