THE ONE THAT STARTED IT ALL FOR ME

[illinilefttackle 399]

Hi Guys- I'm sure everyone had a Wheel Horse that hooked them on the brand and started their collecting-For me it was this My C-125A Blackhood.

I bought it off a widow who said her husband was "in love with it"He bought it from Chandlers-I believe the original Dealership. He had used it to its fullest-I had to repair the deck spindles, rollers, and eventually the Engine.

I have been using this "little guy" to do my mowing-it does a great job and really saves gas.

BUT_Today my grandsons helped my remove the snow plow from the "C". We installed the completely rebuilt deck ready to cut. I longed for the sound of the big single Kohler taking charge. I fired it up and managed to get my old bones to saddle up- I pulled out and started cutting only to see my big shot neighbor bring out his twin cylinder Craftsman. This time instead of seeing my "little guy" he saw the "C". The big Kohler sounded great-made the sears jockey envious.

Good times had by all today-Thanks to my grandsons-Al

[Martin 2,132]

wouldnt mind one of those blackhoods one day......

heres the one that started it all for me......

[mrocket49 23]

My first one was also a C-125.

[Jake Kuhn 1,555]

Here is my tractor that got me started. One of my dad's friends knew I had been looking for a antique lawnmower. It ended up being a 61 401 with duals and a plow. Here is a pic of it the day I got it and then a couple of years later. Jake

[Ken B 3,164]

This is the one that started it for me, she's somewhere in Mass now. I often wish I still had this one. She'd push plenty of snow.

[Kelly 1,029]

My first was a 71 800 special, it was a bit under powered for what I was doing, and I didn't want to break the little peerless trans in it, well about 6 years later I've owned over 200 WH tractors, right now I have about 80 of them, but only about 30 are keepers, 5 of those are workers.

[Kingwood990 16]

This is the one that started it all for me. Its the first tractor I have ever driven and it was the only riding mower my grampa had ever purchased. I plan on passing it down to my kids some day.

[can whlvr 993]

nice machines guys,like them stories too

[AMC RULES 37,130]

A couple years ago already...we got our first house, our first , and made our first post to all at the same time.

The mighty 520 was our first. :popcorn:

[varosd 1,185]

A couple years ago already...we got our first house, our first , and made our first post to all at the same time.

The mighty 520 was our first.

Craig How the heck did you get a tandem 520?! Cutting torch or Photoshop?

My first WH is my Dad's 1977 B-80...still going strong (both Dad and the B-80!)

[jay in nc 210]

my first was a no name 12 hp with 42 sd deck, snow plow, & snow thrower. mom sold that one. but i was hooked so when i bought my place in 92 i found a 71 bronco 14 with 42 sd deck, hubcaps & inside wheel weights. oh the work i did with that one, now i have 21, i got it baddddddddddd. Jay

[bo dawg 516]

Here is the one that started it for me. My father n law and his buddy had pulled this out of the junk yard, in pretty corroded condition, with a bad 10 hp Kohler. So they fixed it up and repainted and put a newer 14 hp magnum on it.

I had just moved to a house with a big yard and was in need of a rider. A friend had loaned me a 12hp MTD brand little rider, which I thought was great...right? Well my father n law seen it and laughed! Said son you need a wheel horse garden tractor, you will never buy any other again. Which I thought... yeah right! Ok...I thought they needed to make a sell so I was game. Plus they were pretty convincing and they agreed to help work on it if needed anything. $700 I thought was stout but I had just got my tax check and figured what the hell. So I brought it home.

Never did really know what model it was, there was no ID tag anywhere on it. I've learned later that it must of been a B-100 turned to C grade!

And they were right!!! Never brought anything home but wheel horses.

I kept it for 5 years and sold it.

This picture shows the 2nd one I had to have its the one farther back which was my first 8 speed.

[JMW 3]

Mine was a c175 that I traded for a used 4 wheeler plow.....never should have sold it....

[fourwheels0 191]

my first was a c-81. had to rebuild the engine but man was she clean.

now a year and a half and 12 or 13 tractors later it is still the cleanest one i've had lol.

[bowtiebutler956 650]

My dad sold Wheel Horses when I was a kid, and I always liked them, but did'nt get one of my own until about 6 years ago. My B-80 with a K-301, witch I used as is for a long time until a few months ago, when I decided to rebuild her. Now I'm hooked.

Matt :flags-texas:

[gcole 36]

well this is my first 75 c-120 special

[bewford 21]

heres dads tractor from back in the day, the one that got me hooked.

[SousaKerry 501]

Mine is the C125A in my avatar. Pulled it out of a barn berried up to the axles in old shingles complete with nails.. got her running and drove it out (needed a drive belt) it had a jerry riged craftsman plow on it hooked up to the front tach matic with a modified snow blower mount. Soon after the rod cap came loose and toasted the crank(still have the block) put in a k301 off a jd for a year then i bought a kt17 series II off a simplicity and turned the tractor into a c-175. Still have it and will never sell it.

[rmaynard 15,514]

The one that started it all for me is my 1977 B-100. Purchased used in 1993, it came with a snow plow. The snow plow has been used every year since 1993. The plow has only been off of the tractor 4 times in 19 years. The only things ever done to the tractor other than routine maintenance is a couple of seats, batteries, a muffler and some tires.

.

[546cowboy 301]

Well the first one I owned was starting at the top. A friend of mine bought two 520H's from a dealer. one had an electrical problem and the one I got from him had a broken rod. After finding out what it would cost for the parts, I waited for about 6 months before I found a motor on CL. I had to go about 200 miles to get it and had to have a valve seat replaced but got it running.

In that time I had painted it and done a few other things to it so when I fired it up the first time it was all over. The sound of that Onan was all I needed to become a Wheel Horse convert for life. At one time I had 5- 520's including a 520-8 and over all about 30 horses since that first one. I actually have 15 right now counting parts tractors. So you might say I too have it bad!

My Avitar is that tractor. I had bought a 60" deck for it and nothing mows like it. But alas I sold it in January to a guy from Ohio. It was a difficult thing to see it go in that trailer and leave the ranch but as you all know, when you have many something has to go. :confusion-shrug:

[Mike in Esko 34]

This is the first one I bought...

But it all started way back when watching my Dad love this one, in his own sort of way...

Which was restored to this after he passed away...

And now the two sit together constantly and are inseparable...

Love the pics and the stories that go with them...keep 'em coming!

Mike

[SAM58 30]

This is the one for me, 1972 Raider 12 purchaed new by my older brother...

The story goes that a Overnight Freight truck dropped a drive line in front of the local WH dealer. The dealer took this tractor and pulled him out of the road.

So my brother just happened to be there looking at buying a new WH. and seen it first hand, He said that's the one I want!!

He used it for 25 years mowing and plowing about 4 acres per year. Over the years he let it get in rough shape and the wiring harness burnt off, it set in the weeds for about 5 years.

I seen it one day and asked him what he ws going to do with it, and he said take it if I wanted it. I had it for about 6 month before I had it running. Then I looked locally for parts and found a Commando 800 for parts.

Took both tractors and made one good mower, used it for about 8 years and then retored it to the above condition. mowed with it for another 7 years and the tranny went out.

It ran too good to junk so I went on a quest to fix it again, went online and found Red Square. Went to the 2010 Show and picked up a tranny, hood and varoius parts to do another restore.

Below, My iPhone made the paint look orange, but it is red.

While at the show I also bought a 1998 314-8...

After finding that they was a lot of them still in use, I have had seven over the last 2 years, running out of room I sold 3 of them.

After seeing the Raider restored, My brother wanted it back and I sold it to him for what I spent fixing it. He uses it to mow with. Still has the original Kohler engine.

One was a Workhorse 700 that was given to me, I did a partial restore and gave it to my brothers grandson, who loves it. Wheelhorse bug bits again!!

I presently have the below two... the front one is the 314-8 550 hours, I bought at the 2010 show, the rear one is my 520H 329 hours I found in Springfield, Ohio

My two remaining tractors are featured in the 2012 Red Square Calendar month of May which is also the month my only daughter was born.

[whfan74 2,066]

Fantastic pictures everyone and even better stories to go with them.

Well many of you that know me have heard me talk about the family business that my dad was part owner of in the Metro Detroit area. He was with the business for just over 30 years and was the last one out the door when they had to close the doors in 1994. I was lucky enough to live about 200 yards away from the business, so needless to say that is where I spent most of my free time. I loved having the chance to hang out with my grandpa and my dad, not to mention getting to play on all of the big boy toys at the shop.

I can remember to this day dad coming back from a trip to Indiana with a 1981 C-85 with a 36" rear discharge deck, a 10 cubic foot trailer, 48" plow, and a set of plastic wheel weights all brand new. I was 7 years old at the time and thought it was the coolest thing ever. This was dad's first brand new tractor that he had ever purchased. He saved up his pennies to make sure he bought what he believed in.

He had to make the trip to Elkhart, IN where Wheel Horse had one of their storage facilities to be able to pick it up. This one could not be transported by their semi's with their normal orders. This was a promotional deal for the dealers. If a Wheel Horse dealership had stock that didn't sell or the business went under, these units were brought back and sold at 33% off the original dealer price. Dad's C-85 has a ton of miles on it as it was shipped to Seattle, WA and then back to Indiana.

This was the tractor that I grew up on, learned to mow with, plowed many driveways with, hauled plenty of top soil, rocks, and mulch. That little K-181 never failed us. Needless to say that it was never sold, and it never will be. It is still actually being used on a pretty regular basis. Some day it will have it's turn to be retired, refurbished, and cherished.

Fast forward to the year 2005 and a good friend of mine had a 312-8 that he was planning on selling as he needed some cash to buy something bigger for his pasture. I said I might be interested. I went and looked at it and was very impressed with how well it had been taken care of. It is a 1991 with a 37" side discharge deck. I told him "sold" right away and asked when I could come back and get it. Not too long after I was a proud owner of my first Wheel Horse. That one is still in the collection and of course get's used pretty regularly as well. There are no plans to ever sell that one either.

The tractor has done it all for me in the past............I have mowed with it, I have used a rototiller with it, I have plowed snow with it, I have used a snowblower on it, installed a snow cab on it, plowed a garden with a 10" plow with it, hauled mulch, stone, top soil, etc.... It has been a great tractor and one that I love dearly. It will also be retired some day and refurbished and enjoyed by the family.

Here is a pic of my baby.............

Then the restoration bug kicked in and dad and I cleaned up a 1968 Commando 8, finishing it up last winter of 2011. We had heard through the grapevine that the Commando 8 was going to be the feature tractor at the 2012 Wheel Horse Collectors Club show. We had always dreamed of going so with a rusty old Commando sitting in the barn we put two and two together. Let's get this one done first and then go have fun at our first "big" show. We learned a lot along the way. The most important thing is that the tractor isn't perfect............but it is perfect for us. We are really looking forward to the event this coming June. A lot of blood, sweat, tears............and new words were created during this project. But again..........another one that we hold close to our heart that has finally found it's last resting place.

I am hoping my daughter has the same feeling about her first tractor at the age of 6 years old!

Well over 100 tractors later, we are still enjoying the hobby more than ever. We have finally scaled down to approximately 26 tractors and hoping to get that number in the teens in the near future. The adventure of collecting and tinkering the past 7 years has been a blast. I can't imagine what the future holds for us!

[Martin 2,132]

awesome stories about your 'firsts' guys.

scott, its wonderful that you get to share your hobby with your father, you two have what looks like a wonderful relationship. my dad passed in 1991 and every day i think about the time i shared with him when i first started getting into ' tinkering' years ago. i wish i could have shared this hobby with him.........

[SkyhawkTL 19]

Was My Dads Tractor. 551 Suburban