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Had planned on using the C-120 earlier this winter, but just now got it set up the way I wanted it. Tonight was it's first workout in the snow and It did pretty well. Google decided my picture needed some animation, and I have to say I agree...

This post is two fold. Today's snow pics on the 416 first. Then my follow up question.

Im using a 1971 Ariens walk-behind..just got in from clearing the driveway: I also have a 1964 Wheel Horse model 854 tractor. I would like to find a plow for it, to use for smaller amounts of snow, and slush.. I will probably begin looking for a plow next spring/summer.. Scot

The truth is, the GT14 is NOT a Wheelhorse! It is actually a WORK-HORSE! Yesterday VS Today! Yesterday: Today:

Brandonozz...this is for you...I suggest that there are teams all across the country that you either like or dislike for any reason. This pool is set up to pick the teams that you think are going to win. With that being said...I would like to offer my TOP TEN LIST of teams in all conferences that I kind of like and would like to see win in certain games. I am just doing the like side of my list... 1. Illinois...just because 2. Northwestern...same reason 3. Wisconsin...roots there and the rest in no particular order 4. Arkansas...just do 5. Oklahoma...lots of friends there 6. Maine...was stationed there 7. Syracuse...I have no idea why 8. Appellation St....the last no name team to beat Michigan ...how great is that?? Let's face it...every team lives to play and beat Michigan...Illinois got them a few years ago on Halloween...things you do not forget. 9. Any team playing the SEC..they really do have the best conference 10. Any team playing the Pac 12...just because they always seem to have the Big Ten's number...although Michigan St. got Stanford this year. 11. OH OH...I have to put in Northern Illinois University...they have been excellent to watch for the last 5 years...beat Iowa 1st game this year. WOO HOO!!!

I had to switch the plow to the 518xi over the weekend. Thought that I would take a chance and didn't take the time to put the chains on. It actually did well on the turfs thanks to the weights. One neighbor's driveway is about 15 degrees and it walked right up. Here it is after the 5" we had last night.

And here is the mini barn for the steed himself. I built this out of a shipping crate. I lucked out and picked up the roofing from a good freind for free. I have a total of $40 wrapped up in this thing. 2 boxes of hardware and 4 2x4's. Its my mini cabin lol.

Just found the forum. Had the GT14 for years. Great plow machine! Bill

My names Trent from Pennsylvania. Here is a before and after of my 657. I love my tractor. Picked him up last may for 250 bucks. Made some changes on how i wanted him to look :)

I like to wait to the last moment to put the snow equipment on -- I guess tomorrow is the day -- The forecast for the St. Louis area is 8" of snow by Sunday PM with temperatures getting down to -10F -- I won't be able to ignore the snow in the driveway -- I will be taking the 37" SD off the 310-8 and putting the snow blade; chains; and weights on -- Maybe I just not a "northerner"; I never look forward to snow duty; mowing seat time I enjoy and look forward to; plowing snow not so much At least now I am putting the snow equipment on inside a garage -- In the '90s I would have been laying in the snow putting the blade on -- That is a little bit of progress

Here is coming back from plowing for an hour and the fourth driveway. I forgot to factor the wind chill for 11 degrees and moving at 7.4 mph with a bare hand holding the phone! Click on the picture.

Boomer Sooner !!!! And a big shout out to BK as being the only person outside Oklahoma to think we had a chance. Wow! My voice is gone!

For those who may have an interest in this subject, that new owner is me! If you feel inclined to investigate, you can find the Speedex tractor forum here: http://speedexforum.com/

Last year I used the chain and it worked great. The plow blade followed the ups and downs of the driveway and curb. The solid bar doesn't follow the surface of the driveway as well. Next year I'll be going back to the chain and staying with it. The blade is plenty heavy. You don't have to worry about it rising up over the snow. I'm talking about the two attachments that lift the plow. The chain version attaches to the mower deck lift bar.

Glen: Similar to John and Don.. You saw my video.. Although the depth was not that much, the past couple days, it has been what one would call a test of tests for a snow blower.... Drifts that were 18" to 24" high and were 10 to 12' in length.. I did 1 drive way today that the depth was 14" at it's shallow point... The single stage chewed threw it just like in my video. The funny thing was, the more snow I kept in the auger, the further the snow went. I know I had a good 18' to 20' in height and it was blowing a solid 35' to 40'... With the wheel weights, snow blower, cab, and additional weights I have in the back, it is sitting over 1650 on the scales... I was driving through snow that was over my front tires...Granted, the frame was pushing some of the snow out of the way, but the snow was covering my front tires. Could not even see them.... 518 just kept chugging through the drifts and slush like it was another day in the park. I can't say enough about the performance of the xi, or the single stage. If you think you will be going through stuff deeper than 24", just take 2 bites out of it...

It's been a wacky bowl season. FloriDUH is going down!

I run the same oil all year round in my horses...either 30w (when I can find it) or 10w30 in the engines...90 wt in the manual transmissions and have not had a problem. I have an unheated garage. I do put battery "maintainers" on my batteries, and that keeps them topped up. I am not used to running them in this frigged temperature..ie...it is too cold to snow. But it is snowing this year and at or below zero...give me a break. So far the horses have started and seem to like this weather...I kind of like it also...once I get out there. On my B-100 2 days ago...I did have to push in the clutch to get it to turn over fast enough to start. It started and ran fantastic. No doubt, this weather is hard on an old horse, but I would not go with lighter oil. If it starts, I let it warm up good and then go. These temps with snow are new to me also, but so far thumbs up. It looks like with good battery...and a couple of apples and maybe a dangling carrot...the horses are good to go in these temps. At this point, I am not going to change a thing...and we could be at minus 9 Monday...for a high... with 4" of snow. I'll let you know how that works. I have not seen a winter like this for a long time.

I'll start at -20 F and so will the tractor if we have to. Lower than that we wait. -30.2 F here this AM and it got up to -22 F so we took the day off. Garry

I prefer tilling. I don't have a Wheelhorse rear tiller, but a couple of walk behinds - the big one being a Troy-Bilt Horse tiller. Having said that, moldboard plowing is a hoot! I recommend seat time doing it regardless of the real reason for gardening...

I'll try to get a longer, better video next snowfall. Rich was almost done when I remembered to do the video. This Honda powered 520H with the 44" two stage blower really look's cool when there is a substantial amount of snow to blow. Red

Nice video! But...... We need video of this snow blowing to be at least 5 or 10 minutes...

Not to be critical, but you have the perfect excuse for two GT-14 tractors, one for wood duty and one for snow duty. Heck, a third would be good for mowing chores...

Hey Glenn, nice roost! That 416-8 with that single stage blower is really clearing a path. I do understand your concerns though with that (500ft?) driveway in a much deeper heavier snowfall situation. Hard to fault a larger tractor with the 44" two stage blower. It's not just the width of those units, but the larger diameter auger in a higher housing. Designed for deeper snow removal work. As always add $. I'll struggle along with my walk behind unit. See you later for a coffee.

So Steve you are telling me this kind of snow is what you guys look forward to playing in??? -- I can guarantee to you that I WILL HAVE SOCKS ON when I take this stuff on (For those who haven't seen his snow plowing videos; Steve likes to work sockless)

My GT14 with single stage took care of 12" this morning!

Can I borrow that rig? We have 5" on the ground and they are calling for up to 12" more in the next few days. I think that will be the biggest snow total here since the blizzard of '78. Guess my 1077 and the blade will get a workout. The UTUBE video worked fine here.

My understanding is that the pivot is at the rear axle to keep the blade from riding up over the snow or dirt and maybe to attach to a real sturdy part of the tractor. Unfortunately, this also limits the height to which you can lift the blade. Other manufacturers (John Deere for instance) pivot off the front, however many JD machines have hydraulic lift with maybe down pressure. I also understand that if you had a hydro WH, there was a long link to the plow lift hole so that you could have down pressure (instead of just gravity alone) holding the plow blade down. I think there are lots of creative ways to do what you suggest. Take a look at how some of the snow blowers mount to the later model tractors (of course blowers weigh more than a plow). At the end of the day with enough money and time one can do almost anything. Just give a look at the December Tractor of the Month entries for examples of the creativity of other RS members.

Come on Craig !! LOL

Awesome video. Cool the misses was into it as well.

Good effort Ian... Thanks for your inspiration and entertainment :)

GO BUCKEYES

Happy aniversary Ian. , heres to the next 6 years

Good post on preparing the snow thrower! Just curious, why do you like the single stage over the two stage snow thrower? There are several reasons for me. The first one being the 2 stage definitely requires more horsepower to operate. I think in reality the 20Hp Onan is necessary. I know others with smaller engines do it too but my M16 was really working hard to run that blower with any amount of snow. There is more power loss in the design of the 2 stage. Any repairs will be more involved especially if the gear box is damaged with the 2 stage. The single stage is a simpler design and operates with less horsepower required. The transfer of power is more direct and in line as opposed to the gear box necessary for the 2 stage. Next is the shear size of the unit. The 2 stage takes up more space for storage and is quite a bit heavier than the single stage. 380 pounds is a lot of weight to be out front of a tractor the size of the Wheel Horse. I could feel the tractor frame flex under the weight of the 2 stage from time to time depending on grade, angles and approach to snow banks. The single stages lifts higher giving more clearance in snow bank approaches. I always found mounting the 2 stage to be a chore especially transferring load to the front spring. It takes much more effort to drag it around, line it up and engage the front counterweight spring whereas with the single stage connects quickly and easily with much less work and parts involved. Right now the snow here is dry and I do not see any significant difference in the ability of either to throw snow. Maybe the 2 stage throws snow a bit further but 30 feet vs. 40 feet but that really does not matter to me. The two stage did not handle slush very well and so I doubt the thrower will be any worse. If it is I can quickly switch back to the blade with much less effort and time required to do so. I'm not crazy about the high rpm necessary for the single stage auger to run at but other than that I have no criticism of the thrower. They are well built, easy to work on and simple enough to maintain with chain lube and chain tension being the two most important concerns. I'm not knocking the 2 stage but for me with the equipment I have I now prefer the single stage. I think it will always be easier to repair in the future once Toro stops supporting this model with parts and I think we all know that day is coming.

Always nice to see this thread pop back up from time to time. Never fails to put a smile on my face. Matt

You guys are too funny! I have since sold the 312 after robbing the deck from it, but the 876 is sitting in my drive way and will be on the back burner while I get the C100 running. The 314 is in the building. One other thing is that I would also like to stay married as my wife is pretty cool. Gotta keep the women folk happy!

What a great story and a fantastic restoration! Fantastic job Lars :eusa-clap:

here is the 414 dad gave me for christmas ...been in the family since neww 1985.

Yes. Pictures don't do it justice. Go to redoyourhorse.com. its easy. I think you'll be very happy with the results. And if you're a supporter you get 25% off. Thats worth it.

Where's the remote???

There is an old small engine shop by us that use to be a Wheel Horse dealer. I knew he had some old parts tractors in the back, so I stopped. He had no suburbans. He thought he had some old parts for one though. Sure enough, he had the differential case that matched mine in the number of teeth. It was missing the axels, axel gears and the spider gears. Those he could not find. Since mine had only chewed up one side, I can use the good one and only need 2 spider gears and on axle gear to complete. Sometimes a guy gets lucky. Thanks for the help.

seen that one before - always raises a few questions as to how much 'processing' was done afterwards!

The decals vinylguy (terry) made me look absolutely amazing. Here's a few.

Here is the customized Gravely plow. Shortened the frame 18". Narrowed the blade 6" so it would fit in my shed. Removed the pitch lever and linkage, removed the scraping blade due to my gravel driveway. All in all i eliminated roughly 40lbs. Those plows are no joke. It was a gift from a co-worker so i worked with what i had.

2013 Apple festival tractor parade. Was a good ol' time.

I haven't used my blower the last 2 years (not enough snow at one time), but I used it a lot 3 years ago. My driveway is gravel. I set it high, I lower the blower onto a 2x4 (laying on its side) at each end of the scraper blade and then lower the skids till they touch the ground at that height. It doesn't throw rocks unless I inadvertently drive it into one of the banks where I have pushed the snow while plowing. I also ran over a "Yellow Pages" once, it went through the blower just fine - didn't break anything and the display was quite impressive!

Yes the windows slide open. It takes two people to handle the cab, first take off the steering wheel next the loader control rods then you put the cab on and reattach everything. Very simple. I also remove the doors it makes it easier to handle.

Here is what i got its a gt14 with a homemade loader and cab.

I recently added this 1/2 inch piece of HDPE to the bottom of my worn skids. I wanted something that would glide over my concrete drive and stone parking pad. They work much better. Hope they last at least a season. So far they've been used on about 50+ inches of snowfall.

That was a great buy. I really like the looks of the work horses.

I have found mineral spirits to be goofy. Have you tried wiping for prep with lacquer thinner? Charlie