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As a few of you know I haven’t been active here in a couple years due to some stuff in my life. Well in that time I hadn’t acquired any tractors cause I wasn’t looking. In fact I sold off one that I wish I didn’t now but money was tight. Well fast forward to 2 weeks ago when I get a text from a friend with the words “hey I hear you are into Wheel Horse’s” umm hello where have you been all those times you came over. Well anyway I said yeah maybe just a little. So he mentioned he had one he was looking to sell. I did the whole ok what model, price yada yada. I figured if it wasn’t a round hood up to a early 70’s I wasn’t really interested. Then he sends me a pic of this work horse and right away something inside me said “that’s the one you are missing, that’s gramps’s tractor”. I asked him where he found that and he gave me this story. He purchased it from so and so (who happens to be a estranged uncle of mine) 4 years ago with the 2 stage blower and mower deck. That this uncle of mine told him that he was given it by his father in law (my gramps!!) and that’s when I knew it had to come home. He tossed me a price and I told him that I was pretty sure it was my gramps tractor. I went and looked and confirmed it was by the way the dealer sticker was placed on it. He instantly cut the price by over half and said it deserves to be home where it belongs. Needless to say I’m pretty excited to have the old girl back. After my grandfather passed 10 years ago I was told it and all its attachments were scrapped by that uncle. I never thought I would see it again. I need to do some work to it. Seems to only be running on one cylinder at idle but both at full power and I need to get a belt guard and stuff for it. But I’m happy. It’s the last tractor out of the 4 of them between my dad and 2 grandfathers and I own them all now.

Hi all. Been pretty busy here of late with all kinds of things needing my time. The good lady wanted to have a little holiday here in England while we still could with the upswing in covid AGAIN! So we went on a road trip to Northumberland, on the north east coast, just below the Scottish border. We stayed at Bamburgh where there is a castle, before moving on to the Holy Island where there is a castle, then to Tynemouth where there is a castle and took a side trip to a little place they call Whittingham, where you guessed it they also have a castle. Long story short, we've been arguing with our neighbours over in Scotland for so long we needed a shed load of castles to keep us safe. Whittingham was very interesting as its my family name and was once a very important little town on the Newcastle to Edinburgh mail road, by the way both those places have castles too, you can see a pattern here... The village is pretty old, having been started in around 700 AD which is quite sobering. It had its own court house, post office, railway station and as I mentioned before a castle. I say castle, its more of a Pele (peel) tower built to house the villagers when the Scots hordes descended on them to nick everything not nailed down. It was quite surreal wandering round and seeing my name all over the shop, and even stranger to talk to a local who assured me I had been pronouncing my name all wrong. They say it as Whittenjam, the old style of it apparently. We also took a trip to Beamish open air museum which has collected thousands of artifacts of normal northern life and made them into a huge series of rebuilt streets, farms and houses. A great place to visit but I found a lot of my childhood reproduced as a cute bygone era which modern school kids thought of as ancient history... YES I DID GET BATHED ONCE A WEEK IN A TIN TUB WHICH WE USED TO HANG ON A NAIL IN THE BACK DOOR! Sasser frassen, bricker bracken kids! Anyways, I thought some of you might like to see a few images of pornography I managed to snap while visiting there.... That tram was originally from Sheffield, where my family passed through as steel workers on their way to work in the coal mines of Barnsley. Also visited one of if not the biggest book store in Britain and bought the history of Whittingham. Got lots more pics of castles and canons and stuff. Hope it was of interest.

Hey all, I’m finally back. It’s been a long road the last few years but finally getting back into the Wheel Horse world with big thanks to my boys but mostly my youngest Alex. The other day while cruising Facebook market place I found a 604 that was completely disassembled. Some parts painted some not. The gentleman had owned it since day one. I scooped it up last night thinking my boys would like it as a project and their first round hood. My older son is at that age where he doesn’t want to hang out in the garage much anymore but my youngest jumped at the opportunity. He has almost completely put it back together in less than a day. I need to help him with the engine and find some front tires and a seat pan and he will Have a nice little tractor. I showed him this page and he’s been browsing the classifieds looking for his next project already!

Bought a Wheel Horse "Rat"... going to leave completely as is... added a muffler because straight pipes are only cool for 5 minutes... The rust / mud / patina is perfect with wrong steering wheel, shift knob off Chevy truck, hacked off section of exhaust pipe from a Ford truck, no seat cushion or seat springs... but my new 'Murica seat cushion will fix that!! Runs great... looks great... I love the thing.. Happy New Year!! Tony 20211230_143816.mp4 20211230_142343.mp4

I must admit I was all castled out pretty quick, two we visited had been bought and converted as smart country retreats by wealthy folk in the 1800s. One of them is still home to the Armstrong family who made lots of moolah making and selling military gear from battleships to field guns. We stayed on night in a hotel (an hotel) which was blasted into the cliffs by a clever guy in the 1700s. He didn't like paying rent and built a shed against the cliffs to live in, no rent as its not crown land or some such. He started digging through the back wall and blasting out rock until he had a huge home. The authorities didn't like it much (mainly because he was a smuggler and all round cad) and he had all sorts of grief, but its now a full sized underground hotel and restaurant. The view from our room was pretty neat, even though we were there at the height of storm Arwen which was pretty frisky... The sea came in all the way to the terrace at night, we almost slept with our wellies on.

Wow! What a great story! Work Horses are Wheel Horses through and through. I purchased my GT-1800 brand new in August of 1984, and still have it to this day. I might have a belt cover kicking around somewhere, I’ll look tonight. Best of luck with it and I’m glad to see it’s back in the family!

No plowable snow in my neck of the woods yet. We got a dusting a week or so ago and my 10 year old who is just itching to plow went out started his tractor and tried plowing it 😂. Regardless with the line up of tractors I have set for snow this winter we will have my driveway done in no time! All else fails and I can have a couple out of body experiences I have another 2 stage I can put on my 416h and the 604 came with a plow too.

Due to several things beyond my control, I have stopped making these for a while. Just have to get some stuff sorted out. Between weather(can’t paint in the cold) and no dedicated area to do these in, I have to put in in park for a while. I am finishing up the ones I have going and that’s it for a bit. Thank you

Saweet tractor @Docwheelhorse. I commend your commitment to buy right up to the end. I am anxiously waiting for one minute after midnight tomorrow so that I can proclaim to my wife that " I have not purchased any tractors this year "

I'm partial to the straight pipe - useful for plowing at 4 AM if it has no working lights ...

Here’s my little nut job Alice. She has to be part cat or something cause she instinctively tries to climb everything she possibly can. She actually got up onto the seat of the 310 by herself.😅

I bet your neighbor appreciates you adding a muffler

Maybe dropped before you got it and the porcelain was already cracked

I believe that area is known to have many castles, or did you mention the castles already? If not we should talk about the castles, have more pictures of the castles. You know general castle talk about castles!!!! 😂😂

Let me know what you need, I have over 75+ sets on hand, nowhere near those prices.

Don't feel so old. It will be something you will always remember. I went through it and now sort of going through it again in a way. A little story if I may; In 1999 I bought my oldest son his first car after he took his drivers test in High School. For Christmas I bought him a brand new Volkswagen Golf. The first generation MkIV .He kept that car until two years ago . After four kids and one minivan that car was totally inadequate for them so he bought a full size passenger van. (Looks like he may be trying to fill it). It was not easy for him to get rid of car so I started thinking about something and offered to keep the car which made him very happy. So about two years ago I got the car now with about 450,000. Miles and still the original clutch in it. It rides and works like a new car but rust is taken over. M youngest son a mechanic, is now driving it for the time being. The plan is that my oldest grandson will learn how to drive in that car. It's got six more years to go. After that I don't care, but until that time what ever it takes we will keep it going regardless of what it costs. We have been buying body panels to replace the rusted ones. The hard part will be the rockers since its not easy finding someone around here that will do it. I have the rockers also just need someone to cut old ones and install the new ones. So a very much antecipated time such as yours to buy my son his first car, has 22 years later with the same car became a mission for my oldest grandson who checks on it constantly anticipating that day. Car will be 28 years old then, and I probably could buy a new one with what I will have spent by then, but it would not be the same for me, my son and my grandson. Even if it dies right after its ok. It has however to fulfill its last mission.

I'll try... there is one smoldering deal that is on life support. We will see what happens

Tony: Come on, you still have a day and 5 hours left for one more.... Bill

Getting closer 😁

Found some time … not there yet but closer

And it continues..bottom of a milk crate I found these two drive belts still sealed in their packages

The old rings will probably be fine as long as you do not have to remove the piston. If you pull the piston out of the cylinder, the original rings will never seat again and you will have an oil burner. Here is one source for rings, OEM and after market. Note: I have not yet had an issue with the Rotary rings http://psep.biz/store/kohler_piston_rings.htm Also complete rebuild kits. http://psep.biz/store/kohler_rebuild_kits.htm

The one I did for a Roof 60 has a plate on the side to open it up. it needed to be cleaned and new bearings. I filled it with JD corn head grease. You can buy that stuff in tubes which go in a grease gun. It should push the grease in and air out through the shaft seal. 00 grease or Lubriplate 105 engine assembly grease are thin greases too

If you can’t find any good Wheel Horse ones… you could always settle for the next best thing

This is our pup. Kids named her Daisy.

This was a few years ago. Mine and my buddy Kyle. I’ve sold a few and gained a few. Probably have 13 runners here still tho.

This past fall I put tri ribs on my 520-H and V61's on my 418-A. All purchased from Miller Tire. Both work great for, but the tri ribs do tend to leave marks in the lawn when I make sharp turns. Tri ribs are tubeless. V61's have tubes. I got to use the 418-A the other night plowing snow and they worked much better in my "U" shaped driveway pushing wet heavy snow around the turn. We are supposed to get 8" of snow this weekend which will hopefully give me a chance to use the 520-H with the single stage blower.

Pretty hard to look for it when I was told it was sent to the scrap yard. Glad it found me though. Just taking it as a omen to get back into the garage more.

You’re tractor heavy too but that ain’t stopped you yet. Just keep scrolling….

My neighbors can hardly stand my stock exhaust tractors. Maybe I should invest in a hot rod wheel horse project😅

My neighbors old... and as they say "if it's too loud your too old!!"

Fenders installed. Made from bent up coldrolled steel again. Added the hand holes like in the 1/1 scale tractor. For now i've bolted them to the frame. Might make a dedicated bracket for them later on depending on how everything looks with the seat installed. Also.. more frontweights 😁

Mine: ATTENTION!!! This property has been equipped with B.A.R.Q.S.S. Biological Autonomous-Response Quadriped Security System. Also, B.B.T. Black Belt Trina. Unauthorized Entry is NOT recommended.

I took the muffler and the bushing down to my local muffler/brake shop and for 20$ they expanded and then welded the two together. Pretty pleased and it sounds really nice. The next two thing I need to do is put an extender with a side outlet so that the exhaust isn't directly in my face, before I do that though I'd worried about weight and so I'd like to put a little band iron strut underneath. Will post more pictures once I've got both done.

Nothing wrong with tractor "porn"... BTW, several of my former co-workers called it that - I would get on the Forum during lunch - to turn off the brain and eat at my desk. Bill

It’s good to be back! Hope you have been doing well. Alex has been busy the last few days. He is already hounding me to go out and work on his engine with him this morning. Quality time is what it’s all about.

It's not going quite like I planned but I'm trying to keep going forward as dictated by receiving parts ordered. I'm getting more shop time than I anticipated because my wife doesn't tug on the electronic leash as much as I thought she would need to. She is really doing well. Jay

Why tri ribs? The tractor seems to have an under steer issue. That just might be caused by the old dried out tread on the turf savers currently on it. Kind of aggravating when manuvering that large beast in tight areas, though. I figure a rib type tire would help turn the beast. The front tires are heavily ozone checked and need to be replaced, so might as well try to improve the machine when I do make the replacement.

Lol luv ya EB but new truce .... @SylvanLakeWH and @Lane Ranger no more talking unless the the Plunge says it's ok ....hey wait when did we a crap about the Plunge anyway? Free for all boys ...

Oir new dog Dolly is settling in just fine, she has me well trained now so that even walks are less strenuous on her...

Yeah there ya go Jim. Here's 3 of ours from Owl's Head Show back in July.

You want “Jim” on it or “Dan”?

I never thought I would see it again. Glad it’s home.

I guess I'm getting old as well. My oldest grandson will be driving in 2 years and the plan is for him to have the 1989 Chevrolet extended cab 2500 that I drove for many years then gave to my son.

This is what happens every time I start a project. Tool scattered every where. I got all the tools put away, the Ross steering cleaned up and waiting for the new gasket. I removed most of the wiring and started installing new wire. I need to get new cable for the battery, starter and ground. The axle pin is worn pretty good so I cut a new pin. My HILTI 4 1/2" grinder developed a loose wire in the cord before I could remove the tab for the Pin.

May be a little early for this thought, but think Spring.