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So I had a couple of decent caterpillar 657 cutting edges at work that I decided to bring home and make a box grader (BG). I welded everything up and added an electric lift actuator and a switch to lift and lower it. I works well but it is heavy and uphill pulls don’t go so well. Next is to fabricate a mid blade that can kick side to side like the factory mid blades but I’m going to also make it tilt side to side so I can grade my trail to have tilt for water sheeting.

Small Three wheeled garden tractors The Hiller Yard Hand isn’t the only small three wheeled garden tractor. Here are a few more you may find interesting. Quaker Mule Earl Gate of Salem OH sold and manufactured accessories for the Roto-Tiller rear tine walk-behind tiller at his Gate Pump and Machine Company following World War Two. As the market for the Roto-Tiller became saturated with too many cheaper brands he decided it was time to build a simple sturdy riding garden tractor to fill a void in the market. The Quaker Mule garden tractor was powered by a single cylinder cast iron eight horsepower P-27 Lauson engine. The rear end and transmission appear to be from a model-A ford though I can’t confirm this. The tractor had turning brakes and a variety of well-crafted implements made by Gate. Production of the Quaker Mule began in 1947 and continued until 1958 Farm Imp The Farm Imp is powered by a Gladden Busy Bee engine. The engine pivots up to tighten the belts for forward and pivots down to a friction wheel clutch for reverse. The jackshaft passed power to an automotive differential and a speed reduction chain drive from it transmitted power to the rear wheels. The most unique feature of the IMP is the ability to move the front wheel to the right side so it and the right rear wheel will be in the furrow when you are plowing. Gladden Busey Bee engine Strunk Chipmunk Garden Tractor The Strunk Chainsaw Company branched out into the Garden tractor market for a couple of years. Located in Coatesville PA, they operated from 1943 to 1988 making great chainsaws. The Chipmunk Garden Tractor weighed only 75 pounds and was powered by a Strunk chainsaw two and a half horsepower engine with a centrifugal clutch and chain drive to the differential. Not likely to do much work but they sure look cute. Sears Craftsman 3-wheel lawn and garden Tractor In 1955 Sears needed a replacement for the Hiller tractor that had served them for the previous two years. A new Craftsman 3-wheeler powered by a Craftsman 2 hp, 2-stroke Power Products engine was selected. I didn’t find any information about the manufacturer. It was a single speed unit designed to pull a reel mower or small cart. It weighs only 110 lbs. The clutch lever connected to a belt tensioner allowed you to go forward, there was no reverse and brakes were optional. Bantam 14 3-wheel garden tractor In spite of their small size the Bantam 14 three-wheel garden tractors are ruggedly built little tractors. This small 1953 Bantam 14 is powered by a 5 hp engine and belt-driven transmission and has a hand-operated clutch. “The cast iron steering wheel was unique to the Bantam. Copar Panzer A 3-wheeler. The Panzer A has the same twin pipe frame found on other Panzer models. An eight horse power Briggs & Stratton Model 23 engine provided the power. The tractor didn’t have the latest transmission engineering. A graduated three pulley set of different diameters mounted on the engine and was connected by a belt to a corresponding set of pullies on a countershaft. To change speeds, you needed to shut off the engine, move the belt to another set of pullies and then proceed with your work, no too convenient! From the countershaft a chain drove the pinion of the differential on the narrowed Chrysler rear end fitted with 6.00 X 16 tires. The Pedals near the rear tires operate turning brakes; a friction disc puts the unit in reverse. About 350 of the three wheeled Model A were produced. We will cover even more three wheeled wonders tomorrow.

Little more progress today. Time to call Terry and order some steekers! I know the white is wrong, but the rear wheels are that color and I'm just trying to match what's already there. The seat was so rough that it'll probably get a cover anyway...

The next restoration has begun. Pulling the 867 to the garage. I'm going to need a few pieces.

PB Blaster = wife repellent

My wife would be thrilled with 18!! Last time we counted there was 70ish tractors floating around here. Not all wheel horses but most are. There's a few farmalls, a ford, and some john deeres in the mix too 😅

I was up to 18 or so once, got down to 5, now back up to 7... And yes, it's nice to have a supportive wife with this hobby. Of course I have to test mine occasionally with gas fumes or paint smells just for fun....

Gentlemen, Today I reinstalled the head on the ‘69 Charger 12 complete with a new gasket, spark plug and bolts. There’s something about shiny new hardware that really gives me the fizz. Anyone else?

Same casting, different bore. A 161 can be bored to a STD 181 piston.

i don't want to be overly optimistic but you may have rescued me from sleepless nite -- haha - - per your suggestions - i loosened multiple tin screws and sounds like the whine is gone -- its dark and cold out so i will wait till tomorrow to declare victory --- So tomorrow i will have light and warmer temps and will see if that was the issue and solution??? Let's hope???????????? As always the members here are always on stand by -- many thanks -- stay tuned for tomorrow's follow up -- thanks, Bill

Not today, as such. But a friend of mine took a photo of my brother and his wife, on his birthday in the summer of 2023 on an analogue camera and I love that it looks so timeless like it could be any time from the 70s to today

Nah, 87 octane and 10w-30 is the Boss.

Just clean it up, knock the heavy rust off and put it all back together. Nothing wrong with an old tractor looking like an old tractor. If you're keeping it inside, it will take a 1000 years for the rust to do anything more. Spray it every once in a while with WD40 and let the kids enjoy it.

Now that would be a manly deodorant

I have an 8hp kohler saved for this project.

It's been well known for decades that the inline engines are often quite durable and produce absolute gobs of torque. Some are also built to an extreme level of toughness because the ratio of main bearings to cylinders. The biggest disadvantage to performance in comparison to a V configuration is that the crankshaft can become "whippy" for lack of a better word. The main reasons for not seeing an inline in many production vehicles nowadays is the long size. Tough to cram into a small modern chassis. Another is that the fuel mixture requirements for the middle two cylinders are different from the outer set. Before individually controlled injection that was a challenge.

Until just a few years ago I was mostly unaware of the existence of the tiny sized tractors. At first glance I wondered if they were models or toys. Given my physical stature I'd look ... interesting .... on one.

Well, at least we know where they all went!

Ospho rust converter, red oxide primer then paint. Or just leave it primed. The Ospho turns the rust a black color like primer finish. If you like petina, matte clear rustoleum enamel and spray it right on the current surfaces.

I have used a mixture of 4 oz. P C Blaster, 12 oz. of transmission fluid and 1/2 oz. of Dawn dish washer soap sparyed it on and rubbed it around on a set of handles of a lawn mower. Then let it set might have been a week ,washed it down and painted it the paint is still on. I don't think I even sanded them.

Here's mine...

Probably not a factory add-on… but super handy to have. My 308 has something similar.

White looks fine... make it your own ... it's a custom. We use those disks for putting a shine on shares before plowing ... work great. Go to HF and get the cheapys... one for every wheel... don't have to change that way.

Looks great!!!

Thank you! Still got a small dimple on the brow, but my son will likely make it worse over the next few years. Probably gonna fab a bumper for the nose anyway!

Rust-Oleum=birth control! Same for old gear oil! And if you really wanna make the ladies angry, just mix up some body filler skim coat!

Here is our amateur set up. Move the tarp and open the door, turn on fan when spraying... then shut it and move tarp to warm up when drying. Got the engine tins and front 520 rims done today.

A little inspiration for ya.

Another carb ready to go!

Finally got to use it!!! And found every weak link haha. The snow was wet and heavy after the snowplow came by, didnt throw far but moved it like a champ!

You can definitely do it in less than ideal conditions, higher humidity, higher or lower temps, some paints are more forgiving than others. I had to strip both side panels on my Deere last year because the humidity was too high, temps too high...it cured milky/hazy. When i sprayed my WH dump trailer it started raining on me about 20 minutes after the 3rd coat...somehow it turned out perfectly 🤣

I'll be interested to see how this goes. I've heard good things on that engine so always thought it's odd it isn't used more. Especially just for daily driver type vehicles or older user trucks. Looking forward to updates!

Might be noted that some 161s had a 2 7/8" bore. Most were labeled as a 141... 6 & some change HP. Same block as 181 - 2 15/16 bore so can be punched out to the larger bore.

My wife loves the smell of kroil

In time traction will get better. The hill is loose and steep. I need to run a vibe plate and hit it a few more times. for the blade I’m using a weld on goose neck trailer cup and ball to create the swivel point and rod ends to keep the blade from rolling back and a jack screw/bolt to adjust the tilt manually.

An inline six is better balanced than a V8 with the weight of the moving parts opposing each other. Many I6 engines now have 7 main bearings so the crankshaft is very stable.

Just before I got "retired", I grabbed a couple lengths of double #50 roller chain with this in mind. It was getting scrapped anyway as everything is belt drive now. Kinda' wish I grabbed some #40 for Ol' Rusty. You guys with chain, what do you run for pressure? Right now I've got 10psi.

The only draw back is that gallon of PB blaster was over $30 bucks in 2022. I also used it for clean up on the 312-8 I got on Jan !, I did wash the North Carolina red dirt of first. I have got the rest of it clean up now. Still haven't got the rusted screen off the Kohler

Here's another example and how I re-did mine, actually two of them with satin black . C-85

That is one beautiful 86!

Picked this little guy up last night, I didn't really need another 854 but I can't pass up a unmolested round hood. Drove a few hours for it but it was worth it, met another wheel horse enthusiasts who was a really nice guy, he even threw in a snow plow for it. I have to dig out a set of 6-12 tires out of the barn for it and see if It'll run. Should be a nice project

Lots of bigger tractors had them as an accessory, so it stands to reason someone adapted it to work on your 315-8. Maybe aftermarket for any tractor. Looks good too!

I found Calvin, or Nivlac57 on YouTube a few months back. What he is doing with the 4200 Vortec platform is amazing! I was just telling Mrs. P a month or two ago about it and how fun it would be to play with one. Seeing people play with boost and make 1,000 hp with stock internals is crazy! I don’t see me getting there any time soon, but it’s interesting. Then this comes along for $100 yesterday as mentioned in my Shop Project thread. Mix this, with my buddy who I learned has HP Tuners, and I think we just got a fun new toy!

@Handy Don asked me what source(s) were used to put together a Tractor Trivia post. The mother source is a listing of tractor manufacturers on Wikipedia, from there it all depends on what I trip over along the way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tractor_manufacturers For the Hiller Yard Hand post, it all began with the “Atomic Babe” post that I did a couple of weeks back. I was looking at photos of the Atomic Babe and came across one that had a strange little yard tractor with a table saw on top of it. I saved the photo and referred to it later. Doing searches with key words Tractor and table saw I found some rather vague references to a Yard Hand then searched Yard Hand tractor and found an image of an advertisement for the Yard Hand (along with a lot of useless posts on various internet tractor sites). The advertisement had a lot of good information that could be used to stitch together a couple of worthwhile paragraphs. The one thing that made me curious was the manufacturer was Hiller Aviation, seemed rather strange so I searched that name and found a Wikipedia post on the company but nothing to tie it to the Yard Hand. Stanley Hiller was listed as the founder of Hiller Aviation so I searched his name and the gates to trivia heaven opened. The York Air Conditioning turnaround, The Army Hiller-copter and flying platform, and so on. The most informative piece of the puzzle was his obituary which was full of wonderful personal history telling who Stanley Hiller was, not just his accomplishments. Most on-line tractor sites do provide a little information on a specific brand/model. I will highlight, copy, and paste them to a “Word” document and sort out the worthless posts and compose a couple of paragraphs from them. Most tractor magazine articles are worthless for trivia sources. They are interesting to read but don’t have a lot of data in them. Advertisements and sales literature is frequently the best source of accurate information. Once I have the basic information it becomes a matter of letting my curiosity guide me to posts that will provide the icing on the cake. By the time I have gathered and edited the information I can’t remember where it came from in most cases. Here are a couple of base-line sources that have been used for multiple posts. https://www.farm-equipment.com/articles/4269-timeline-of-ag-equipment-firsts https://nwtractororphans.wordpress.com/ https://pioneervillage.com/ https://www.agriculture.com/machinery/ageless-iron/lawn-garden-tracts_565-sl29247 I avoid doing a cut and paste so Red Square doesn't get in hot water oved copyrights but incorporating information gleaned from other sources is acceptable. Curiosity and dumb luck are the two keys to researching these posts and I am enjoying it, glad you do too. If I have missed something please feel free to ad to these threads a @gwest_ca did a couple of days ago.

Question, has Toro Wheel Horse ever offered a rear work light on their machines? I was looking at a 315-8 today and it has a light mounted under the seat pan on the vertical support for the seat pan. Sure looks factory.

Used it for years on our fiberglass boats and now on the 's... Yearly quick rubdown with a rag keeps things fresh... Great stuff.

Nice job on the box grader. Weight on the tractor will help with traction. @Handy Don and I were kicking around many different ideas for the side to side tilt of a center blade and how to lock it. Everything from electric magnets to mechanical disk brakes. Not sure if he has committed to anything on his build yet but pretty sure he can provide some thoughts on it.

I'm not sold on the location. On the fence. I always thought the ones like sparky and Jim got on the seat pan were the best. One other good addition is a rear view mirror. I have a small one on the loader and works okay. I have bigger one just have not mounted it as of yet.

It’s alive!!! Had a bad ignition switch and finally got a chance to put it in. Is the high pitched noise bad? I feel like I’ve seen videos of other wheel horses that sound the same but not sure. this is so satisfying after first making eye contact with this tractor a year and a half ago and getting it back after the previous owners of my house gave it away. Hoping for a couple good snow storms before winters over! Thanks to everyone for their input along the way! Next thing to do is get the lights working. I’m using these parts I got from Napa. IMG_9946.MOV