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Hey all. So I've been away from this forum and the great people on it for quite a while now. Still snoopin' around from time to time though but not posting (much) and I miss the interactions that come from that. Reason being, life happened and about one and a half year ago, after a VERY stressfull period ,my better half and I were able to purchase our dream house, to be turned into a dream home. I cannot overstate how blessed we are this worked out since times are challenging, housing prices are up, economics not great, politics.. I won't mention. The dream was to have no (direct) neighbours, a good sized barn/garage/workshop and room for a horse/horses. I'll let you guess who came up with which dream On the same street we lived on we purchased this house which is basically a farm as we know it from the 50's, so built right after the second world war. Solid base, room for improvements. It sits on 2.5 acre land which is spacious by Dutch standards. Not to brag but we calculated that the property of my SIL could fit 28 times on our lot. Some work has been done, a lot still awaits. Here are some pictures of when we bought the farm and over the course of I don't know how many days/months/years 'll take you along to current state, and beyond. TLDR: bought farm, no time for hobbies, I show pictures of what I'm doing in the meantime Greetings from the Netherlands, Mark

I had to buy myself something after all the crap I went through all the years. I decided I wanted more tool storage but room is at a premium. There was a shelf bolted to the underneath of my work bench with just some odds and ends. I looked at it and thought if I remove the shelf I might be able to fit a roller cab under it. So I measured and looked around. A 5 drawer Yukon cabinet from my fav, " Horror Fright " would fit nicely with out the wheels. $359 not horrible but I get rewards money and stuff goes on sale all the time. I cut off the shelf and sliced the back of it off and reinstalled on the bench for bracing and waited.................. New sale today!!! Coupon for the cabinet! 50 bucks off!!! so off I went. Used my HF card and will get 5% cash back on top of the sale price Didn't want it sitting right on the concrete so I bought one of those stall mats from TSC and trimmed it to fit around the table legs.

I enjoy growing different kinds of peppers. With the variety of colors, it's kinda like growing colorful flowers that are actually useful. I usually start them from seed in the early part of March. This year I grew mostly sweet peppers. One of my most colorful varieties this year is Chocolate Cherry Candy Stripe Peppers. The flavor of these is very close to green peppers, maybe just a tad bit more bitter. The colors are awesome though. Next ones are called Patio Snacking Peppers. With their yellow, orange, & red colors they have a great appearance. Most of the peppers on these plants point upwards when they grow. We have been picking these off the plant and eating them as they are or maybe dipping them in some ranch dressing first. Soon I will be making Cowboy Candy with these, a sweet & spicy treat. Next up is my Cherry Pepper plants. I may have went over board when I planted these, the plants have been producing like crazy. Most of the peppers on these plants hang down when they grow. . I have been pickling some of these already. I add dill, garlic, & jalapeno. The finished product is awesome as a snack, even better in a Bloody Mary. I did say that I planted mostly sweet peppers, the next pepper is not sweet but it pairs well with sweet. My Habanero's look exceptionally angry this year. These will be used to make Habanero sauce ( Awesome on wings). Habanero Jelly (Sweet with some spice, great on anything that you would put jelly on. Also great on grilled pork). I always keep some Habanero's in the freezer to add to sweet meals like Coconut Curry Shrimp. Now I'm hungry!! Happy harvest everyone.

Thanks guys! I'm pretty overwhelmed with all your kind messages! We feel very blessed to be able to live here. Yes! ..and yes! Might aswell give a full tour while we're at it View from the back at the front-barn-door. And the other way round. The white wall is where my workshop will be located. And the view from the first floor looking at the back wall of the garage/barn. I absolutely love the big wooden beams in here. Upstairs. Lots of potential. Doesn't look like much but the walls here are about 2.5m (8ft.) high. Living room with two bedrooms attached. One of the small bedrooms. Cosy dining room. Equally 'cosy' kitchen. Bathroom. Toilet. This is looking at the white door leading to the kitchen. This used to be where some livestock was kept. Few cows on the left with a manure gutter, they filled it but can still see the outlines in front of the 'step'. Few pigs on the front-right, behind the blue doors. This is on the other side, likely a horse stable. And even more stables. This is on the left side of the big barn. We were told this was were some sheep were kept. The part with the 'lid' I guess you could call it can be closed so that there's some extra shelter against the elements. That where sheep had their young. Below a map of the building, might help visualize things a bit. Greetings from the Netherlands, Mark

Installed a set of 2” wheel spacers on the other 520h today. I dont know what these rims/tires came off of but they had a lot more back space than Wheel Horse rims. Had to cut a counter bore on lathe to fit the WH hub but turned out pretty good. The way it was set up before the rear end was a lot narrower than the front and looked plumb goofy. It actually was rubbing on the right hand side. The tires or BKT’s and they are a tall 10.50 and I think I like them.

Nowadays if you want to interact with clowns, all you have to do is login to Red Square 🤡

Did some maintenance on the 42" SD that I replaced with the 48" SD. New blades New idler pulley Scraped and wire brushed Oil soak then store till next spring

Hello everyone. I have not falling off the face of the earth just yet and have been working on the old C120 that I got from my Grandfather years ago. I didn't really use it much as the old K301 was leaking and very worn out. So, I just let it sit in the barn for a long time. Well I got to thinking lately and I was like it time to get it going again. So I took it to work and stuck it in my work bay to get me working on it. To start we need to do something with the engine. Well, one of my co workers had a good shape K321 from a Cub Cadet. So, they was the first thing to do. (The first two photos of of it mocked up.) Once it was secured, I had to redo the whole wiring harness from scratch. The old one melt at some point and I figured it wouldn't hurt to wire it up correctly. I even used different color wires!!! ( I know right! HAHA) Next was the old 48in mower deck. Yes this deck is used to cut my neighbor's 3 acre horse pasture. So the deck will not need to cut pretty, just handle large tall growth compared to a normal yard. So I welded a rebar for the bottom front to help keep it from loosing its shape. I also replaced the old worn out original blades with some gator G6 blades. (They were a huge bear to drill out the hold from 5/8 to 3/4. That metal is super tough.) I also had some wheels hanging around that I have been wanting to use for a project, so I made them fit for this one. They look and seem to work so much better than the factor rear wheels. After that came the front bumper. I got this sub compact tractor bumper for free 5 years ago that i wanted to mount on the wheel horse. Well it finally happened and now it looks great! It will protect the front of the tractor from the brush and other whatnot in the field I will be mowing, plus it looks cool. What I did was use some scrap metal, welded the bumper to it and then bolts this to the front of a mule drive. The mule drive still works as it should and the hood even opens enough for me to refuel the the mid gas tank and check the oil. Final thing I wanted to do was add a secondary fuel tank to the tractor as the center tank only last about one hour or so in heavy mowing. The field is a 5 min tractor ride from my house and i do not want to keep stopping and walking back over or riding over. I found a scrap fuel tank and welded up a bracket, bolted it under the seat back feet. Then plumbed up some hoses to a valve that is mounted on the dash. Turn it left and it turns on the center tank and turn it right it turns on the rear tank. I think it works pretty well and I was surprised it all fit behind the center tank under the dash. I fixed the oil leak at the PTO input shaft on the transmission with a new seal. I also notice the right wheel hub has a wobble to it. So I got the hub off, and use some JB weld with a key trick in the key hole. The hole was a little worn and the key wasn't sitting in perfectly. Now its all snug as a bug. What's left is the drive pulley to get here and then I can put on the PTO clutch. Then the side cover plate and right foot rest for a test drive. All should be good. Oh, and the drive pulley will be the hydro one sleaved down to 1in so I can still have faster 2nd gear. Overall I'm very please with how this project came out and I hope it will do as I want. Mow the field in heavy growth conditions. Thank you everyone for the inspiration and I hope you all have a great day!

Pumpkin patch is in overdrive this year. Sunflowers, not so much. Wabbits worked them over pretty good.

Grew looking peppers! Here are some of mine for you to enjoy. This year I mainly focused on growing sweet peppers that we can freeze and eat throughout the year. My favorite sweet variety is Jimmy Nardellos. I also grew a few jalepenos for pickling.

Needed some bushes removed, have a 520 serviced and ready for sale, figured why not

A bit more progress, hubs done, wheel adapters done and it bolted up in place. Looking good 😍

Did a diesel fuel flush and gear oil change on the 161 before installing the ARK for the first time. Lessons learned...black hoods are too wide to clear the hydraulic pump and a shaker plate calls for an inch or so shorter belt It's always something.

Got the Bervac swapped onto 416. Also swapped rear hitch, larger wheels/tires from Workhorse. Still have a few more preventive maint items to get done. Got lift assist springs installed/adjusted & 150lbs of weight on hitch. Now I gotta figure out what to do with the Workhorse. Be nice to have it for parts but dont really want it sitting around...... 20260814_133023.mp4

More shed organizing..what kind of idiot has four spare 8 speeds “in-stock” (plus a 4 speed)

Spray spray spray remove the set screw and spray into that hole. The pulleys are cast so they will break if you just start off with a puller and crank. This may seem counterintuitive but knock it in towards the block. The idea is to get it to move which breaks that rust bond. Then try a puller BUT you need to get it to move back and forth a little bit at a time before pulling it all the way off the shaft. Yes tedious, but knock in, pull out, knock in, pull out and repeat. It should move more distance on the shaft each time and get more oil in there each time. Try to spin it if you can as that will get more oil in there too. Clean the shaft off of any rust before beginning which will make it easier once it moves far enough out. That's my

You kind of need to look at production numbers a little bit. Oliver production numbers were low. Most numbers were not that low. Now if you are talking about a that there was only 200 made of - like the 420LSE the price tag goes up a fair amount. Supply & demand ya know. Some people get upset when a gets mutilated or scrapped out. Which I have to agree, I get a little saddened when it happens. The other way to look at it is - Every horse that dies, makes the survivors more valuable. I collect because I enjoy the hobby and even more so, the people associated with it. If I was in it to make any money at all, I would not have restored any of my tractors.

I’ve got one of those here as well…but he (Bill) is a house cat/couch potato

Reminds me of a personal add: Looking for attractive, single woman who likes tractors, dogs, pick up trucks and hunting. Send pictures of tractors, dog(s), truck and rifles.

Thank you all for the kind words and support. We are getting pretty good at the camper life- this big RV definitely makes it easier. Storms aren't quite as scary since it weighs 35,000lbs of course... And we've been on shore power for about 3 weeks. If I never hear a generator run again... But we are doing well. We've been doing more cooking and eating less junk, which is a massive improvement! I bought a pellet grill and I gotta say they make some good stuff! My wife has become a pro with the air fryer too, so our dinners are pretty awesome. And this week finally- work has begun on cleanup/teardown. We still haven't figured out 100% how far we have to go with the teardown but we at least fairly confident on it for the most part. I went with a different contractor because his company was ready to jump on it instead of waiting for others to decide if they even wanted the work, which is mind boggling to me. I have been shocked by how many people had zero interest in touching our home even though I had money in hand. It guess most builders want to start with a clean slate and have minimal repair work, even though the insurance company was ready to pay for it. At least now things are moving and so long as that is the case we have a goal post in sight. At any rate, we are doing well and our focus can now be on rebuilding. We aren't just sitting here waiting anymore. Now if the heat will just give us a break! High 90s with indexes over 105 and high humidity just zaps the life right out of you! Thank God for dual air conditioners on this camper!

August 17, 1933 MLB player Lou Gehrig plays his record 1,308th consecutive game.

Finally let loose.

August 20, 1920, seven men, including legendary all-around athlete and football star Jim Thorpe, meet to organize a professional football league at the Jordan and Hupmobile Auto Showroom in Canton, Ohio. The meeting led to the creation of the American Professional Football Conference (APFC), the forerunner to the hugely successful National Football League.

August 18, 1956 Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" reach #1 on the charts, staying for 11 weeks (a record for a single release).

Pulled up a couple more loads of firewood.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes fellas. i don't know how to act my age I've never been this old ... Was a good day spending it up here in northern WI. worked on getting a outboard running for my sister then went fishing on a private pond but got skunked. Went out to a cool place called Lost Land Lodge for Friday fish fry and old fashions which is a Wisconsin staple. Finished with white Russians and a fire pit.

A hoarder that has 5 spare 8 speeds and 30+ spare tires should have a couple hundred spare belts. Store em forever.

I'm sure you all remember () when I restored this 72 Commando 800 for my grandson. I purchased the tractor back in the early 80's because it fit my pipsqueak Mom just right. She used it many years until she physically couldn't anymore. I hauled it to Florida and went to work on it. According to the picture dates it was in 2014 but I thought it was earlier than that. Here's a few pics before I brought it back to Indiana. I know our daughter and grandkids well and somehow the desire to take care of things skipped a generation. I knew what was in store for the little Commando and they didn't let me down. Our granddaughter drove it around in their yard a bit before I loaded it up to bring to my place. As she turned I noticed the front tires were hitting the mower deck. Guess what caused that. That's at least 3 or 4 times I found the deck on wrong. Each time I explained how to do it. The last time I told then just don't touch the deck. Call me. Apparently they all have hearing issues. Getting it to my garage I opened the hood. Pressured washed it a couple times. Then I removed the deck. This is after I had already hit it with the pressure a bit before I remembered to take a pic. I had a new boot for it. This is why I never use the long dog points that Wheel Horse used to sell. That boot could have still been serviceable if it had the 3/4" dog point I now use. I think the long one is the #1 cause of destroyed boots. I suppose you don't have to pull the boot over the screw but I like to. Drained the transmission, flushed and refilled. No issues but the right axle seal was leaking bad. Left wasn't leaking and the hub fought me. I had damaged the drive bolt on a previous tranny and I finished it off on this one. Got a new bolt and with some Cre Oil soaking I got it off. Transmission done. This is 100% unacceptable. The engine oil didn't even touch the dip stick. This is what I drained out next to a the amount that it's supposed to have. That's just colored water in the reference jar. My wife always tells me to not say anything about it to the kids. They WILL hear about this. Cleaned the deck, sharpened the blades and the spindle belt was shot. Replaced the points, condenser, plug, fuel line and filter, greased, serviced the controls (choke wasn't working) and whatever else I could think of. Just need to get things wrapped up now and get it back to them for mowing duties. I'll bring the deck back once mowing season is over. It's going to need new bearings. I noticed that I can find the 103119 bearings much cheaper buying them separately rather than a lot of 3. I was impressed how well this thing cleaned up and how well the paint is hanging in there. This tractor had been stored in a half falling down barn and battered but it still looks good. Rusty rattle can is pretty decent stuff.

I chose a front-mounted winch. Personal preference of mine and pretty simple construction with a section of an old frame. Weight in the rear can be an issue but this attaches just about as quickly and doesn't stress the frame at the uni-drive bracket.

August 19, 1950 ABC begins broadcasting Saturday morning kids' shows (Animal Clinic and Acrobat Ranch).

Had an 88 S-10 like this only dark blue. Bought it at the dealer I worked at when I got married. Picked it up after our honeymoon. 4.3 TBI with the 700R4 and 3:53 gears. Snapped your neck leaving the stop light. Towed our travel trailer to Pocono Raceway with the bed full of firewood. Got over 20MPG with the AC on!

It's a 5 minute walk from my house to the bar, but a 45 minute walk from the bar to my house. The difference is staggering.

What does a man have that; is somewhat ridged, somewhat flexible, has the following letters in its spelling, S I N E P ? ? ? ? SPINE What did you think I was spelling?

If someone makes a profit form having saved a vintage Wheel Horse from becoming scrap metal I'm happy. We don't KNOW it was a clean-out and a huge profit is being made but if it was then so be it. As an aficionado of rusty relics I am glad to see it being placed in the hands of someone who will show it some love, my only hope is that it will remain a Barn Find and not be restored, there are plenty of restored RJs out there but few that show the honest patina of their age. Of course I am old and show some honest patina of sorts so that explains a lot.

Got the other 520H going and mounted 48” deck back on it, everything seems to be good. Mowed about 30/40 mins with it just to see if she was going go or blow. The ol girl ran good and strong never missed a beat, strong hydro. Mowing deck was leaving 2 streaks evey pass and I said self Ive seen this before , PO had 42” blades installed, if he thought it mowed good before he would really think it mows good after I put 48” blades on it . BTW put some wheel spacers on it, will show in a thread in restoration forum.

Haven’t had a Wheel Horse for about 28 years since I gave my 852 to a brother of a coworker to restore and never saw the tractor again. Just purchased a 520xi with 48” deck and single stage snow blower in good condition, 880 hours. Will pick it up Thursday as there is no rain in the forecast (Hoosiers will understand!). Semi retired Reliability Engineer so I over analyze everything. Looking forward to contributing and learning!

@Vinylguy comes through again! Thanks, Terry!

Well, I had a few parts hanging around cleaned up and primed so I thought I would brave the mosquitos and paint them using my paint spray gun. I have a little less blood but at least some parts got red.

August 15, 1979, Apocalypse Now, the acclaimed Vietnam War film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, opens in theaters around the United States. The film, inspired in part by Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness, among other sources, told the story of an Army captain (played by Martin Sheen) and crew of men who are sent into the Cambodian jungle to kill a U.S. Special Forces colonel (Marlon Brando) who has gone AWOL and is thought to be crazy.

Picked up the tractor today…will be checking the flywheel key as suggested by @Bill D

Two "idiots" that I know of. Now at least. It was only one before your post.

Trying to organize my spare tires/wheels, moved some into the new shed this evening. Left all my crummy tires and wheels in my old tarp shed.

We got out first TV in the summer of 1956, I was so excited but the fist day we got it was the first day of one of the political party conventions and none of the shows I was looking forward to seeing were on the air, the following week the other political ;party held their convention. To say that I was disappointed would be a gross understatement. I did get to watch the cartoons and cowboy shows on the weekend though so all was well.

Saturday morning cartoons were a weekly institution in my house!