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For a fairly new guy your not one to make friends huh? This ain't facebook. When 953 said "WE" he meant the majority of members here. Jay (roadapples) was great long time member here and just recently passed away so WE are all still mourning his passing. That stainless fastener you have is weak and a waste of time! Stainless will deform the threads before it bites into that steel hard enough plus not having the cup tip like a set screw does it will not bite. This is my opinion and I'm giving it to you whether you ask or not! Thanks for sharing

I hope your attitude improves and whatever is troubling you resolves itself.

If you won't take advice given on this forum without offending and criticizing those who are giving advice, don't ask for advice. I'm closing this thread, it's ran it's course and even gotten off course.

I have always liked to pull stock tractors and show the world just how good Wheel Horses are. I pulled my 1045 with the mower deck in place so when the front tires came off the ground, I could show the folks watching the pull what kind mower deck blades I use! You can see the mower deck wheel on the left side of the 1045. Wild Bill in Richmond VA

I got decals from @Pullstart Kevin a year or two ago. This past week @c-series don Don sent me a couple. Figured Cinnamon's seat is a great display for them. If anyone else has decals and wants to send me some I'll put yours on too.

I recently had my 520h pop the valve seat and subsequently hammer the daylights out of the engine block. That thread is here. I did some searching for a replacement engine (e.g., Onan, Briggs, Kohler, etc.), but the best I could come up with was a rebuilt Kohler Command Pro for $1300. Soooooo, I decided to see if I could come up with another WH that didn't require me to fabricate powering with a different engine. I picked up these two C-161 rigs from a gentleman for $960 (no idea if that's way above the market for these things). They came with two 48" mower decks, and two snowblowers. They both fire right up, and seem to operate fine, with a few things I'll address over the winter. One doesn't have any leaks, and it will be the one that I'll task with my snow blade. I've already replaced the oil in it with Rotella SAE 30, and the axle with 10w-30. The other has a small leak on the hydraulic hose going to the lift cylinder. I'll start by replacing the o-ring. I'll probably just go through that engine first....just because. That leads me to a question. There is a sticker on it that it's a short block and to use that information before ordering parts. It shows a Spec and Serial Number, but I haven't been able to cross reference that information to anything I could use for ordering. Please take a look at the short block sticker and let me know if it means anything to you. Thanks! So far I'm liking these over my 520h. They seem to have plenty of power, and I like the simplicity of the engines and the electronics. I'll reserve final judgment for a bit, however....

100% agree with you.

Way back in the mid 80's Wheel Horse offered a factory pulling kit that you can make a tractor puller from, it only came with a few parts, but it did have VIN on a data tag on the rear fender (the decal type). The son of my local Wheel Horse dealership ordered the kit and built himself a Bad A$$ Wheel Horse pullin' tractor. It was the best in state of Virginia! He brought this pullin' tractor up to the Wheel Horse Show one year and let me take it for a ride, now let me tell ya' this 16hp Kohler was built ... I mean BUILT I know it had a Chevrolet big block piston and ran on methanol, but I do not know the rest of the engine specs. Any how he told me to hold on the steering wheel tight because the tractor will drive out from underneath you when you step on the gas !!! Now y'all know where I stand to announce the parade, I drove that tractor from that spot up to 30 feet from the auditorium and back and burned 1/2 gallon of methanol ! I know of this Wheel Horse and one in North Carolina that are authentic factory Wheel Horse pullin' tractors that still have the VIN tag. Wild Bill in Richmond VA

Set the points and dirty old plug and fired up my new RJ58 for the first time. Very excited to hear it run.

Some new upholstery for my C-141 today. Old. New. Fortunately for me I live in a town with a Milsco factory so seats seem to show up at rummage sales from time to time. Picked this one up for $15. It has a blemish on the left hand side of the seat & it's missing the insert for the drain hole, but it's good enough for who it's for.

'round here we play cribbage. Trina says "We ain't playin' with a full deck anyway".

Well I got DA BEAST fixed. Then it started raining. But I got a ride while it wasn't raining. Felt good to be back at it.

Me n Trina and her mom spent a few hours today clearing more trees for the garden to get more sunlight. We felled about 15 decent sized trees and a BUNCH of smaller ones and saplings. Before. After.

Didn't even break a sweat....

This is a set of narrow 12" trailer rims with Carlisle 6-12 AGs on them. We acquired these a few years back at the estate auction where a huge part of our inventory was added. Originally they were on a project tractor that we referred to as the baby farm tractor. Of late they've been on the front of Cinnamon Horse C160 when I have the big Mackissic chipper shredder mounted. The 22" diameter gives a few inches of increased height to help the maneuverability while traveling our rough forest terrain. Next weekend is @JCM Jim's Meet n Greet in N Berwick Maine. He has some great trails for tooling around on. I'll put these narrow AGs on the back and a set of tri ribs up front. I'll update later with more pics.

A front mounted sprayer for a Wheel Horse made by the MacKissac Company that also made the Mighty Mac Shredder. Now I ain't sure but I believe ya' would need some pretty big rear wheel weights ifn's the tank is full! Wild Bill in Richmond VA

Wild Bill Believe you are talking about the stage coach hook that I currently own. Was allowed to get the setup from the old Franklin, IL dealer several years ago. Unfortunately the stage coach that was on a 4-whee wagon was destroyed from being left outside. Have a YouTube video that I will try to link for you to view https://youtu.be/zAaeTlgBYwU

My 500 hr barn find 312 I picked up today. Cleaned up real nice.

That may be your opinion and it is your hub. No one here is calling you out over this, we are trying to help you keep your in good running order. I don't think Wheel Horse went from one set screw to two because they wanted spend more money. The owner manuals tell you to torque the set screw to 35 ft/lb and I don't think you are using a calibrated Allen wrench. Jay @roadapples came up with a great solution for torqueing the set screws without buying an eight point socket. If you have a 3/8" drive Allen Wrench set (most of us do) you can place the square drive end of the 3/8' or 1/2" Allen Wrench over the square cup point set screw and use the appropriate size 6 or 12 point socket with your torque wrench on the Allen Wrench, this works well. RIP, we miss you Jay.

I worked on a 100,000 hen egg farm around 70 years back. The hens were only kept for 2 years. So the older hens were constantly being replaced by young pullets. The new pullets had to be debeaked before they were placed in the laying house. I burned the beaks off with an electric hot knife. Sorta smelled like a grilled skunk with the hair on.

Was cutting 8 70ft pine trees my cub LoBoy couldn’t go there because it was too rocky here on the Appalachians, but I hooked up a tow rope to my horse a 1276 K301-ST with the HydroGear duel pump hydro from 66 never been serviced internally had the original oil pan gasket and the tractor sat for 30+ years before I got it, I hooked it up and I have the gov raised to run at 4500 rpm pulled 3 trees on the 4th tree it made a grinding sounds it pulled it where it should be and drove it about 1/8 or 1/4 mile back home and still was running when I parked it oil everywhere not a drop inside the engine was hotter than 400 degrees just on the oil pan , the paints boils off at 380 that I put on and it was just starting to boil up off. Tore it down no scoring on the conrod or crank like new the piston has some but not any that’s bad at all can’t feel any the inside the cylinder is like new. Only needs needs gaskets and oil. And this here is proof and why old Kohler engines are bulletproof gotta love em I’ll have this complete soon but if you read the story part I’m impressed myself when I first saw it almost all new and is all OEM inside not a single part was replaced before

More pictures.

Sold a plow to guy about 8 miles from me. Went over to look at his tractors and came home with a free seat and he got half his money back for the panzer frame.

Cards are fun.

No need to, don't want to ... The playing card trick allows a damage free way where you to get a sharp crisp paint edge on the rim without waiting a month or more to remount and touch up the nicks & scratches...

You do understand, I'm sure, that with light comes weeds and other undergrowth that the tree cover blocked!

It was a lot of body language and the front tires up in the air! My Wheel Horses had to cut the lawn, plow snow and run a grader blade so I pulled in the stock class. My Wheel Horse model 753 never looked like much but it would stand up on the wheelie bars for most of the track. My 633 Diesel Beast was always pulled in an Exhibition class. Wild Bill in Richmond VA

May be do some research over the winter on how to adapt a lift on the back to be more productive on your drag out of the woods. Just my

Nice - not too often you see those words used the same reply - but never in the same sentence .....

A Colossus lift attachment…? Hhhmmm… Nah… need to get it built too fast… Nice vid btw!

Here’s the 312 when I picked it up

First year of college I worked a 4+ hour evening shift on the cleaning crew of a turkey processing plant You were armed with a yellow rain slicker and a pressure washer hose/wand. There was wet steam, hot soapy water, rinse water and iodine water piped through out the plant. They processed 1000 to 2000 Turkey a day. Froze them and shipped them mostly to Europe. The factory had red brick floors, white tile walls and was really a clean operation. There wasn’t guts, feathers, etc on the floor anywhere. It was all sucked away by machines ….except. The one area they continually tried to automate but couldn’t. The initial cutting Turkeys heads off was done by hand. A little blood doesn’t bother me. But at the end of every day that area was covered with blood and heads wall to wall. No it wasn’t smelly, but it was as gross as gross can get If the area you cleaned was written up the next morning by USDA inspectors 3 times you were fired. I never got wrote up! I’ve got lots of other Turkey plant stories to share, but I think I’ll save those till Thanksgiving!

McMaster has the correct square head set screws, jam nuts and 8 point sockets. Using stainless steel is fine for a trailer queen but for real work use the alloy steel fasteners.

Bechthold tractor service in Lodi, California, out in the almond fields and whatever else they grow out there is a Wheel Horse dealership AND YES, THEY HAVE A RJ-58! I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story ...... Wild Bill in Richmond VA

Years ago, a Wheel Horse dealer make a parade set up using 4 Wheel Horse tractors without drivers to pull a parade float. It consisted of 1 hydro tractor and 3 manual transmission tractors. The steering was mechanically linked together, and the hydro was the only tractor running and thus pulled the manual tractors along with it. I had gone to the dealer who had the set up and tried to purchase all the mechanical parts, but I did not find everything and decided to pass on the sale.. For the local Christmas parade almost 20 years ago I thought that i will just build my own driverless parade unit. I made a test run with a model 753 and some rope controls and thought hey this will work. A model 704 was used due to the 2 spoked steering wheel that the reins (ropes) tied to each steering wheel spoke could easily operate the steering. The starting and stopping was controlled by a lever operated cable that pulled the clutch brake pedal from the back downward. The clutch had to help back with the level, and I had to shift into second gear and leave in gear. And yes, there was a safety cut off switch wired in just in case something happens. The sleigh was built on top of my 4 wheeled wagon. I drove this set up for 2-1/2 hours during the parade and received many remarks from kids who thought it was magic that there was no driver on the tractor, women who thought it was romantic and wanted a to ride in the sleigh and men that said, "That guy is good". Wild Bill in Richmond VA

Years ago, this "staged" photo was taken with Brandon Pfeiffer and I for a little fun and was put on the rear cover of Lawn and Garden Collector magazine and also a framed copy hangs on Brandon's office wall. Now Brandon has always been a big John Deere man and I don't think anybody on Red Square questions my heritage so any time Brandon and I get together ..... something is going to happen. Now take a close look at the photo and you will see the rag tied to the chain to mark the more powerful tractor is on the Wheel Horse side of the painted white line .... oh yes, the Wheel Horse just pulled that John Deere backwards!!!! Welllll ...... I kinda' did say this was a staged photo but did I really make sure the rag was over on the Wheel Horse side of the line when the picture was taken without Brandon knowing? I will never tell! And as you can see in the second photo and y'all know how much of a gentleman I am that I helped push the John Deere back where it came from. Wild Bill in Richmond VA

Use a pipe wrench on the outside of the disc plate. Do not use the transmission to hold the hub from turning. Lock the hub with another pipe wrench.

They both looked like dirty motor oil when I drained them, so I went with a Napa 1410 filter, and conventional 10w-30 motor oil.

Nice segue from 520 to C-160. Well done. There is a lot of appeal in the single-cylinder Kohlers for gumption as well as ease of maintenance. I'm sure you'll enjoy the experience.

Yesterday I took them out of my K301. I was quite surprised at how easily the gear shattered. The trick is to go for the 'webbed' part of the gear, NOT the half that's solid all the way through. In the K301, the crank is not the 'inhibitor' to getting the top gear out, it's this protrusion in the casting. If that weren't there, you could position the crank and the gear would slide right off. Here's a video of how loose they were: https://photos.app.goo.gl/y4VLAPSApdETinL58 I believe that the cause of the gears exploding is that when they loosen up and have too much end play or side wobble, the part of the balance gear and the crank gear at the red arrow contact each other and there is a gear shattering KABOOM! I'm putting it back together today and will report back if this has cured the knock in my engine.

@ebinmaine was that a FULL HOUSE , on those wheels ? pete

@peter lena Yes. I just got it off now. Got side tracked yesterday with sandblasting other parts. That hammer on a adjustable wrench trick worked like a charm. First blow it moved.

Thank you Sir. Maybe @SylvanLakeWH Jim can stop by and we'll have coffee and I can watch while he does all the work. 😜

Stop screwing around and chain more on at once! You need a saw mill Or maybe a pellet mill. That would make for one cool tractor attachment! https://www.ebay.com/itm/374181503778?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338767613&toolid=20006&customid=4581596248650291_377867555

You mean there is something 'wrong' about maintaing an almost 50 year old Wheel Horse for use as my go to lawn maintenance machine? Inconceivable! Incomprehensible!

Problems, what problems? They just work and the harder cup on the end bites in better. Yes, the single screw hubs sometimes came loose and should be improved with a second screw.

A day of harvest here today. Peppers & tomatoes were ready so it was time to get some thing done with them. After a lot of prep work got a nice big pot of salsa. Canned this up so that we can enjoy it through out the year. After a hard afternoon of work, I was pretty hungry so I headed back out to the garden for some more peppers. For supper it was poblano peppers stuffed with cream cheese, chicken, cheese, black beans, tomato, onion & jalapeno. Topped with more cheese and cooked on the smoker.

I think the exoskeleton (outside roll bar) should be a dead giveaway that the driving will not be on country roads and open highway. These trucks are used in fighting forest fires where pentation into the burning forest could result in a tree falling on the truck.