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A year or three ago Trina picked up a frame of a portable garage from our local mechanic. She was intending to use it as a garden shed & greenhouse. After a couple gardening seasons she has decided that a usable greenhouse here for us is impractical and unnecessary. A few weeks ago she and her momma started making up that frame in the area behind the barn so we could have a better covered parts area. Today.... They finished building the frame AND also built a great parts shelf! Reused recycled upcycled heavy duty 12 foot pallets. The rest of the space will be used for storing as many as four "future project" tractors.

I bought my property 4 years ago and have been focusing on the house and other projects. But it's time for me to start working on the barn. This is a 1800's beam bank barn. It's approximately 35x65' in the main part. My first focus is going to be replacing the main barn floor. The outside definitely needs work as well, my long term plan is to get the outside metal but leave the wood siding on and just furr out the metal so the inside still looks original. There are plenty of areas I need to replace the wood as well as get it painted before doing metal. This is the "lean-to" off the side of the barn with a milk room is my current area that I work on the wheelhorses which is not the most ideal but it works for now. Here is the bottom of the barn along with a bunch of lumber that is going to be used as the floor. Planning on putting a stairway here between the bottom of the barn and the main floor. And finally the inside And here is the lumber I will be using to replace the floor, I got a deal on it from my work. They are 2x10's and a bit over 13' long First thing I need to work on is clearing out the main floor of all the stuff. And then in a 1/3 of the barn there is a 2-3" layer of concrete I need to remove, and then the entire floor needs to come up. There are a few floor beams I need to replace and reinforce and I want to get the floor somewhat leveled out as well.

Today was tire day. I’ve been mulling over putting these Deestone ribs on the 867 for a while. I love the fat little tires they came with originally, but they aren’t made like that anymore. Mine were rotted too bad to keep. Also replaced the tube in my son’s Ranger (last pic). Some dingbat pinched the previous tube and it had a leak. After swapping this thing, I feel like I’ve had a hard day at the gym! Even with the tire changer, these little guys are hard to work with!

Some before n after pressure washing pics of an 8 speed I'm helping a friend with. Ain't spotless but a LOT easier to handle.

WOW! @Sparky actually cut loose a snow plow!

Bob was an avid bow and rifle deer hunter and enjoyed fishing, watching baseball and football games, Small wonder he was one of the good guys. https://www.bacarellafuneralhome.com/obituaries/Robert-Ellison-15/#!/TributeWall

Did a cleaning and partial rebuild on the C-160 carb that crapped out after I installed the electric fuel pump (I reckon the increased flow must have dislodged some crud in there or something). She’s running like a champ now! There’s nothing quite as satisfying as hearing that mighty beast roar to life again at last!

Success! I broke down and went up to HF for one of their heated ultrasonic cleaners and gave the thing a bath in that. After a good hosing down with some brake cleaner and some new bits and pieces from isavetractors, the blasted thing fired right up! No more gasoline in the crankcase or rebuilding that mechanical pump and it runs like a charm. Didn’t even have to adjust anything but the float a bit. Stoked. Ready to mount the blower to ward off any snow that might otherwise fall should I fail to do that. Thanks again to all for their help!

Speaking of broccoli. Check this out!

I am old enough to remember the hay trolley system being used to fill the haymow. Looks like you have a very good barn to work with, looking forward to your progress.

Picked up a new to me 48 inch plow that will go on my c-121 tommorow. Set of wh plastic wheel weights and tires chains. Thanks @Sparky remember if you need it you know where it is!

Awesome barn! The whole time reading your post all I kept thinking was “how much stuff I could store in there!”

I’ve been idly hunting for a second 520H and a nice looking 1990 model popped up not too far from home. It sat from 2006 until about 2022 and had about 140 hours on the meter when it came out of storage. The owner had left fuel in the tank so that was a mess and the carb was gunked up as well. The current owner bought the tractor from the original owner and when he brought it home he cleaned out the tank, opened up and sprayed out the carb and said that it ran great for a season and then he put it away for about a year. When he pulled it back out it was running a little rough, or surging and he figures it needs another carb clean. Since he’s got other tractors, he decided to let this one go. It currently sits at 161 hours and he sent a video of it running and it sounds strong. The tractor looks pretty damn clean overall. Didn’t see the best storage but all in all I think it’s a great candidate to bring fully back and get ready for my son to start using when he’s ready. (Sure he’s only 3 weeks old but I like to plan ahead!) Anything I need to be concerned about? I’m pretty familiar with these but wouldn’t consider myself an expert.

I was looking for some WH goodies on Evilbay and came across this ad by A-Z Tractor Aftermarket 3 point hitch they have designed and are marketing. This is a 3pt hitch manufactured to work on all Wheel Horse garden tractors with the cast iron transmission. This hitch mounts on the rear axle just like the snow plow bracket. This hitch can be mounted with the snow plow bracket or with out it. The hitch uses the lift cable that is made for lifting the rear attachments. The hitch will fit on gear drive tractors or hydrostatic. All it takes to mount the hitch is 4 bolts and 4 nuts the same as the snow plow bracket. The hitch sits on top of the axle housing as to the snow plow hitch is on the bottom. This is a category O 3pt hitch and works with all 3pt hitch garden tractor attachments. The hitch has several holes for changing the lifting leverage and leveling adjusters on both lift arms. There are anti swing chains with adjusters. This hitch has been tested in many conditions and has held up under every test. Note! If you purchase this item and have any issues we want to know so we can correct them. This is a new item something never offered by wheel horse and A-Z Tractor has designed and manufactured this item. We also have a 3pt scraper box that works great with this hitch and plan to offer more attachments in the future.

The weather service is calling for the thermometer to dip into the upper 20's this coming week. Here in southwest MIssouri, we've had an unusually long growing season this year. I've got broccoli, lettuce still going strong. Today, I pulled the tomato plants did some cleaning of our raised bed. For the past couple of years, in my asparagus patch, I been nurturing two peach trees that I grew from seed and one sour cherry tree that I started after pruning a cherry tree and sticking the sticks into the earth hoping they might take root. One, out of probably 60, did manage to take root. I transplanted them this past week. Now I'm trying to learn how to prune them correctly. A trip to the Extension Office resulted in a pamphlet and google has resulted in some videos. Probably next February or March I'll give the fruit trees a pruning. My end of the gardening years supper consisted of mashed turnips, fried green tomatoes and brisket.

At least yours didn’t end up on the hood of your wife’s truck! Some moron at my house actually did that! “Baby, I was like 25 feet away!” Shop looks too nice now. You gotta mess it up!

Agreed, some vibration is normal. I grew up mowing with a 310 and I still remember how weird my hands felt after 2 hours of driving it. My hands felt 'buzzy' for lack of a better term, and everything I touched felt like rabbit's fur.

I would check both machines drive belts for a stiff spot. Oftentimes a machine that sits for a while will get hard spots in the belt. It will definitely add to your vibrations. Your 308 has no balance cancelling in it. Even though your 312 has balance gears internally, many of us remove them as they tend to destroy the engine if they fail. I would say if you have a bit of vibration at idle, that’s fairly normal of these old Kohler engines. It should clear up as RPM is increased. As the old saying goes: “Wheel Horse makes it, Kohler shakes it”…

I'm all tagged out on deer, so I headed West on Thursday to hunt turkey on my sisters farm in Somerset County. I dropped off the little white deer at Rocky Gap State Park on the way. He'll be on display at the visitors center. Then on to my sisters to hunt turkey. Friday morning I was overlooking a side where I knew turkey to roost when this guy walked by me at 25 yards. Sorry for the quality, but it was early and very foggy at 7:30 AM. When he had passed me and was about 35 yards away, I switched the camera to still pics and hoped to get a better still in the bad light. I continued to grunt and he turned and walked all stiff legged right at me within 10 Yds. Seconds later he got behind, winded me and left. No turkey sign, so I headed for the cabin for coffee. Got the stove going and got so relaxed, I spent the rest of my turkey hunt in the cabin watching deer all day.

This is really quite interesting. I had no idea that this could be reversible process. Maybe this is way out in the future but it looks to be a promising, low environmental impact heat transfer method. I would imagine the weight/cooling unit ratio won’t be right for mobile applications but for buildings and equipment this might be the next best thing. This also points me to another YouTube channel to watch for big picture views of technical things. Thanks. Steve

@Sparky wow lots of plow comments…I didn’t realize you have a plow addiction? 😂👍

Since it has been sitting I would remove the engine covers and clean the cooling fins, no telling who or what may have made a home in there.

Sad to hear about this. Cindy asked me if I knew him and told me he had passed. Madge posted it on FB and she saw it.I woulda thought we woulda known sooner but as Bill said...

Thank you very much! It definitely has areas that are deteriorating, but it is not falling apart yet. My goal is to get it more useable and stop any deteriorating I can without breaking the bank. My roof definitely could use a repaint as well, I might pay someone to do that though.

What a great old barn you have. It looks like it's stands good and is structurally in sound shape. I like old barns. I was fortunate to work on one built in the 1880's It had "1880" in the gable end that the owner asked me to replicate so he could have the original for display in his home. At that time I had a Ford van that was my work vehicle with ladder rack on top. In order to paint the gable and be able to reach the "1880" when replacing it, I set my longest wooden extension ladder on the ladder rack on top of the van. It made for quite a shaky ladder! That barn was struck by lightening a few years later and burned down. Another time we renailed and painted a galvanized metal roof on a barn. I used my fishing pole to cast a line across the ridge then drug ropes that we tied to the trailer hitch on my El Camino to tie around our waists while on that steep roof. 40 years ago when we painted barns, when we had one that the paint was gone or nearly gone, we would "prime" with linseed oil. Let it dry a few weeks then come in and prime and topcoat. The reason the man I worked for used linseed oil was to restore the oil in the wood. He claimed if you applied primer, the dry wood would absorb the oil out of the primer and leave the pigment on the surface. What memories seeing your barn brought back. Looking forward to following your progress.

Oh man, I love these old timber frame barns, I'll be watching!

I do have a block and pulley system that I need to free up but it runs on a rail at the peak of the barn all the way from one side to the other.

Or go 3-dimensional like @pullstart did hanging tractors off the rafters......

OK, first of all, mowing across a slope is a recipe for disaster. Too many tractors wind up shiny side down doing that. Mow up, down or diagonal. Maybe the dualies will give you more stability, but I wouldn't stake MY life on it. Just my

@kpinnc and @adsm08 thanks for the input. The 312 has been pretty babied most of its life, but the 308 was pretty beat up when I got it. I figured I’d check if I was missing parts or something rotted out. Thanks! @adsm08 I remember that as well my parents had a Simplicity that was like that. And I couldn’t hear well for a bit after too.

Rib tires up front would help. The wider ones that fit your front wheels aren’t cheap, but they work well. Also makes the machine drive like it has power steering. A 520 is already pretty heavy up front just because of the Onan. Of course filling the tires can’t hurt.

Thanks for responding. I have 2 questions 1 The wires coming from the stator are about 16 inches long and the regulator/rectifier is under the steering wheel, So would I have to build a jumper wire from the stator wires to the regulator/rectifier ? 2 The yellow wire coming out the back of the connector( the one that has been cut) does it go to the starter R terminal ? it looks like the yellow wire also plugs into the regulator/rectifier. Thanks for all your help!!

And here Matt Groening told me that dropping giant ice cubes in the ocean was the future of cooling.

@Ed Kennell Sounds like your turkey hunt went about as well as mine. Dad has all the deer he wants for the year, so Saturday he took the boy out to one of his blinds while I went the other way into the pines. I heard gobbling on and off all morning but never found the bird. I saw a mamma and two little ones early on, then as I was walking away from that encounter I kicked was what probably a buck looking to get lucky, but never saw his head. Then about 2 hours later on top of a knoll in the same hollow I had two young ones come running in spooked. One went left and away from me, the other circled around behind and settled in for about 10 minutes, then came back, walked in to about 10 yards from me, then left seemingly none the wiser I was there. When we met back at camp for lunch my son said they saw 6 running by them but they never stopped or go close enough for a shot. This morning before we left I took him back to where I was yesterday and we had a decent sized buck walk in, but he got suspicious when the boy turned to try and get himself a better angle. He looked right at me and stomped, then the guy who's back yard butts up to that edge of the property started talking on his porch and the deer took off. He never came in closer than 50 yards anyway, and we don't want him shooting more than maybe 20 yet because he just made draw minimum weight for this season. And that's the story of all the turkeys I saw this weekend.

And add a battery!

If you make up 5gal of used fuel oil, you should have enough to run a single cylinder diesel for a year. There are plenty of Yanmar knock off's out there at a low price. There was one of these at @WHX??'s plow day this year, seemed to run strong with no issues all day. https://www.amazon.com/Air-Cooled-Cylinder-Machinery-Starting-186F/dp/B07YC7283C/ref=asc_df_B07YC7283C?mcid=3f2e28a82cfb3f19b67a26fa846f7c71&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693366125660&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5171939549114843075&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019452&hvtargid=pla-889349596270&psc=1 I have a Hatz diesel in Radpferd. High quality engine with a high end price. This engine burns about 1Qt of diesel per hour pulling a 10" Brinly plow. Very good engine, if you can find one. Kohler also has their hat in the ring with small diesels. They are very proud of their engine as well. https://www.northerntool.com/products/kohler-horizontal-4-stroke-diesel-engine-9-1-hp-model-pa-kd440-2101c-107938?srsltid=AfmBOooXic9eavAu_mVWbnHxtRayb8fvj9KUwBbDL4qfShloDad93J_N1e4 Make sure that you are filtering your used oil properly, injector holes clog up easily. Personally, I would go with a Yanmar knock off. If you end up having issues with the used oil, you will only be out hundreds not thousands.

Same deal, weight equals traction, also a bit of under inflation may help.

A "Grease Buggy"!! Nice. You will most likely need TWO fuel tanks - one with straight diesel to start it and the second that smells like french fries to run it. We had a guy at work that did the conversion on his diesel VW Jetta. (We also made the OE switching valve to choose the tank.)

If the heims joints are all right hand tread, take the jam nuts off and they will be 1/2" shorter. Being all right hand once they are on they can't change length when bolted down.

Your mistaken Jim ... I got that one from the Squonky in 2016 at the Big Show. Must be a look alike...

Appreciate all the feedback so far guys. Sounds like my perception of this whole endeavor, based off years of seeing it in action at my neighbors may be somewhat half baked. The deck clearance is quite tight as is with my 60“ deck and current tires. Removal of the deck by simply backing off and on wouldn’t really be effected by the duals, but pulling it out of the side as I sometimes do seems like it could surely be even more difficult than usual. I’m not married to this idea and may just try going back to turf tires to address the issues (or annoyances) with my AG tires. I have, after all mowed this property now for about 10 years and put roughly 400 hours on the 520H with the current set up. I thought running duals would be sorta of fun, look cool, and provide incredible traction and stability but it sounds like if so, it may come at a cost. I am currently running wheel weights but have not tried adding fluid to the rear tires. Another annoyance is how poor the front tires grip for steering when on certain slopes. They will often just plow along sideways and I’ll have to stop, back up to change direction, then straighten out and head off again.

I have a 1989 520-H they seam to run better if they are used regular.

I gotta believe more traction might be the better bet, by means of fluid filled tires and wheel weights. Keep it heavy, keep the heavy side down.

RIP Bob. Always sad to change a members group.

Been a bit since I last posted about the 875. Rebuilt the carb, got the nasty red paint off of the Genny and regulator, rewired, moved solenoid so it doesn't start a fire when the rock shaft is lifted. New fuel shut off and lines. New battery and throttle cables and replaced the rotted battery box. Still have to tidy up the wires and decide what exhaust to run. Once the engine is running I'll have to make some hood and seat pan bushings and install the PTO parts.

I just put an electric fuel pump on my 520H to solve the slow start from the fuel losing prime problem that exists with most tractors with the tank below the fuel pump. If this one starts easily with the air cleaner off, there must be a different problem.

Good choice with the red wheel spacers.. 😉

Day 15: (Well really Friday Saturday Monday and today (Tuesday) Got the fenders for one last time primed (Friday) and now Tuesday we gave it a quick light sanding and painted them red! Fenders are now complete just have to put stickers on it and the rear lights. Got the front rims sanded and cleaned on Friday and first coat of paint on. Today (Tuesday) got the front rims painted antique white let them sit for probaly 3 minutes went back to look at they were all cracked! My dad said the spots we didn’t get rid of all the power coating the paint got underneath it and lifted it all up. So going to let the rims sit out in the sun for a few days then sand where they cracked and hopefully paint them once again for all. Also since it’s now started to get cold and getting dark really early moved some stuff around in the garage and bought Mr.Kellys tractor inside of the garage. IMG_9430.mov IMG_9429.mov