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Hi all, Finally got the lawn ranger out for a ride today. Very happy with the way this one turned out, runs great and looks good too! Just have to do a couple paint touch ups and paint the letters on the hood and its done. Thanks, Jake

of the 2014 mowing season. I was actually pretty impressed with the performance of my newly aquired 401's reel mower today.

Try a white paint pen Jake, That's the trick I learned from a few on the site. Works great and is easy to do.

Hey all, I have been thinking about what to do with the rims as far as paint on my 1054. I'm not a purist so a different color doesn't bother me. The paint on the tractor itself is a nuttin-special rattle can job so the rims will be the same . Not to mention I have no painting skills! I started out with these nasty rims... I decided to try a flat black finish with a shiny silver ring around the outside of the rim. The seat frame is silver so its not the only silver on the machine. Any thoughts?? Looks good/OK/lousy? What about the hubs? Would you paint em black...leave em red...or what? I can handle criticism . Mike..............

Here are some of the pics of the Greater Minnesota Two cylinder club (Little Falls MN) Wheel Horse was the featured garden tractor and Scorpion was featured snowmobile. First pics are of the mighty Miss going thru Little Falls, had to take pics of the sheer power and speed of the water. Few other misc. pictures, then the tractor line up, brought to you by Joebob, Pronzy, Terry M ( and Andrew) and Shynon. Last pic is the grand prize for exhibitor in each feature class AKA Shynon. ( I will be getting the Wheel Horse refrigerator as I do not own a scorpion snowmobile)

Found this little thing on cl for 80$ I've had my eye out for one for a while I've wanted a pull start 7hp on the large frame I think its cool and its a newer motor

Last summer, my old John Deere 160 engine bit the dust, so I purchased a used Simplicity Broadmoor. Nice tractor, BUT, when I had my Cyclone Rake attached and was cleaning up leaves in the fall, I found that the mower deck would blow leaves out the front, making the dreadful job of leaf cleanup even harder. So, I put a for sale sign on the Broadmoor, set it out by the road, and within 4 hours it was sold and gone. Now, the task of finding another lawn tractor to use with the Cyclone rake with began. Since all of my Wheel Horses would require the purchase of a side discharge deck, and extensive modification in the hitch department to be able to haul around the Cyclone, I opted to go back to John Deere. My brother-in-law had recently gotten a JD X300 from an estate, didn't really need it, so he offered it to me at an unbelievable price. It's everything I need. 42" side discharge deck, 17HP twin cylinder OHV engine, hydrostatic transmission, and reasonably low hours.

On another thread I asked what kind of Tranny and rear end and the year I had on my senior. After much research I found that the transmission is what they call a Top Loader and the date code says its a 1934. The rear end is definitely a Model "A" as I went over to a friend of mine who has a Model A and looked it over and mine matches his. With this info in hand I can order gaskets that I need to fix the leaks. On another note, I drove over to ME Miller Tire Saturday and picked up the front and rear tires That I will be using. I had ordered a 8 X 16 Blank Rim in case the Lab Metal job didn't turn out how I wanted it to. Anyway the 8 X 16 was too wide.. I didn't realize that just because it's an 8 x 16 tire it doesn't take an 8 X 16 rim. Live and learn Well with the return shipping I would have had and the shipping of the replacement rims and the tires my shipping would have been $160.00. Well I made the trip for about $35.00 with gas and tolls. I will weld the spokes in later this week more on that later. The front tires are Firestone rib old style 4 X 12. The rears are Superstrong 8 X 16 Ags which bought out the Firestone rear molds and are making them under the Superstong name. Here is pics of the new Skins.

I don't have the paperwork from my 416-H that I inherited from my grandfather, but he wrote all his expenses for his home in a notebook.... He logged $6000 for the Horse in April of 94... He bought it with the 42"SD, and the tiller. Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

Looks awesome! Smear the entire area of the hood letters with rubber cement. Let dry. Rub the cement off of the flat part of the paint. Paint the letters with your choice of color. Let dry. Then rub off the remaining cement. done. Cheap liquid masker. If this crotchety untalented old fool can do it, anybody can! Old artist trick.

I've had a pretty busy spring. It was really warm in March so I had alot of calls come in to get some roto-tilling done. I did a few back in March but did the bulk in the last week. So far I've done 18 jobs. From a 4x8 foot plot up to a 100x100 garden, and everything in between. Most are gardens but some are people putting in grass or landscaping. Some jobs are current gardens but most lately have been breaking new ground. The C-125 does an awesome job but one garden just kicked mine and my tractors butt. The ground was so hard I literally had to stand on the tiller to get it to push into the earth. Doing that got me down about three inches, then I switched to turning circles so the tines were cutting sideways into the earth. That got me to about 4-5 inches deep. It was a 15 x 30 garden and it took me like an hour and a half. Anyways, here's some pics. I know you want them. Breaking new ground for a wildlife trail. How a garden should look after my job is done. On a side note, my tractor doesn't have an hour meter, so how often should I be changing the oil during this rough use? John

A fine gentleman a couple of miles down the road had 3 for sale in his front yard since last spring. The number kept diminishing from 3 to 2 to just this one last fall. Poor thing sat out there all winter long, but it was the one I had my eye on all along. It reminded me of the one I learned to drive on at my Grandpa's nearly 40 years ago. Pa sold it one day and bought a newer WH. But I always liked that older model better. I road my bicycle past it for a year. The grass is finally growing here and we have the yard all trimmed up and the flowers planted today. We got finished and my 10 year old son and I drove down to take a closer look. I had the itch. He told me all about the history of it and how he came to own 3 WH's. This one was bought with a snow blower, but it quickly sold last spring. There is no battery in it, needs a belt to activate the deck and has had the motor replaced many years before. Like prior to him buying it 15+ years ago. It has a Briggs n Stratton 8 hp. The hood was stretched to accommodate the larger motor, but it was done nicely. He said several collectors had been eying it, I told him I was no collector. I planned to work it. He said he thought it was worth $200, I offered $100 and denied his counter. I walked away with the key, hope she will run. He said it ran for about 30 seconds at a time and would die last year. He took apart the carburetor, found it all bunked up, cleaned it up, but said it never ran after that. So what do you think?? A good buy? Any suggestions on preparations for getting her running? I'm no mechanic, but am mechanically inclined.

So if you havent checked the classifieds, I have a friend who's dad recently passed away. His dads brother was a Wheel Horse dealer and he had a mobile home park as well as a house and barn with lots of grass. So to him one 520 wasn't enough. He actually has 3 of them. 2 he is selling, but the third he tells me is a 50th anniversary tractor. It has gold badging and gold logos on the hubcaps. This is the serial number tag and the tractor in question. He's not selling this one as it was his dads pride and joy. Just thought you guys would like a look. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

Got a call about 2 weeks ago asking if I wanted to buy a entire collection, mostly WH stuff, lots of parts and about 10 tractors, so after work the next day I drove the 40 miles to take a peek at them, I spent over a hour looking at the piles and boxes of parts, checking the tractors over, trying to come to a price, the owner might agree on, we haggled a little and both agreed on one, well that as I said was 2 weeks ago, today I go to pick everything up, yes lots of pics to follow, later today and tomorrow, pretty sure it will be a few loads to get it all, here is a few teaser shots from when I looked the first time.

Ditto on the shoes and the motor sounds great.

It'll run the carb just needs readjusted and cleaned again.

Sorry about that

Glad you got it. It was a little far away for me to run over to get it.

Check with Fastenal for shipping quotes... my brother has been using them to ship tractors all over the US without issue and good service.

Just got this from 312-8. Plow, 37" deck bagger, new tires and battery in last two years. Bought it from my dad he has owned it since 09. He bought it from the original owner with service records. At the time the deck was newly rebuilt. Manual spring fix on clutch already done.

Those are going to look awesome on there duke!

i thought it was a typo also lol

This file has the 1962-64 specs in it on page 30. Garry

Check to see if there is 12 volts at the coil with your meter. Or you could jump power from the positive side of the battery to the positive side of the coil. Do not put 12 volts + to the negative side of the coil, It will fry your trigger and maybe the coil. If it was me , I would go over all the wiring and take care of all the issues and return it back to original. Then it would save you a lot of these head aches.

i love those front tires Duke , gonna look real smart with those on ,

As usual, another great job.

That Mustang puller pic for the Wheel Horse just makes my day!

The two farmers are putting up hog fencing for the deer on Wednesday and we are going to put chicken wire around it for the rabbits ! But the secret weapon is to buy some artificial fox urine in a spray bottle ! I think it is $20 a pint and it will keep just about everything away for a while! This Liguid Fence also works well. I used it before too. http://www.liquidfence.com/deer-repellent-1-qt-con.html Sorekiwi: I had a garden 20 years ago bigger than this and three rows of sweet corn came in and the night it was ready to pick the raccoons took it all!

Great job Jake. Mr. Pond would be proud.

nice job jake, you should be proud of that a real masterpiece

That's exactly what I was thinking. Beautiful restoration. Now when are you going to start mowing thorn bushes with it? :)

Jachady, From now on I think we need to forward all tilling questions to you! Looks like you get as much seat time in with the tiller in a year as most do in a lifetime. All that tilling around the house.... Wow.

And, here is a side view taken this evening. Yeah, I know, it has a lot of scratches, but it looks considerably better than when I got her. One of the obvious items needing attention in this photo, is the mis-routed throttle cable. The cable appears to be original, yet also appears to be too short. It is possible that in the past, the end had broken, and the PO had just shortened the cable. If such is the case, I will be in the market for a new one. The choke cable is properly routed, and still works smoothly. The wiring also doesn't look to have been molested, but is rather messy and tangled. Too, the fuses had to be re-clipped into their proper places, as they were just dangling when I purchased the tractor. Will try to tidy up the wiring with ties and loom in the near future. All in all, I am ecstatic with the 312. She smokes a bit, and has a faint rod knock. Still, she mows beautifully, has plenty of pep yet, and really doesn't look all that bad considering it is almost 30 years old.

Here is another shot of the hinge assembly. You can see the new carriage bolts, nuts, and washers. Originally, Wheel Horse used Loc-tite on the bolts. Here, I used split-lock washers along with flat washers. Seemed a better repair. You can also see how I bushed the hinge pin. To "capture" the bushing in case it ever got loose in the bracket, I placed the head toward the inside of the bracket (there was no space between the hinge bracket and mule drive bracket any way), and cut the "E" clip grooves about .100" closer to the middle of the pin to accommodate for the bushing head length. Also note that since there is no cotter on the inside of the stop pin, the hinge bracket can never strike the cotter regardless of pin rotation. The only thing I want to do now to the hinge, is to somehow fabricate rubber bumpers to completely take out any play in the hinge. As it stands, I could bush and tighten the hinge all I want, but given time, it will still wear out the pin, bushings and brackets. The only way to prevent such wear, is to apply rubber bumpers that cushion the hood, and keep slight tension on the hinge so as to prevent unwanted movement.

Here is a shot of the hood hinge rebuild I had to do. When I first got the tractor, the hinge would open almost to the ground, and flopped around like a rag. The hinge pin was worn nearly through on the ends, and the hinge brackets had 7/8" long slots cut into them where the 3/8" holes should have been. Making a new pin in the lathe was not much of a problem. The worn 3/8" bracket holes were a little more difficult. I had to carefully weld up the holes with the TIG, then carefully die grind them back to round so as to maintain hole alignment. Then I reamed the holes larger, made bronze bushings, and pressed them into the brackets. I then assembled the hinge using new fasteners. The mule drive bracket holes are a little worn, but not severely at this point. Will bush them at a later date. Although the hinge was now reasonably tight, the hood would still drop down and hit the mule drive. You can see where it has hit numerous times, and now sports a dent. The original hood stop rod was gone when I got the machine, so I fashioned a new one from 4140 pre-hardened rod. In this case, I used 5/16" rod instead of the original 1/4". This necessitated drilling the mule drive holes out slightly. I also deviated from the factory method of holding the pin in by drilling the cross holes at the very ends of the pin, and making the pin about 1/8" longer. This puts the cotters on the outside of the mule bracket so that the cotters cannot interfere with the hood hinge brackets. Also, instead of using cotter pins, I employed spring cotters. Just looked better to me.

The deer got all my sweetcorn last year, decimated it a week or two before it was ready for picking. They never used to come that close to the house, but last year was the first time I havent had a dog or two running around the property.

Hey Lane, just curious about what yo are doing to keep the wildlife out. I put in a garden every year and about half is eaten by deer, rabbits and birds!!!

Thumbs up Jake, you really do a nice job on the tractors you do. Another keeper. Glenn

Looks great!! I think that poor unloved carcass in the background is feeling very left out . Mike...........

Great looking tractor! You did a very nice job with that one! If you would like to add a snow blade to it, I have a very good one! Send me a pm and we can discuss it!

Thats a Very Nice looking "top notch" restore on that Lawn Ranger Jake!!

Really nice job Jake. Looks great!

Sweet looking ride!

There a nice little tractor. Looks real good Jake and I love those tires on it.

Very nicely done Jake from State Farm.

When you lift the rear hitch, it pulls back on the deck, the deck hangs on 4 straps of flat stock, and as you pull back it swings up, it does not raise very high

Yikes!!! I need to grease mine. I sure hope its not that dry. Theres actually a ton of maintenance I need to do to my 18 Auto gear box. Definitely needs some love

Just got back with the second load, but here is a few pics of the first one. Back of the wifes van had them hanging out the sides Back of my suburban Can you see 5 complete tractors in the pic ?? they are even all in one piece 2 suburbans, a lawn Ranger, a Simplicity, and a Anniversary edition WH plus LOTS more I'll get pics of the rest in a bit, I need to eat been on the go from 6am, it's 2:30 now

And some more, this is all one days work. I take pride in my work and love it when the gardens turn out like this. The ground is perfect right now, not to wet and clumpy or dry and hard. It is tilling up like powder. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk And since I sold my big silver truck, this is what I use to pull my tractors. A Ford Mustang Pony Package to pull the Wheel Horse Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

The start of the 2014 tilling season has officially begun. I was able to get out today a do a couple gardens. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk