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Today’s letter is “I” an ingenious design is an improvement over the horse. Indiana tractor The Star Tractor Company of Findlay, Ohio entered the tractor marketplace with an articulated front wheel drive lightweight utility tractor. It was somewhat like an overgrown walk-behind garden tractor with a sulky. It has a steering wheel, clutch, transmission, and brakes, and powered by a Le Roi 4-cylinder engine with a 138 cubic inch displacement. The Indiana Silo Company, located in Anderson, Indiana, was the most successful silo manufacturer in the United States. They purchased the fledgling Star Tractor Company in 1919 moving production to their Indiana factory. Expectations were to make 5,000 units per year selling at $1,000 each. Attachments were also manufactured at the Indiana plant. The Indiana tractor was tested in September 1920 at Nebraska (Test No. 62), rated at 11.34 brake hp and 5.66 drawbar hp. Unlike most tractors of the era that were huge, cumbersome, expensive machines the Indiana was maneuverable and reasonably priced. Weighing in at 2,200 pounds and being capable of operating with a two-row cultivator or implements the farmer already owned this was an easy transition into horseless farming. One of the fundamental flaws of this lightweight articulated design is that backing up with a heavy load was awkward at best due to the rear steering and could be quite dangerous as the sulky tended to jack-knife between the load and the front derive assembly. During the Indiana’s production life, other manufacturers began to make implements for the tractor. The 1-bottom, 16-inch Oliver no. 61 plow was a popular choice. Nearly any horse-drawn tool could be modified to fit the Indiana tractor, including riding discs, grain drills, grain binders and corn binders. As was the case with most small manufacturers of tractors in 1921 the agricultural depression was hard on the Indiana Tractor. Ford, IH and Deere were selling tractors below cost to maintain market share and a small manufacturer like Indiana Silo could only follow suit so far before ceasing production. Nationally the number of tractor manufacturers fell from over 100 to 10 or less by 1930. Indiana Silo dropped the price of their tractor from $ 1.000 to $ 665 but just couldn’t compete with the Fordson selling for $ 395.

Before the cloud cover sets in… My iPhone 14 Pro does a great job pulling the color!

Yesterday morning at 5AM on my way to the boonies to hunt turkey, my tire pressure fault light came on. Oh crap, I drive a 2010 F-150 and the spare tire has never been removed and I assumed I would need a cutting torch to get it out from under the rear frame. Luckily there was no flat tire, one of the tires was down 2 PSI...just enough to trigger the fault. But this prompted me to try to remove the spare just in case I ever do have a flat. The first challenge is removing the tool kit from under the rear seat. Then using the ignition key( without breaking it off) to unlock and remove the plug from the crank hole in the bumper. Finally got the plug out and soaked it in PB to loosen it up. Surprisingly, the cable and winch used to lower the spare worked great. I checked the unused 15YO spare and put it back in place feeling much better that I knew I could get it off ever needed. I'll check it again in 15 years.

@Ed Kennell You had a @Pullstart moment.

It happens..

Picked up a medium sized wood stove this morning. 2002 model year. Has a blower to circulate hot air. Needs fire bricks replaced. Likely Trina will clean and repaint it too. This will be installed in the house so the BIG basement stove can be moved out to the new workshop.

Some photos of the lake where I grew up from my SIL, and our tree in the front yard from Mrs.P. My brother and SIL own the island and plan to make it a VRBO

I got a 417-A with a 42” deck for free and after some TLC it is up and running strong. Now I picked up a plow and snowblower. Does this hobby stop at some point?

to the forum. You have a snow thrower, a blade and one Wheel Horse. Looks like you are a Wheel Horse short to me.

These tail light brackets sticking out were a real knee knocker. So I cut them off and moved them to the rear where they are protected and can be seen much better. I use magnetic base lights on all my trailers. I keep them inside and take them off before dunking the boats in the salt water. They always work. Oh, and I did find you can use a 4.5" angle grinder for manicuring. If you remove the guard, try to remember to wear your gloves.

My wife sent me a picture she cribbed from Facebook of the St. Louis arch against the illuminated sky. Credit to Schillers Camera in STL.

Mom's Day Weekend. A little pine cone harvesting with the 953 and the Phil Bowling Memorial Trailer. Then 6 bags of garden soil. Honda is much happier with that gone out of the back . BBQ for lunch and maybe a Skype session later.

That's a good model to start with, very simple wiring, without all the safety switches. Good on gas, and very agile.

I lowered mine and got showered with rust. Sprayed it all down with drain oil and called it a fish... err ...turkey truck!

While we were in our winter quarters, the sump pump in our summer quarters decided to blow the circuit breaker that it is plugged into. I pulled the pump out of the crock today. It rotates freely, so it is an electrical issue. Don't have any idea how old the pump is - likely 20 to 30 years. I'll replace it. Fortunately, we didn't need a sump pump this spring, like we have in some past spring's.

Generally it goes away when they sell off your estate. Good news, is you’ll be in good company until then!

Visible in Southern Illinois last night. First time I remember seeing them in this house. steve

I would suggest some kind of "hard stop" at the top end of the bench as well as a secure removable wheel chock behind the tractor once in place. Once you get it up there, don't be surprised at how much tinkering on it you'll want to do. It's so much nicer working on these when they are up off the floor!

Brought home this C 14 today. If I get it running I may put a deck under it and put it to work. Otherwise it will be donating parts.

Tractor data website says an 854 weighs 400 lb. If I've done my trig correctly, 400 lb on a 20 degree ramp will produce about 135 pounds downhill force. Double that to allow for rolling resistance (worst case guess) makes the force required to move it up the ramp in the neighborhood of 270 lb. Your pulley setup would need a pull of about 67 pounds to get that load up the ramp. A boat trailer winch should pull it up the ramp easily. The winch has the advantage of a built in ratchet to hold the load - don't know if your pulley set up does or not. Neat storage solution. Good luck and have fun.

It was the points. Dried 'em out and ran a 220 grit sandpaper between them and it started right up. BIG THANKS TO ALL from the Doodad!

I didn't see your blue arrow. It's hell to get old!

No ,it is like a bag of peanuts, "you can't have just one ".

The hubs put up a fight but I got them off. I used some longer bolts and a axel puller to get them off. Cleaned up the axel shafts with some emery cloth and installed the new seals. I also found the rest of the dip stick in the bottom. I’ll get a picture when I head back out to the shop. Now it doesn’t leave a mark when it’s parked!

Firestone Tri Rib Tires on Rims with ¾ inch hubs Good Condition $175 Dual Wheel Kit for Narrow Tires (6 inch) $65 Dual Wheel Kit for Wide Tires ( 9.50 ) $75

We did get a wee tad bit of tree filtered view last night. We don't have a camera that works well at night but you get the idea. North: Northeast:

If I have this problem, I will support the tire, usually on another larger wheel rim, put my foot on the wheel rim and push to get one bead partially seated, to the point it won’t easily come off when I do the same to the other side. One important thing I’ve learned is to remove the valve core to ensure maximum flow of air into the tire. With the core in place you may find that the air is escaping as fast as you’re putting it in!

Many years ago, (1970’s) I worked as an R.A.C. - (Royal Automobile Club) patrolman. Ranking high on the list of breakdowns was due to condenser failures, many, many times we would arrive at the location given, to find no vehicle there. After a short time another call would come through asking “Where are you?”. Eventually we would find the vehicle, at a different location, whilst waiting for us to arrive, the driver would try to start the engine, which would usually start after sitting for a while. Then they would drive off, but not notify us? Surprise, surprise, after a mile or two it would again cut out as the condenser, ‘warmed up’. Some drivers would carry on like this, but each time, the distance travelled became less and less, until it failed completely! Some drivers would become quite irate, demanding to know why we hadn’t continued searching for them after finding they were not at the original location given, but had managed to drive several miles along their route before the inevitable happened!

Cheetah air tank.

I usually have no problems with straps. Been known to do the old starting fluid trick tho...

For several years now a few of us have been spending Memorial Day Weekend at Bear Brook State Park in Southern NH. There's a "regular" campground along with a couple remote sites. We stay at one of those. The park offers walking, hiking, back country bushwhacking, several fishing holes, horseback riding, and is a very well known destination for mountain biking and trail riding. The remote site we go to is around 7/10 of a mile ride from the parking lot. As some of you have seen in past photos we are SET UP when we camp. 3 tents. One or two screen houses. A full cooking area. HUGE stack of firewood. Etc... In past years we've used a canoe carrier given to us by @JCM and put alot of gear in the canoe to haul it. Challenging but usable. Then we tried using a home made furniture dolly. More usable. Less challenging. Last year we decided to experiment with building a bike trailer to haul our crap in. I can't breathe like I used to but I have a BUNCH of leg strength. So we took a hitch/ roof top luggage rack and u-bolted it to a bicycle trailer hitch and the same canoe carrier mentioned above. EXCELLENT!! Only caviat was I maaaaayy have overloaded the carrier/trailer creation when packing OUT. This year we decided to do a similar project with a strength upgrade. The carrier is larger and lighter. The hitch bar I bent last year is being reused but well reinforced. Here's the beginning: Round bike hitch bar stuffed into a piece of square tubing. 3 holes drilled in the original locations of the round tube mounts. The square tubing will be u-bolted to the bottom of the carrier.

So I've seen these done in several threads in various forum, its a perfect idea for me to store two tractors, so I built one! Two snowblowers, two bicycles, and one RER mower fit neatly under it. The raised platform is intended to store my 1964 Wheel Horse 854: Which was my main mower until a few years ago, when the mower deck broke. It's now semi-retired. but I intend to still use it someday. So the raised platform will hold the 854, and a second tractor; (i'm looking for a Cub Cadet Original or model 100.) I built the platform over the past several weekends, and today I attempted to get the 854 up there.. but the attempt failed! I already have a pully/winch that I use to raise up my small utility trailer on its end, for storage, this type: and I thought that might work, but it doesn't.. the tractor is too heavy and/or i'm not strong enough. I could not pull it up on the ramp with that system.. So! next idea: either a hand-crank winch, like this: Or an electric winch.. I'm wary of the electric ones, because they seem low-quality and cheap, and seem to break easily. So I'm leaning toward the "hand crank" winch.. they seem to be often used to crank up boats on to a trailer..so should be strong enough?? (I'm not a boat person, I have never used one of these winches before) Anyone have any suggestions? Here is a diagram of the platform with the ramp in place: The ramp will extend out in to the driveway when raising or lowering tractors, through the open garage door, then it will be removed and the garage door closed. When I am raising or lowering a tractor, I want to be standing on the far right side of the platform, where the winch is located, away from the moving tractor.. In my mind, it's a similar concept to cranking up something in to a pickup truck bed or a trailer.. This raised platform will likely be used for looong term storage. years probably. It's possible once I get the 854 up there, it will stay there for ten years.. (because I'm retiring in 10 years) the two tractors I want to store there will not be in regular operating rotation. thanks, Scot

at least it is better than before. Marv

Happy Birthday @nylyon, we are all very glad you were born! Thank you for administering the world's best internet site for us.

@Ed Kennell, on Thursday I replaced all four sensors on my 2011 F250 even though only one sensor failed. They have batteries and anything over 10 years is over the limit. Now for your FAULT message, it was likely a failing battery. A LOW TIRE PRESSURE message (not fault) would be for just that. After I had the new sensors in, I tested by dropping tire pressure from 65 PSI to 40 PSI where the LOW TIRE PRESSURE light kicked on.

I recently pulled my RJ35 up a 2” square tube for “long term storage” in my shop. I did it easily with a pair of 1” ratchet straps, one pulling at a time. A boat winch should be quite easy!

Glad this worked for you, but frankly you lucked out. More than a few folks have broken the hub when pulling on them at the flange. Lots of threads of woe if you care to search for them.

We got the other three windows installed in the new workshop today.

Part #933156 Roll Pin 1/8" x 1"

Left the key plug out and flipped the tire over so I could check the air from underneath. My winch worked good too, amazing.

How are those spring shackles? They usually rot off in a couple of years. We stocked them at Napa and sold a pile of them.

Hope you have a great day! Ain’t it awesome when your birthday falls on a Saturday

to the Cody.

Here is a listing of manuals for your 857 including the attachments it can use. Just click on the red link and then pick the manuals you wish to download. https://www.wheelhorseforum.com/search/?q=857&quick=1&type=downloads_file

Were I in need of a condenser I'd head to the junk yard. I learned through an experiment born out of desperation that the OEM RFI capacitors used on Ford engines from about 1964 through roughly 2010 will also do the job. You just have to cut off the original plug and put a ring terminal on. I had a condenser fail on my 855 mid-mow, no cash, and a pile of OE Ford capacitors laying around, so I slipped one in. Ran that for about 3 years without an issue.

Nice 4 speed machine - a real worker. Do download the manual for it in the "Manuals" section... and...Welcome. Also, look over the "New to the Herd" document. LOTS of do's & don'ts on getting a new-to-you tractor.

The coil (spark plug wire connects to) and breaker (connected to coil "-" terminal) on the front of the engine is a giveaway. You have battery ignition.

Only on the fourth of July EB...