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Hi All, In Vermont, all we need is snow Here's our fleet of snow equipment, we're ready for anything! I just repainted the hood on the C-85 and I'm really happy how it turned out. I used PPG paint with a hardener. The Vinyl Guy was a super help in getting the decals. I plan on doing more painting in the spring after it warms up some. C-85

Lots of hammering and pounding on this one... the entire build is on YouTube (link in signature)... the ultimate goal was to clone the RJ tractor on the cover of Straight From a Horse's Mouth Second Edition and the original 1955 RJ advertisement. The sad thing about the project... my computer took a dump about a month ago and I lost every pic and vid of this project... at least most of the vids are on YouTube and the project its done, LOL!

I suggestion is a little different. Go and buy some new 4 ply tires and have them put on by the dealer. I had problems with the 2 ply tires on my Wheel Horse. I got stuck and ripped the side out of the old 2 ply that solved my problems. Bought a set if 4 ply Carlisle 23 x 1050 X 12, that was 24 years ago and they still look almost new.

Why on earth would you guys suggest remedies that don't include finding the cause of the problem? Yep tube it.... and if it's a small nail or screw that got picked up, it'll puncture that too. Find the cause. Could be a nail, thorn or sharp stick, could be weather cracks, could be a loose valve stem... could just be a leaking bead that all you need to do is re-seat. Why buy a solution to a problem you don't understand?

well I also have this little ditty my 701 with stainless frame I started with this and after 5 months Brian

The 2014 RedSquare Calendar is available to I would to like to publicly thank Justin (JUSS10) for putting together the calendar once again. I know that it is a time consuming task, and being newly married, I am certain you have other things to focus your time on, but the effort is very appreciated and Thank You! Since 2008 the release of the calendar has been a highly anticipated event. For the past several years Justin has taken care of this for us. He begins the topic, solicited the pictures and makes the difficult final selection. So if you enjoy the calendar too, please take a moment to thank Justin here!

Wheel horse Snow Team 2013

This One Used To Do It. But Now It's My Back Up. This Chucker Took Over The Duty.

I sell on eBay and have Power Seller status, but was just told that I am not meeting the criteria to keep it. I AM ONE ITEM OFF (99 instead of 100 items sold). My dollar value is twice what it needs to be ($3,000) for Power Seller status, but I am missing that one sale! On the other hand of unfairness with eBay, I just bought from a big seller a cover for my Gravely (same as Ariens) log splitter. It was advertised with an Ariens part number as well. It arrives but it is a generic Classic Industries cover. I opened a case on it and the response was to ship it back at my expense of almost $9.00. This seller does over 3,000 sales a month with almost 300 negatives - and yet is allowed to keep selling! Definitely a scam. Where are the seller standards for them. It is a shame that there is no competition in the marketplace for eBay.

Get at tube from a place like Tractor Supply or garden tractor dealer. Take the wheel off and bring it to the nearest tire shop. Pay $10.00, put the wheel back on and you will be good to go. Doing it yourself is not worth the time and aggravation. jmho

That looks excellent Matt! The new ag and tri rib tires are going to put it over the top. Gary is just about as proud as can be right now! He'll be with you every time you take that tractor for a ride with a smile on his face. A few months before my best friend passed he gave me his vintage roll away tool box. He inherited it from his father many yrs. ago and it meant a lot to him. I love that tool box, I always admired it. It is smack dab in the middle of my garage and I will always have it.

Interesting, I'm the exact opposite. Rear if the grass is long and side if mow often. There are pluses and minuses to both but here's my take. RD Pro's Doesn't clog with long wet grass Doesn't eject clippings out the front of the deck to get sucked in by a powerful Onan Can tow a sweeper to pick up clippings Trim mow on both sides without getting clippings in the flower bedss Easier to maneuver in tight places Able to accept recycler adapter RD Cons: Cut not as clean as SD can't blow leaves / clippings onto neighbors lawn When trimming leaves clippings right against the wall Your back can get messier with clippings ejecting out the back onto your shirt SD Pro's: Cleaner cut Can blow leaves and clippings onto neighbors lawn for him / her to clean up SD Cons: Has tendency to eject clippings at the left front and into the fan of the machines (Serious problem for Onan owners) Can not trim on both sides Far wider, making it less maneuverable Can not use a sweeper at same time Clogs with long wet grass (at least mine does!) Not as cool looking as a RD

Well I know he won't post it up, so I will do the honors for him. I am proud to have this machine in my collection, even though I am not the creator of it. Many kudos goes out to TT for this custom build which has provided much fun and enjoyment to our family. The infamous "Drags-tor" (the black beauty)

This is my dog..i don't have any pictures of him from christmas He is a 7 year old Collie.

here's my RJ58 custom stainless Brian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roz22ku5OuY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu48aGgLkzw

I'll use a 74 B-100 Automatic, with a 37" snowthrower. Also I'm going to use a 75 B-80 4spd. with a 42" blade as a backup.

I've been driving a diesel car for a short while now and have had a few interesting conversations with folks at the pumps when refuelling. Most of them ask me what kind of mpg I'm getting. One went on a tirade about the 1980's Oldsmobile diesel Regency 98 that blew up before its first fuel up. It's been interesting to see, now that I use a different area of the station, what we share the road with. Today, this rolled in next to me in the Auto diesel lane: The wheels were higher than my car. The driver had to deploy a ladder on the side to climb up and reach the fuel tank that must be 8 feet from the ground. The tank on the crane unit is even higher. I wish I knew what this thing weighs. Absolutely a solid chunk of muscle. I've passed these on the highway and wasn't overhwelmed by the size, but parking next to one and gawking at it was a different perspective. If you look close, you can see the driver up on the thing just above the phone number written high on the side. It's the ultimate SUV. Steve

I like this one! In case you're wondering, the girl is my oldest Megan. 46abe28f6b035a5249b1a662dad98f64

When I pulled the wheel of my 78 C141 a few months ago, it was on pretty securely. I sprayed the snot out of it with Kroil. A day later, I tapped out the spirol pin. Still the wheel would not budge. So I sprayed some more and waited a day. When I came back, all I did was turn the wheel and there was enough resistance between the tires and the garage floor that the wheel spun freely off. I used lots of neverseeze when I reinstalled it. With regard to the disintegrating collar. If you cannot get the steering wheel off, get a piece of schedule 40 or schedule 80 PVC pipe of as a close a diameter as you can find. Cut it to length and slice it longitudinally. Using regular PVC solvent cement, cement the two halves together around the steering shaft. Sand off any excess solvent cemnet and paint it black. If you can get the steering wheel off, just cut the PVC to length, roughen the surface and paint it black.

I have both and have used both. Folks have commented on pro's and con's of both types and I agree with them. One thing that was not mentioned as a con for the RD type is that I always got a ton of grass clippings on top of the transmission tunnel (under the shift plate cover). Also, the left rear tire on the inside was a perpetual shade of puke green. Never happens on the SD mower. The other advantage of a RD deck (for me) was that I could park the tractor between the two cars in the garage without having to worry about someone running over the side chute. When I use the SD machine, it gets parked way in the front of the garage out of harms way. P.S. I consider myself lucky as I have a spouse who likes to cut grass. She has her own machine (314-8) with a 42 inch SD.

A neat trick that works, put in or take out a little air from the back tires to level out the blade...have to do it to the back tires. You can turn that scrapper bar over to use what is the top edge, if it has not been done already. I also set my blade height a touch off the concrete, with the star wheel, this saves some wear on that edge by taking the weight off the blade. BTW Welcome to Red Square...

Thanks Steve have two b-107 and couldn't find what they fit, and huh, guess what I needed. Will be looking forward to a cross page for the eights. Found a site that gives dimensions of some of the needles and ball bearings and they had the B-107 but not the B-108! REALLY APPRECIATE THE HARD WORK!

I had most of my c195 complete last winter, then spring came. 140 rounds of golf later, it's cold outside and it was time to finish it .this tractor was the worst rust bucket I have ever worked on. refracman helped me with a few parts. also, learning the c175 has the exact same parts really helped. im just going to moth ball this tractor. I just cant see dropping three hundred bucks on rear tires that are not going to be used. here is how she turned out.

Interesting, I'm the exact opposite. Rear if the grass is long and side if mow often. There are pluses and minuses to both but here's my take. RD Pro's Doesn't clog with long wet grass Doesn't eject clippings out the front of the deck to get sucked in by a powerful Onan Can tow a sweeper to pick up clippings Trim mow on both sides without getting clippings in the flower bedss Easier to maneuver in tight places Able to accept recycler adapter RD Cons: Cut not as clean as SD can't blow leaves / clippings onto neighbors lawn When trimming leaves clippings right against the wall Your back can get messier with clippings ejecting out the back onto your shirt SD Pro's: Cleaner cut Can blow leaves and clippings onto neighbors lawn for him / her to clean up SD Cons: Has tendency to eject clippings at the left front and into the fan of the machines (Serious problem for Onan owners) Can not trim on both sides Far wider, making it less maneuverable Can not use a sweeper at same time Clogs with long wet grass (at least mine does!) Not as cool looking as a RD +1 I have both and like both. I alternate using the SD vs RD decks - that's the cool thing about these Wheelhorse decks, you can use them on more than one tractor. One thing I like about the RD decks is the ability to trim on both sides, so direction of mowing is never an issue. With the RD, I never have to sweep off the sidewalks or patio from grass clippings. I have mowed and towed a sweeper with the RD at the same time - works great! My 48 inch SD decks work great too! I can't explain, maybe it's the kid in my, but the thing I like most about the SD decks is simply enjoying the seat time and watching the grass fly out of the SD deck... But.... If you have two tractors, you might as well fit each tractor with a mowing deck and use both...

Tube it, enough said! Are you keeping the tractor? Is it your favorite? Myself I would tube it without asking questions. #1-Smart way tube it! #2 lazy way- slime it. End of my story same as everyone else's

I don't think this question has been asked, but how old are the tires? I had a tire that was leaking through the sidewall. Tiny cracks finally penetrated the tire and started to leak. Having asked that, I would also suggest that the area of the rim where the tire bead seats has gotten rusty, and the bead is not sealing. The water test as described above will show leaks wherever they happen to be.

Do not use slime! A previous owner of my b 80 used slime on one of the tires, when I removed the tire for restoration, the wheel was badly corroded. All the other wheels were fine but that one was a mess inside and out. It is a quick easy fix but it sure messes things up. Get tubes.

That is a nice sized trailer. I'm looking for something that size too haul wood from the wood pile to the house...Nice score.

Thanks for the kind words Van, and a really big thanks for keeping the Seaton family in your prayers. They really need it right now. Matt

All except for the green...really nice score there Van.

Mow often - rear discharge. Let it get tall - side discharge.

me and my boys

I am a certified car nut. Hot rods, muscle cars, street rods, trucks, classics, I like 'em all. I have owned many over the years and still have a few, which is why the WH space is a little limited. I have seen the car hobby change a lot over the last 40 years or so, but the only thing that drives me crazy is the trend to over restore. This in turn leads to cars that are not even trailer queens, they are way past that! I personally like to enjoy my vehicles. They are kept in good condition, and I take pride in them, however, the Trans Am pictured in my avatar currently has rubber stuck to the lower quarter panels! That means it occasionally gets run the way it was made to be run. My point is, I will never care about a benchmark for restoration of my WH tractors. I refuse to take away all the enjoyment of working on them, and using the tractor the way they were meant to be used. By the way, if you see my car in a show, it will have a "Do Not Judge" sign in the window. Just Sayin' Wally

since brian is hogging this month all to himself and nobody else is posting up their tractors (and theres quite a lot of very nice customs by members on the forum)............ edit: i see that fireman just got one in before i finished this post....... i will post one of mine...... most of my tractors have small custom fabrication but look basically oem, the one that stands out the most i guess is my 1057, it sort of fits into this category.... not what you would call a full custom or whatever, but it has a few non oem details, first and for most would be the vinyl 'blackouts' on the hood and seat pan. another not readily noticeable custom touch is all the cast iron has been smoothed before being powder coated. and speaking of powder coat, all the paint on this one is powder, everything, which means all of it had to come apart and be painted individually, because theres a lot of parts on these tractors that doesn't like to be heated to 400 degrees f for 30-60 minutes....... heres some pics of my 1057......

Well heck i'll through my 1967 Diesel Lawn Ranger out there for consideration. It has a 7hp Yanmar Diesel electric start engine with custom foot throttle. I added a voltage gauge, hour meter, key start, master battery switch and electronic actuator to shut down the engine. I had to "shoe horn" in a battery under the seat as you can see in the picture. The fender and seat had to be raised up with stand offs to allow enough clearance so the battery terminals wouldn't touch. The belt guard had to be shortened and tilted up to compensate for the different engine location. The hood had to be raised and steering shaft lengthened to accommodate the engine. It took about 6 months to complete and a lot of fabrication. It's a blast to drive and really turns heads at the local shows. I reduced the pulley on the transmission down to a 2" one so it really moves.

hello sir, just a suggestion but when i need to raise the seat pan i use hockey pucks. cheap, durable and easy to drill. regards mike in mass.

Thanks to everyone who voted! This could be one that I do again since there may be enough spare parts around. It did get lots of attention at the shows and apparently people like the style of it. It's just getting tougher and tougher to come up with new ideas for something that hasn't already been done.

just come in from applying all the new decals. I'm very happy with what terry and i came up with.... a big thank you to terry for putting in so much work....... alright, the pics that maybe one or two of you have been waiting for........ because i polished up the paint, to help the decals stick to the paint i wiped down the areas where they were going with wax and grease remover. tackle the hard stuff first, terry cut these in half for me to help apply them around all the critical areas, you need to make sure the throttle slot, the steering and lift/motion control lever holes all line up. would be easier to remove the dash console to apply them in one piece, but that looked to be a bigger pain, so this is the way i went..... right hand half..... left hand half on, had to make sure to line up the halves and the red lines at the same time. again a pain to do assembled like this, but the decals are easy to pull up if you start getting off of where it should be.... rest of dash panels/ covers done, all holes /slots cut, gauges, switches etc installed.... started on the hood with the front, making sure to line up the ends/sides etc all even. approx. 1/4 gap all round decal. left hand side hood decal applied, try to juggle all the gaps to find a happy medium here, you will notice that the front and side aren't exactly in line, but i try to get the bottom gap right with each other and since the blackout on the front of the hood never lines up with the bottom of the side of the hood, you've got to sort of fudge it a little. i start at this point and get it how I'm happy with it and then follow the bottom of the decal/bottom of the hood margin the same all the way right to the back of the hood as i position the decal. pop riveted the hood catches. will paint the rivet heads black so they blend in..... plow decals on. we came up with a warning decal the same style as the lower dash/motion control linkage cover decal but with the wording from the late 70s plow decal..... i also wanted the 90s style id tag for this plow even though its a late 70s plow, i used the model number and serial from my metal tag.... seat pan decal on..... and a pic for steve, used the little stool quite a lot today! saved my back for some abuse another day, I'm sure there will be something stupid heavy to lift and screw it up a little more..... all done... ready for some snow.....lots of it, please......

I have pulled a trans apart with the hub still on one of the axles. But I don't remember which one was stuck. Once it was separated it was possible to pull the diff apart and remove the axle with the stuck hub (in a press). If the hub is as stuck as it sounds, then pounding on the hub can have bad consequences. Best case scenario, the snap ring jumps out of its groove and the axle comes out. Worst case scenario the snap ring damages the edges of its retaining groove in the axle and will not retain the axle any more.

My rig. New cab for this year. 1977 C-160 auto with hyd lift.

1985 310-8 - I've got my choice of a blower or plow now.

Here is the 857...with my daughter at the reigns. and my 702...with me at the reigns. I can't wait for it to start snowing this year...

Since this thread has been revived and several new posts have been made, I thought that I would return and comment further. I am not here to disagree with any of the opinions expressed. Each of you obviously have your own criteria and motives. The hobby is still rather young but it is gaining momentum annually because it is AFFORDABLE. Lawn and garden tractors do not need very much real estate compared to other alternatives. Currently, they are fairly affordable BUT.... I see prices beginning to escalate. I also see enthusiasts getting into the after-market parts business because of the growing demand for items that have not been in production for decades. I see old manuals being re-printed or converted to DVD's. Attendance at tractor shows is also increasing even though the cost of showing the tractors is rising. All of this tells me that changes are in the wind for the hobby and those changes will come about as a direct result of the higher costs involved. I think it fair to say that if one has to pay a high price to purchase a restorable tractor and then pay high prices for after-market parts, then the quality of the restoration work will rise accordingly. Eventually, we will see judging take place for those who wish to enter their tractors. At some shows, judging is already taking place whether the entrants realize it or not. Ballots are handed out to the paying public and they are asked to vote for "Favourite Tractor", "Best Display", "Best Restoration" and so forth. I deem this to be the proverbial thin edge of the wedge. Competitions have a way of feeding on themselves and tractor shows themselves are in competition with one another. I have seen tractors for sale on E-Bay and C/L and the Seller has used the words "Fully Restored" when it is blatantly obvious that a proper restoration was never done. Telltale signs are overspray, missing parts, improperly installed parts, wrong parts, poor quality paint, evidence of dirt and rust in places could not be addressed without dismantling the tractor. The experienced eye sees all these things and knows that in order to correct all these deficiencies, the tractor must be stripped to the bare frame and any work performed by the former "restorer" will have to be done over. So who in their right mind is going to pay big bucks for such a tractor? You are far better off searching for an untouched barn find and doing that one up instead. Ken B has it right. The OEM often turned out a product that was rather inferior in fit and finish. Most serious restorers will produce a much superior product. But let's set aside the paint issue for a moment. To me, there are other considerations if one is trying to duplicate how a tractor was when it left the factory. Choosing the correct hardware is one aspect. Painting nuts and bolts that received paint on the assembly line should be done but installing fresh zinc plated hardware where the factory used it is also important. Duplicating the wiring harness using the correct gauge and colours along with the correct terminal ends for authenticity. These are small things but they do make a difference to the end product. Trying to find the correct tire sizes and tread patterns can be frustrating and one might have to install tubes in order to save the old rubber, even though the tires were originally tubeless. That is a small but necessary concession in some instances. The thing about this hobby is that it is an ongoing learning experience and to many, that is a large part of the enjoyment. Rarely does one turn out a near perfect product the first time around but as you continue to perform restorations, your skill level should increase and you will learn from your mistakes. For me, there is a difference between doing the very best you can and just saying that "it's good enough".

My son and I are currently restoring our first Horse. Through the restoration the thought process is that we are going to do it up nice, but there is a limit to how far we are going to go. It's only a Garden Tractor. Not a Show Car.. and that's not to diminish it, we will probably get more joy out of it when it's done than I did out of my 1964 Pontiac 2+2 that took over 6 years and many thousands of dollars to restore.. in the end I hated the car because it was too nice, and cost too much money to do. When I finally sold it I didn't get anywhere near the money invested in it back. When our Horse is done, we would not lose any money if we decided to sell it. But I don't think we would ever sell it!

Jason, thanks for doing that. I am going to try to put together a spreed sheet for the 6 and 8 speed transmissions. Until then, know that transmissions with the 1 1/8" axles take the Torrington B-1816 needle bearing on the out end, with the SKF 11050 seal (WH 1213)...the 5/8" input shaft (WH 1542) takes a Torrington B-107 and seal (WH 1641) is a SKF 6105. Hopefully I can put this together for you guys. It may take a couple of weeks to do. When you see an "M" in front of the number...it means that it is a capped bearing. When you see a "B" in front of the number...it is a through bearing. I think the numbers for bearings and seals...weather the are Torrington, SKF, Keyo C/R, etc...are all the same. If you take these numbers to NAPA, TORO, Motion Industries they should be able to cross reference. I will try to put the dimensions for the bearings in the spreed sheet so you do not get the wrong parts. It is always a good idea to take the old parts with you if possible. Make sure to read the whole thread in case some information is not correct...or has changed!!!

I'd like to thank everyone who responded. The opinions were certainly varied and most were quite interesting. Although I have seen many Wheel Horse tractors at shows and in print, I have no real background in them. I had no idea about the problems that you gentlemen face with this brand and upon learning about those issues, that explains a lot about the replies given. When companies like Wheel Horse began manufacturing garden and lawn tractors, I think it fair to say that they never imagined that their product would be "collected" in the future. Therefore, accurate record keeping did not seem very important. I face that problem with my choices of GT's and I find it very frustrating on one hand but also intriguing on the other. I am constantly on the lookout for "old paper" that will help me unravel some of the mysteries. Fortunately, paint colour is not one of those mysteries. This foray of mine into Red Square was done with the best of intentions to find out what this groups thinking was on a couple of key issues that are close to my heart. I hope that most of you found my questions interesting and that it gave some of you pause to reflect on what you do and why you do it that way. I make no conclusions nor any judgments. As always.......your tractor, your dime and your time. And I totally agree that this hobby should be about having fun and sharing good times over a common interest.

They are garden tractors, not high dollar cars or trucks, they should be built to your ability and be happy with that, I'm a Body man, I can build the heck out of one of these tractors, but I also have a round hood I spray bombed, I took it all apart but still used a rattle can, My Daughters tractor is a candy red, with $600 worth of paint, primer and supplies, it also has 90% of the fasteners on it changed to stainless, I like it, she loves it because it's different no one else has one like it, it's not a belly button tractor you know everyone has one, to put one back to new condition would be hard because they didn't do a very good job when new, parts where assembled then painted undersides and insides did not get much if any paint on them, on some models, why take the fun out of the hobby from the guy that can't paint like a pro, or don't have tons of money to throw at them, I run a WH show in MI. I tell everyone to bring anything workers, resto jobs, clean orig. even beaters, if you want to bring it to the show it will be welcome, the only real pet peeve I have is if you did not take it apart and you rattle canned it, please don't call it a restoration, call it what it is, a clean up and repaint, there are different levels of a restore, but just throwing paint at a tractor is not one.