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What else does a retired guy hafta do with his time but make movies! We Got slammed w 18" last night Chucked this morn and probably will later this Eve. Nothing like more seat time! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQKNiU3fOD4&list=UU7wuEBq4kYyHz0ytg3WDv2g

What is more fun than hauling home a new Horse! I get pretty excited when all of the thoughts begin flyin thru my mind about how my latest find is going to turn out... Restoration is fun for me. With my other hobbies I have room for 6 tractors. When the time does come to sell or trade (my favorite) I'm content in knowing that they ALWAYS leave my place in better shape than they arrived... It may sound a little corny but I like to rescue the ones that have been put out to pasture.. I was offered a lot of money for my little Hot Rod Suburban at last yrs. Big Show. Not for sale. This is the one tractor that anytime I ride it I'm a little kid again without a care in the world! FUN. That is what its all about for me... I can remember the day my son Cole went to pick up my Suburban and 633 (which also got restored) from Cre1992 (aka Charles) The whole ride home I was so full of excitement, it was like I was 10 yrs. old again, without a care in the world!

My collecting/addiction started in 1985 when my wonderful wife and I were married. We bought a small home and needed a mower to keep it cut. I asked my boss at the time if he knew anyone with a used mower for sale, he said sure and took me by the gentleman's house after work. He showed me a little 656 Wheel Horse, it ran good and cut grass, just what we needed. Turns out my boss had been pulling Wheel Horse Tractors for years. So it's his fault for my being addicted. I fell in love with that tough little tractor, it went through a lot of abuse and never failed us once. I started my 25 year firefighting career shortly thereafter and we were able to afford a nicer home with about the same amount of property, it was an excuse to buy another Wheel Horse! I found a very well cared for 74 A90 Special that my wife still uses to this day. The collection had begun. Today we have seven which are protected in a small barn, where else. I have always enjoyed tinkering with them. When I was diagnosed with Melanoma skin cancer in 2005 and Leukemia in 2008, which with other job related injuries took me out of work in 2012, the Horses(and my loving better half)started taking care of me, keeping my mind off health issues. Sorry for being so longwinded and thanks to everyone who have helped answer my questions and supported me through the years!

my new snow blade thanks Lane ranger

Here's what drugg home today electro 12 PTO is missing and one hub cap I will post better pics when I get it home

Brass Monkey..... It is often stated that the phrase originated from the use of a brass tray, called a "monkey", to hold cannonballs on warships in the 16th to 18th centuries. Supposedly, in very cold temperatures the "monkey" would contract, causing the balls to fall off. That seems a little cleaner.

Nothing worse than the word "mash" when it doesn't pertain to potatoes!

Polaroids: What Eskimo's get from sitting on ice blocks too long!

Met up with another Red Square Member -Tristan Wilson of Versailles, Kentucky today. We met in Scottsburg, Indiana at the Hampton Inn (about half way for each of us) to deliver a Wheel Horse 42 inch Snowplow and rear hitch attachment that he purchased from me. Great guy and he has a small engine repair shop in Versailles! I enjoyed the short, very cold visit (about 10 degrees) with Tristan and his friend James

It might not be completely done, but it does the job I originally bought it for. It plows snow! We didn't get that much snow, but it was drifting enough that I thought I would try it out and I must say I'm impressed. The loaded tires work great and I might not even need the chains. The only thing I might do different, if there is a next time, is make the step up to hydraulics. Lifting the snow blade is quite the pain. Still need to order some knobs and my decals, but at least I can use it now. Many thanks to everyone who has helped me get this far! I didn't keep track of how much this has cost me, but I am guessing I should be well under $1500 for the total investment. More than I originally planned to spend, but I think it's a worthwhile investment.

I get a smile on my face and a tear in my eye every time I see this picture. Glad both you and the tractor survived Bob. Sent from my tractor seat.

as far as dim lights at night, I remember my grand pappy used to say "yellow teeth? wear a brown tie" tractor translation = dim lights? use the tractor during the daytime until you find the problem.

Growing up, a friend of my dad's would let use his wheel horse to till our garden every spring. I was hooked on wheel horse ever since. My father in law and I have a few acres on the water that I maintain. He bought a new cub cadet 7-8 years ago and I was never impressed with it. My neighbor had a wheel horse 310, and he knew I wanted one. He came over one day and asked if I would be interested in a non running 314-8 that had been setting under a tarp for several years. It had less than 300 hours on it and cleaned up nicely. I got a deck for it and now have a nice tractor to cut grass with. I have since bought a C160 that also turned out to be a great worker. It was supposed to be a restoration project-maybe I'll get around to it one of these days.

Yes it makes the grass longer so I can go round again and get more seat time. :-)

Because if I didn't spend my money wisely on Wheel Horse collecting.....my wife would probably spend it fixing up the broken down car or on much needed house repairs!!!

Wheel Horse tractors have a fascinating history from the early days in the Pond garage until Toro killed the brand. They are fun to ride, well constructed, easy to work on/repair/restore/rebuild, and for the most part, replacement parts are still readily available. Four years ago, I knew absolutely nothing about Wheel Horse tractors other than my dad bought one new in 1962 when I was 6 years old. He sold it sometime in the '70s. Flashforward some 40 years, my uncle found my dad's old Wheel Horse 3-1/2 years ago. He picked it up from the son of the gentleman who actually bought it from my dad. My uncle knew that I had driven this tractor as a youngster and was pretty sure that I'd be interested in it so he got it for free and then gave it me for free. It took me three years to restore it from this in 2011... ... to this in 2014... I now have collected 10 Wheel Horse tractors in the past 3-1/2 years including... ... a show quality 1955 RJ-35... ... a nearly original, early serial number 1958 RJ-58... ... a 1977 C-120 puller... ... my worker, a 1995 314-8 speed... ... and my most recent purchase last month of a 1990 520-H... Collecting and restoring Wheel Horse garden tractors is now my #1 hobby and best of all... you will not meet any better people than Wheel Horse collectors at the many garden tractor shows around the country... and here at RedSquare, the source where you will find everything you need to know about your Wheel Horses.

It's so cold that my lawyer has his hands in his own pockets.

Why do I buy?? That's a good question. It's my hobby, it's what I enjoy. Pretty simple to work on. Dad bought the first Wheel Horse in 72'. Yes it was a GT14. A fantastic tractor which I got to know quite well over a period of four years before Calif.. I plowed an awful lot of snow tilled more dirt than you can shake a stick at. Probably mowed about two acres a week sometimes more. With the pushing snow in mind I get out and clear the walks here in my neighborhood. So no one pays me I enjoy it! That's why I buy because its enjoyable to me and alot of my friends!! We have a fantastic time, go to the Big show!!!! Go to a swap meet, sell tractors or attachments, camp overnight and hang out with nothing but Good people. Once you get involved you'll Know

Flip? As in...

Warning: Long WInded. I grew up on a 1984 C-105 that my dad bought when he was building our house about 1987 (I was 1). Rode on it when I was a wee one and plowed snow on it and cut the 1 acre of grass for probably 10 years. My dad had no special attachment to it so when the engine went for a second time about 2010, he parked it and bought a Deere. I had so many memories growing up on it that I told him to keep it for me, I would restore it. I remember giving my cousins rides in the wagon and many many hours spend in the seat cutting grass (and cursing the 8 speed transmission when cutting the back corner of the yard ) I always LOVED when it snowed to get some seat time pushing snow. I remember always chatting with my dad about how much better built the WH seemed than all the other garden tractors we'd ever seen. When my dad bought the new Deere he had to pay nearly $200 for the kit to angle the snow blade from the seat! That feature CAME with the WH plow over 20 years prior! We always liked how the long plow frame put the pushing power right at the drive wheels. I signed up for the old RedSquare way back in the day (I just found my old registration email! I signed up on 2/1/2010) to find out information on them. I lurked without posting for many years but then I got bit by the bug after buying a C-125 to replace the engine in the C-105. After learning all about them I started searching for the grandaddy kohler powered C-165 with a hydro transmission. I found a ratty one on ebay and voila i owned my third tractor! Then I found a little round hood I want to have for my son(s) to work on too. I bought a 520 because I really wanted the gear reduction steering and swept axle for better turning radius, but then I got sucked in by the sound of the onan (dont get me wrong, Kohler for reliability, but Onan sounded sweet) so I am making a swept axle onan powered blackhood.

Why do I buy? Many times I ask myself that. I know that the first time the first one came home one beautifull afternoon, and as me and my oldest son were just in awe of it, knowing virtually nothing about it at the time, I did have a sense that somehow, due to the happiness and joy we felt, that this little faded red old tractor had just taken over our lives. I collect and have interest in all kinds of stuff, but this was just different. It was a life changing moment. It made an already great father/son relationship even greater. It made me aware of a great American story about survival, perseverence, ingenuity, and family. It gave me the opportunity to meet and to know a lot of great people and learn stuff I would not even dream of doing if not for that day. It made me apreciate even more the great things that were manafactured in a great period of this country. So still the question.Why do I buy? More definitely make me happier. More definitely allow me to learn more. More definitely expose me to more great people. More definitely increases the chance of saving pieces of history. More definitely exposes other people to them and and allows them to share the happiness. I use them all in a regular basis. Some to do serious work, some to just ride around, and some just to look at and enjoy them. There is also a great deal of sentimental value attached to a few of them and it is a fact that they will be around here for at least the next two generations.

5 years old sitting on my dads 701 nuff said

Here is the reason - a family history since 1961 of owning Wheel Horse Garden Tractors! My dad, my brother and I do this! I even got my wife Ruth to like one model -the 1958 RJ ! 1961 50 years later!

During my recent project I decided to build an engine stand for Kohler single cylinder rebuilds, this is what I came up with.

SAVE YOUR WHEEL HORSE FENDERS FROM SCRATCHES OR DENTS The best way to keep your Wheel Horse fenders from experiencing scratches or dents from the metal seat hitting the fenders from a weak spring or heavy load is to raise the seat. Here is what you can do to lift the seat off the fenders and give yourself a little more leg room and peace of mind! You need the pipe spacers in the center of the rectangular steel pipe to hold everything in place. Neat trick you buy a 2 1/2 by one inch metal tube (rectangular). Cut about 4 1/2 long. drill two 5/16 holes to match metal seat holes (carriage bolts) and put pipe spacers cut to go in rect. tube between carriage bolts and you are lifted off the fenders. Place this on top of the spring. Kind of hard to tell in my photos but I placed a foam block on end with a reflector too

There I was ... plowing the first real snow of the season ... ¼ mile from home at the in-laws and the faithful C125 just laid down and quit with a bladeful of fluffy white snow. The ol' mule hasn't done anything like that in over 15 years. Aw... come-on girl ... back to work. Turned the key .... adjusted the choke and throttle levers ... nope ... not gonna go. I got off and checked the fuel ... even though I knew it was reciently filled ... and it was nearly full. I got back on and tried to coax her back to life ... no way. This is gonna be a long push home ... and it's all up hill. Well, how about a look under the hood? So I stand up and flip up the hood. Woah! The spark plug wire is off of the spark plug! The cap is missing off of the spark plug though. Oh ... it's not missing .... it's in the wire terminal. How's that possible? It screwed off of the plug while captured by the wire terminal. Well, it won't press back on like that ... has to be screwed on. So I took the wire out of the coil, screwed the "wire" onto the plug, reinserted the wire back into the coil. Closed the hood. Turned the key. And we were ready to ride again. How often does that happen? Never ever happened to me before!

The good thing is that you got it going again on the spot unlike my first plowing of the season back in November with my C-161 Auto. I was turning around right in the middle of the road in front of the house (in the dark) when it went pow and that was all folks. It's not easy to push a hydro believe me, even with the valve open. Pulled the head and found a 1/4-20 nut stuck under the intake valve!

My old boss used to say.....colder than three billys be damned.....I have no clue what it means though....but I would laugh at it....still tickles me for some reason....

I don't know what's cooler, the tractor or the video... OK, it's the tractor.

Isn't the President of a mower cycle club... 'sposed to be all scarred up? Hope you heal fast Nate.

Nice blade now let's see it mounted! Workin' too! If you pray for snow, you'll be upsetting me and lots of others. Who needs the cold, nasty, wet, white stuff?

It's actually not that bad to lift. I put 2 Springs on it and made them adjustable. And yeah I moved the bracket back. I don't need it for mowing so it works out great. I also had to build a new way to angle the blade. The original was cut off by the previous owner

GENO!

That question isn't directed towards me but I'll toss my opinion out anyways. The 76 and 77 C's are the same. Starting in 78 they made some changes. More sheet metal on the hood tower is one of them and I preferred the simpler look iof the earlier models. In 78 they also stopped mounting the motor directly to the frame and started using what I refer to as a 'wobbly mount'. I hated that mount but that's just my

No matter what happens it will be sad to Sears go. Wayyyy back in the day you could buy just about anything from them thru their catalog including small homes in kit form, boats, outboards , popup campers you name it. I was baffled a few yrs. ago when I found out K-Mart bought Sears. One struggling company buying another struggling company is a bad recipe.. 30 yrs. ago I can remember bringing in a Buster Brown shoe box full of busted ratchets and screw drivers that had either bent handle's or broken tips. Service with a smile and all new tools to match the quality of the ones I returned, not cheaper variations.. Those were the good old days.. One of the things IMHO that didn't help Sears out in my area was getting involved with being an anchor store at the local mall. I think they should have looked into being a stand alone store somewhere easy to get to without having to deal with the mall nonsense. My father in law has a ton of tools from Sears dating back to the 50's and 60's. Real tough to beat the quality.. Made to last a few lifetime's...

here's what they look like after I put the decals on the tractor to bad the tractor doesn't look as good as the decals

La Dolce Vita Steve!

I bought my first at the Florida Flywheelers show about twenty years ago. I had some property that we were developing and wanted a rouged mower to keep the weeds down. I saw my 1055 and took it for a test mow: I was hooked! I was telling a coworker (fellow old junk lover) about it just before he went on vacation, he emailed me a couple of pictures of my first 953 and offered to haul it home from Ohio; just $200, I couldn't pass it up! These are the two shown to the left. When we moved from Florida to North Carolina the house we bought came with a 312-8, I guess it was meant to be. I was so impressed with the first 953 that I soon had another 953 and a suburban and an RJ, then when I decided I wanted a front end loader the only logical thing to do was buy a GT-14 with a loader. They all serve a purpose, They make me HAPPY!

What started in 1973 was a lawn ranger to plow snow ...40 years later (an 40+ WHs later) I have proof that the addiction has become a friendship thing....one day I had to upgrade my cell phone..young gal started downloading my contact list (she said it would only take a minute)...minutes later she said "how many people do you know?...then she said did you know you have 364 contacts?...I said "is that all".....cause you see I have met a ton on people because of that little red ranger and I always save their phone number....probably half of the numbers belong to you guys....if I've ever met you or talked to you I've got your number and consider you as MY FRIEND....and my RS member number is seven (7) so proof that I know alot of you guys (including Mr Cecil Pond). So if you want to be added to my list of 364. just call me about anything that is faded red and makes noise...I'll probably add ya~~!!......816-806-9774 PS: I still have that little faded red Lawn Ranger and snow blade!!....might get to use it this week!!!

Thanks for the awesome posts guys. This is good stuff and exactly what I was looking for when I started this thread. The old photos are great. I'm getting even more pumped about this new hobby. I don't think it is a desirable horse ??, but my stepdad has a Work Horse that has sat for quite a few years now and has some issues. I may just see if he wants to fix it up.

Exactly. I have one tractor that fell into my lap a few years back. A 1966 856 with a few attachments. I was instantly impressed at how simple it was but how stout it was at the same time. You can not buy a garden tractor like what they used to make back then. They are real work machines and don't be afraid to work them as that's what they were built to do. I have space for more, but honestly I like the idea of having the one, making it my baby and maintaining her like one. You cant go wrong with a wheel horse and like some other brands every sit has there opinions. Some of the old round hoods with the tractor seats are awesome and if I could add another it would be one of them. Enjoy the ride if you own 1 or 40. Some have made it a true hobby to collect. As father with a 20 month old and another due in May I just don't have the time for more tractors.

This is my reason. This is my grandpa and myself at 1year old in the top picture. 26 years later grandpa took another photo with my twin boys on the same tractor which I now have. Not 6 months after the last picture grandpa passed away.

Hey, I took that picture of Dave and Lane (with his Wheel Horse chair over his head) at the Sycamore show this year. Look at that smiley face on Lane...he and his brother had just showed up at the show.

I grew up on a farm with 2 wheel horse lawn rangers one was Grandpa's and one was DADs (now mine) we had a pretty big lawn so they got used alot and also getting worked on alot due to both lawn rangers had Tecumseh engines and anybody that owns a Tecumseh will tell you to be best friends with a mechanic because you will be spending lots of time together or learn how to repair it yourself or walk. So needless to say I learned how to fix them and never looked back, so to answer your question it gets in your blood and I have a lot of memory's with them and it's very hard to beat the quality of wheel horses

I bought my first gt in the early 70's, an original Cub which I had for many years eventually trading for a JD 210 which I gave my son last year. They were good tractors. Last year I bought my first just as a fun project and now I have 4 of them. As I said, the others were good tractors but the are great tractors. I was so impressed by the simplicity of design and functionality. Combine that with ease of maintenance and robust construction and you have a winning combination in my opinion.

Very well put replies here. I've been playing with Wheel Horses for 55 years now. My Dad bought a 1960 Suburban 400 when I was 5. That was his first one and I'm in the process of restoring the very same model right now. There's part of the sentimental side of it for me. I quickly realized the brilliance of the engineering on these little tractors. The simplicity of a Wheel Horse was that brilliance and contributes to their incredible durability. While many changes have been made over the years the similarities from a late 50's machine to the very last year in 2007 can easily been seen. Living my first 45 years within 15 miles of South Bend added to the locally built loyalty. Oh yea, I stand beside AJ regarding Notre Dame Many years on acreages of 26 and 10 I asked my tractors to do things that a normal (that wouldn't be me) person wouldn't do without at least a larger compact utility machine. It may have taken a bit longer but to this day I've never had a Horse whine at me. The bottom line is that they are incredible machines and easy to fall in love with. The addiction so often mention on this forum is very real.

I always wanted an 50's, 60's or early 70's car to restore. I have always worked with my hands and went to school for auto mechanics in the 80's. By the time I had some money saved up in the early 90's the prices skyrocketed and I got married so it got put on the back burner. Well since the economy tanked and my house only has a one car garage that dream is going to have to wait till I retire and move south. So in the mean time about 8 years ago I began collecting the older Wheel Horse Tractors to restore. They don't cost nearly as much as a car would and they don't take up much space at all. My kids and I take them to shows and parades. They're not cars but they are actually just as much fun! That's my reason.

All of the above, including the sentimental. Many threads exist on this site concerning why some of the members do what they do. I think if you spend some time going into the different sections on the main page...like...Restorations, Tractors, Show pictures, etc and do some reading, you will answer your own question. BTW, I got into it the same way you did. My Dad passed and he had 4 horses in his shed. I started fixing them up, found this place and never looked back. Welcome to the hobby.

We all really should have seen this coming when K-mart started selling Craftsman tools. K-mart doesn't even honor the Craftsman warranty. It's only a matter of time before Sears disappears completely.