Dealer List

[drodg33 101]

I have a question about a dealer and it's name that was around in the 60's.  It was in Lapaz Indiana a small town south of South Bend.  My dad was from that town and I believe he bought his first Wheel Horse around 1961 from them.  I cannot find any information about their name etc.  Wonder if anyone from the South Bend are remembers the dealer and its name.  Thanks  

[Sparky-(Admin) 22,036]

On my 857.
  Newtown Pennsylvania 

 

 

[ACman 7,630]

Found this at the Turkeyville show this weekend .

[jay bee 912]

I know Hagen Tractor and Equipment has been mentioned before and is on the list, but here is a picture of a near perfect dealer identity tag that was on a 1979 C-141 that I purchased a few weeks ago.  Not too much wear in 45 years. 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2024 by jay bee

[Keaton 464]

my 310-8 Is from manke service,, there still open all of my round hoods don't have them, my 702 might but I doubt it, it has that same sticker on the back of the seat

[JimSraj 479]

I know this is an old thread but I’ve acquired a 1988, one owner, 312-8 this past summer and along with it came a dealer brochure from Beck’s Equipment. They were located in Emmaus, PA. Closed now. 

[Lagersolut 722]

All the tractors in my area came from Innerst auto - Bob's weld shop or Becker's lawn and garden in Hanover Pa - this is from the barn find 416-8 I restored to worker in 2019

Edited January 7 by Lagersolut

[C-85 725]

In a recent post Brockport Bill asked about being a W/H dealer so I thought I'd write a short story.  My family's business in Vermont was started in 1958 by my folks.  Our first franchise was Lawn Boy, and then Toro.  Soon after we became an Ariens and Jacobsen dealer.  We sold a lot of Jacobsen Chief then GT Tractors, which at that time was the only garden tractor we had.  As I remember it, Jacobsen was going through some changes and Textron ended up buying them.  Our main distributor was down in Massachusetts and was called the RE Jarvis company and with this buy out, they no longer carried Jacobsen, so we were looking for another tractor to fill in this void.  Somehow we got hooked up with Wheel Horse and this was so different because it was factory direct, no distributor so this was a new way of doing business for us.  I believe we were the second largest W/H dealer in Vermont,197 in Burlington was the biggest.  I went to the W/H School of Business out in Notre Dame and I learned a lot about our red tractors and better ways to reach customers!  While there the W/H president told us that he had just came from Disney, where people were standing in line waiting to get in there and until we have people standing in line to buy our tractors, we have work to do!  After Ariens bought the New Holland garden tractors we carried them.  We mainly sold the smaller W/H tractors (only a few D series) and for bigger needs, the Ariens GT, especially if someone was interested in a  snowblower because Ariens had their two stage blower way before W/H did.  We had W/H until the end (until Toro killed it)!

 

Our business was always very busy in the summers, but during some of the near snowless winters we had, it was tough and it's a miracle that we were able to stay in business all those years!

 

In addition to W/H, Ariens, Toro, Lawn Boy, we had Poulan, Sach/Dolmar, Pioneer, Partner, chainsaws, Roof mowers, New Englander, Yard Man (MTD), Jari, BCS tillers, Kerosun, Toyostove kerosene heaters, Ski-doo and Moto Ski snowmobiles, Yanmar tractors, later Bolens diesel tractors (Iseki) Mercury Outboards, Green Machine and Tanaka trimmers, Didier wood splitters, basically most anything that had a small engine on it!

 

I would love to hear what other dealers experiences were!

 

C-85

 

Below are some pictures of history, the guy in the cape was the Equalizer (me) and his Super Dog, and she was way more famous than me!

 

 

 

A Toro collage I made up -

 

 

[SylvanLakeWH 27,494]

Thanks for posting!!! Great stuff!!! 

[Lane Ranger 11,125]

Glen Cove, New York. -Wheel Horse dealer decal.

 

Glen Cove Power Equipment Company 

on Long Island! 

 

Edited April 13 by Lane Ranger

[Gasaholic 254]

On 2/21/2024 at 5:07 PM, dkg520 said:

Bought my first Wheel Horse here.  Anyone else remember their first dealer?

 

Ive probably posted to this thread earlier, but Nostalgia and all that...  Kemp's was right on the border of NY-PA , Ceres, NY was split on the border (there's also Ceres, PA but it's really a Shinglehouse, PA address) and it was actually Kings RUN Road (keychain is an early typo) 

Kemp retired and sold his business to my late boss, Patrick Canfield , and it became Canfield's Lawn & Garden Center of Shinglehouse, PA. (Same location) - I went to work for Pat right out of High School shortly after that, and worked for him for many years (It's where I became the "Ace" tech I was in my later years)  Sadly Pat passed (heart attack while pulling a snowblower into his shop) but the business had been incorporated by then and his kids took over , It is still in operation (Now a Husqvarna dealer) at the same location. 

 

I have many fond memories working there not only for Patrick in the shop, but running Pickup & Delivery (Olean, Salamanca, Portville, Bolivar, Bradford, PA, as well as my hometown Roulette, and all over that region) and working with his dad on his farm (when shop was slow, it was something to do..)  We converted the warehouse into an auto repair shop doing P.A. State Inspections and repairs (and took on overflow work from his brother in law's auto repair shop in Portville, NY - Fisher's Auto)  Watched his kids grow up (and "helping" in the shop.. LOL!)  I believe the phone number is still active (or it was some years back). 

 

Lots of great memories and Experiences from way back when!  Competitor locally was E.E. Tucker Sales & Service of Coudersport, PA , When Tucker retired, it became Howard's Outdoor (and they expanded into Toro and Kubota as well as Ski-Doo)  Somewhat recently Howard's retired and closed up shop, selling the remainder of the business to AJ's out of Wellsboro, PA (And they built a new shop & building at the top of Denton Hill where they are now, former location of Mountain Valley Sales & Service, which is across the highway from what used to be the Potato City Motor Inn - Great restaurant back then, it's now the PSP-Coudersport Barracks)  Dang... The 1980's really were the last of the Good Old Days.. 

 

[c-series don 9,424]

@Lane Ranger I was at that dealership twice, probably 15 or 20 years ago. It’s about an hour and a half away from me. A friend of mine bought a Wheel Horse that had that dealer decal on it and decided to call them.They were still open and one day we took a ride there. It really was a little mom and pop dealer, almost like stepping back in time if I remember correctly. The owner and his son were into D- Series tractors for their property upstate New York. As we were looking around out back of the building I noticed a 44” two stage blower that had been sitting there so long it was sun faded. I asked if it was for sale and the father said he was looking for a D Series snowplow that he would trade for it. Well as fate would have it I had one! I don’t own a D but I purchased a D blade for 50 bucks at a yard sale about a year earlier. So we decided we would make the trade. Feeling like this was not a fair trade, I painted the blade before bringing it to him. He couldn’t believe it!!! I also remember he had a stack of cast iron wheel weights in the little show room, but for some crazy reason he didn’t want to sell them. He also had some cool Wheel Horse signage and memorabilia that he would not part with. Funny you posted this Lane because not that long ago my friend tried to call there and the number was out of service. I’m assuming they went out of business because they were all getting on in years so they probably retired. Thanks for posting this, it brought back some good memories in my Wheel Horse collecting journeys! 

[Horsin'round 163]

One owner L-156 I purchased a couple years back came with the sales receipt