"Clyde"--Dad's 953

[Tractorhead 9,064]

Like this detail love of you Father,

especial the different Color mix looks awesome.

 

look like a brand new machine.

 

great Work.

 

[PeacemakerJack 10,738]

The big reveal:

 

Dad does great work and @Vinylguy came to the rescue with all the decals that we needed.

It looks “almost” too good to work...but like Dan’s Raider...Clyde was built to work!

Dad did a real good job straightening out the back panel of the to box.  I suggested he spray bedliner inside the tool box since he is always gonna have gear in there.

I sure like the 953/1054 platform.  Does anyone know why they stopped making these tractors?  Were They not turning enough of a profit? My feeling is that this tractor was an amazing step up in the GT market compared to anything that was available at that point by ANY manufacturer.  

 

Clyde is a beast and soon there will be more shots of him working...

[RandyLittrell 3,877]

@PeacemakerJack When I first got my wheelhorse and started reading and learning, I had never seen anything but squarehoods in person and really thought the 953/1054 were just ugly. The more I got into WH's they have turned into a favorite. Maybe they just didn't sell well when new. 

 

 

Randy

[PeacemakerJack 10,738]

Randy...that is one of the funny things about being new to a hobby.  You can often enter it for one specific reason and generally you come at it with more bias.  Then as you get to know more about it, you become more balanced.  My intro to old GT’s was IH Cubs but even in that sphere, I had series that I liked and many that I didn’t.  When we restored dad’s 875 back in 2014/5, I wanted to share the restore with a group of guys that would really enjoy it since it was a Wheel Horse. I went searching and found Red Square.  I wasn’t really prepared for the great community that I found here!  Now ya’ll can’t get rid of me😁.  However, when I joined, the only ‘s that I really liked were the mid 60’s square hoods, but as time went along and I began to learn more about the brand—my tastes broadened. I still really like the square hood’s like @squonk‘s 1075 that he has been posting pics of lately.

 

It is funny how different models grow on you though.  I remember asking the forum back in the summer of ‘15 if a 314-8 was a good tractor and if it would make a good plow mule.  Five years later I’ve spent nearly 50 hours furrow plowing on one and can certify with a couple of mods—they make a great plow mule!  That of course is what led me to the search for a plow mule for dad. Even though Richard @953 nut has this special Big Wheel as his avatar, I didn’t think much of it.  Now I understand why he likes them so much...

 

 Let’s take a minute and look at the landscape of GT’s in 1961.  A small father/son team from South Bend, IN was selling more little tractors than anyone else.  There were a bunch of manufacturers with their hats in the ring at this point but  was leading them.  Two years earlier, IH decided that they needed a piece of the pie.  They didn’t want to put too much into the design of a garden tractor and figured that if they could sell 5,000 per year they could at least get their money back out of R&D and turn a modest profit. Needless to say, they started to sell the original Cub in large numbers upon its release in ‘61.  Compared to the round hoods, it was a heavier tractor but more complex although not much bigger in size.  It would be my guess they Cecil Pond had a meeting with his design team and said that he wanted to punch the AG giant right in the gut but they needed an entirely new design.  When they released the 953, it was head and shoulders, figuratively and literally, above the competition.  Standard headlights, massive fuel tank, standard hydraulics, HUGE (for the time) mower deck, 15” rear wheels, Ross steering box, 9hp motor, clean design lines—were all items that made it class leading but still in a manageable size platform.  Cub had one more year of the original before release of their first 10hp-the 100.  John Deere entered the ring in ‘63 with the diminutive 110 and it would take them the rest of the decade to get their first real power player—the 140.  

 

I say all this to say, that the 953 was a really special tractor at a time when GT’s were very popular.  I’m sure that it was too pricey for many and too big for others.  For whatever reason, Cecil and the gang decided to stop production when the parts ran out in 1965 and not resume until the intro of the GT-14 in ‘69.  It has me puzzled, but regardless I know that I really enjoy these machines and am thankful that @Shynon was getting rid of this one and helped me make it a reality for my dad!  We like having Clyde in the stable👍🏻

 

 

[Tractorhead 9,064]

9 hours ago, PeacemakerJack said:

The big reveal:

 

Dad does great work and @Vinylguy came to the rescue with all the decals that we needed.

It looks “almost” too good to work...but like Dan’s Raider...Clyde was built to work!

Dad did a real good job straightening out the back panel of the to box.  I suggested he spray bedliner inside the tool box since he is always gonna have gear in there.

I sure like the 953/1054 platform.  Does anyone know why they stopped making these tractors?  Were They not turning enough of a profit? My feeling is that this tractor was an amazing step up in the GT market compared to anything that was available at that point by ANY manufacturer.  

 

Clyde is a beast and soon there will be more shots of him working...

 

Awesome finale, 

 

this Picts are also usable for a high glossy advertising Display‘s.

 

👍

great Work

[RandyLittrell 3,877]

2 hours ago, PeacemakerJack said:

Randy...that is one of the funny things about being new to a hobby.  You can often enter it for one specific reason and generally you come at it with more bias.  Then as you get to know more about it, you become more balanced.  My intro to old GT’s was IH Cubs but even in that sphere, I had series that I liked and many that I didn’t.  When we restored dad’s 875 back in 2014/5, I wanted to share the restore with a group of guys that would really enjoy it since it was a Wheel Horse. I went searching and found Red Square.  I wasn’t really prepared for the great community that I found here!  Now ya’ll can’t get rid of me😁.  However, when I joined, the only ‘s that I really liked were the mid 60’s square hoods, but as time went along and I began to learn more about the brand—my tastes broadened. I still really like the square hood’s like @squonk‘s 1075 that he has been posting pics of lately.

 

It is funny how different models grow on you though.  I remember asking the forum back in the summer of ‘15 if a 314-8 was a good tractor and if it would make a good plow mule.  Five years later I’ve spent nearly 50 hours furrow plowing on one and can certify with a couple of mods—they make a great plow mule!  That of course is what led me to the search for a plow mule for dad. Even though Richard @953 nut has this special Big Wheel as his avatar, I didn’t think much of it.  Now I understand why he likes them so much...

 

 Let’s take a minute and look at the landscape of GT’s in 1961.  A small father/son team from South Bend, IN was selling more little tractors than anyone else.  There were a bunch of manufacturers with their hats in the ring at this point but  was leading them.  Two years earlier, IH decided that they needed a piece of the pie.  They didn’t want to put too much into the design of a garden tractor and figured that if they could sell 5,000 per year they could at least get their money back out of R&D and turn a modest profit. Needless to say, they started to sell the original Cub in large numbers upon its release in ‘61.  Compared to the round hoods, it was a heavier tractor but more complex although not much bigger in size.  It would be my guess they Cecil Pond had a meeting with his design team and said that he wanted to punch the AG giant right in the gut but they needed an entirely new design.  When they released the 953, it was head and shoulders, figuratively and literally, above the competition.  Standard headlights, massive fuel tank, standard hydraulics, HUGE (for the time) mower deck, 15” rear wheels, Ross steering box, 9hp motor, clean design lines—were all items that made it class leading but still in a manageable size platform.  Cub had one more year of the original before release of their first 10hp-the 100.  John Deere entered the ring in ‘63 with the diminutive 110 and it would take them the rest of the decade to get their first real power player—the 140.  

 

I say all this to say, that the 953 was a really special tractor at a time when GT’s were very popular.  I’m sure that it was too pricey for many and too big for others.  For whatever reason, Cecil and the gang decided to stop production when the parts ran out in 1965 and not resume until the intro of the GT-14 in ‘69.  It has me puzzled, but regardless I know that I really enjoy these machines and am thankful that @Shynon was getting rid of this one and helped me make it a reality for my dad!  We like having Clyde in the stable👍🏻

 

 

 

 

If you look at the lines of the 953 and the lines of a IH 706 from 1963, the WH looks more IH than IH's offering. 

 

 

[PeacemakerJack 10,738]

 absolutely agree! Could you imagine how easy it would be for someone with metal fab skills like @Achto or @pullstart or @19richie66 or countless others on this site to make a 953/1054 look like a mini version of one of those IH tractors? Thanks for the comparison!

[953 nut 55,069]

28 minutes ago, PeacemakerJack said:

 absolutely agree! Could you imagine how easy it would be for someone with metal fab skills like @Achto or @pullstart or @19richie66 or countless others on this site to make a 953/1054 look like a mini version of one of those IH tractors? Thanks for the comparison!

          @RandyLittrell posted this picture of a 953/1054 the other day.

[19richie66 17,500]

I couldn’t do it. I like the looks of the wheel horse too much to treat it like that 

[PeacemakerJack 10,738]

I wanted to pick up a plow light for Clyde and so Claudia and I went to the Big Rig Chrome shop and looked through their hundreds of LED lights.  We picked up a couple of options for dad and dropped them off at his place today. 

 

I pulled Clyde out of the barn and took some pics...

please notice the serial number.  Dad’s was long gone and so because I bought this for him for his birthday we opted for that date as the tag!

the old floor boards were really getting rough and so I gave dad a set that I had kept from an off topic throw away tractor I had parted years ago.  Dad trimmed them to fit and they look almost factory on there.

the horse barn shot...

Stablemates👍🏻

thank you @stevasaurus for the super cool banner that hangs in the background.  Both tractors have been restored and are collectibles to us!