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Well I got it finished. Time to test it out. I made a handle from a shifter off a walk behind mower. Just grab the handle, pull the small lever and the pin raises allowing blade angle change on the fly. It has 5 positions. I borrowed the quadrant from an old mower deck. I used heim joints so it won't bind through the full travel, and stays clear of the lift point as well. Only complaint so far is it weighs at least 100lbs. Hopefully that means it'll grade well.

Today’s letter is “F” and we find a fine example of fortitude. Fox River Tractor Sometimes a success story has a couple of failures along the way. Brothers Frank, Edward and Oscar Saiberlich had been major stockholders in the Eagle Tractor company and sold their holdings in 1918 to found the Fox River Tractor Co. of Appleton, WI. They couldn’t have chosen a worse time to begin a tractor manufacturing company. The agricultural depression began before Fox River Tractors ever had the opportunity to gain a following, they had a good tractor but poor timing. The Appleton Post-Crescent wrote in its Oct. 15, 1920, issue: “The first Fox tractor produced by the Fox River Tractor Company is making good in actual farm tests. The machine was placed on the Rudolph Schaefer farm near Appleton this summer and has been used for silo filling, threshing and plowing. Mr. Schaefer found that it had plenty of belt power for all work required, and was surprised to find it capable of plowing with ease at full speed. The story went on, “The second machine is all erected at the Fox River plant and is ready for the paint shop. It has been tested out and found to be fully equal to the original model. About 10 tractors of the 20-40 type will be built during the winter months.” Not exactly assembly line speed — twelve tractors in four months. From June 28 to 30, 1921, the national tractor demonstrations were held in Fargo, North Dakota, and Fox sent up a Model 20-40 to take part. The newspaper reported: “The Fox tractor was assigned to the last 10-acre plot toward the Cheyenne River. The nature of the soil and the obstacles to be overcome afforded opportunity to demonstrate its reserve power. The Appleton machines (which also included two Eagle tractors) kept well in the lead in the tests, and expect to own some of the best records when the results are announced.” An interesting tid-bit was in the Jan. 28, 1922, issue of the Post-Crescent, headlined Fox River Tractor Company Invents New Machine for Highway Work. The story goes on, “Fox River Tractor Co. is about to put a new tractor on the market designed expressly for road work. It is to be heavier than the one the company at present manufactures, weighing about 8,500 pounds and will have a slower speed. The need of a new tractor designed particularly for road work was called to the attention of the company last fall when it exhibited its tractor at several fairs. “The company could easily have made several sales to road contractors, had its tractors been heavier and of the lower speed for this kind of work. The road men claimed they need a machine with especially heavy drive wheels and slow speed besides an abundance of power.” Though their tractor manufacturing effort didn’t succeed the Saiberlich brothers had Also developed a line of forage harvesting equipment that fared much better. The Fox River forage harvesters and silo fillers were well thought out and durable. They began manufacturing silo fillers in 1923 with unique cutting-edge features like anti-friction bearings and a steel frame instead of the common wood frame. Fox began work on a machine to harvest hay and corn silage in the field with an engine mounted on the machine. By cutting and chopping the silage in the field the back-breaking work of unloading stalks and hand feed then into the silage cutter/silo filler was eliminated. A successful prototype was built in 1931 and the Saiberlish’s received US Patent No. 2,196,645 based on the design of the first machine. They sold their first harvester in 1932 and though preliminary sales were slow the market became stronger as time went on. The Fox design was good but the development of the tractor power-take-off which allowed transfer of the tractor engine’s power to a trailed implement made it popular. The elimination of an onboard engine, clutch and transmission allowed a significant price reduction to take place. Fox River forage harvesters continued to see improvements and sales through the early 1980s.

Forgot to mention the removable side plates for straight grading. Still need to add the shoes underneath them. Another repurposed part from a walk behind mower.

Got in a quick test today. I'm not changing anything! It works great, though there will be a bit of a learning curve. Hardest thing so far was making my brain work out the foot control on the hydro vs "feathering" the hydraulic lift. Practice should fix all of that. Two things I've figured out so far: big difference in moving gravel vs smoothing it. How anyone could use one of these on a manual lift is beyond me. I guess the extra weight of my blade has its drawbacks. I fixed two places today in my driveway. The entrance at the road was the worst, but after basically transferring one side of the driveway to the other, it's good now. The other was the stutter bumps in the curve behind the tractor below. All good now! Only complaint I have is the gravel accumulates on top of the pivot, so you have to knock it off to keep rocks out of the garage! And the 523-H is now officially a worker!

Been thinking of putting up my custom built tractor for trade . It has a kohler k181 that’s been converted to fuel injection with a turbo . It runs excellent and is a head turner at shows . It can be hauled to the big show in June . Open to talk trades . IMG_4914.mov

A 7/8 construction reamer will take care of all those 3/4 holes to put a 7/8 OD x 3/4 ID bronze bushings in. Axle pivots, axle spindles, steering components etc. We are not fixing the space shuttle here so yes, these can be easily done with a cordless drill. The more you do the better you get at it but my 80 year old father can now put bushings in the components he finds that need attention. Is it the best way compared to proper machining? Absolutely not! Is it the best way for us people who don't own a machine shop? Absolutely so. I've done quite a few front axle pivots and spindles successfully using this type of tool. My tool had a flange at the top like the one pictured below so I ground it off so it could run through deeper. Add an extension and it can be run though the axles for the spindles in one direction instead of from both ends of the hole. Po'man's backyard hammer mechanic machine shop fix. My

So this ended up in the back of my truck today. Price was right. Runs and drives but when you try to engage the blade it shakes like hell. When I got it home it looks like one of the wings on one side of the blade is missing. Going to get a new blade for it. It's engine had been replaced at some point. Also going to need a battery and a tube for one of the rear tires. Lol other then all that it seems ok. Look at it closer tomorrow.

A few weeks ago we were about to leave for a road trip on a Thursday morning. We'd been having heavy rains and wind, with a hurricane-like stretch in the evening. In the middle of the night, my wife got up to go to the bathroom and stepped on a squishy wet carpet. Oh crap. We looked around a bit couldn't see where the water was coming in, and since the storm had let up, we decided to just go back to sleep and deal with it in the morning. Well, after realizing that we couldn't leave on our trip until "something" was done about it. Our house is about 20 feet from a 2-1/2 acre lake, and the dipstick previous owner had built the addition that our bedroom is in about 3 feet below grade. Wife has been here 18 years, me only around 10. She had some moisture and mold problems in that addition before I came along, and had a mold remediation done (which from the looks of it now was rather shoddily done). But she/we have never had this kind of wetness on the floor. Anyway, we had a roofing contractor stop by that next morning, and he said that it wasn't obvious where the water was coming in, but that our low-pitch metal roof had significant hail damage, and what looked to be a bad seal around the pipe where the electric service came in. He put some caulk around that, said he couldn't tarp the roof for several reasons. The insurance adjuster said not to pull up any carpet or do anything to the walls or roof till she could get out here the following Wednesday. I ran out and bought several industrial grade fans and a large dehumidifier with a pump and hose so the water could be pumped out the window. I also got a new sump pump even though the old one still worked and it was in the far corner of that section of the house, where there was only a little damp spot on the carpet. Got all that set up and running, then we went on our trip. Got back a few days later, and the room was mostly dry. No more water coming in. Insurance adjuster came out, looked around, then said that we were getting a new roof on the house (and the garage - I hadn't expected that), but in her opinion the water on the floor was ground seepage ("flooding") which was not covered by our policy. Sigh. The bottom line is that we decided not to work with the roofing contractor, who said they "don't do metal roofs and would be subcontracting that" (obviously for a cut of the money). Finally got an estimate for the roof and the numbers were *way* over budget. We did get a large percentage of the claim money already, so we're going to manage this ourselves. Most likely rejuvenating the roofs, only replacing anything that really needs it. I've already pulled the carpet, cut up an old fiberglass shower stall and removed it, and taken down most of the drywall that needs to be replaced. Changing the wall layout a bit in the process. Planning to use the wood-looking manufactured vinyl flooring. I'm going to do most of this myself, maybe with a young helper if I can find one who will actually work. Except for finish sanding on spackle. I hate that and know I'm really bad at it. Will be looking for a pro to do that part. One side-effect of this that I'm happy about: I bought a fairly new 12' cargo trailer, when I realized I'd need some place to move furniture and clothes into while doing the renovations. Got a pretty good deal on it. So.... I've been pretty busy and will be for the next few months. I've managed to keep 3 WH tractors with 48" decks going to try and keep ahead of the grass, which you can almost watch get taller if you watch long enough... Before all this happened, I did take a test drive on my "517-H" Frankenstein tractor with foot control. Need to make some adjustments to the pedal, and the brake but it is fun to drive. The swept front axle and steering reduction does handle very well. I may be putting a 60" deck on that soon so I can knock off the flatter areas more quickly. I have a thread about that tractor in here somewhere - I'll try to post an update and some new pics soon. Oh, and I'll probably be selling at least one tractor this summer, maybe 2. Haven't had much time to think about that lately.

$40!!! An outrage...

Lovely job! I’ve always been of the opinion that, if I’m building something to do work of this nature, why build it lightweight, and then add weights to work as you want? I prefer to have the mass in the structure, rather than in ‘Add on’s’! The only advantage in lightweight I can see is, it makes it easier for us ‘older citizens’ to move these things about. But then again, I suppose heavier items can result in more believable reasons to acquire more horses, essentially to protect our ‘aging’ backs, etc!

I was under the impression that the feature tractor was an automatic?Bills looking for a picture of an 8-Speed Apparently now I’m restoring the wrong tractor? 😂😂

There are three washers and a nut behind the release lever and it still works. The washers are there to let the treads come past the hitch plate. I used a 8" long bolt and cut the head off then welded the tab on.

I wasn’t feeling the greatest today so instead of wasting a good day inside and doing nothing I decided to practice a bit of CAD. I designed up this hood ornament then sent it over to my 3d printer. Once it was done I sanded it and primed it. Next up is paint.

Made the basic frame up today. Still got a bunch of gussets and such to add, but this will be the backbone. The pivot uses a 3/4 hardened bolt, and is made from 3/8 mild steel. I haven't attached it yet until I get the drop angle right. Probably going to shorten it by an inch or so as well. The back of the blade itself will have removable side plates for grading "box style" when needed.

Hello all!🙂I've been browsing the forum for quit a while now but this is my first post. I recently acquired a really nice 312-H from a friend that passed away last year. It's a 1992 model year with the M12 Kohler and the Eaton model 11 transmission. Only 110 hours on the clock and stored inside all it's life so it's in really nice shape. I found a nice 42" rear discharge deck for it and have been very happy with it except for the hydro transmission hand control. I've been trying to figure out a way to convert to foot control and saw Matt's pedal kit on this forum. I'd love to find one but it looks like he's not making them anymore??? Does anyone know if he's planning to make anymore? Otherwise I'll try to build my own, I already have a brake pedal from an 8 speed on hand. My tractor also had a tiller on it which I'm not sure am going to keep so that might be coming up for sale soon!

That thing looks like it just came off the wheel horse assembly line! Amazing job @kpinnc

The closest of the four tornados was three miles from my house. You'd have never guessed a tornado was that close to me. It rained for twenty minutes but the wind was non-existent. I was worried about the 150 year old oak trees in my front yard but there were zero branches in the grass this morning when I left for work at 6:40.

Remember seeing a fair amount of Fox forage choppers being used.

I'll make you a replacement pin, just like what came off the tractor- except the tab on the back will be thicker.

You will want a TR-13 valve stem.

Got a little more done today. Finished the frame up, and mounted up all the pivot parts. Still got to make the adjustment stuff for the pivot. I really went overboard on this thing. It's much beefier than it needs to be, but I was going for mass so it won't need any down pressure. The blade and attachment bar alone have got to be 75+ lbs already.

This post is a good reminder for members with homeowners insurance. Basically water damage from water that rises and water that falls is often treated differently. Water rising may need a separate flood policy.

Keaton - the 701 Early style "Suitcase Deck" uses a 3 point mount. Unbolt the lift rod, remove the RH forward bracket. slide the deck sideways to get out of the LH bracket. Slide the deck out sideways under the tractor. Later years had a revised front mount - the early Tach-a-matic. MUCH easier. (I am not a huge fan of that style deck - the open construction had no torus curves part to improve grass lift. And the remove-the-wheel and reposition it to change deck height was a PITA) I actually have one like yours, used ir once. The later 1960's curved RM series cut better and are easier to use...

Yes the vibration is real bad. You can't even fully engage the blade because of it. You have to back off. I'll update when I look it over. That's my problem, I buy first, look it over later. But I got it cheap enough.

Wish I had one of these a few years ago.

@kpinnc awesome detailing on that , thats what you want , use these in all my , lift related connection points ,https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/hillman-hitch-pin-clips-1-8-in-loop-diameter-x-1-15-16-in-length-3289043?st , another thing I do is to push them the last stage , that way , they will not fall off , shop around for pricing , how dare you use a HEIM JOINT ! only kidding . regularly use them in solid / smooth movement areas . personally see you , using the " what if " idea on function / detailing . still amazed at how easily , levers / linkage moves with simple detailing / lubricant . nice set up , pete

Not necessarily Bill. Some rims I just did had the .625 or 5/8 hole. If you run into that these are real cheap

Was a real pain on small rims too. I think what happened is me airing and unairing to get the stem straight. Crooked stem is a pet peeve of mine. Still they shouldn't have split like that. Wasn't like I pinched it with the tire spoon. Do be careful on pulling the trigger Marv. Richard did order some with the wrong stem. Read the fine print. These will not work. Ones with the TR 13 stem should be fine.

I have my Snowmotractor, and the Suzuki GS550 engine sitting next to it…

It took a little digging but I found it. It’s a 2 cylinder CB 500 on a 8 speed c-120! I can pop wheelies with a stock 16hp 8 speed, imagine the wheelies when you drop the clutch.

I have been lucky enough to have all 6 of my cheap tubes fit and hold air fine so far.

No Mike, that was GOD, not Jim.

I've been toying with the idea for some type of grader setup for a while. I have about 1000 feet of gravel driveway to maintain. I was building a towed system, but I've decided to make the towed setup more like a spike harrow or scarifer design. Gravel gets compacted in the tire path, and a harrow breaks up the studder bumps nicely. But sometimes you have to move high spots around to the low spots. That's where this tool will come into play. I've finished the hitch and mounted it. My blade is 1/2 steel and 57 inches long. It's well over 50lbs as well. I'll be starting on the grader frame today. Nothing overly fancy. Just a rugged way to move some rocks. We will see how it goes.

Early pre tach a matic hitch was called the quick hitch. no unbolting needed. I use this early 63 square deck on my 67 867

Sorry for the loss of your friend. Beautiful machine. Keep his memory alive by taking good care of it.

I don't either. The neighbor knows I pay $150 for any WH. He searches barns all over the East coast for toys and occasionally finds one for me. Some of Jeff's toys

Thanks

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/phoenix-5-8-in-to-3-8-in-steel-sleeve-bushing-1185374?store=1490&cid=Shopping-Google- very often suggest a larger bearing / easy side grease shield access , for a clean out and a RE GREASE , with 550+ temp flash point grease ? hi stress, loading kills pulley bearings . this is a regular change out for me . duplicate original size / style of pulley , not w/h , so you can easily make the change. you can always paint it red ! the difference in rotational function is reliably amazing ! guy I sold a tractor to , thought clutch pedal , related linkages were broken , nope , they moved so easily / no bearing whine , he was mystified on how it worked so easily . easy to try out , in a problem area , pete

I believe this pin is still available. Might be easier to buy one.

@ri702bill BTW , you could also pick up a 5/8 x 3/8 piece of piping to make up your bushings yourself / much cheaper . was pricing short / gage piping , just saw off a piece , angle grind the ends , press fit . once I started experimenting , with that replacement , never look at a pulley problem the same way , those pulleys will work without effort , go greasy , pete

Thank you!

Seen them before. To be used on wheels with the valve stem on the outside like a 953/1054 . I have seen wheel horse style weights on many brands sold brand new. I bought a pair from a cub dealer brand new still in a box on his shelf (dusty) I've also seen them on Massy and AMF garden tractors as well. Love to know the name and location of the foundry that made them

Thus their name…

The replacement engine is complete with a hood shroud, aka water funnel!

That's the term I was looking for. Thanks John. @Horse Newbie Those reamers aren't cheap but it's a great tool for your arsenal. As John states there are several other bores that can be straightened and bushed. That makes a difference for a worker tractor.

Thanks, guys just wanted a close guess, 75 lbs sounds and feel about right, I want to put it on the bottom shelf of my Rubbermaid cart. I already have a buster K341 on the bottom shelf and 2 K91 a K161, and two K181 oh the top shelf. The cart has a 500 lb weight capacity so I'm good to go.

Will be looking for cold-roll steel for pin… if bolt winds up being used it will be grade 5 or 8, with the solid surface of bolt extending through front part at Attach-o-matic. Threads should not be wearing against anything…

Is the game of baseball really that old?

Oh yeah? Well I’m younger than @squonk’s darned socks, @elcamino/wheelhorse’s ripped underwear elastics and @stevasaurus’ blue striped shirt!