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The Oliver Farm Equipment Company James Oliver was the son of a Scottish shepherd who had immigrated to the United States as a teenager. He became a blacksmith and soon was a partner in a South Bend, IN, foundry. Oliver developed a "chilling" process that created durable cast iron moldboards and shares that retained a smooth surface during heavy use. Plow sales in 1878 reached nearly 63,000, dozens of railroad cars loaded with 5,000 to 7,000 each for shipment from coast to coast left the factory. Upon James Oliver’s death his sons Joseph and grandson James the second continued to operate the company. During World War One demand for tractor-pulled farm implements increased rapidly. It was estimated that 250,000 tractors would be built by 1919 and Oliver Chilled Plow Works expected to put 750,000 plows behind them. In 1926 Oliver started to experiment with the creation of a tractor of their own. The "Oliver Chilled Plow Tractor" saw limited production and was discontinued with Oliver’s merger with Hart-Parr Company, Nichols & Shepard Company and the American Seeding Company forming the Oliver Farm Equipment Company in 1929. American Seeding was a manufacturers of grain drills, corn planters and other "seeding machines. Nichols & Shepard was a manufacturer of thresher/separators, steam traction engines and a successfully functioning corn picker which would lead to the development of the famous Oliver corn picker. Hart-Parr had successfully invented and built the first commercially successful “tractor” using a 2-cylinder gasoline engine in 1903. By uniting their various and somewhat diverse product lines into a single company, Oliver Farm Equipment immediately became a full-line manufacturer. Under the new "Oliver Farm Equipment Company" name, Oliver Hart-Parr introduces their first Row Crop tractor, a general-purpose tractor, which went into production in February of 1930. Another acquisition brought the McKenzie Manufacturing Company, a leading maker of potato planting and potato harvesting equipment. Helped make Oliver a full line manufacturing company in the agricultural industry. When the Oliver 70 tractor was introduced in 1935 a very clever marketing program was devised. Oliver exhibits at State Fairs offered a voting table surrounded by the six specially painted Model 70 tractors. People were invited to look over the variously paint combinations on tractors and vote for their favorite. The contest was a piece of marketing genius and drew a considerable amount of attention from the public and agricultural press. The Oliver 80 was introduced and built until 1948 in Charles City, Iowa. It featured a 43 horsepower, Waukesha-Oliver 4 cylinder engine weighing in at 4,800 lbs. It was also sold as the Cockshutt 80 in Canada. Through the 1940s and 50s larger, more powerful models were added to the Oliver line. In 1943 Oliver purchased the Ann Arbor Agricultural Machine Company a leading manufacturer of "hay presses" and in 1944 they acquired the "Cleveland Tractor Company" which was formed in 1917. Oliver continued production of the existing Cletrac HG. 1948 saw the introduction of the “Fleetline” 77,88, and 99 which could be bought with either gasoline or diesel engines. During 1954, the company upgraded these tractors with the new "Super" series models, and added the Oliver Super 55, the company's first compact utility tractor. 1958 brought a new line of Oliver tractors when they began marketing the new 660, 770, 880, 990, and other new models. White Farm Equipment purchased the Oliver Corporation in 1960 and the Minneapolis Moline line was acquired in 1963. The Oliver 50 series tractors (1450 to 2150) were rebranded as Cockshutt but were identical to Oliver tractors of the same model number and manufactured at the Oliver plant while the Minneapolis-Moline Jet Star 3 was sold as a Cockshutt 1350.

So as some of you know, I recently finished restoring my C-175. During the restoration I sandblasted, primed and painted four deep dish rims and added 23 X 10.50-12 ag tires. In anticipation of adding dual wheels I did a little mock up on my C-165 to see how it would look and to make sure I had the cleats on the tires lined up. Yes that would bother me if they didn’t line up! I understand that in the real world staggering the cleats would probably be better for cleaning out mud and dirt but this is now more of a pavement princess! My brother said I should leave it single rear wheel, but my son in law thinks I should add the duals. I was going to add neoprene washers between the wheel adapter and the rim so I don’t ruin the paint on the rims. I’m kinda leaning towards duals but I’m not sure? So my question to you folks is what do you think? Here are pictures of the wheels on my 165 and the 175 as it is now. One way or the another I’m bringing it to the Big Show.

FYI fellas the gasket that blew was one that came in the gasket set. Didn't have the fire ring around the inside. New one does.

I did get a chance to hook up on Thurs & Fri. These were just fun pulls, not really a competition. I was quite happy with it's performance On Thurs., Hooked to the sled 5 times. Knowing that I had a fresh set of rings, I would shut it down when the engine would start to lug down hard. On Friday I pushed it a bit harder. Laid out the cash for 5 pulls. Each time that I hooked to the sled I moved weights around to try to see what each change would do. Just like the day before I was very happy with what it could do. THEN..... Towards the end of my 4th run I heard a bad noise & saw some debris fly out of the side of engine. Pulled the tractor back to camp to check the damage, After the head was removed, the damage was quite evident. Dis=heartening cause on Sat. I had to have the tractor running so that I could go through a tech inspection from the club that I am pulling with this year. @WHX?? Said that he had a gasket for me so I stopped by his house on my way to tech inspection & changed it out quick. Tech inspection was a breeze, passed with flying colors. I was also able to turn my engine speed up a little. It was at 3810RPMs, the new engine speed is 3987RPMs First points pull will be on the 13th of July.

I vote singles. My opinion is that duals are cool if they are the skinny wheels/tires.

This afternoon Trina moved a trailer full of our own home made mulch to the garden. The chickens were out there to help.

This weekend has been a busy one. Yesterday we all started in moving firewood. I was having trouble moving because of the high humidity so i switched to working on the Mackissic chipper shredder. Trina and her momma kept working on firewood along with the garden and helping me do some shredding later. Today we did indoor work while it was raining. Started on the insulation in the new workshop.

Post it up any way you want…one big package or individual items. No rules on what’s best. My recommendation is to make a 520 package and a 267 package. The attachments don’t interchange so keep each machine and its attachments separate. And of course, please use the classifieds for selling when you decide to make the move.

Why mess with perfection. Singles

Once again Dug saves my back, and me from a ton of aggravation! Moved table and chairs and accessories for the rent house up the slope!

That Rislone treatment adds some zinc in some form to the oil. Zinc is usually one of the ingredients in oil used to improve the extreme pressure lubricity - a good thing in our elderly Kohlers, inane, and Techies that have journal bearings and gear driven flat tapped cams. The modern engine oils are formulated for modern engines with all of the neat friction reducing developments that are not present in our tractors. My opinion on oil? Any kind of oil is better than not enough oil. Clean oil is better than dirty oil. For my old engines with flat tappets, I've been using Shell Rotella. Why? Because it is formulated for diesel engines with a better extreme pressure additive package than used in gas engines. For my new stuff, I follow the manufactures recommendations - they have a whole bunch of people working on lubrication who have forgotten more than I ever knew about the subject.

Your comment prompted me to go looking in my spare parts bins and refresh my memory. What I found is important and I suspect when you have your frame apart you’ll find a ⅜” square hole on one member and a 5/8” round hole on the other. This hardware addresses that. This is a standard ⅜” x 1” carriage bolt plus a ⅜ ID 5/8” OD x ¼” bushing plus a locking flange nut from the frame of a scrapped deck. All readily available parts. The bushing allows the frame to pivot without hitting the bolt’s thread and the locking flange both keeps the proper tightness on the bolt AND eliminates the need for a separate washer.

I will get pics very soon. For now we will say it's got the perfect face for radio

Is this like politics? Vote early and often? duals duals duals duals duals duals duals duals duals

Duals are cool but realistically for looks. Weight is preferred if looking for better traction. Squonky's right bad thing about duals is the tractor can take it abit of trailer real estate if hauling to shows. Not to mention a extra stall in the barn. Still if in a parade. My vote is for singles with a quick mount of sorts for special events. They look nice staggered too but can be a pain to get them just right either way.

Singles

Those extra's would look better on one of mine anyway.

They were both fine….. deer not so much. It hit us for the deductible but everything got taken care of. Back on the road. Thanks for asking.

I think you be absolute right with your estimation. 👍 as written, i stressed the Hedgemower much more than i used it normally i believe when i set down the new hedge height at about 20cm deeper than ever before. 🤪 I believe that was the „common overload“ itself to initiate that fatigue faiure.😇 However i will rework it after my USA Trip, but now i do my USA trip first 👍😇 just 5 day‘s left until departure🍺 basically the Hedgemower was a simple Sicklebar mower and made for tall grass and maybe some stroh, but it was not the intend of the original manufacturer, to anytime cut hedges with it. 🤪😎 They be good enough for fresh growing hedgepart to trim it down but not - as i knew - to cut down a Hedge completely. 🤪🤫 again what learned - a sicklebar is easily able trim cut a Hedge on it’s complete width with the correct setup👍 - you should never fell trees with it..😎 - except ya need a massive dimensionated excenter 😂 👍 I find my estimations was close to perfect ... 😇 this thing just needs a better excenter 😎 Btw. this Excenter was never built as an excenter for a Hedge Cutter, it was Basically ( no joke) a Shifterpart from a Footrest for a Harley Davidson. i just misused it - and for that it lasted dang long. than we can see what is next weakpoint on my Hedgemower... 😂😂😂

News Flash Once plentiful, Mackissic Chippers have disappeared from all corners of Maine except for some remote mountain location. Authorities are perplexed , as it's also been hinted that once abundant, numerous Wheel Horse C160 tractors also are squirreled away at this location.

If you bring part #'s I have most of this stuff in stock if you're still in need.....

Been awhile since I started the 856 / Forsaken up and took it for a spin. A few laps around the yard and back in the garage it went.

857 with new to me 23x10.50's that came off a 73 14hp no name auto that followed me home thursday lol...... Can't believe I forgot to take pics of the 14hp no name....

Happy Birthday @Daddy Don. we are glad you were born!

@Stepney has been a great supplier of many things Wheelhorse for me over the years. My first Wheelhorse tractor was his. The chassis for my Cinnamon Horse C160-8 was. My first hydro. More things than I could name. Well... a few weeks ago Spenser mentioned that it would be neat if he had a "parts" GT14. Don'tcha know maybe 2 or 3 days later @PWL216 Paul, also a great supplier to me, said he had some tractors to rehome. I bought 3. One was Spenser's desired GT14. Well we done some swapping and trading and bartering. I ended up with this Mackissic chipper shredder model 12P. The side of this one is slightly different from my other one (currently in restoration) because it has 3 small holes to access the knife. @gwest_ca mentioned in another thread that may make it an earlier model. Well today I spent some time getting it hooked up to my Cinnamon Horse C160-8 and trying it out for the first time. I swapped the belt tensioner flat pulley. I only had a belt that was technically too long (several actually) so I drilled a new hole for the tensioner to bolted through. It seemed to work well. Needed the anvil to knife clearance adjusted. Here's the first load in Trina's trailer. Note that there's a fair amount of longer sticks on the ground AFTER they've gone through the machine. I wasn't using any screen. I removed the anvil. Cleaned it up. Here's where it mounts. For installation I used a home shop made tool to get the 1/16" spacing correct. This is the second pile. MUCH better with the screen and proper knife clearance.

I didn't make much of the show this year... medical appointments. Made an appearance on Friday with four including the first show with the Amigo. Dan camped and had four horses there. Little bit of what I got. @Achto get pics if the spotlight?

Yes from a 520. I wired one into the 312H that I redid a couple of years ago as well. Of all the gauges the 520's came with I find the fuel gauge to be one of the most useful.

Light rain most of the day so we got some work done under a roof. Started in on the insulation in the new workshop. We got a layer of Reflectix up in 4 rafters out of 20. Also cut another 6 for next time.

Looks like you have the new style magneto, that's a plus in my book. I'd replace the charging stator with a 15 amp style. If you can get your hands on a blown Vanguard you can get what you need from that. The original style charging stator had two circuits, AC for head lights and 3 amp DC for charging the battery. The AC circuit won't work well with LED lights.

Cylinder finish is very shiny with no visible cross Hatch. Likely should get a total rebuild but since it ran good before with no obvious oil burning then all it is getting for now at least is a cleanup with valve clearance set and new head and timing cover gaskets. It will also get a carb rebuild because it was leaking a bit.

Another vote for fuel pump. Curious about how many hours are on the engine if the break in oil hasn't even been changed out. Maybe there isn't a problem at all, change out that oil and check again.

4 wheel cart, no rust holes, good condition $850 OBO has been stored indoors since we got it. Great implement just taking up too much space for us now

Throughput on chippers goes down faster than reductions in screen size. With ¾” vs. 1” holes, chipping time nearly doubles when fed twigs and branches.

Gas doesn't get into the crankcase because of magic. It was from the carb leaking by (unlikely) or the pump (likely) There may even be a pinhole in the pump casting itself. If the problem persists, run the engine by gravity feed and I bet the issue goes away.

Thanks for the replies so far. I will address a few things. I have been rebuilding engines since I was 14 (60 years) when I rebuilt a Volkswagen engine. Since 2009, I have been involved in strictly rebuilding K-Series Kohler engines. Everyone of the engines on all of my current tractors and those of which I sold, were rebuilt by me. Though I don't do the machine work, I have one of the most reliable small engine machinists at my disposal. When asked if he needed for me to leave a copy of the engine specs, his reply was "no, if I don't have them in my head, I have them in my book. Just leave your new parts". As a precursor to any conversations about fuel, This is not meant to start an off-track conversation, but I don't use any snake oil. I only use ethanol-free gas. Enough said about that issue. This is a 701 with a K-161. The fuel tank has a glass bowl strainer, new fuel lines, and an extra see-thru fuel filter. The fuel pump was inspected prior to installation, and the check valves functioned better than any pump I've worked with in the past. Pressure testing showed no leakage either forward, backward or past the diaphragm. The carburetor was thoroughly rebuilt by me. It is a Carter carb, original to that engine. The float valve functions properly. There is no siphoning into the bowl when the engine is stopped, as all fuel components sit lower than the intake of the carburetor. Steve, here is the plug. Looks pretty normal to me. I think you are probably on to something with break-in. A little blow by at the piston rings as they are seating could account for the gas smell. I am going to refill the crankcase with SAE 30W non-detergent oil later today and see if it happens again. Also, the grandson always throttles down before shut off, at least when I see him.

Singles unless you want to run over a big foot squonk.

When the wings are worn off so much that a side discharge deck doesn't discharge out the side anymore? Yeah I think it's time.

The only question is what do YOU want / like... Ive done dually on a Black Hood and loved the look, but functional wise there's no real "benefit"... i do think they look cool!!! but i'm partial to the Black Hoods regardless of accoutrements... Here's the WHrat WHrecker before @Pullstart cross bred it with a school bus...

@jchris When you can we all like picks of the tractors. I hope all goes well and most of all enjoy the site.

And only on a Round Hood.

@Tractorhead that crack looks to have started right at the edge of the weld. Any chance you had a little bit of undercut there? You have what is known as a fatigue failure. The edge of a weld is a stress concentration to start with. Adding some undercut adds a notch into the mix, making a "break here" feature. I'm also going to guess that your suicide mower has some amount of vibration, which helps cracks from at "break here" features. If you have a pneumatic needle descaler, run it over your repair weld to beat the heck out of it. Doing this will reduce the chances that a fatigue crack will form.

Focus O Young Grass Hopper, I too keep relearning, "Focus" is a challenging request for this crowd! But, ultimately everyone will do anything possible to help you get your tractor running. So far I'm just a Kohler guy, so I'll leave it to the Onan Clan.

To round out the topic I got a 416-h yesterday. It's rough but looking at the long game here.

Rick - yes. Remember, the blades do 95% of their cutting at the tips.Those used blades were a low lift version and the wings are all but gone. The new set are a high lift set - not thrilled with the tooling marks from sharpening - you may wish to dress the edges before use with a fine file....... will cut better than the old ones. Old ones can be used for wind chimes !!!

Decided to take the rat rod out & make some noise!

I watched roofers all day. New shop roof and chimney flashing repair on my house. The shingles on the house are about 18 years old and NLA but the roofer did a good job getting close to existing.

Show time next week , well kind of any way. I will have a chance to do some practice runs as well as have the tractor teched to ensure that it is with in the rules. Given this fact I figured that I best get the finishing touches on it. The final required piece was the fire extinguisher. held it up in several locations & finally settled on this one. Easy to get to with little to no operating interference.