Leaderboard

Built my own 6.5' x 12' with ramps that store under the rear and plenty of tie downs. The strips of angle iron indicated by the arrows were installed to support the counter sunk tie downs in the middle of the trailer. Can fit 4 tractors on it.

I use a 6.5'X14' that I can get all my buckets or 4 tractors on.

Mine is 5x8. Rear drop gate. Works great for one tractor and some attachments... Try not to focus on the two ruggedly handsome dudes ... they're just eye candy.

5x10. Bought it 20 some years ago. Did a refurbish on it this summer. New paint, lights & wiring, replaced wheel hubs. If I remember believe I paid $895 for it new at county fair. Definitely got my $$ worth out of it all these years.

A costly horror show here in the PeeAaa. Around $500 bucks to get one inspected, titled, and registered. I have bought $200 trailers just to get the title, the serial ID plate,and the tag. oops

I have found several of the lower bearing blocks for the reduction steering assembly cracked. Here is one that I have here that is cracked. If the block is worn and you try and drill it for a bushing it also usually cracks so I decided to make my own. I went and bought a short length of 1"x1.5" flat bar (over $20 for that, I guess steel prices must be up). Marked bar then cut off. I then drilled the blanks for the 3/4"x 7/8" bushings that will be installed. Then the holes were drilled for the mounting bolts and grease fitting. Bearing block bolted to steering block for test fit. I now need to order the bushings then I can finish these.

I bought an all aluminum 5.5'x11' trailer to replace my home made 4'x8' trailer. Wheel Horses fit on better. Rear gate comes apart if you don't want it sticking up in the wind when hauling empty.

The front is held in the rack with some tabs and there is a hinged door on the rear that holds them from sliding out..

I have a 5 X 8 all aluminum trailer that I bought ten years ago. It has served me well and minimal maintenance. For hauling Wheel Horses though a 6 foot wide trailer would be a good choice. I can get three of the old round hoods on mine when traveling to the Big Show in Pennsylvania or to Florida Flywheelers in Florida every year but a little wide from 60 inches would be a better fitting option! All my side rails are removable and the folding tailgate would have been another option to consider!

@BillD One suggestion I will make when it comes to trailer construction, buying or building. Trailers that use a steel tube construction, these may seem like a good strong construction and they are. Here is the issue with them - There is no way to properly paint the inside of the tubing. They collect moisture through condensation, rain, etc. This causes them to rust from the inside out, so you often don't notice that it is happening until your frame breaks. How do I know this?? I had a flat bed utility trailer that used square tubing for the main frame construction. One day the frame broke right in front of one the spring shackles. A few taps on the out side with a pick hammer proved that the rest of the frame was not in sound shape either. I have also seen this issue multiple times with boat trailers that use a tube construction. The trailer that I built is made with 3" C-channel that has a 5/16" wall, all of the angle iron has 1/4" wall, and the tubing and angle for the tongue has 5/16" walls. Over kill??? Maybe, and it does weight 900lbs empty but I have no worries when it comes to frame failure.

I love to see "Well Enjoyed" cement mixers bee-bopping down the Thruway at 70+MPH!

Fortunately WI DOT does not require a title or plates on any trailer that is rated under 3500lbs.

Yes, anywhere there is play in the steering I try and add a bearing or bushing to tighten it up. For the 300 and 400 series the easiest fix is to install a flanged bearing normally used on the lower shaft to support the upper shaft. For the early 500 series I use a front wheel bearing in the original bracket after drilling it out to 1-3/8" to fit the bearing. For the later 500 series I drill out the dash to 1-3/8 where the original bushing would normally be and install a front wheel bearing. The steering support block gets drilled and new brass bushings installed top and bottom to get rid of any play. Brake and clutch pedals just get new bushings as required.

I made some good progress on rehabbing a pretty tired and worn 1963 dozer blade and getting it set to go on the 854. I’m going to experiment with plowing this winter instead of using the walk-behind blower. The last couple of years the blower was needed only a couple of times while I had to push-shovel a lot of 3-4” snowfalls that were quite wet. This frame/blade came to me through @ebinmaine. The angle lever and rod as well as mounting brackets were already gone before he got it. The ’63 42" dozer was a unicorn. Last frame with a foot release for the angle lock, first frame with cast iron ends on the trip springs. It mounted via two separate angle iron brackets with ¾” shoulder bolts for the frame pivots. Here’s the OM and IPL, if you are curious! Since I don’t know if this is a long term relationship, I prepped and painted only the face of the blade. At some point in its life, the lower blade must have worn past the wear edge because a PO layered in a new 4” band of sheet steel to rebuild the lower edge and then attached a new wear strip. Not a bad piece of work, but s/he never painted it! You can see the new band extending above the bolted on wear edge in the picture. I’m too lazy to want to have to bolt/unbolt the frame to mount the blade so from @wallfish I got one of the newer “inside” brackets. I’ve adapted the frame by adding a ¾” rod through the frame end holes and used a 1.5" spacer bushing on each side to keep the frame centered on the bracket. I drilled and cottered the spacers to the rod so it’s a reversible adaptation. I’d previously added a front attach-a-matic to the 854. It usually holds a front weight that helps me feel secure on the uphill parts of my property. But I was concerned about possible interference with the old-style “triangle” frame. Whew, it just misses! BTW, as many of you know, the nuts on the bracket bolts are a close clearance. The perfect use case for my recent birthday present--a set of Craftsman Pro ratchet/open end combo wrenches! The solid lift link (I’ll add a picture after it’s painted) is 10.5” on center for the ⅜” holes and it’s bent to have an offset of about 1” outboard at the plow frame. It attaches in the second from the end hole on the rock shaft arm. I’m waiting on a rod and Heim ends to build the angle actuator rod and finish the angle control lever. More pics and measurement progress then!

I took the last deck off and prepped for hibernation.

Darn, this fellow is catching on! NY allows unlicensed trailering of things like air compressors, work light generators, cement mixers, and log splitters--in other words nothing that carries something else. I’ve been going through the “lost title” merry-go-round on an old aluminum boat/canoe trailer for my guideboat. In 2025 it’ll be long enough off the road per the ancient CA registration of its original owner that NYS will let me treat it a a free gift and finally get a title/registration. All so that I can spend $46.50 a year. In simpler news, I did renew the registration on my 5x8 utility today online (all NYS trailers have calendar year registration periods). Easy peasy.

@cleat as usual its enjoyable to see the progress. The attention to details is incredible. You remind me of an old boss of mine named Gary. His cars, motorcycles, house, tools , everything he owned was & is always perfect. He has a saying that he keeps everything nice for the next person that buys it. Lol! Anytime he decides to sell whatever it may be I usually buy it whether I need it or not. He makes everything better & improved.

One, only?, smart idea Michigan came up with is lifetime plate and registration for trailers... A rare glimmer of intelligence in the otherwise deep morass of State regulatory madness...

I have a 7x16 car hauler because it was cheap at the time and ugly lol I can get 6 horses on there comfortably. My dream is a 24' enclosed trailer, but that's just a dream. @Achto the trailer you built is really nice! DOT in PA would never let you title that here these days..........

How much do they rent one for? How often will you be using it? Do you have a good out of the way place to store it when not in use? How much is insurance and annual registration if you own a trailer? It may be advantageous to rent the trailer when you need it rather than owning it. Figure out the number of times you will actually use it, add up the cost of a pair of tires every five years or so and the other costs of ownership the compare it to renting.

Before you even think about going inside a transaxle be sure everything is spotlessly clean.

Vented tanks - regardless of material - exhale when warm temperatures expand the air and vapors inside them then inhale when things cool down and the air contracts. During the inward breath, ambient moisture from humidity is drawn back in with the air. That moisture can condense or rain out when the temperature drops further and will become trapped within whatever fuel is left in the tank. Liquid fuel also expands and contracts with temperature fluctuations but to a lesser extent than the gas and vapor phases. Keeping your tank full decreases the volume of air that can be exchanged during every breathing cycle. A fully empty tank has less opportunity to trap the moisture inside as the little bit of water that comes in is more available to vaporize. Keeping your tank all the way full or all the way empty is the best shot at keeping moisture accumulation at bay. This is regardless of what special flavor of fuel you like to run. In a bare steel tank, keeping the tank full of fuel discourages rusting of the inside of the tank by excluding oxygen from the surface. Plastic, of course, is free of this concern. The amount of water drawn inside the tank during each breathing cycle is quite minimal, but during prolonged storage time can work against you. Most days will have at least one cycle. Condensed moisture will enter the fuel via gravity and will either sink to the bottom of the tank (pure gasoline) or will be held in solution by the fuel (ethanol or stabilized fuels). Give it long enough and you’ll eventually see the water in the bottom of the tank. This happens much sooner with pure gasoline than with alcohol laced fuels that can hold a lot of water that can be invisible one day as it’s safely held in suspension for but can drop out the next when the alcohol can hold no more. Another possible benefit to the completely full or completely empty approach is that you can optimize (minimize) the amount of surface area of fuel that makes contact with the surrounding air. While it is slow to occur, some of the constituents of gasoline will react with oxygen in the air to create either undesirable products that can settle in the tank or just don’t burn well. There’s also the evaporative loss of some of the lightweight things that are in gasoline that make it burn nicely and fire off a cold engine easily. Full or empty should provide the best options. Steve

We were not home for 4 days, so the bird bath needed filled. About 15 minutes after I filled it, this dude showed up for a swig. He had it all to himself. None of my bluebirds jumped in.

It might not rust, but it sure does corrode just fine. My service desk sure does get uppity when they ask me to look at rust spots on aluminum panels and I tell them I can't find any rust.

I agree. This one came to me cracked. Others arrive worn. Once I repair then I use good quality synthetic grease and basically never have an issue again. I believe the steering block grease fittings on both gear reduction and non gear reduction units get missed by a lot of owners so they just run dry and wear out.

More than likely. You can get larger home made trailers titled & register in WI but there are hoops to jump through, receipts to go through, and a state patrol inspection required. One funny thing with Wisconsin's unregistered trailers. They are legal for WI interstate roads, there for they are legal to travel through every other state as well as long as they are hooked to a vehicle with WI plates. BUT NOT IN CANADA !! Learned that lesson the spensive way.

Here in RI, it's all about the title. No title, NO registration. Seventy years here and 2 things are a given - the is No such thing as a "free" boat or a "free" trailer.... I posted a long while back the horror show of attempting to register a homemade trailer here.....

The cast aluminum round hood tanks can fully drain if set dead level. They don’t rust either!

Will guess the donor is a 522xi and not a project I would tackle without a donor. Major project.

That will be more challenging than the actual repair!

I took a screenshot of this sometime ago. No clue who posted it. Hope this helps

Now that I know it is functional (former owner said he never used it) I think I will keep in in high for the most part but will back her down to low when taking the young grandson for rides through the wooded portion of the property. Thanks

@kpinnc. Good eye! We've seen that too.

@kpinnc, I did not even think about that possibility. I will check it…

Also did the top end, lapped and adjusted valves, rebuilt carb and fuel pump.

Down load it on a USB drive & take it to Staples or a place of your choice to have it printed.

Tim, this reminded me of the issue I had with a 520 axle a while back. The long tab on the lower steering shaft is pretty easy to bend towards the front, especially if someone had to drive out an old rusty tie rod bolt. You just need to bend the tab back a little and your tie rods won’t rub anymore. Your pic is first, mine is the second one for reference.

or this for leaves and compost

Saw this and thought of you Eric.

Yes, the receiver for the mule drive can be salvaged from any late model parts tractor. A-Z can fix you up.

Bleeping awesome! Not only restored, but improved!

After it was brought up this morning I remember reading that the 1965 model year was the only year to have a big block and a short frame. 1045 and 1055

I don't know how much difference there is between the 2 spoke and 3 spoke wheels, but I really like this one I got from Lowes. Good Vibrations Steering Knob

Lower steering shaft flanged bearing ready to install. Lower steering shaft flanged bearing installed. Frame overview showing mid Tach and Lower steering shaft flanged bearing.

Nice Work Trina

They’re just paranoid. He means no harm.

Well done, Trina. I like the way you got 24 different pictures to cover the 12 months. Bill

Very nice work Trina !!!! surprised to see my herd in there, there were a lot of good and amazing Wheel Horses submitted .

Truly honored to have been selected as part of this years calendar. To be part of this brotherhood what is the wheelhorse forum has restored my faith in humans time and time again. We live in crazy times and this site and all of you allow me to escape that every single day when I check in on here. For that I am extremely grateful. Thanks and god bless you all