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Well, I’m in the new fandangled brotherhood of Blackhoods, I suppose! This already has a steel fender pan and the FEL makes the hood look most proportionate. I’m doing a base line on this. The front axle is very tight, spindles are well greased and one tie rod is a bit loose but nothing to worry about. There is one outer wheel bearing that is sloppy, so I’ll add that to a needed list. I am going to remove the hood for safe keeping for a bit. There’s a bit of a miss that I plan to diagnose and other than fluids, this is a good solid tractor. @jay bee told @zekepiks that I was looking for a FEL and Skip responded to me via Redsquare. I appreciate them both! I have yet to meet Jay Bee, but Skip is a very nice man and was as up front and honest as he possibly could be with everything. I’m tickled Pink!

It seems we have inadvertently started collecting American vehicles. It started with my racing lawn Mower (also my first wheelhorse) and about a month ago we got rid of our European motorhome and brought a nice big RV. It's quite wide on the skinny UK roads, but what an awesome machine. I love the Triton engine, it sounds amazing and has some serious grunt 🙂. How come you Americans have such cool vehicles? As a New Zealander we were fortunate to grow up with some big V8's from our neighbours in Australia, but the stuff from the US is so much cooler. You can see in the pictures that we had to widen the driveway to get the RV in and it barely fitted between the gate posts!

Again, having to switch often between woodworking and metal working when using a drill press becomes inconvenient and time consuming. Woodworking involves many times special attachments and jigs on the table, and with metalworking inevitably one needs the vise attached to the table.So as to eliminate back and forth set up changes I introduced many years ago a second table . This way I can have vise permanently attached to one and leave the other one free for woodworking tasks. Merely swing one out of way. For production runs I actually also swivel drill press head to the opposite side facing bench so I don't need to walk around to it.

Even though all metal work is done in another separate shop, I often need to do some light metal work associated with woodworking such as metal inlays or hardware modification, usually involving non ferrous metals. For that I have this small anvil (15Lbs) mounted on a cedar beam that I can just move around as needed.

Here is one of my favorite vises. Extremely rare pre-patent machinists vise from about 1890's. Very early one serial #534. It weighs about 90Lbs. Restored it about 16 years ago and used it ever since. Really versatile it has become an indispensable part of shop. http://mprime.com/Emmert/other_4a_cas.htm

My wife managed to con me into feeding the pigs this morning so I took the chance to get a couple of tractor pictures. Wonder how the wheelhorse would deal with the ruts and mud puddles these things make?

here's a few pics from the last year. Bendy gets used pretty exclusively with a half ton dump trailer. It's been worked hard and been pretty reliable apart from the other night....

Well, I might make a few folks unhappy, but a couple of things played into my decision on color. First, I don’t want to go to Lowe’s or Wally World to get more paint because of all of the stuff going on right now. I’m avoiding crowds due to Emory’s difficulty with chest viruses and having difficulty coughing anything up, from the stroke we suspect. Secondly, we have lots of regal red on hand and how can you go wrong with a shiny, pretty red horse? Well without further delay, here’s the Onan after a little paint and detailing.

I am a NASCAR fan, and like other sports fans had not been getting my regular fix. This past weekend FOX Sports aired an "Irace" (internet race) featuring NASCAR drivers at home racing a "Virtual" race at the Homestead FL track. Had some driver interviews and it was great! Right after the Homestead race FOX aired the 1986 Richmond VA spring race. It was so well received that they are going to do it every weekend until the on track racing returns. Hats off to FOX !

Last weekend it was nearly 70 degrees, no snow or any signs of it in weeks out here in CT, so I decided to clean up the garage, move the tractors out, and take off all the snow gear, chains, blower, etc. Don't ya know it's snowed twice since then...

I have here quite a few machines with Techy engines. Carburetors can be finicky but I always been successful in cleaning them and making engines run correctly. That is until now. Went to use my small splitter and although it was run dry last time and fuel tank emptied, it was surging badly. Removed , cleaned it, ran fine for about 20 minutes and same thing. Removed again cleaned and same result. I have quite a few on standby so installed another one. Same thing, surging after a while. Remembered I had a new Chinese knockoff never used, changed it to that one. Ran ok but only with high speed closed all the way. That is just not right so took it out and trashed it. I now went through 3 carburetors and about to lose my mind. Decided to instal a Carter from the Kohlers on it. Was quite a bit of work since they are larger and the Techys use the offset mounting adapter. Had also to adapt an extension so it would clear everything around it. Started it up. Fired on second pull, and runs perfectly . Engine actually sounds quite different. So from now on unless to keep something important original I’ll just switch to Carters or Kohlers.

I hate Harley's, but all the other stuff coming out of the states is just awesome. My current ship has four 9 cylinder MAK main engines, about 6000 hp each, they sound pretty cool when we are going at full speed 🙂

Needed to chop some kindling this morning. Sometime ago I acquired some old telegraph poles. These had been cut up into lengths ready to be made into kindling. Usually I use an axe, but today I had an idea. A short, very short video. Carol had never used my camera before. Think she needs some lessons off Trina. P1030203.MP4 Filled to barrow loads. About another load tomorrow. Should do us for a couple of years. I reckon I deserve a JD or two tonight. I feel quite exhausted. P1030204.MP4

Maybe I will grab a bunch of old parts and other junk I forgotten I had in the sheds and the wife and kids can sell it to me.

Side shot Tuesday? This is a picture I had some work done from a free photoshopping forum...

Man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do... think of it as a Mad Max bidet!

When times of butt wipe are scarce, my wife found this amazing roll of shop rags on Amazon on one of their flash sales!

Love that thing but I’m biased. It’s just like my Dad’s. Congrats

Still Tuesday here too!!!

I always thought you guys had the coolest rides, hard to beat a UTE as a unique Street Rod.

Got at it this evening with the "paint and rust" strippers on the moldboard of my $50 Brinly (not as shiny as Dan's) and a $35 set of front wheel weights and some self etching primer, next some paint on the weights and installed on the 315.

I would say it is water that froze in the transmission. Need to warm it up and change it. It doesn't take too much water to do this. Drain it, run some diesel for 20 minutes and drain and fill with 90 wt.

You could pull the gear shift lever and make sure the shift forks are aligned as in the last picture if not use a big screw driver to align them. also try turning the input pulley with tanny in neutral

I like the TP substitute, but the brake cleaner may be a bit extreme !

I was thinking of doing the same thing, it's been awhile since all the tractors were all out at once. looks like I have the time now to do it. attendance will probably just be me and the cats

There was some seepage around the front head, as shown in the video. I moved the muffler out of the way and re-torqued the head bolts. There were quite a few loose. I’ll monitor the seepage and see if I need to pull the head and replace the gasket. Wow, it sure is nice to have a manual right in front of you in the shop!

Blowing the wet slush off the driveway before it has a chance the freeze. it's a very steep drive the tractor is in second gear with the hydro in full forward. It's a gravel drive with canola oil soaked into it during the heat of the summer, gives the drive a protective layer this will be the sixth year for the oil. Note the difference my drive versus that alongside the highway. The best part is the heavy rains no longer wash the gravel away. If I ever find or make a muffler for the Onan the hood can go back onto the tractor, in the meantime the engine has short straight pipes to keep the cold air from making contact with the hot exhaust valves which would cause them to warp.

I'm not a huge fan of Ute's, they don't hold enough stuff and in the Scottish weather is a nuisance having everything out in the open. My utility vehicle of choice is the humble van. Currently I have a short wheelbase Ford transit - want something longer when it comes time for a replacement. I can carry stuff all over the place in this and it never gets wet, don't have to mess around with tarpaulins etc. It's only a 2.2 litre engine making about 85hp but it goes fast enough even fully loaded.

Nah...maybe in Missouri?? @ol550 Hi Mike

@ebinmaine @SylvanLakeWH yeah, the Hilo reaches high enough Jim... but thanks so much for the genius idea!

While we wait for your "hanging" video as appropriately requested by @ebinmaine, it occurred to me that with the addition of your new Black Hood FEL you can extend the reach of your hi lo... Just hoist the FEL up on the forks of the hi lo and voila! you have another what - 6 - 8 feet of height and reach? Fully adjustable to the left, right or straight ahead... Man, just think of the video possibilities...

I feel like that would be kind of amusing to see and I'd like video proof please

Don’t let them take all your money! You may need it to get home!

Wished all our fixes were that easy. I would pull the dipstick and check for bad oil. Might be some water in there and caused things to set up over layup. Better yet maybe just change the oil.

Guy's you remain in my top 3, sorry wife n kids might be listening.I stuck it in gear nice n gentle rocked her back n forth and there was a little jolt and it was free! She fired up real easy too. Going to mow before it gets dark, I will check in later as we will all have a little time on our hands.

Noah. (Gotta love the Bible reference on the side of the loader...) who knows—it might save you from a “sticky” situation now and again😁

Nice Horse.Nice front end loader.When I got my first loader tractor { Much larger than a Wheel Horse } years ago,I threw away my wheel barrow.Have fun with your new toy.You and your back will enjoy it.

Right after the Homestead race FOX aired the 1986 Richmond VA spring race. That was pretty cool, that reminded me of how good NASCAR used to be.

I'll have to check that out! I'm not much of a fan of current Nascar (Due to the fact that the cars are less than interesting), but I certainly think I would've liked it back in the day when they were using real cars. I still think they ought to have to use production cars! Definitely had some cool cars come about because of that.

Great find, I got tired of looking for a wheel horse with a FEL and went an got an IH464. But the huge increase in weight makes it really tough on the yard. That rig you have will move around with little damage to the ground. Have fun with it, I'm finding new stuff to use mine for every day. You will wonder how you managed with out it before long. Make loading the back of your pick up much easier......

Ordered some of the parts for the Differential today and hope to order the rest tomorrow. Finding part numbers for a 90 year old car is time consuming to say the least. Everyone contacted so far has been very patient and helpful thankfully. Just hope the parts are the right ones when they get here.

Wise man say: When you can grasp the pebble from my hand with the Black Hood loader, you will have achieved total consciousness Young Grasshopper... That little will pick up and toss them other little ‘s of yours over the fence... Love the Black Hoods!

Once again, please, no video or pictures...

Built the bracing for the rear floor and back weight box and added a ladder to get on and off. Next is built the turret for the 50 Cal so the season can go on as planned.

Who’da thunk? Glad to know it worked out!

This should tighten more, if not try band clamp exhaust.

Blackhood member...