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First and foremost I have to thank @Handy Don and @Bill D And say it was great to see Don & meet Bill. The BBT and I took a nice road trip this weekend. Saturday was spent mostly on the road with two primary stops. One was to pick up all the stuff. The other was to visit my mom and help her out with some chores. Here's a few pics of what we got...

Still waiting for a couple transmission seals to show up. Got bored so I bolted up one ag tire..yeah, I’m that bored

Well, been super busy with the too many other irons in the ol' fire to get much done on Wheel Horse stuff.... But today My Mother sends me a text about a lawn tractor for $30 she saw on an app she uses.... So I chex it out & wouldn't ya Know, there's useable parts on it so I looX even further & it is a Complete 1973 Gravely 814 Tractor. I figured for $30 I get 2 wheels I can use & some Good Kohler parts.... I just couldn't pass it up. I was also surprised to find that it came with the Original Owner's Manual with the Sales Receipt/Invoice in it. Unfortunately, All the atatchments are gone. not even a mowing deck. That is ok as I can't complain about a complete 900lb Tractor/Tank for $30. PO says it hasn't run in a few years but he did keep it in his Garage for the whole time he owned it. I am so swamped with projects & adding another is almost silly but $30 is a No Brainer to me.... I have a place for it so It can wait under protection from the elements until I can really get after it. I'm thiMking the plan is to make it part of the Snow Removal Fleet around here. These are direct drive Transmissions with a sahft driven PTO So far I am pretty impressed with it. I will run some basic vital tests on it soon enough. Like everything else I do it is from the ground up so remove tires clean up & sandblast rimz as needed & repaint with POR15, then find Good used rubber for them if I can but this is a special 1 (1973 so 52 years old actually a piece of outdoor equipment history) so I may just go ahead & Spring for "Brand New Shoes" depends on what I can find .... but for now here are a few pictures to enjoy.

Tin Can Day is every January 19 and is a day dedicated to the humble tin can that preserves some of our favorite food items. Without tin cans, the process of storage and preservation would have been entirely different and less convenient. The best thing about canned food is that it is accessible to people from all walks of life. Over the years, various countries around the globe have made their contributions to the evolution of tin cans. The fact that this storage item has been used for over a century is proof of its worth. It sure deserves to be celebrated! In 1818, Durand introduced tin-plated steel cans in the U.S., and it has been in vogue ever since. A year later, Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett Sr. of England started canning food items such as fruits, vegetables, meats, and oysters, in New York. As tin cans were initially thick with no provision for opening them, a rock, bayonet, or hammer and chisel, did the job for decades. It wasn’t until 1858 that Ezra Warner invented the first can opener. It was used by the U.S. military during the Civil War.

I managed to fix the actuator switch on the electric lift on my snowblower machine. When I was prepping the machine for the storm we're having the toggle switch decided not to work in the "up" direction. I disassembled the switch, cleaned the contacts, reassembled it, plugged it in and viola! I always thought the original switches were hard to find and expensive if they gave out, but they're really pretty simple to repair

You'll find no better small 2wd machine for snow removal, I'll tell you that much. I've got a 1968 430. For some foolish reason they did away with the steering brakes on most of the 800 series after 400's went away. They're still quite capable though. Chains and weights that little tractor is neigh unstoppable. A front 'plow' can be quite easily rigged up from a junk WH single stage snow blower, the lift pole and frame mount are oddly almost identical. You couldn't angle it, but with the auger removed and some trimming it makes a decent dozer blade. The two speed PTO is exceptionally useful in some cases too. Unfortunately they just haven't got the interchangeability of the WH machines.. kinda complicated, ridiculously expensive to fix, and parts are a little scarce. But they were great back in the day. Sure can't beat the price.

Possibly 8'' of powder by Morning. THINK Spring.

Thanks @Pullstart Here is my beast built by the legendary Bob Rock. At one point had three of Bobs creations.

That K341 and the forward splayed front axle is destined for the 1974 C160-8 Cinnamon Horse.

They are calling for 3 to 6 here today and then turning brutally cold for a couple days. I’m Thinking Spring.

and you used a ‘church key’ to open them

Here is the backpack all cleaned and conditioned. I am really impressed with the quality workmanship in this. Just like a Wheel Horse, built to last a lifetime.

The rubber won't hurt those cobblestones so blade DOWN. It needs that weight to scrape the snow off. Less snow under the rear tires equals better traction and less passes to clear the snow. Add weight to the front so the tires just don't slide easily to the side when the blade is angled. Wheel weights or filled tires or added weight to the frame or better yet, all of them.

So I stopped by an estate sale Friday. Last day of the sale so everything was 50% off their marked price. It was pretty well picked over but I was able to make a few good buys. First I spotted this little pump. Was not sure exactly what it was but it was brand new and cheap. Turns out this little pump is kinda expensive. They run off a 12v car or tractor battery. Mine has a cigarette lighter style plug. Most of the ones I see online have the alligator clips. New they go for about 150-225 . Next item I saw was a bag on the floor of the garage. Picked it up to see if anything was inside. It was empty but I noticed it was a backpack or rucksack and I saw how well it was made. Waterproof material and Heavy-duty leather straps. It seamed well worth the few bucks. Turns out it's a Swiss Army Military Engineer or Mountain Rucksack. Made in the 1980s. Apparently they are very sought after in the hiking , camping, community. Online for 80 - 140 bucks. Next I picked up another old vintage cooler. I have about a dozen vintage cooler. Don't know why I like collecting them but I do. This one is from the 1950s. All aluminum in pretty decent shape for its age. Last was an old school metal lunch box from around the same era. I have several of these as well. All in all everything was less then 20 bucks. I love looking through the stuff everyone else overlooks. Glad I stopped. The photos are as found, before I wiped and cleaned the years of dirt off them. Backpack came out beautiful. In the picture it looks brown or tan but it's a really nice olive green with black leather straps and trim.

May 1988, my 418-8 sold for $3,934.70 with a 48" SD deck.

Sixty years ago, my two brothers and I spent many an hour swinging on a rope hanging down from the track. We'd stack bales of in our barn and swing when it was too cold, snowy to play outside. Hay bales made fine tunnels as well.

A topic dear to my heart. Anyone in deer camp would get a nice buck... or any deer ... or anything worth celebrating or not celebrating for that matter. Dad would say gotta have a tinney in a booming voice. Most of us knew what he was talking about, some didn't since today they are made of aluminum. I must be old I remember when they were made of tin...

I used 5665 and commercial 12s at a school system I worked for. Also used a Professional G series tractor with snow blade . With the engine over the rear, it was a beast. IMO some of the absolutely best built stuff in the lawn and garden category.

I purchased my 1976 B-80 with a 36" rd deck, a snow thrower and a headlight kit for just under $1700. That was right after the blizzard of '78. Obviously being a leftover machine was reflected in the price.

Easiest place to find made in USA tools as well.

Made a road trip to western Massachusetts to meet up with @Handy Don and @Bill D Got some great treasures.

Between 5-10” of snow tommorow into Monday morning, this week got the c-145 mechanically ready. Replaced the belt, hydro fluid, hydro filter, pto bell and bearing got fully greased. And got some new tires for it. Also flipped the scraper blade on the 48” plow on my C-121(Which really needed it just see the picture ). Then today hooked the blower to the C-145. Lubed that. Fueled up. Then C-121 fired it up sprayed the blade as well as the blower with silicone lubricant. Fueled that up. And we are ready! Bring it on snow! We will see what we get.

A while back @WHX?? & I made a road trip to trade with @Chrishar. I traded him my 753 for his 633. He did an excellent job with the 753, now it's time for me to tackle the 633. The engine runs good, but I will still pull the head to take a look inside. Tranny shifts good and does not seem to leak. The 3/4" bar for the foot rests will need to be replaced, but so far it looks like it will mainly be a paint over haul. Picture of ground zero. A couple of hours later I had it broken down to a pile of parts and a bucket of bolts. Will do my best to keep you all up to date on this journey.

Wow that will keep you busy for a while. Nice haul for sure. Now when I see a WH missing the shift levers I’ll know where it ended up That should keep a lot of horses going and that engine looks really good from the pic…we will expect some good project updates this year

Oh, and I forgot another engine....

HOLY MOLY THATS A LOT!!!

UPDATE! Sorry guys, I have been sick with the flu all week so didn't get a chance to get back to you guys or even do much to the tractor. Finally got sick and tired of being sick and tired and pushed myself to get back in the garage. I know blowby can't be fixed without an engine rebuild, but in the past I have been able to reduce it by using thicker oil. Likewise, I have seen cases with other small engines where the piston rings get suck and allow some blowby, and can sometimes be loosened back up. So, I did a few things: I pulled the spark plug and using a plastic pipette, placed about half an ounce of Marvel Myster Oil on top of the cylinder. I let that soak overnight before starting the tractor. For the hell of it, I also poured 2 oz of MMO into my 2 gal fuel tank and ran that through after too (made the exhaust smell sweet!) I drained my oil (10w30 basic Walmart brand oil) and replaced it with Rotella T4 15w40 diesel oil. I had read good things about the Rotella T4 with helping with blowby and burning oil, and likewise I think the 40w will help a bit with blowby at running temps. While changing the oil, I drained the old oil into precise measuring cups and measured that, after all the oil I lost during my last plowing session, I still drained out 72 oz which is 2.25 quarts... that tells me I was definitely overfilled before. This time around, I filled with just 1.75 quarts of the Rotella T4 15w40 oil. This put me about halfway between the Add and Full marks. Just to be safe, I pulled the carb and took apart the breather assembly. Everything was put together correctly, except that I noticed that one of the two gaskets was ripped. I doubt this would have caused my issues but I replaced the gasket with a new one. Well, today we got the most snow we've gotten since I bought my Wheel Horse - 4 inches! I plowed the driveway as I have and it performed beautifully. Once I was done, about an hour later, I parked her and popped the hood - NO OIL LEAKAGE! The engine face looked a bit wet but I believe that was just from snow hitting the engine and melting - wiping my finger it just felt damp, not oily. As far as I can tell, I had zero blowby or oil leakage during this session of plowing, with the engine under heavy load plowing uphill. I'm hoping that my "blowby" was really due to thin oil and being overfilled... but time will tell. I'm happy though!

I remember these well. They weren’t the “cool” boxes the other kids in my class had but the thermos that fit into the upper part worked for me. In the winter my Mom packed soup and in the summer, iced tea.

I remember those types of days as well. Also jumping out of the hay loft in pile of loose hay. It was fun to be a kid in a barn.

@squonk talks a product called Flood, it will leave at a dry finish and also a shine.

They say these kids today don’t even know how to use a can opener! Remember, hold it like this, don’t hold it like that!

It's. ... well if ya really need to ponder the question you're probably already there. And that's OK. We're all here to help.... Make it stronger.

I worked with a tile setter who was from Frederick, MD. We remodeled a lot of bathrooms together back in the early 90's. He grew up on a Dairy farm. @Sodaking27

We have both the original style and later heavier 1" hubs in stock, will come with new set screws and jamb nuts.

How do I tell when my likeness of Wheelhorses has become an addiction?

No drain. No tilt. The gear oil won't be that high. But.... If the gear oil is over 4 years old replace it. The anti foaming agents will be falling out of suspension by then.

Would I have to drain the gear oil out or would I be able to just jack it up and tilt it to one side?

I have skids too but they tend to dig in as opposed to riding over the stones

Your plowing over stone. Your not going to clean everything up unless you dig up the stones as well. My whole purpose of the pipe id to keep the stones in the driveway and out of the yard.

Here are the torques for the set screw, retaining nuts, and wheel bolts for a 520. Hub torque.pdf

A 2500 HD GM with LT trim regular cab 8' bed is around $ 52,000. Then figure HD 3500 Dually, 4 wheel drive with Aluminum body set up ??? One can only imagine. Just to go out and clean plugged toilets I'm thinking that 52,000 is very light.

@JCM Niiiiice lineup!

Just think what that Truck would cost today!!

When I bought my 312-8 in 1989 for $ 3400 that wasn't cheap either. I had just started my Plumbing & Heating business in 1987 and a year later ordered a 1988 Chevy chassis cab 1 ton dually with a Reading utility body with panel top for around $ 23,000. Fortunately WH had a financing plan and my good friend and dealer made it work for me. Some of the best $$$$$$$ I have ever spent and still owning that great machine 36 years later.

With inflation that would be $7,589.25 today. not cheap

You are right, just after WW2 Maurice Wilks (MCW), who was one of the managers of the Rover motor car company, bought a nice house with plenty of land and a long private driveway to the main road. In 1947 there was a severe winter and his drive was totally blocked by snow. He parked his private car on the road and borrowed his neighbours toy; a Jeep he had bought surplus after the war ended. This made light work of the rough, frozen track to his home. The Jeep went home and MCW faced a new problem for the owner of a country property. A storm that year brought down a load of large trees on the driveway, being middle class and pretty wealthy MCW came up with a novel solution, buying a a war surplus tracked vehicle to drag the trees from his drive I would have just loved to have lived back then! The bren carrier worked brilliantly but when the job was done it became a white elephant as it couldn't be driven on the roads. So MCW swapped it with his neighbour for the Jeep and a circular saw to cut up all the trees that had fallen on his land. So the owner of Rover cars now had a 4x4 Jeep To play with. His brother (also business partner) had a holiday home in Scotland and he had his Rover saloon car suspension raised to allow him to drive across the moors when shooting. His gamekeeper was not impressed seeing a huge saloon car trundle across his grousemoor, so he suggested that SC needed a proper Land Rover which would look more suitable. That's the first time those two words were sat together, and it started the most amazing development of a motor vehicle ever seen. The brothers used the MCWs Willys Jeep chassis to design a British 4x4 vehicle. Replacing the bodywork they wanted to build a truly versatile vehicle that would allow a farmer to plow his fields with it and then drive it into town to see the bank manager. Remember, it was just after the war and farms doubled in size to boost food production, so farmers were big business back then. The result of their first effort was a single seat, centre steer vehicle. Very much like the tractor they were trying to force into being a road vehicle. They built just the one, making things up as they went, the engineers at Rover building what they thought was right. But it wasn't practical so a rethink was needed. That's when the boxy, practical, powerful 4x4 Landrover was born. The most versatile vehicle in the world. With models that spanned every use, from fire fighting, to welding rigs, to crops spraying to carrying the Queen on official engagements, (as well as being her own private vehicle she drove on her country estates). Landrover is still with us 80 years later, very different to when Rover ran the show and owned by foreign companies. But the original vehicles are still going strong, including HUE 166 the first ever prototype model and JUE 477, the first ever production vehicle that was sold. The Jeep is still in there in spirit, it's ability to go anywhere and do anything, but the Landy is a British masterpiece of engineering and marketing. Made to be affordable and practical it was the Volkswagen of Britain, ok not affordable to everyone. But you get the idea. Hear endeth the lesson, lol.

PVC pipe sliced and slide over the cutting edge.

And, maybe make it shorter so it doesn't fold under plus it would give a better lifted height. There's probably enough material there to make 2 and then each one could be flipped over when it wears down closer to the metal.

Well I finished up my 416-8 save. I updated my project thread but here she is with new seat, new LED front lights, and snow plow on for winter weather we might get. Also getting the 312-8 ready for backup

Winter trail ride. Right now there is ZERO snow, which is okay. This was back some years. The 1986 417-8 goes nice on the trails once it packs down without having to chain up. Kwik-Way weight box is nice to have.