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@WHX?? If those decals don't want to stay put, I can hand letter them in silver for you. No sense hiding that thing in the garage where no one can see it !! Bring it to the shows where we can camp by our exhibits. Sides, there's nothing you can wreck so bad that I can't fix it. Less maybe you back over it with a truck. Damage factor reminds me of laying tile in my brothers kitchen. We had all the tile laid out & glued down. Went back the next day to start the grout. He dropped something & put a chip in one of the tiles. He was a little miffed & said "Screw it, no one will notice". I said "I'll notice every time I come over". Then I calmly walked over & smashed the tile with a hammer & said "There now we gotta replace it". Problem & problem solved.

The reborn B-80 is now officially complete. The 1976 went from me buying it new at Chandlers in South Bend to a B-160 3-4 years later. It stayed that way for over 4 decades as it got the snot worked out of it. Mowing, tilling pushing snow, dirt and gravel, you name it, it did it. Here it is shortly before the 160 conversion pulling our oldest daughter (now 46 years old) and grandson around. As you can see, I haven't changed one bit. I've painted several engine shrouds and hood letters with pretty good results but nothing beats the decals @Vinylguy makes. I applied the engine letters this morning. When I first put the K341 on it I decided to remove the B-80 hood stand decals with the intentions of getting some B-160 decals made for it but never did. Just as well. Along with the engine letters was a pair of shiny new B-80 8-speed decals. That make everything official. Obviously I won't be mounting the 48" mower deck on it anymore but that was never the intention. This is now dedicated to the snow/dirt blade and will stay that way year round. Or until my next whim.

I needed a garden tractor, primarily for moving my heavy utility trailer around my property. Secondarily, I think I can make good use of a snowplow. I found this C-120 Automatic that seemed to be mostly complete and runs well. It also came with a snowblade, chains, and aftermarket wheel weights. I thought $400 was reasonable. I'm posting here to begin my learning curve as I begin going through it to make it a solid performer. If I develop an affection for it, I may attempt a restore. I have mechanical and paint skills but no Wheel Horse specific knowledge. I'm glad there are online communities like Red Square where I can gain insight!

I bought another one. From what I saw and was advised on here it’s an 87 308-8. Most of this afternoon, I’ve been freeing things and getting it running. It looks worse than it is. I got everything unstuck and running so it’s just minor stuff now. The deck looks pretty good too.

Made up some magnetic transmission drain plugs. Need to JB weld the magnets in yet.

to the Doug. The C-120 Hydro is a great tractor.. It was also my first Wheel Horse around 50 horses ago.

Ah, come on. Doesn't look that bad.

Buy stock in a toilet paper company along with a fire extinguisher outfit ...

My small garden (11 potted plants) did very well this year so for the last few weekends I've been canning like a mad man. Made 13qts of spaghetti sauce, 18pts of salsa, 24 1/2pts of sliced jalapeno's, & some ranchero sauce. I still have a lot of stuff to take care of but I'm starting to run out of ideas. Earlier this week I made some Habanero Hot Sauce. This has a fantastic flavor and then..... about 45 seconds after putting it in your mouth, you get slapped up side the head with the heat. So that took care of my Habanero's and a couple more tomatoes but I still have a very bountiful crop of Jalapeno's to use up. Today I picked 30 Jalapeno's ( this still didn't put a dent in my bounty ) to make some Jalapeno hot sauce. This hot sauce turned out with a great flavor and again it has a delay before the heat gets to you. The heat is no where near as intense as the Habanero sauce. My friend was complaining that he had a lot of peppers that he didn't know what to do with so I asked if I could experiment with them. He agreed so one more round of hot sauce to get going. The peppers that he gave me was a mixture of Habanero, Scorpion, Ghost, & Carolina Reapers. I took this mixture of hateful heat makers to concoct a sauce that has been dubbed "Paranormal Hot Sauce". My plan for this sauce is to ferment it first, so it will be a week or 2 before it is finished. I still have a bunch of Jalapeno's and Poblano's to deal with. If any one has any ideas, I'd welcome them.

I spent most of the day working on the A-100 and as of this moment, I'm feeling like I'll try to save this poor little guy. It might not end up being the best return on investment decision, but I think I can give it a new life and home which is a much better fate than rotting away in the woods. The seat is complete toast, but the mounting bracket is salvageable and I'm hoping will work for a universal seat replacement. The tires and rims... oh goodness! The metal band of the tires were fused to the rims with rust, but with about 38 tools I was able to break them free. A lot of work ahead on these wheels... I power washed everything, sprayed PB Blaster on every bolt/nut I could see and removed a bunch of other items... steps backward to hopefully take steps forward.

As far as the date, probably made in 1976 for the 1977 model year.

There is also the golf ball game Ollie ... Stick a piece of conduit in the ground with a golf or tennis ball on top. Whoever can get the closest with the front end without knocking the ball off wins. Adult version you knock the ball off you have to take a shot...

The beauty of the garden tractor hobby is it's a lot less expensive than hot rods and muscle cars. For $250 you can't really "loose your shirt". At minimum it's $250 to learn everything you need to know about Copar Panzer tractors and that's a much better deal than learning you picked the wrong college major at $60-$80K x 4 years. I'd rather buy a $250 Panzer than owe $32K in student loans for a Creative Writing college degree any day. LOL Finding an original front axle might be a challenge but hunting down stuff is most of the fun anyway IMO. I'm no Panzer expert but lots of changes and mods to that front end went on. What and why? Ask the owner. Just

We are all good. My house was struck by lightning around 8 AM on Friday, and I mean we got tagged. Blew out a couple ceiling fans and a TV inside. Blew the entire soffit off around an exterior flood light and a gutter. Burned up two small trees closest to my house. I’ve stood close to 105mm howitzers and tanks while firing, and this was considerably louder. Needless to say, all five members of my family had to change our shorts… But otherwise we just got a lot of rain. So many folks up in the mountains took the brunt of this storm, and they are in bad shape. Me personally, well we got lucky in my opinion.

Hello all! Over the years I have restored old ISUZUs, mopeds, motorcycles and campers, but never set a finger on a tractor. I just picked up this guy today, first Wheel Horse and post here. The seller didn't know the year/model, and I have not been able to find an identification plate. Lots of searching has me thinking it might be a 1973-74 Ranger 700 or 800, although that's a complete guess... not to mention the engine looks newer which is throwing me off even more. Any thoughts on what this might be? Thanks in advance! Jonathan

Fiery jet powered plow tractor (drivers)

Thanks @WHX??. Pretty much everything I have bought and restored to date have been misfits... it's how I roll I guess. Jonathan

I like this idea. Normally I just free hand mine with a brush. Not perfect, but not too bad. Getting harder now that my eye sight is starting to take a crap.

Painting the raised letters. Cover the letters and adjacent area with rubber cement and let it dry good. With a razor blade shave off the flat portion of the letters. Paint the flat portion. When paint is good and dry, rub off the remaining rubber cement.

Same here. Six straight days of rain and two more forecast turned my dead grass into a lush green rain forest. If the sun ever shows, I'll be able to hear the grass growing. I may throw an RD on and pull the sweeper.

Like @WHX?? said, we used a plastic barrel. Marked off a boundary that they had to stay inside of. Boundary was about 30yrds log & twice the width of the barrel. Timed event, can add a second on to their time or DQ for going out of bounds. Trailer backing - I set up two stalls, a start & finish stall (painted lines on the ground about 1 1/2 times the width of the trailer). Then two cones. They had to back out of the first stall, do a figure 8 around the cones, & back into the finish stall. Timed event. Our best time on this was 50 seconds. Worst time 3 min. Thinking about trying this event with a 4 wheel wagon next year, ought to be good for some laughs.

I was laughing at @kpinnc ‘s post where he said all members of his family had to change their shorts… Very sorry his house was damaged by lightning though… just didn’t want you guys to think I was laughing about it.

That Panzer is definitely a project. The front axle is a previous owner modification. The missing jackshaft and missing pulleys may be difficult to find, might be best off making your own drivetrain for it. I have a T102

Thanks for listening. I watched a therapy session yesterday and was amazed at her progress. She is having a more painful day today,but the team promised there would be ups and downs. They are working on getting her anemia better because of blood loss during surgery and are trying to do it without a transfusion. I suggested that she try a protein shake that the surgeon wanted her to use and the second hospital okayed it. She has a bit more color this morning and I pray it is helping...

That all depends on what you will be using it for. Nothing wrong with an "A-100" for light duty yard work and cruising the show grounds.

One of the ways I saw chain piling or chain in a box as perfected by Richard Layne, is done with a square steel frame that goes in the ground to accept a chain, at least five feet long and narrow ( less than one inch wide links) that the Wheel Horse operator moves back and forth on the rear of the tractor until most of the chain is within the interior of the steel frame on the ground. It is quite a show when the Wheel Horse operator is skilled at forward and reverse movement with fast clutching and shifting!

p.s.: I just found another document on the forum, wondering if I might have a 1977 A-100 with a swapped out motor?

I can see in your 3rd picture, below the dash the serial number tag is still there , if you can provide us with the information on it we can help you out . Welcome to Red Square .

Guys, I live at the far west end of northwest Florida, (Pensacola) we are about 240 miles west of where the eye came on shore. Got some wind and some gust around 30mph. Our late July and August dog day afternoon can be much worst than that. We've got some friends in Sopchoppy Fl. who lost their barn and part of their roof, they are on the west side (the good side if you can call it that) of the storm about 40 miles from the eye.

The BBT and her Momma spent several hours processing firewood. They brought some up from the area behind the garden, split that, then stacked it. I worked on a few different things in the big barn and basement. Got another Kohler carb in the ultrasonic cleaner. Got the yard trailer lift mechanism bolted on. Got the road trailer in the barn for repairs too. That'll be getting a new front ball receiver, lift jack, and spring bushings with bolts. Also started working on a pair of plates for my hub puller. I'll post those in "Tools". Several tractors got to move around and stretched their legs a bit.

Nice cut !

🤣 I don’t bring the green ones to all the shows, just the ones that we can play in the dirt. They out work all my others.

Mehhh... LOTS of us don't get return on investment with tractors or many other things. And.... it's perfectly fine. You may have a lighter duty Horse than a true Garden Tractor but you DO have a good quality USA made piece that'll give years of service from proper maintenance and repair. That was all???

Apparently the missing individuals have been accounted for and everyone is alive. They just had to walk a bit from the house to get to a spot with service.

It has rained enough here that the grass has greened up and grown a bit - enough that it will need mowing in the next few days. Enough leaves are down that it will be worthwhile to put the block off plate on the SD deck.

The seat has the big leaf springs like all of my other wheel horses. The little coil springs under the seat are just for the safety switch and bottom out when you sit on it offering no ride comfort. That is done by the big flat leaf springs. I Remove the seat switch on my machines so the little coil springs are not needed.

If I had to guess the one I'm looking at may have been a T102 like yours and converted to a 4 wheel with whatever he used as a front axle. As for the drive train I had no intent to return it to original as I can imagine spending more on the appropriate parts than the $250 for the tractor. I'd love to power it with a Kohler or Briggs v-twin or on the far end of the extreme scale a Wisconsin 4 cylinder. Guy says the brakes work and it rolls freely so I just have to decide if I want to make the 4 hr round trip to get it

I have a couple of these starters. I've noticed the bushing wears out on the gear end. If it's bad enough you might be better off buying a new starter or finding a kit to rebuild the old one.

Glad you're okay and the damage wasn't worse.

No issues at all Terry. I debated putting them on all at once but decided to separate the Kohler letters. I used a razor knife to gently separate the letter from back (glue) side of the letter leaving it stuck to the clear top cover. That gave me a little handle to position it. I did the USA the same way but did all three letters at once. I didn't use the hood decals because this is on a 1976. I painted the hood letters on my 854 several years ago.

The original dozer flat bar on top of the axle housing is replaced with the same made from angle iron with a hole drilled for the spring. Item #23 https://www.partstree.com/models/79370-toro-36-tiller-for-300-series-tractors-sn-230000001-230999999-2003/rear-axle-mount-hitch-3/

Yeah, I had not intended to super hardcore things with it so it may indeed be a fine model for me. I started tearing things back this morning to see exactly what I was dealing with. Despite the outward appearance, things were looking good. Engine spun freely, transmission shifted smoothly then I noticed something... I realize I'm only a day two owner, but pretty sure a fuel tank and system are suppose to be in the big open space! LOL! Might be the cost breaker as thus far I had only seen the need to replace the tires and a tie rod, I'm off to read up on other threads to see what my options are.

@Horse Newbie agree with others on ideas to improve that set up , @Achto also like a powdered graphite , on related movement / contact areas , try test / verify / try , thats a regular for me . its never a one and done , found more function detailing improvements , thats the answer , to issues . example , how about some 3-1 penetrating oil in / on your choke and throttle cables , connections , eliminate rusty scraping . its right there , pete

Wow, good eye indeed - if it was a snake, it would have bit me as the saying goes! Below is a picture of the plate. I found another thread with a VIN decoder, thus far I'm thinking: 7 - model year = 1977 2 - type = lawn tractor 10 - hp = 10 B - engine type = Briggs & Stratton (originally at least) P - transmission type = Peerless 0I - feeling like this might be 01, parts list code = 01 1799 - serial number = 1799 6 - manufactured year = 1976? Seems to conflict with the 7... hmm 294 = manufactured day = October 21 But I'll defer to you all with far more knowledge than me. I enjoy bringing things back from the edge of death, but will make an assessment once I can get a match to a parts list... I bought it sight unseen (only for $100) and it's definitely a little more rough than I anticipated. Thanks so much everyone! Jonathan

Does this help? https://www.partstree.com/models/79370-toro-36-tiller-for-300-series-tractors-sn-049000001-049999999-1994/pulley-assembly-2/

@WHX?? @Achto School me about barrel roll and how y’all do trailer backing? We have the kids do the slow race and we do trailer backing through a zig zag timed course.

Agreed KP... right next to a mid mount blade. Wished mine wasn't on a hydro but the lift is nice...

New rings in valves in this B-80 engine. Long block is going to go into Howard over the winter.

here is the one i made 3/4 plate with a handle cant wait to try it out