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Used the plow on front of my 417A to help with leveling ground for a pool. Had to dig a few inches on one side. Will finish tomorrow by hand and tamp it down.

Its mine!! Finally Super excited!

I actually added that rear light (and cigarette lighter socket) for illuminating a small float I pulled in a Halloween parade when my kids were small. It was in several parades and I polished it so much I actually rubbed through the thin paint on it. I passed it along to Don Oliver to give it a good home and a fitting restoration someday ! (Right Don?!😎)

Changed engine oil and added zinc Changed hydrostatic fluid and filter Checked spark plug and air filter Topped off snowblower auger gearbox, cleaned and lubed chain Greased zerk fittings Put 2 stage blower in its summer house Changed tractor to tow mode Please excuse the green green things on the front, but I haven't remembered to get the IH red paint yet.

WH grader blades are too light for any serious work. I have an Allis-Chalmers/ Simplicity mid grader blade. All iron and twice as heavy.

Works good for spreading too… forward digs in…reverse back blade levels and spreads…

Start by ordering the https://pf-engineering.com/loader-plans Money well spent to have a proven design and it will greatly reduce most of the guess work. It's more expensive to build one than to buy one BUT, you can spend the money over time as you build, you end up with a new loader, the build can be modified to fit your needs and the priceless feeling of accomplishment when it's done. Total cost will be over 2K so any steel you can scavenge the better. The plans won't include the design for the sub-frame for attaching to your particular tractor but once you get close we can help you with measurements and pictures to build one.

wearing OSHA approved flip flops of course!!!

@WheelHorse520H IMHO, the size and power of the welder are important but it's the knowledge and experience of the operator that matter more. Experience and practice are the only way. They will teach you what a given welder is capable of in the energy it can deliver to the joint (amperage) to melt the metal you are sticking together and the wire/stick metal you are adding. They will familiarize you with how long a machine can weld before needing to cool down (duty cycle). They will show you what happens if the metal is rusty or dirty or if the wire feed speed is too slow or too fast. They will help you recognize a good weld (and a weak one) since you MUST cut through some of your practice welds to see what happened below the surface. As @Pullstart notes, with good preparation, and multiple passes with good bonding, a modestly powered welder can do a lot. The HF 140, for example, has had good reviews as a non-professional, modest use machine, even by pros. Hobart, Miller, and Lincoln all make well-reviewed MIG wire welders. As @953 nut mentions, heavier machines usually deliver more amperage for longer. As both noted, if your life or limb depends on the results, go bigger rather than smaller. (Remember, too, that above 120 amps you'll need either a dedicated 30 amp 110v circuit or 15 amp 220v circuit). My own admonitions are here. Invest fully in safety equipment, accessories, and environment. Spend $110+ on an excellent new welding mask (A Hobart Inventor series, for example). Get full gauntlet heavy welding gloves. Think about flameproof protection for your upper body, legs and feet. Use quality welding wire or sticks (read the reviews). Use enough clamps or fixtures to ensure that the workpieces will remain stable while you weld. Be sure you have good ventilation and no nearby flammables (vapors or solids).

Got to celebrate Mothers Day for my wife for the first time yesterday, it was fantastic. Can't believe our little one is already 8 months old, and she is growing like crazy. Got my wife a nice necklace with our daughters birthstone in it, and made her a massive omelet for breakfast with bacon, onion, garlic, and cheddar.

You might not like to hear this, but it might be cheaper to keep your eyes peeled for a used one…

Hi guys, been a while! I’m getting close to done on this build and thought you’d all like a progress update. Hood is repaired and done. How well it holds up is another question but I added header wrap to the inside panel. Also installed a lot of weights to the rear. Bolens inner and sears outer I believe. Still need to cut the carriage bolts to length and mount the front weights, and then she is done😁

Me

Bagged a gobbler this AM. After I got him butchered and in the freezer, I hauled the carcass back to the woods and placed it under one of my trail cams. I'm curious to see what critters like turkey. Mowed the fence lines around the farm and checked some groundhog traps.

Also liked the galvanised pipe idea so will incorporate a bit to keep the cable tidy - just tack it on with the welder. Ready to stick it together tomorrow, and paint. Then just need to do some artwork for the lamp shade.

My Dad, an industrial engineer, was all about safety in so many things (for which I am appreciative) but in others....not so much. We would have been wearing "clod hoppers" since on our family's budget our only other footwear was a pair for school and church.

You can buy the material and glue it on or buy a complete new one from Brian Replacement is simple. Disconnect the PTO lever rod at the top of the hoop. Remove the pin at the outer hoop/ PTO bearing pin. Swing hoop out of the way. Remove belt, slide off PTO pulley and remove 4 bolts holding disc on.

@ebinmaine, @balconio It worked good enough, Not great, but decent. I do have a solid bar to the plow for down pressure, NOT the chain from the factory. This enables me to lift the front off the ground and dig in a little bit. I thought a mid mount grader would be good for this project, but I do not own one, yet. I was able to scrape a little at a time and got it close. According to the line level, I'm about 1" plus/minus around the area of the circle. This is good enough before I put a layer of sand down to even it out better.

Adjusting the pitch of the blade helps--top rearward it digs more; top forward it digs less

I have a Lincoln 135 Plus MIG welder. With multiple passes, I’ve welded up snow plow frames on trucks when needed. I do however agree with Richard. A good investment on a welder to lift heavy loads overhead is a wise choice.

They all should be fired. LOL.

I never made one for a GT, but have made foot controls for my 520, 417, and 312s. All are Eaton 1100s and all have the F/R motion lever on the console that I connect to an added right foot pedal. The existing left pedal still moves the transmission to nuetral and applies the brake. I removed any nuetral detant and the pedal is spring loaded to the rear. Operation is simple; push brake to start engine in nuetral raise left pedal and puse right pedal for forward allow right pedal to lift for reverse. Safety issue The tractor is automatticaly in reverse if no pedals are pushed , so the brake pedal must be pushed to start. the engine. A nuetral safety switch could be added to the starting circuit, but it was never an issue for me as I always set my brake when parking a tractor, so they are always in nuetral when I start them up.

Plus it’s got an @ebinmaine Mack bulldog!

This is our Jim Kemp stack on the 854 we are putting together!

Yes I'm the guy lol. Yeah I don't think he really knew.... he started to fix it but... I need to rewire entirely and move the regulator back to the generator. I have a paperback copy of the manual coming I had ordered it before finding this forum. The snow thrower is seized but that ain't nothing lol. Well aware that this is a piece of equipment and that's how it will be treated I also have a 69 jacobson gang mower compact tractor currently being painted and needs new sheet metal I just may have pieces made up to look like the wheel horse 🤔 Thanks again!

I took the Clan to breakfast this AM. We have all boys in our family so our mothers include 1 mother in law, 2 daughters in law, 1 sister in law, 1 neice in law, and of course Mrs K.

I now have anti-seize on my fingers after reading that 😜

Well I am on doxy now and my ankle has gotten better to the point where I can walk with a limp. Thank god! I will be missing the centre hall show up here this weekend, but I should definitely still be coming to the big show. Thanks for all the info/support guys!

Just got home from a very busy trip away - got a ton of work done on the ship, but only managed about four hours sleep a day in two short bursts! After complaining that I had no woodwork shop onboard, but was expected to do a lot of repairs, the company finally let me have one in an otherwise badly used space. Unfortunately they got a shore company to build it, and it was awful! It was 1m high, too narrow, had a vice mounted in a corner that was effectively unusable and featured the worst storage drawers i have ever used. The top also had metal raised edges- not very handy for wood tools. I started the trip with cutting equipment in hand and removed the brand new incorrect top, and at the same time reducing the height so I could put a more user friendly top on. Then cut out some of the awful drawers and moved them to one side in a slightly more useful stack. Lots more to do as I want cupboards to hide the mess of tools rather than an open front. See attached pictures of the project from it's humble origins as a locker space. More to follow as I also built a second workshop this last trip....

While cleaning up and greasing the D160 something strolled across my mind that most of the D series I've seen had a red decal around the headlights. Was there any rhyme or reason that some had black and most had red? This is the original decal because when my dad redid it they were not available (and that was in '88) hence the wheel horse cart decals on the sides also.

I'm on the ARC /stick welding band wagon when it comes to needing good heavy penetrated welds like a loader or Hoe and hydraulics require. Hydraulics will in deed find the weak spot fast. Stick is also better for welding outside IMO like I did building the Hoe. Never once kept rods in an oven, just closed the cap on the plastic box. I'm not a pro welder but have fabed quite a bit of stuff and I do have a 220v mig set up too. If doing it again, I'd still stick weld it.

Me too. (Not the movement, the turkey…)

Clod hoppers are fine as long as you tie the laces. Working nights at the hospital. The 6' main sewer line from the kitchen needed replacing but they weren't going to replace all the way to the 12" main as the floor needed to be jackhammered. The contractor gets to the point where they are going to stop and they inform me that the remaining 50 or so feet really ought to be snaked while it's all open. So I get the big honkin Ridgid cable snake out. The 2 contractor guys are going to help me. 1 guy in the pit, me running the machine and the other guy I'll call "Lerch" adding cable. I call the guy "Lerch because he's like 9 feet tall with a flat head! Anyway we are running the machine and all of a sudden Lerch yells WHOA! WHOA! He's got his untied shoe laces of his "Clod" kicker boots all wound up in the cable! Takes almost an hour to get him all un wound. Start back up and like 10 minutes later he yells WHOA! WHOA! . I shut down again. Now he has his unbuttoned flannel shirt all wound up in the cable!

Trina and I have plowed snow with manual transmission manual lift tractors for three or four years now and they WILL dig in to our gravel driveway a little bit even when it's frozen. Partially thawed like fall or spring and you can easily scrape off an inch or two at a time. With a properly set up Hydro tractor with Hydro lift you could easily cut into the ground some as long as it was a little loose. A mid-mount grader blade like Trina has on her 867 is invaluable for moving or spreading dirt sand gravel etc. If the surface is too stiff or rough to cut into you could buy a ripper tooth like we just did. Works excellent for cutting into the top surface of our new garden site to get the rocks and roots out.

For breakfast I made waffles topped with strawberries and blueberries and warmed Vermont maple syrup (and whipped cream for the non-purists) for the small gang that was here. My son honcho'd an excellent baked ham, mac 'n cheese, and veggies dinner with cake for desert. Good day.

Digging this one out the cellar as it's that time of year again and since most of us are the outdoors types. Sadly I got nailed again, second time in as many years. To show how small them buggers are. Have the missus look you over good for the tell tale "bullseye". The sooner you get the cure the better.

I have hiked that mountain in the past along with many MANY others in view of it. Being up there and seeing all the peaks that I've been on held some pretty heavy emotion for me. All those places I've been and the feats I've accomplished... For the past few years I've had to accept that I just can't do the things that I did, not too long ago. Not at all due to lack of desire but my energy level has prevented me from doing most things other than work, and that was a challenge on many days. For a few months now I've been working on a different physical program and a new medicine. I'm feeling better. Not at all cured but at least at a level I can live with. This particular year around the property we are busier than ever what with creating an entirely new garden space and planning a wedding and the possible Barn project... Amongst the usual many other things. Colossus, or "that tractor" as referred to above, is not even on the list right now so you can cross it off of yours, too.

She’s probably been lurking here and knows better.

It is very cool.

With a Power King, you have more legroom and a much higher seating position than with a Wheel Horse – especially a Lawn Ranger!

Yes the pulleys for a 42" deck are smaller as the blades are shorter and the blade tip speed is the same. The spindle housings are the same on the later model decks. There are two different two spindle sizes later 70's and early 80's the spindle were 3/4" top and bottom they used 6203- RR12 bearings 40mm OD with 3/4" ID. Some where in the 80's they changed to metric spindles 3/4" blade 17mm for standard 6203 bearings and 5/8" for the pulley. As I already the housing are the same for both but every thing but the blade is different between the two types. Been at this for 45 years and used Double D, 3/4" keyed, and Metric spindles on my 48" deck. I now have two 48" and a 42" that came with my 520. I lucked up and was given a good solid 48"deck. Most of the paint was still on both side, but left out side and the pulleys were rusted in the groove. I shaped a wood vee to fit groove rapped it with sandpaper and was able to use them. My other 48" beck is 45 years old so I ordered a new set of pulleys for the 48" deck Double pulley WH no. 110147 Single pulleys WH no.110146 To answer Horse Newbie's question the center pulley on a 48" is the same size on both grooves, My 520 with 48" mule drive belt is 1/2" x 103" WH 94-2501, the deck belt is1/2" x 107" WH 1594.

Oil for the 8 speed transmission will be 80W-90. Available at any auto parts store for about $10 a quart. The transmission holds two quarts.

2007 they went to biodiesel for some engines. Now they have (5?) Biodiesel engines and one being built. They still run the steam trains once a week or so. I think there's 2 of those left in operation. All the engines and passenger cars are made and repaired right there on the Mountain. Tremendous workshop downslope from the station.

@Monstrosity Welcome fellow Long Islander !! And welcome to the best Wheel Horse forum there is! Here you will meet the nicest people who will help you in any way they can. If you have a question someone here has the answer! Good luck with your tractor, I think you have made a good choice in buying that for your son. This is something you guys can work on together and will still outlast a power wheels.

Why not just run a screw up thru the base and into the cap? It would be hidden from view, and keep people guessing. That shiny lamp post is just begging for a galvanized pipe to cover it.

All clean and tidy, I hope the guys on the next shift look after my workshop! If I catch anybody down there with rusty steel covered in grease there will be hell to pay 😐

Nearing the end of another busy trip, we got hit with COVID and all of my department except myself and the captain had to leave after two days - was chaos, loads of new temporary people had to be called in to keep things running. By the second half of the trip it had settled down so I managed to get back into the workshop and make some things. My favourite stewardess is very noisy, she never stops taking so I made a present for all the crew to try and shut her up 🙂. It was universally liked, although it got me on the naughty step for a few days. It's made out of some picture frames glued together, the leather strap from my UHF radio, a home made monkeys fist and some stainless fittings that were laying about.

Had it twenty-some years ago. Lucky they caught it early. Went through three different antibiotics, two of them at the same time. Only symptom years later is tractor fever. Get well soon. Hope to see you in June. Jim

Mike, you just concentrate on getting well. I don't want you to worry about the 953. You are close enough to the Big Show that I could make a little road trip if needed. In the event you are well enough to make the show we all look forward to seeing you there.