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This tree was a hazard. Once removed, the logs needed to be transported through a narrow passage to the sawmill. A log skate would be the answer; but a good one costs over $300. A well used Wheel Horse frame and some welding rod helped me create my own skate.

My wife responded to a local social media post. Garage sale in a neighboring town that I wanted to visit anyway for the farm store. Got some goodies for $25. 8 speed trans, heavy hubs, wheels tires and chains, plastic weights and a fuel tank for a C series. The lady says “my husband told me if you want the rest of the chassis for it we can bring it to you.”

@WheelHorse_Kid gave me a major scare on Monday night. He has been helping take care of the local baseball field that we use as our home field with his trusty Commando 8 named “Archie”. Well Monday night was no different. After our game he unloaded Archie and went to work. Once he was all done he did his normal routine of unhooking the drag and reloading the tractor which he has done dozens of times. I was rolling the drag back up looking the other direction when I hear a crash. I spun around and there is Archie flipped over and Alex on the ground under it. I ran across the field and he was crawling out from under it. He swore up and down he wasn’t hurt and I checked him over. As he went up the ramp the tractor flipped up and over backwards. Thankfully it went to the right and he fell to the left. It never landed on him. His leg was missed by the tractor since it doesn’t have foot boards just stir up pedals. He was clearly shaken up even after we got home. I was worried he would not want to drive or work on them anymore but that’s not the case He has big plans for his tractors still. Archie survived without a scratch but did leak some oil out. Tractors can be replaced. I’m just glad someone was watching over us that night and he walked away. still trying to determine exactly what happened but the only thing I can think of at the moment is they are paving the parking lot and the angle of my truck and trailer parked was different than normal. He swears he did nothing different than normal 1st gear just above an idle and crawl up the ramp.

Glad he wasn't hurt Might I suggest he back them up in place of driving forward.

Stopped into my old Wheel Horse dealer a couple of weeks ago. As I was leaving saw this setting off to the side. So I jumped out and had to check it out. It surely has been abused. I went home and kept thinking about it in the back of my mind. About 2 weeks went by and I stopped and looked it over again. I went in and asked if he would consider selling it. We came to an agreement, and he delivered it today. The dealer sold it new. It’s sat its whole life outside. No number on the plate to tell which one it is out of the 200. First WH I’ve ever seen the steering locked up. Time to get the PB Blaster flying.

Sad... some people just got too much money. How did they get all that money being so stupid as to let a collector model like that set outside. Thanks for saving

Glad he wasn't hurt too! Backing them up to load makes it so much easier to unload too and much safer in both directions

Steve @wh500special has given us great info on the pos and negs of EVs. Delivery of energy to the consumer thru a wire is probably better for the environment than by tankers and pipelines. The key that seems to be forgotten is how do we produce this electrical energy?

So my morning started with a call from a friend of mine asking me if I was interested in WH parts. My friend was a small engine mechanic for many years and I bring him all my small engine repair work. I have said many times I am not a good mechanic. He has been retired for many years. So he tells me he sold a WH tractor to a man close to 20 yrs ago and the guy called him so see if he was interested in any parts. My friend said no as he dosnt do much work any more as his health is declining. He told the man I might be interested and would it be ok if I called him. That was all the conversation they had. He gave me the number and I called him asking what parts he had and what he wanted for them. Turns out it's the whole tractor my friend sold him close to 20 yrs ago. He told me that he took it to a repair shop and dosnt want to put the money into repairing it he is going to buy new. He told me the repair shop told him needed a starter as the bendix was sticking and something wrong with the carb but he put a brand new seat on it last year. I tell him I am a WH lover and have no need for a tractor but I have 3 WH's in my garage. Then I ask .... " how much are you looking to get for it ?". He tells me I can have it for FREE if I pick it up from the repair shop. He would call the shop and tell them I'm coming to get it. I jump in my truck and race over to get it. While driving there I called my friend. Turns out my friend got the tractor with a broken piston rod. The engine he rebuilt 30 yrs ago. New everything. I said great if it was 20 yrs ago but I wonder what kind of shape it's in now. Well here are the photos. He kept it in great shape. 310-8 with a 48 inch deck that's as solid as it was when new. I took it over to my buddies house who did all the work many years ago. We tinkered with it a few minutes. Turns out the throttle plate had fallen off inside the carb. The plate was just laying in there. One screw was still attached to the stem the other missing. Wondering what kind of damage that tiny brass screw can cause if it got sucked into the engine. Plan is to rebuild the carb and he was going to see if he could find a screw and reattach the plate. Anyone ever come across this issue ever ? My buddy says he never seen that happen before. Then I will either get a new starter or maybe repair the one in there. Has anyone ever see a throttle plate fall off in a carb before ? What do you think happened to the screw? I can't read the ID tag on the tractor. I don't want to buy a Chinese carb either. Might be looking to replace the whole carb. Suggestions??? Comments??

Guess i could not help myself, picked up a project 59rj and also got this later model Suburban.......cool little rig.

Should make the podium in the Ugly Seat contest! It's a shame when these tractors are left outside.

Years ago I dropped a railroad tie on my foot trying to build a raised bed garden. I limped around for the rest of the day rejecting my spouse's suggestion to have it looked at with “if it still hurts in the morning, I’ll do something”. Next morning woke up feeling good. Swung my feet out of bed, went to stand up, and...collapsed on the floor in agony. Went to the ER and learned I had broken bones and other damage. In a cast for six weeks. Several months to be fully back to normal. My wonderful spouse never uttered the “I told you so” that I richly deserved.

There is no current technology available that will generate more energy than it takes to produce said energy. All electric cars use regenerative braking to help recharge the batteries. The batteries there fore will last longer in stop & go traffic than they will cruising at highway speeds. Like most things that man has engineered, I believe that the electric car technology is being pushed too far too fast. At one time Compact Florescent Bulbs were the answer to saving energy and were helping to deplete pollution caused by making electricity. Then Guess what??? The pollution caused by disposing of CFL's was worse than the pollution/energy they were saving. Today electric cars are supposed to be a major cure for our pollution problems. We know not what pollution problems that they will offer in the future. Example - What damage will the disposal of batteries cause?? In my opinion electric cars are not reducing pollution, they are only moving it to a different location. Lets remember that about 60% of our electricity is still produced by fossil fuels.

No way, I'm paying for the room, he can bunk on the floor in your room.

I smell a road trip in the air!

That's what people who don't own 's use to whack weeds... Not sure why they don't own 's, but I'm not a psychologist so I won't hazard a guess... A Haiku... Hand tools do exist But Wheel Horses are better Can't ride a hand tool

Just get one of these. You'll be a hit with the ladies!

Have a great Friday everyone!

With the amount of titanium rods I have in my body I would probably be able to levitate across the road. The bureaucrats that are pushing the EV program need to be introduced to the real world. Our military fleet of a quarter million light and medium duty non-combat vehicles is mandated to be all electric within the next decade. It is reasonable to presume that these vehicles would be replaced with new replacement vehicles anyway but the transition from conventional vehicles to EVs will have some additional costs. No consideration is given to the amount of electrical generation or grid infrastructure will be required. Since the US government is going to be the customer it may cost a bit more than the $ 40-K Ford Lightning, actually a whole bunch more. Not to be outdone by the military the Postal service will be going electric. The USPS announced an initial $482 million contract for Oshkosh Corp. for 50,000 EV Postal trucks and said it could order up to 165,000 vehicles over 10 years in a deal that could be worth $6 billion or more. USPS estimates its total costs for buying and operating 75,000 new delivery vehicles over 20 years including fueling and maintenance at $9.3 billion for gasoline-powered vehicles compared with $11.6 billion for electric models. Sooooooooooooooo, if it will cost $ 2.3 Billion more to operate 75,000 EVs and they anticipate buying 215,000 EVs then my guess is the price of postage MIGHT go up. My wife and I tend to keep our vehicles for 200-K miles or longer and have no plans to replace the ones we have in the near future. As we are approaching our eighth decade on earth and we drive less now than during our younger years we too will not become a part of the EV generation. When we travel to visit family or attend the"BIG SHOW" the trips are well over 400 miles and that would necessitate a lengthy stop or two to recharge the battery, not my idea of fun. Will the EV transition drive the price of gas up, you can count on it! Economic theory would suggest that reduced demand would have the price of gas come down but the bureaucrats that are pushing EVs will see to it that the price will go up and availability will be reduced as a result. Funny you should ask that, here I sit on a cloudy rainy day, guess I couldn't go far on solar power today.

@Pullstart when you are younger its easy to let physical issues , slide , bad side of that, is the MENTAL MEMORY OF TOUGHING IT OUT . watched that go on at work , guys collecting / bragging about that thing that they never had properly addressed. and they ended up COLLECTING INJURUES . I personally went the other way , got it taken care of , that was also burned into my mindset on injuries , before you know it , the collection will overtake you , recently turned 77 , get help when you need it . pete

I don’t think they are a joke, but I do appreciate the pun. EV’s have many benefits and offer improved overall operational efficiencies compared to conventional cars. They certainly have limitations and do not fit every need and application though. I’m not a technophile, a greenie, a lemming, or a sheep. I’m actually quite the skeptic and used to have the troglodyte attitude that electric cars are stupid. They’re slow, they take forever to charge, they have limited range, they aren’t any better than a gas car in efficiency, they use too many precious elements, won’t somebody think of the children, etc. But the more I’ve read about them, the more I’ve considered them, and the more I’ve realized that they can be a viable solution I’ve come around to thinking they can make a lot of sense for a lot of people a lot of the time. I think I’m pretty average: My commute is 30 miles one way. I go to work 5-6 days a week. Once in a while I might have something else planned that changes my driving pattern but my life is pretty predictable as are, I suspect, the lives of most people. My current truck is averaging a real (hand calculated by dividing the number of miles i drive by the gallons of gas I pump into the tank and not relying on the trip computer) 25 mpg. That means in my 300 mile week I use 12 gallons of gas to drive back and forth to work. At almost $4 a gallon this is the epitome of a bad choice in vehicles if economics mean anything. But let’s pretend instead of driving a machismo monster truck (that I “need” for pulling the boat and schlepping tractors) that I was driving a reasonable car like a Honda Accord. I’d be getting over 30 mpg. So now let’s estimate I’m burning ten gallons a week and saving about $10 ($40 vs $50). For an Accord-sized electric car like a Tesla 3, the same 300 mile loop ought to be done with about 100 kW-hr of electricity. For me, that’s about $11 at my electric rates, but I can round up to $15 to be conservative. That’s $15 vs $40 or a $1300 a year savings over an already parsimonious car. That’s significant. The other obvious benefit is I’d never have to stop at a gas station in a bad neighborhood or step in somebody’s chewing tobacco juice or ashtray dumpings littered around the gas pump like I encountered today. But, wait a minute. What about those days where i have to visit a supplier or a customer or pick up my daughter from her school on the other side of the city or go fishing 50 miles from home? No big deal, the car has a range of about 300 miles and I plug in every night to the outlet in my garage to recover the 60 miles of energy I used that day. I could almost do this on the slowest of the slowest 120v chargers but would install The 240v to boost the charge rate. In the odd chance i have to make an emergency cross country trip it’s likely I’ll run into some kind of inconvenience or problem. But that’s 1% of my driving. But what about the materials used to make the batteries or manufacture the car? And what happens to those batteries at the end of their life? What about the coal that’s burned to fuel the trip? Or the fact that the grid isn’t up to the task? Or that wintertime is a range killer? All excellent points. But these comparisons usually are presented non-objectively or from different baselines making meaningful conclusions hard to draw. The bottom line, however, is that all cars come at a significant environmental cost to build and operate, batteries are lasting longer than expected and are so valuable that recycling is a certainty, converting fossil fuels to useful energy is at best 35% efficient whether it happens in under your hood or at a power plant and is a long term fool's errand, the grid needs to be beefed up and needs to be able to both charge and pull power from connected car (and other) batteries, and that wintertime range worries are real but can be managed in most instances. One of the things that strikes me is that if we had become accustomed to driving electric cars over the last many decades and the new technology of gasoline and diesel power was proposed today, I doubt many reasonable people would bite on it. Who would want to drive around in a noisy, slow, inefficient, flammable liquid-filled death trap? Who would want to have to stop every few hundred miles and stand there in the cold and wind while pumping hazardous chemicals into the car? Wouldn’t it be easier to just plug the thing in whenever it’s parked and let it pull and push electricity as needed? All of that said, EV’s don’t make sense for every person in every situation all of the time. But that doesn’t mean eventually these gaps can’t be filled in. Towing large, non-aerodynamic loads is a range killer whether you’re burning fuel under the hood or swilling electrons. Not the best application for an EV. Cross country operation in cold, remote regions is better suited to combustion engines. Off roading over long distances in an EV? Good luck. These and other outliers and heavy duty applications may be better suited to PHEV’s, Hydrogen, or traditional gas engines but so much of our normal driving is easily accommodated electrically. I still think PHEV’s are the most sensible consumer solution and really could work for just about every duty cycle, but EV’s have their place. I came soooooo close to ordering the F150 Lightning when it was unveiled. The base model was perfect for me. A 4-door, 4wd, full size electric pickup for $39999. I didn’t even want any options - base model all the way. For 99% of what i do the range would be adequate and I could charge nightly at home. The deal breaker? Range when towing wouldn’t let me get to my favorite boat ramp and back home without a recharge somewhere. That 1% contingency made all the difference. I suspect my next truck will be electric. My wife is ambivalent but the idea of no longer visiting gas stations really speaks to her. I think we are so close to this working. But for those who aren’t convinced, don’t worry. There are about 300 million vehicles on the road in the US. It’s gonna be a long time before we see the demise of the internal combustion engine and the gas station. Even with incentives and prodding, the changeover is a long way out and there will be a lot of time for industry and the grid to catch up. It’s possible that something better may come along in the interim but the way I see it, electric vehicles really can be a a sensible solution for most mainstream uses. Steve

Ugh... Hope it's not too serious... (You do have my permission to amputate if necessary to maintain the upcoming scheduled "appointments"... and I am confident @WHX?? and @Achto will concur... )

Ouch. Wish you a quick recovery. But, I guess somebody has got to keep the medical community in business!

Go see a medical professional. Torn or hyperextended tendons need proper attention to heal correctly. No joke.

Got the onan put back together and back into my 520 today and got the 60" put on. It's an awesome set up!

. Not a great picture here at all, but Eric named after you know who has a collection of parts and soon will be wearing some blue engine tin's from Maine. The little guy has a four speed and an eight horsepower engine not original to the Raider Ten . The starter solenoid clicked but no crank. I took the solenoid off and drilled a tiny hole through the dome of metal and put some Deep Creep inside. Cranked and started right now. This is the second solenoid that responded to penetrant. I figure made in USA fifty years ago is worth bringing back to life. Maybe make this a run around rig. Pull the trailer. Attach an ice cream freezer. Spray the yard. At least the lift makes it easy on the old back....

just a couple more… and about 2,000 miles of road to cover. I bet there’s a pothole or 2578532489 in there!

Cool, first time I've ever seen one with both ends supported. I've got one in my shed with a golf grip on it. It's what I grew up using to cut the ditch weeds around the culvert. Looks like you can still buy new, called a grass whip.

Nice that you were able to save that. 400 Series with the Magnum and Eaton 1100 are always worth saving. Enjoy your time working on it.

I know where several machines are that were nice when parked, now years later are rust buckets. @Sodaking27 you did good saving this one!

@squonk you sure it wasn't a rake or a hoe that wacked you in the head not the kiwis.

Last evening before signing off of RS I thought to myself we have not heard from @JAinVA for some time and lo and behold here you are. Nice to hear from you

Wonder how many specimens are living in that seat!?!?

LSE models always kinda bothered me. Too pretty to work, too expensive not to. Looks like the PO went with the second option for a while. But it is good that you got it!

They had grass "back then?"

I have one and we call it a sling blade also. Mine was passed down to me. The handle bolts and blade bolts need to be kept tight. Sharpen it with a flat file and it works well for clearing a path through tall grass.

I had one like that too Kev. Nice yard art anyway Sharpen the teeth with a chainsaw file? Maybe called a scythe mini...

Glad he wasn't hurt. Lesson learned and not likely to ever be forgotten, now lets get back on and have some fun!

Here's another question: Why don't they all have solar panels? On the roof at least, but hood, trunk and "frunk" would be good places, too?

Same here for this 79yo. I only hope the current E only phase doesn't turn out to be a fiasco like the ethanol phase that actually used more oil and did more harm to our star. Ethanol....can anyone explain this. Yesterday I bought 4 gallon of 100% gasoline for my tractors. price was $4.659 / gallon. That = $4.19 for 0.9 gallons. If I add 0.1 gallon of ethanol to that , the price is now $3.659 / gallon for 10% ethanol. Is this some kind of "new math" . Another strange ethanol item. When the 10% ethanol phase started a few years ago, it was advertised as a 10% ethanol lead free fuel. I guess to help convince uninformed consumers that any other gasoline contained the dreaded lead. When in fact all leaded gasoline was phased out in 1973.

Similar to Michigan... but our amounts are higher... reflected in our far worse roads And... don't forget we all subsidize our roads through the gas tax when we fuel up our 's (except those few who are farmers and have ag tanks)... On the overall topic - pretty simple: there are no free rides. I have 3 electric 's. they are very impressive but, they are not "green" (pardon the pun).

Wisconsin gets their highway fund supplement for EV's through vehicle registration. Auto registration in Wisconsin is $85 per year for a gas or diesel car. Add another $75 per year if you drive a hybrid. Add yet another $100 per year if you drive an EV. Our truck registration is based on the gross weight of the vehicle. Plus the extra surcharges if they are Hybrid or EV.

Glad he's okay. Sounds like what happened to me on my Commando 8 several year ago. https://www.wheelhorseforum.com/topic/48885-the-infamous-commando-8-back-flipping-show-horse/#comment-448875

If only the owners of EV's would pay their own way. Enough with the handouts and no highway funds.

Thats the nicest free Wheel horse I've ever seen !!! Congratulations, you must be living right And a 48" SD deck to boot ! Good score

I too am guilty of not asking or waiting for help when I should. I have gotten away with it most times, but have had my pride bite me enough times that I have learned to ask or wait when I should. Hope all heals well & soon.

EV’s and hybrids do generate electricity any time they are decelerating. But it’s never enough to fully recharge the battery. If you helicoptered an electric car with a completely dead battery to the top of a mountain road and let it roll down to the bottom while applying enough braking to use the regenerative system and not engage the friction brakes it will recover a great deal of energy and store it in the battery on its descent. But if you then turned around and tried to drive back up to the top you wouldn’t make it all the way. This discrepancy is thanks to mechanical frictional energy losses, aerodynamic drag, and inefficiencies of the electrical system. We would attribute those - and other - losses to the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The first deals with work being done to the system (braking force applied over the length of the descent) while the second it the “you don’t get something for nothing” law of science. in an engine-driven car ALL of the energy gained by the car as it’s hoisted up the same mountain will be wasted on the descent since there is no recovery mechanism available. You’d have to find a way to suck the Carbon, Oxygen, and Hydrogen out of the air surrounding the car and react it back into a hydrocarbon like gasoline or diesel oil. This process may be possible, but it certainly wouldn’t be efficient and likely could never be done on a scale that would be beneficial. It took the earth millions of years to use sunlight and chemistry to form those oil deposits in the ground using this sort of mechanism. Instead the energy stored in the car at the top of the hill will either be burned off by heating the brakes through friction or will be used to compress and expel air in the engine during compression braking. Both of these are effectively friction braking and waste 100% of the energy we used to get the car to the top of the mountain in the first place. The same principle applies to a hybrid car, but the battery is much, much smaller than on a straight EV. In many cases of prolonged deceleration such as descending our mountain, the car will actually use the electric motor to spin the non-firing engine to dissipate excess energy to help bleed off speed from the car. So net energy recovery in a hybrid will be much less. The same effects are at play when slowing down on flat pavement. Here we may not have the potential energy (energy pent up in the car due to elevation changes) to recover but we do have kinetic energy (energy the car has because it is moving). I don’t know what the overall efficiency of dynamic braking is, but I can’t imagine it being over 50% and it probably varies wildly depending on driving style. But we can be sure in a regular car that it’s all wasted all the time. Ed’s example is a great example. You’d see the same kind of losses if you hooked up a DC to AC inverter to your car battery then connected a battery charger between the output of the inverter and the battery. At some point the battery will eventually die as the inefficiency of the electrical devices turns to heat and warms them up. You never get back all the energy you pump into a system. Never. It’s the classic perpetual motion machine conundrum. But electric cars do a pretty good job recovering energy when they slow down, especially compared to engine drive cars. Steve

You could drive a generator with an electric motor that is powered by a battery. Electric motors and generators are 85-90% efficient, so the generator would only be replacing around 75% of the energy being used by the motor. No free lunch or charge with EVs.

The city inspector stopped by yesterday and did the framing inspection on my front porch roof. Passed. Had occasion to use my dad's brace and bit. The self feeding action of the bit was easier to control while I was drilling a hole perched on the top of a step ladder. It has been a couple of decades since I last used it. Also, a shameless plug for the high school robotics team I mentor.