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I finally had some free time to line up my Wheel Horses and get a few group pictures. From left to right is RJ-58, 753, 1054, 875, C120 hydro (16hp swap), and 520H

And now for the grand finale... I've got the quick hitch to add back still, but here is the tractor fully put back together and decals installed. I'm very happy with how it turned out. The paint doesn't have the automotive quality gloss that some restorations do, but for doing it myself in my garage with rattle cans, I am very happy. The decals from Redo your Horse look great. I can't wait to try out a few implements and take it to a show. So far, I have just ridden it around the yard pulling the kids in the wagon. Dave

I saw these pictures on another forum and thought it was pretty cool. I'm not too crazy about the steering setup, but the wide front is neat.

So, the Vice President at work asked me to build her a cool cabinet, (she has the same taste in deco as I do). She wanted it on something with old style wheels like the first bench I made on top of this thread. i took that bench and built onto it. I only use hand selected pallets. So....Here is what she is gettin. She loves it! Now everyone wants to to make something similar for them. Not!

I've been reading this post, and didn't say anything, but in my area not running that is at best a $100 tractor and it better run good for $200, I can see another $200 put in it in a short time, add it up seat even good used $25-50, tune up $25, batt. $25, tierods $35, ect.........

looking forward to seeing all the great friends in a few days!! bringing a few goodies to sell and some tractors. Can't wait!!

..... or you could cut it up into square jacket patches and sell them to us for $5 a piece. Wouldn't you all just be happy as a clam to have your very own Red Tent badge???

Denny the arch ones are great for loading into a truck bed or equivalent. The arch is almost a must if the tractor has a deck on it. People have been hurt and decks messed up when they catch that sharp change in elevation using straight ramps. The arch helps to prevent all that. One thing that has deterred me away from Aluminum loading ramps is the scum bags that decided to steel them out of the bed of my truck when I went in to pay for gas. The second set was on my trailer locked and chained with heavy logging chains. They took a saws all and just cut the ramp and stole them. Just looking for scrap metal. Now my third set is plain ol wood I use on my trailer. Tired of feeding scum scrappers. Catch them again maybe give them some lead to scrap. Anyway the arch ones work great just don't let them out of your sight or within view of others.

I hope to be doing the same thing this fall for restoration of parts of my yard -- Hopefully all of my parts and pieces will go together -- Your story gives me hope!

Got the case blasted this morning. Thats as far as I can go until I get new bearings which will probably be a few weeks. Here's a pic.

Thank you. I have already done that actually. I spent the better part of 4 hours (or more, not sure...it was really late when i got done) last night researching. I found one guy, Bill, that posted his whole process with LOTS of pictures on another tractor forum. (I had no idea others existed. ) Anyway, the link to his his below. When I go and build this, if i decide to build, I will create a new thread on here and post pics and what i did just like Bill did, as well as have it all posted on my website that i'll disclose later. www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=15654&page=2 The biggest thing, I need to figure out how I will work around the blade pivot handle. The blade is a 56" off of a D-series, so the handle sticks out a little far from the tractor on the right. My tractor is a 1985 310-8....I love having the larger plow, works GREAT!...i will post pics of it in about a week when i return from vacation so you guys can get an idea of what I mean. I want to have my cab a little different than Bill's. I will use clear vinyl shower curtain(cheaper) for rear and side windows instead, and plexisglass for just the front window so that way i can use a wiper blade down the road if i want/need to(and probably will use manual wiper, no motor). Usually wind isn't much an issue ever. Also, i am not sure if Bill's door(s) open on just the one side or if both sides open....I want both sides to open for versatility for what i do and where I live. Also, for my front window/section, i want the option to easily remove it and keep it off for summer, or the ability to at least hinge upward to be able to open the hood when needed. For attaching it to the rear of my tractor, i think i will do similar to the wood on the back to attach the angle iron, but i will have to think of a way to attach the back piece to the back of the tractor...its just a tad hard for me to think and really visualize without my tractor in front of me. Will make sure i take a pic of this too for ideas. I don't need a light in the rear as i already have mounted on the back of my tractor(below fuel tank, above tranny) a light. I will want Amber strobe on top, and probably one light in front of cab, as i already have two stock headlights on front of tractor (though one of the lights [both lights are less than year old] usually burns out after a little while, i figure probably from vibration) I probably won't get or use a heater, even if i get heat from engine or not...I'm used to plowing without a cab, so i will just dress extra warm. Hopefully this gives a little more insight into what i am thinking. But i still would really like input from the Red Square family for other ideas and suggestions. Especially if someone with a WH has built a custom cab before too. I'm only 20 years young, so my budget is a fair factor. Thank everyone. Brian

I have an aquastripper with a 8hp techy on it works like champ at 4000psi and you can buy a siphon attachment for silica sand to blast old horse frames and tins clean (dual purpose)

does that mean you will be on your best behavior .... Yes...I will be on my best behavior...not sure about the wife though.

Guess I really did not need dye to observe the phase separation. I finally had the opportunity to experiment a bit with E10 and adding water. Experiment successful !! Click on the image to play the movie - yes, that is a layer of water + EtOH on the bottom of the container separated from the gasoline component on top. The container shows about 20% water and EtOH to 80% gasoline. That is pretty darn close to what you would expect.

along the lines of what was mentioned above. the cylinder is later. the earlier ones had the inlet/outlet come out at an angle other than 90 degrees to the foot peg. this one the inlet/outlet is 90 degrees and therefore the lines run up under the side cover on the frame. the cylinder is covered by the side panel whereas the older angled fittings, the cylinder is exposed. this one fits cxx1 (c121 or similar) i think but definitely the blackhoods (c125- etc) and later on into your 3,4,500 series and later tractors.......... the earlier ones are cxx0 (c100-c160) and use the angled inlet/outlet fittings...... i think this is generally where the angled ones changed to the straight up fittings. somebody correct me if im wrong.....

Well here is a little bit of an update. The differential is back together, I blasted the hubs and pulleys. Also took the needle bearings out today so I can sandblast the case, I have taped over the 1533's after I took the picture. I am going to order all new bearings for the trans, but will wait until after charlotte show. Here are some pictures. ~Jake old bearings diff back together bearings out of the case hubs, pulleys, and shifters bead blasted.

Kelly, Denise and I will be there. We have a few interesting things on the trailer and Denise has some new things in her embroidery stuff. We will be arriving in Charlotte on Wednesday. Looking forward to seeing out Wheel Horse friends again.

Well you could make a few tractor covers out of the old canopy

thanks for your help and I am only 13 and this would be my 2 restoration and I am hitting some road blocks but is slowly coming along

Horsefeathers 603 gasser?

Lars, that is the sound that got me into Wheel Horse in 1981 or 82. I could eat that for supper, can you send me a couple cans full, Ha. First sat on a Cub IH auto with Kohler, then went to Wheel Horse with Kohler, both used, but fell for the RED, never had an idea so many others did also. Maybe for once did good! Got em lookin ready to pay for his keep!

...off the hook? You decide. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqeMIhxVEpM&feature=youtu.be

I was not sure this year, but going to make it. Perry...got some room around your camp fire...bringing my better half this year.??

I appreciate the comments guys, although hopefully I don't disappoint you with a few changes I have made since then. I am finding I thought I took alot of pictures, but don't have the ones I wish I had to help tell the story. Thankfully, I did take alot of detailed ones to help me get it put back together right. Anyway, back to the story... Through most of the winter, the 854 sat in a corner of the garage untouched while I worked on a few other projects. Starting on the engine rebuild remained in the back of my mind though. One project that delayed the 854 was the purchase of a John Deere 110 fix-er-upper. It was one I bought to resell to add a little cash to the garden tractor fund. The plan was to sell it whole if it didn't need much repair, or in parts if it was too far gone. It ended up being the later. However, the engine in it appeared to have been rebuilt and ran pretty well. My plans for the 854 quickly evolved from an engine rebuild to an engine swap. Some might cringe at the thought of a "Deere" engine in a "Horse", but truth-be-told, there was blue paint under the green, so this engine wasn't a "Deere" to begin with either. Regardless of where it was installed when it started it's life, it is a Kohler K181S and I figured it would work just fine in the 854. As often happens in this hobby, my "free" motor probably cost me more in the long run than just rebuilding the original one. I was OK with a rusty red engine in a rusty red tractor, but a (mostly) green engine in a red tractor just didn't seem right to me. Just repainting the engine crossed my mind, but I thought a shiny red engine in a rusty red tractor would look odd too. No, if I was going to repaint the engine, I figured I may as well do the rest of the tractor too. So, I started planning for a more comprehensive overhaul of the tractor. In late March things started to thaw and I started working on prepping the 854 for some new paint. I took the tractor completely apart. Tear down went well and I thankfully I only had one bolt twist off. I don't have a sandblaster, so my main tool was the angle grinder with a wire wheel to strip the paint off. On most parts, I went down to bare metal, although on some castings I'm sure there was some paint left in the crevices of the rough cast surface. After spending most of an afternoon with the grinder and still having a pretty sizeable pile of parts left to finish, I started to get discouraged. I had the main chassis parts done, so I decided to finish those out and come back later to finish stripping the rest. The weather cooperated and I was able to paint this round of parts outside. It was ideal with moderate temperatures, little wind, low humidity and no bugs. I used Rustoleum Regal Red rattle cans. I was very happy with how the paint turned out, and the color was really great. I didn't want gas to seep out of the tank and make a mess of a new paint job, so I re-redid the gas tank seal. It was not fun to strip the Red-Kote back off the tank, but I knew I needed to if I stood any chance of getting it to seal better this time. I made my own gasket again, but this time I coated the gasket with Red-Kote as I put the tank together. I then coated the inside not once, but twice with Red-Kote. After letting it dry for a few days, I tested it and thankfully, this time there was no leaking or seeping. My first milestone was to rebuild it to the rolling chassis stage, so to get there I wanted to redo the tires & wheels along with the rest of the tractor. The original turfs held air (with tubes), but they left something to be desired for traction when trying to turn the tractor with an implement on the back. To help that, I ordered some tri-ribs. I liked the look of the 23x8.50-12 Firestone's from the Commando on the rear, but I came across a great deal on a set of 6-12 bar tires and thought those might be better for general use. I will definitely keep the Firestone's for when I need a little more flotation or just want a beefier look though. The 6-12's had very little wear from use, but were weathered and cracked. To be safe, I put tubes in them when I installed them. I used Rustoleum Canvas White for the wheels. The Almond seemed too dark and although the Canvas looks light in some of the pictures, it seemed to match some of the original paint on the wheels.

Quick story. I had a Craftsman rider up for sale well over ten years ago. A guy I didn't know contacts me thru e-mail and offers me asking price if I would deliver it. He only lived 10 miles or so away and I thought it strange...maybe no truck...or no trailer . We talked back and forth a few times thru e-mail and settled on a day and time for me to deliver it. We never talked by phone. When I get to his house he turned out to be a young man probably 12-13 years old!! We did the deal with the Craftsman and ended up striking up a friendship where I would sometimes pick up a tractor he had bought but couldn't get home. We would yak back and forth sometimes thru e-mail. I made sure to meet his mom to let her decide that I wasn't some freak since I was in my mid 30's at the time. Fast forward to 2006....he sends me an e-mail asking me to join a Wheel Horse tractor forum he had just started. It only had one member and he was it. His name was Chris (whchris), he started this site, and that's how I became Member #2 here on Redsquare. Young people rock!! Mike................

It's here (We really do need a D forum so that this sort of great stuff is easy to find) Re 'crocus', its way finer than even the fine grade emery / sand papers - try googling 'crocus grade paper' (or cloth)for available substitutes. Andy

Chuck, I'm late to the discussion and I see a lot of things have been covered, but I have a few comments. Today's gasoline is good stuff. I've been living right i guess since I can't blame stale fuel for any problems I've had even though people around here insist that we have bad gas. Or, maybe they mean something else... I'm a chemical engineer, but have been sort of out of my field for a few years. I also think I know everything about every single subject, so take anything I say with a pound of salt and a shot of ethanol (etoh). I'd think that finding a alcohol only soluble dye will be difficult for the experiment you'd like to conduct. I'll look in some of my catalogs next week when i get back in the office. In addition to having an affinity for water, etoh also dissolves extremely well in gasoline. The gas likes the other end of the etoh molecule that the water does. Since water and etoh like to stick together, I think you'd be fighting solubility of your dye in both phases of the mixture (ie some etoh will remain in the gasoline phase even after phase separation and will carry dye with it). If you do find a dye, I think you'll want to use the absolute minimum amount possible to decrease its tendency to color the gasoline phase of the liquid. Huzzah for ethanol in gasoline! I believe it probably prevents more water issues than it causes in almost all instances (marine engines being the exception). The fact that it draws water out of the tank keeps it from accumulating in significant amounts. Etoh's affinity for water probably reveals existing equipment problems with water intrusion into the fuel system. With pure gas, these problems are disguised since the water usually sits at the bottom of the tank and doesn't get sucked into the fuel line and pumped upstream. That said, phase separation is a real phenomenon but it shouldn't be a problem for fuel tanks or engines that don't get doused with water regularly. In a boat gas tank or underground tank water can get in through leakages of one sort or another. These aren't likely moisture accumulations from breathing by the vent system of the tank trapping airborne humidity since that trivial amount of water would be sucked up by the etoh and carried harmlessly through the fuel system and engine. Older fuel storage tanks that never had alcohol enhanced fuels generally ought to have a puddle of water sitting in the bottom of them. When the fuel truck dumps a new load of alcohol laced gasoline that water is soluabilized to some degree and comes up the pipe with the gas. Along with it comes the water soluble crud and schmutz that had previously sat harmlessly in the bottom of the tank. This was a problem when gasohol was introduced in the 1970's and isa problem again now that all fuel sold must average some percentage of ethanol (this is thanks to the corn growers association by the way) as an octane improver. There can be rubber issues that ethanol exacerbates. Usually, it affect sold seals and gaskets that were (postulating here)going to have problems in the near future anyway. Just be thankful we don't use methanol. It's even more aggressive on rubbers and plastics. I don't use stabilizers as a matter of routine. The gas in my generator was installed when I moved into this house 3 years ago. I thought I stabilized it, but I notice my only bottle of stabil is unopened, so i might have never gotten around to it. It starts up first pull every month when I exercise the thing. 3 years does make me a bit nervouse though, soone of these days I will be draining it and putting it in the car. All of my questionable fuel goes in the car by the way. I figure dilution will take care of any problems. The ethanol in fuel issue is something that almost believers on both sides at nearly religious levels. For the last 20 years I'vegenerally sought out the fuel that was doped with ethanol so you can imagine what side I'm on. For me, it's always been about keeping the water from accumulating in the tank. We know it's going to get in there,so etoh gives it a way to get out. On the east coast evidently theytraditionally spiked the fuel with mtbe, so now you're all paying the water price we did in the Midwest 30+ years ago. The only better use for ethanol is for filling the cup of a certain guy from Elgin. Best wishes, Steve I apologize for the typo's. The iPad won't let me use capital letters properly either...

I imagine Steve may be home conducting laboratory experiments...as we speak.

custom shhmustom this thing is stupid! Here it is at the WCC show The rat-tickle 603 gasser!