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The RedSquare calendar is always a member volunteer effort, one which is greatly appreciated by me as well as all the members of the forum. This year, we are fortunate to have Trina, @ebinmaine’s wife, skillfully create the beautiful 2023 RedSquare calendar. As always, the calendar is free to download. Thank you Trina so much for your beautiful work!

21,108 Posts ago, I never imagined I’d be in this deep all these years later! Thanks Mods, members, and supporters for making RedSquare part of everyday life! I remember leaving Uncle Jim’s plow day or the Portage show maybe a few years back, and @stevasaurus told me “See you tomorrow”, knowing we’d both be checking in here the next day, no matter what state we were in. I remember too, at Scott’s meet and greet, a fella loaned me his hitch so I could try my hand at plowing, and sorry guy I still don’t remember who it was now! All the friendships, hospitality and knowledge gained here make it worth checking in every day! As the Dino stated… “See ya tomorrow!”

Well,it seems that everything in the last year and a half has doubled in price. Not our beloved tractors so much, . but the stuff of life that you need to live like food ,clothing , and shelter. My electric doubled overnight as well as just about any hardware item or plumbing fitting.. I thought i found a real bargain in a bar of Zote soap at 75 cents a 14.1 ounce bar. That was about a year and a half ago. I found the best price now at 1.38 and since i use it anyway, I am gonna go for a hundred bars.The rapidly shrinking size of soap is approaching hotel size stuff for 50 cents anyway. So I will give an example of a dime turned into a dollar. My sister gave me her late husband's truck for all the help I gave her. I call it my half hour trip truck because if you push the truck too hard, the transmission heats up and won't go into the right gear.. The tires were just plain rotten and finally I had an instant deflation to scare me into action. I looked online and anything that was a bargain came with scams attached,I started to shop retail and the best deal I could find was about eight hundred.That included the income tax and self employment social security as well as mounting fees and tire disposal requirements. After all, when a price inflates, most people do not figure the extra sales tax and possibly your own inflation adjusted wages having more taxes to pay. Sales tax and fees alone on four tires a hundred forty. I called around to tire shops with the tire size specified on the truck, and was willing to get anything reasonably close, but it was call back later or I don't have four or some such thing.Finally, I decided to try a nearby parts yard that I had seen mounted sets of tires from people buying custom wheels and all the trade ins that result. Instant results over the phone and closer to factory spec than the old rotten tires I had.. I picked up four Cooper tires that came off an F-150. They were very nice indeed with no signs of edge feathering and at least 80% tread. $132.00 including sales tax. I used the forks on the Bobcat to break the old tires loose and buffed away any rough spots from the inside of the wheels. Mounting tires by hand was not too bad, but did maybe cause muscle pain. The care I took mounting the tires have them holding air just fine . Gonna use balance beads to make them last as I have had good results from them. . So for less than a tire store and the government want from you in fees, I have a set of tires that will last that old farm truck and maybe me the rest of our lives. That's a dime into a dollar any day of the week.

As far as any type of social media, this is the only one I use! Except for FB Marketplace for parts and tractors. This seems to be about family and friends, and helping one another. There's nothing like it in the world. Thanks for providing this platform.

Wow, so hard to believe that it’s been 16 years. I am honored to have been a part of this, and sometimes I am humbled by what it’s become. For me, I have a ton of memories, from the day I joined, the first post I deleted as a moderator, mining the forums posts literally minutes before it crashed never to be brought up again. Special times for me: The time I banned everyone in a topic about college football, hung Christmas lights on the top of the forum for the first time. Had a logo contest and the awesome creativity everyone had providing awesome RedSquare hats where my whole family pitched in in packing and mailing each one My signed RedSquare banner prominently displayed in SteveBo’s amazing barn Realizing just how generous you people are, specifically with Max Nunn (rest in peace little guy) The friends I have met and friends I have not. But the most enjoyment I get out of this place, is hearing YOUR stories about RedSquare, so please share them

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RED SQUARE !! Been here for a long time. joined in October 2008. I've seen a lot of come and go, and sometimes when I read old threads...I see that I posted in them. Usually, I remember when I did that, but it is also cool to go back and see the members that have disappeared that I have met and started with in Red Square. Some of those guys have come back. Some have passed. Some of us are still hanging in there. Anyway, Red Square has been a large part of my life, and I would not change a thing. Thank You and Happy Anniversary.

THIS PLACE ROCKS!!

A welcome and treasured oasis. Well done, all.

Same here 🇬🇧👍👍👍

Here are a few posts that will give some insight on the founding of RedSquare or just a good laugh. Please add any posts you would like to share about the early days of the forum or your humorous memories.

Simply... Thank you... Wonderful experience every day...

And then there's that fruitcake 🐻 ebinmaine.... Had to check.. I joined May 6th, 2017. 30,193 posts later this site still tolerates me. Having met @nylyon Karl in person I can honestly say he's/your a great guy and great to talk to. I've also had the pleasure of meeting @stevebo and @Sparky a time or two each. Super cool peeps. I'm proud to be a Supporter here on From the beginning I've been made to feel very welcome. I'm a huge fan of the generally positive aire of the site. Also appreciate the willingness to share information on tractors yes, and everything else. The mass of knowledge here is incredible. As stated by others Redsquare is my ONLY social media site. Trina and I are very much DIY people. We'll try most things related to home and yard repair and maintenance except electric or plumbing. No need. We have great connections for both of those. @JCM "plunge" is a world class plumbererer ... thanks for the help you've given us there my friend. The BBT and I have posed many a question here about many a subject. Always gotten the right advice. I've been to a few Meet N Greets and even had a couple here. Bunches of fun. It's very interesting to see the folks we know of as a handle or username. We've made quite a few good friends because of this site. Trina enjoys all you folks busting my chops because "she does all the work." She also appreciates all the virtual camaraderie because I can pass all my thoughts and crazy ideas by you all instead of her. 🤪🤪🤪 And she wants you to know she really likes sharing all our "adventures" especially with folks that maybe can't get out to have those kinds of fun. Thank you. All of you. EB and BBT.

Seeing the prices of oil this year versus the last couple which I thought were astronomical is making me more and more glad that I demanded the DEP get my oil furnace OUT of the house 3+ years ago when we had the spill. We switched over to electricity to heat the house at that point. I knew we were going to be using wood as the main source so I wasn't that worried about the bill going up. My electric bill WENT DOWN!! One February 2 or 3 years ago we did an experiment. I used exclusively electricity to heat the house and it was during a cold spell. As it turns out the heaters we are using use less power than the oil furnace was all those years AND we don't have to buy the fuel as well. My whole life I've been told that electric heat is not the way to go. Scares the snot out of people even to consider using electric heat. Turns out, in my area, it's less expensive even before these ridiculous oil prices...

I de-rusted and repainted the framework for my snow cab and repainted the fiberglass top. Hopefully, good for another 30 years. My current snow / dozer blade is 48" on a 1989, 414-8. I extended the width by adding bolt on metal wings to make a 64" (63.5" actual). Filled rear tires, plus 83 lb. each rear cast iron wheel weights, plus a weight box that can hold an additional 200 lbs. gives a total add on weight of 480 lbs. of rear ballast. I have an asphalt driveway with a slight 5-degree grade, using Ag tires with no chains. Looking forward to snow!

Absolutely agreed. The BBT and I have been contemplating a whole house off grid capable solar setup. Still not quite ready to pull the trigger but I could see it happening in the next 4 to 6 years.

Just wait until we start exhausting the grid to charge our cars. The tables may just turn back the other way.

Sad, but true, Pete. As the comedian Nipsy Russell used to say, "The cost of livin' is going up, the chance of livin' is going down".

For a long time in my life I couldn't afford to buy new tires so used is what I got. I had the advantage of working at car dealerships and I had techs that were friends who would install them for next to nothing or I was allowed to use the tire machines myself. If it wasn't for that advantage and cost savings it wouldn't have been worth the time and trouble in my area. I kept a half an eye on them all the time, used a careful selection process and believed what trusted sources told me about the tires I was getting and I had pretty good luck. I only had one failure, a broken band, that I can honestly say was not influenced by my vehicle or environment. Nowadays I drive too many miles to make a used tire worth the effort... But I can absolutely see the value for the right person in the right situation.

So, today I installed a 8-3900 foot control. I have an original, and one of the re productions. Noticed the linkage was bent a bit "off" so I dug out the original to compare, having both together I figured how to correct. clamped it in the vice, hit it with the rosebud and made it look just like the other. Problem was I bent the wrong one..... Ooooops. Result was I spent a good portion of the day making sure both would fit again.

As I'm currently figuring out my fueling pro lem which I believe is old fuel line... which almost evey part store does not have 1/4 fuel hose.... I took the SS12 roller and put it out front. Using more more tomatoe stakes as trees in the wagon just waiting on the green lights

Thank you Karl. Trina was honored to take on this project. There were many wonderful pictures to choose from. Thank you everyone who submitted to the thread. P. S. She REALLY does enjoy projects like this!! She hopes to be honored again...

Snuck this into the basement, assembled and put on the decals. I can’t wait until Christmas for my five year old daughter to see this.

16 years old today! Hopefully you don’t drop the tractor gig and move to a Camry forum!

Found Red Square in 2006 after a change in my marital status and finding myself back in my home alone in one small den with a light on stumbling with no direction on what to do. Not being a computer person I did find this site with under 30 members but had no clue about signing in nor did I want to complicate my life so I thought. So glad I finally signed up in June 3 2012 and never looked back. Can't believe what I have learned and the people I have met both on here and in person at the September Meet & Greet here in Maine. One of the best things I have ever done. Patti has even signed up too. Eric and Trina, what can I say but dedicated to RS for sure along with many others. Thank You all for taking me out of a dark place and heading me back on the straight and narrow road. Life is worth living when you are surrounded by so many talented individuals. God Bless You All.

The suspension for the leaf blower is an old Mule Drive and some scrap metal. Here are a few pictures of it.

I remember going to this place a handful of years back for some cylinder head parts. This fella told me he has some transmissions minus the hand clutch side and we could find a good one for $400. That doesn’t sound terrible. If all else fails, there is a wide front CA not too far away that runs good and has “new tires” for $1,000. Obviously, I’d like to save what I have more than anything.

What engine? Is that the way everything looked when you took the head off? To me it looks like you are running too lean. Not much carbon. I would get a new OEM gasket, new head bolts, and re-torque after running until hot, and readjust the carburetor.

If a tire is ten or more years old get rid of it! Our street rod 1948 Ford was driven about 3,000 miles a year so tire ware was minimal. One fine day I was driving down an interstate and kept on seeing little things like marbles rolling down the road in my rear view mirror, looked ahead; nothing on the road, looked in the mirror and more marbles. Exited the highway and discovered that little chunks of tire tread were falling off. The tires were twelve years old but had plenty of tread (where it hadn't fallen off) so I went slowly down a secondary road until I found a tire shop. Couple hours later we were back on the highway with a new set of BFGs.

I got a pair of half worn take-offs for free from my wife's uncle once - put them on the front of my old Jeep pickup. Plowed thru the winter with no issues. I went to see my Mom one hot day in the summer - got off the highway ramp, onto the surface street and POW - the left front blows out. Got a new pair the next day....

It sounds like you don't drive this truck long distances. I would like to add a word of caution though. I put a used set of tires on my truck about 6yrs ago. Good/Year all terrain's, tread 80% or better, age unknown, prior rotation direction unknown. After about 10k miles the bands started to break inside one of the tires causing it to get large bulge spots. Put the spare tire on, with in the next 500 miles two of the other tires started to do the same thing. Since this experience I have decided not to buy used tires.

The wife got a couple rescue "barn cats" a couple years ago. There is a program here where feral cats are trapped, immunized, and fixed. Then they are free to farms and such for rodent control. You can easily identify these cats because they also put a notch on one ear. Worked great for about two weeks. Then my wife started feeding them by the front porch. Now they sit on the porch staring at the door all day, waiting on dinner. Prior to that, they were mousing machines. It was great while it lasted. If anyone sees a mouse now, it's MY problem. I'm thinking of building an electric mouse trap like an old buddy had. He used a 600 volt transformer and a copper plate. A dab of peanut butter on one lead, plate wired to the other. No mess, no fuss. Just an occasional sound like bubble wrap. I hate mice. Almost wish we had more snakes...

@8ntruck... I had a day of "might as wells" ...you don't think it's catching, do you? I needed to do some work on the chicken coop today, so I hooked up the trailer with the generator to haul out to the coop area. BUT... the fuel system was leaking... so you know what that meant... I'll just put it this way, everything on the generator now works perfectly... the muffler has been replaced with the old one from the 416-8 @davem1111... you should recognize it... new spark plug, changed the oil... etc. And the trailer is fixed... (it had various issues) including a bad valve stem on one of the tires. All I really needed to do was replace a cracked fuel filter... all the other stuff was "might as well" L-157 performed excellently, as expected. I made some slight modifications to it recently, so the weight from the trailer was a great test drive! No matter what I pull with the L-157, I can't get the engine to bog down... just absolute bossy power. (sorry it's a little dirty, it's been sitting for a while in the shop)... That muffler is a lot quieter than the old one. I ended up fixing that muffler and welding it on... so it's permanent. (paint is drying in the photo). The old muffler was ROTTONE... Don

Almost finished with the snowblower I picked up in August. Re-assembled after stripping, sanding, priming and top coating with Rustoleum regal red. Replaced the auger shaft bushings and inside bushing support flange that were ruined when removing the old bushings. Filled auger gearbox with 00 grease and greased impeller bearing. Soaked chain with open chain/cable lubricant but need to replace the nylon tensioner block. The block has very little wear but one of the bolts must have have stripped out the inside as the nut never tightens up. Need to order a new one from aztractor tomorrow. None too soon as it's snowing pretty good out there.

Not sure what it is worth, but I sure would like to have it.

At my age the return on investment of solar panels would not be any good. If I was a young man in the 30 ish range, building a new place, might consider incorporating the cost into the build and mortgage. We heat with natural gas and got a notice of my contact running out at the end of the year. looking like it is going to double in price but compared to oil a bargain. As far as electric goes, with the ac, out buildings, pool pump, etc and welding in the shop once or twice a week, it consumes a couple of Ben-jam-in in a month. I compare that to cell, internet, and streaming, I feel like the electric bill is a good deal. Lot of bang for the buck! I did tell my neighbor I am thinking about an electric truck and he would have to turn off his ac while I charge it!

I have a heat pump that does the work when outside temperature is 40 or higher. Last night I heard the oil furnace fire up for the first time this season, so the wood furnace in now fired. I bought fuel oil for the house and shop about a month ago for $4.45, the house took 27 gallons for all last year and the shop took 140 gallon.

One of the reasons why we haven't done it yet...

In the above 1st picture 6" above the bottom of the lift arm you'll notice that part behind the lift arm with the angled slot. That's where you should have a rod with a knob on the top of it to set your height. it's called your 'Dial a Height" if you look at the parts list for your tractor you will see the parts that are missing which go in that slot.

Absolutely. To your point... we don't know that what is in the engine is water... I'd be interested to know how the spark plug looks when it comes out... if this engine is burning any oil... any excessive oil or hints of smoke coming from the exhaust or breather. I have seen some engines that... when the rings and cylinder walls are well worn... combustion gets by the rings, making the oil milky as well. Does the oil have a fuel fragrance... things like that... Don

@stevasaurus excellent recommendations. My only thought though... he doesn't have the problem with his other engines... Don

Pete, this issue is only in the cooler months, not Summer or Spring. I never start and stop the tractor, I warm it up and and usually mow or use it around the yard. This only happens when the temps are 30 degrees or lower. I'm using Kawasaki straight 30 wt with zinc but I'm open to other oils. Today when I return the mower to the shed I will let it run for a bit and then remove the dip stick and see what happens when the engine sit over night.

@Dennis C. just a guess , how long was your warm up ? did you run it around , engage your pto lever ? sounds like not enough engine heat to evaporate the cold to hot change over , this is only my take on this , not had a milky oil issue , what are you using for oil ? went over to Castrol magnatec oil for winter , 5-30 , no moisture issues at all , also use rislone zinc in all my oils , have you changed anything that might have caused this ? pete

Put the plow on Black Betty yesterday and wheel weights too. Now if we ever get some snow around here this winter I’ll be ready. I still have to take the cutoff wheel to those bolts are bit too long. BTW -anyone have a cheaper alternative for light lens’s cover.The original are a bit pricey!

The updated calendar has been uploaded. If you had uploaded the previous calendar, please upload the revised.

Always check the date code and if over 5 years expect problems!

In my opinion it would be a great idea to replace things one at a time. One. Replace Condenser. Two. Clean or replace points. Three. CLEAN carburetor. Not sure the coil is part of the equation here.... Could be.

I always tent my trailer and set off a critter bomb before unloading any parts tractor or engine I've purchased into the shop. If I see signs of mice in the shop the whole shop gets smoked. The Tractor Supply bombs don't cost much and are effective, a couple of them will take care of my shop.

I always put dryer sheets in all my pulling tractors over the winter and sometimes like my lawn mower and the C-145 and my 310-8 but usually just the pulling tractors. And never had problems. Also I just put some mouse traps around the tractors too. Just remember to take them out when you go to start it!