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Well, I went to look at another neglected 416-H today. This poor horse has been out in the weather most of it's life. The wiring is a mess, and I don't know if it even runs. But I'm rescuing it and bringing it to my stable. If it's beyond hope, I may be parting it. More to come...

1929 NASH WITH WOODEN SPOKE WHEELS. 1944

'73 Pontiac Lemans GT

I was recently reminiscing about all my cars that I have owned over the years and was curious to see other peoples first car that they owed This little car was made in UK back in 60s by Hillman and was called simply the Hillman Imp It had a rear engine and the engine was prone to overheating and the radiator cap pointed directly as the face and I remember my brother refilling a overheated radiator with water and suddenly the engine spurted out scolding water all over his face & chest and he spent three weeks in hospital . Cool little car though but certainly not a chick magnet . Show us your first car

My new 2015 work truck arrived here today... sitting in my driveway with a total of seven miles on the clock. Wanted the full size bed, as I'm tired of only being able to rustle home one at a time. The only drag being...I'm gonna need a new rear window decal, really hated to see that go.

My first car was actually a truck, a 1964 Ford F-100 handed down from my brother Dave when he joined the navy. It was his first ride as well. I got my balls busted all the time about it in school. all it took was one kid to say it looked like a milk truck and that was it, EVERYONE called it the milk truck for the next few yrs.. Sure wish it was still around, it was a lot of fun.. Yes, this is an actual pic. My second car was a heck of a lot more exciting.. Since we are on the topic of first cars.. This is my father in law Joe's 61 Ford Fairlane, it was his first car. He special ordered it when he was 19 yrs. old with every speed option you could get. The largest engine you could get from Ford at that time was a 400 hp 390 which it had along with a 4 speed and 4.56 gears. My father in law did everything he could do to max out the hp on the 390 (within the gray are of the rule book.) He could easily handle hangin and beatin the 409's and 413 Mopars but when Chevy came out with the 427's he started to get spanked. So.. He was able to purchase a 427 side oiler new from the dealer which he built from the ground up. Bye bye Chevy's as he put it.. So where is this car today? It is sittin up on blocks in his garage as it has been since 1968. Why? Father in law said the car became outdated and he wouldn't be embarrassed so he built race cars for his friends and when they were too chicken to run them at the track he did the drivin as well. The Fairlane never spent a night outside, in fact it was never even registered, it was a track car only. It has 2500 miles on it, mostly from flat towing it to the track. My mother in law wouldn't let him sell it because she said she never even got a ride in it so until that happens it ain't goin anywhere. My father in law died this past September. It is now a PRIORITY of my mother in law (and the rest of the family) to make it happen for her, hopefully this summer. If there is one guy in this world my father in law didn't like it was the guy that owned this Impala wagon. Don't kid yourself it was a full blown race car, 427 with dual quads and a 4 speed. The owner of it owned his own speed shop, the House of Speed out of Norwalk CT. My father in law and this guy wound up having to race each other all the time and the results were always the same, The Impala beats him off the line (no lack of traction out of that wagon) and the wagon would lose by a car length. Then the owner of the wagon would force my father in law to tear his engine down(for a fee) to have the officials check it out to make sure he was within the rules. The guy would always shoot off that a legal 390 could never beat him. Well, never caught cheating and that really pissed the Impala guy off. The one time the Impala beat my father in law Joe decided to return the favor and forced him to tear it down. Guess what, he cheated! They never raced again, once the guy heard there was now a 427 under the hood of Joe Walko's Ford he disappeared.

'63 Beetle.... The only pic I have of it.

Here is mine. Bought it when I was 15 and have owned it now for 27 years...

72 Buick Riviera with a 454. Swiped this pic from the net but pretty much the same car and color. Gas was cheap back then and this car sucked it down quick. A big heavy luxury car but could easily light the tires up without brake standing it.

I had a 74 Nova hatchback. It was blue with an inline 250 and a 3 speed auto....but with a set of rally rims and some air shocks it looked like a racecar ! After about 4 or 5 months I flipped it.....moved down to a 74 Vega GT next. Neither of these are pics of mine, just images I borrowed from Google....I gotta learn how to get my old snapshots made digital. Mike...........

After sharing a 1968 Plymouth station wagon with my brother this was my first very own car ('stolen' image). Pretty impressive having a 1970 Camaro starting out my senior year in 1972. I tried my best not to let the other kids look under the hood though. 250 I-6 with three on the floor. I even had the SS emblem on the grill. I called it the 'Super Six', my Dad said it was the 'Stinky Six'.

1949 Dodge Coronet with a Gyro-Matic transmission. This is a representative photo exactly like mine minus the whitewalls. Bought by my brother in 1964 for $325.00 in perfect shape. He gave it to me in 1967 when he bought his '67 Firebird 400, and I sold it when I enlisted in the USCG in 1969 for $100.00. At one time I was going to paint "Bumble Bee" stripes on it but my brother didn't like that idea. His compromise was use of the Firebird! The rear seat was like a sofa - great for doubling at the drive-in.

1963 Chevy II Aqua Blue. Mine was a two door. Straight 6 with a 3-speed on the column.

Hello again. I just thought i'd share a photo or two of my recently acquired Wheelhorse. I found it locally (Sussex) & will hopefully get the plough & possibly bade to go with it. It needs a repaint, new front tyre & has been fitted with a different steering box. The previous owner found it difficult to control when ploughing. Hopefully he's got the original somewhere. The engine turns & with slight compression so hopefullly shouldn't be to bad. Hope you find it interesting. Philip

One of my good friends was taken from this Earth this week . Is it possible to be so close to someone to shed a tear even though you've never shaken his hand ? Looked into his eyes ? YEP . My good friend Jay passed away Wednesday at the ripe old age of 39 . My prayers go up to his wife & two young children . I've never talked to a kinder , gentler , more caring person . I will miss you deeply , Jay . So long my brother , we will meet one day .

Not a tractor but it is red. Picked up a Lincoln Precision Tig 225 yesterday. Been used three times and has just been sitting. Got the bottle, cart, filler metal. Time to go back to school and let my son teach me something. He graduates from welding school in June.

Yes Mike, I was real pleased with the DVD and seeing it when new. The Deck (same as the L/Ranger 5-2322) is the original. Modified to fit the Tractor at the Assembly Plant in Belgium. Euro models were adapted to use up the old versions unsold in the U.S. Belgium also used up all the old Short Frame Hood Decals from the Named Models. This Raider 12, being one of the new (ish) range of Long Frames had the front Tach-a-Matic mount, but not used. Also the rear pivot Frame holes for the 'T' bar Lift, near the Transmission were undrilled. It had the Belt Tensioner unit fitted where the rear bolt fits in the Mid Mount Bracket on the R/hand side. See next pic- Here's another blurry Screen Shot of it in 1982 (best view I could get) where is was used for Stump pulling !. It is now looking a bit of a sorry state with no Deck or Lift Lever and the rear light is damaged and obviously used for general labouring/towing before being laid up around 1988 - And just a reminder of what it now look's like and the only change is the use of the U.S version of the Long Frame Hood Decals (Ed Mayhews) and Stainless Button Head Screws on the Grass Screen-

Hi: I am new today to this forum, but in the interest of safety I must respond. The United States of America Standards Institute, sponsored by the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute recommends for safety the maximum blade tip speed of 19,000 Ft./Min. Which means the tip travels 19,000 feet in 1 minute. Which is going 3.6 miles in 1 minute or about 215 mph in a car. Blade tip speed is caculated by the blade length and the rpm of the spindle it is mounted to. The spindle rpm for a 16" blade length/diameter would be 4,542 rpm to achieve 19,000 ft/min tip cutting speed. , The same spindle with a 24" blade length/diameter would be 3,023 rpm to achieve the same 19,000 ft/min cutting speed. The larger the blade length, the less spindle rpm needed to accomplish 19,000 ft/min. There are charts online that show what rpm is acceptable for different blade lengths (saves on doing the math). Blades fatigue while spinning and after cutting for awhile begin to stress crack. If you hit something hard, it accelerates the fatique. You can figure out what force the blade hits the grass (I am not going to do the math here) and if all is working properly the blade see's the grass as a solid object. You then get a clean cut. Speeding the blade tip speed up, can cause the grass to pull and tear especially after the blade dulls a bit> The lift wings on the blade are designed to lift the lawn at a specified rpm. Speeding up the blade actually causes the blade to lift less (I have seen this also with leaf blowers where people speed up the engine thinking it will blow more, it doesn't, it blows less). The wings also wear out faster at higher speeds. The biggest concern is that a blade will shatter and become a projectile at higher speeds. I have seen blades go right through most mower decks when they explode. I have repaired many decks after this happens. I can only imagine a blade fragment flying across the lawn into something or worse someone. If in doubt, contact the blade manufacturer for the correct blade tip speed they recommend for that blade. I don't want to see anyone get hurt or worse... My 2 cents worth. Bob H C-160 Automatic A hard working horse

It would seem fast enough. The best thing you can do for cut quality now is to keep your blades sharp. I'm sure that blades last longer, cut better, and use much less HP when they are sharpened regularly. I often pull mine and sharpen lightly after a few hours of cutting. Get your deck adjusted as well. The front of the blades should be slightly lower than the rear. Put the tractor on a level surface and set the deck to cutting height and adjust with the trunnion bolt at the rear center of the deck until the front is cutting about a 1/8 in. lower.

here's my mirror this morning and if I look back a little 1970 lawn ranger - which was on an auction site for £0.99 a quick email and offer of not much more I went to collect. No money actually exchanged hands in the end

That would have been appropriate Mike. A friend had a 62 Falcon with the 170 and he split the exhaust manifold and installed true duals. Cool little car. Here's the car I bought new right after graduating in 73. 73 Pontiac Venture Sprint (actual scanned picture). Paid $2750 off the showroom floor Had a 350 and I milled the heads to raise the 7.3 to 1 compression ratio and installed an intake manifold and quadrajunk from a ram air GTO and duals. It's the car that caused my friends to give me the nickname 'Racinbob'. The truck (1985) and trailer was just scanned with it. It had the 300 inline six and pulled that trailer with ease (almost). The pic of the truck alone was sent to me by my daughter in Indiana a couple months ago. She thought it was my old truck and she was right. Apparently it still is running.

I bought a 312 last year. The guy selling it had the belt on the outer PTO pulley. He also had the the center deck pulley flipped. That deck sounded awful. I asked him why and it was so he could mow faster.I got it cheap by the way it sounded. I put it back the right way and it's as quiet as a new deck. The guy's elevator din't go all the way to the top floor. He sold the 312 so he could mow his 2 acres with a walk behind Ferris with no sulky!

Wheel Horse came out with a pretty good product. A few engineers including are own Mr. Pond spent a lot of time punching numbers around to come up with a design that work to it's max at the same time being safe and efficient. Being my family was a old Wheel Horse dealer, I can tell you, you would be better served by leaving well enough alone. I have seen the effects of changing things on decks with well intensions. In the end result was damage, total destruction and the worst, someone got hurt.

I'd love to have that tractor the weekend of July 10th. That's when the NYS 2 Clyinder Expo and John Deere consignment auction is held at our local Steam Pageant grounds. I could ride it around and show it off as the best GT JD ever made and reap the profits and sell it at the auction!

I was thinking "Stunt Double" for when the going gets tough!

Here are a few pictures of my All Original 312-8 with PECO Vac. Came outfitted from dealer just how you see it. I bought it from original owner a bit over a year ago. I only use it late fall for clean up. I modded the bag system so removing when full is easier. I also did freshen up the deck with a few patch welds, complete strip and re-paint. Tractor is how it came back in the day. Hope you all like pictures. MU

Nothing got in my eyes but I had the strangest situation with a wire wheel strand. I was cleaning some screw threads using a wire wheel in my drill press. Didn't think anything of it. When I was finished working on the project, I went to take a shower and all of a sudden there is something that I can't see sticking in the top of my left shoulder. It actually was facing towards the outside. I got my wife to look and she took a 3/4" piece of wire from the wire wheel out of my shoulder. I can not figure out how it got there as I was wearing a jacket, flannel shirt, and T-shirt while cleaning the screws. I just can't stress enough to wear goggles or wrap-around safety glasses while using anything that rotates.

I bought this with the intention of using it. It ran great, but it did not move. I figured the hydro was shot, It did not leak any fluid like when I had to replace the hydro pump in other d series I own. I figured, since Ihave to pull the motor, I should give it a paint job and clean up. The pump was fine, it was only the coupler. Here is how it turned out.

It's funny how that happens. First three Wheel Horses were B-100's. Then I've had two 857's. Now it's 416-H's. Where will it all end?

Nice truck there Craig. The new truck smell is definitely nice Craig, but i didn't think the other one was that old? I remember you got it around the same time as Denny and myself purchased ours. Mine sits quite alot now as i have the wifes gas sipper to drive, so its nice to jump in it every now and again and soak up whats left of that still new smell and drive it. its been sitting at 21,000 there abouts since Larry's show in MO last year.......

1976 Plymouth Duster over 400 cars trucks ago

Nice truck, Craig. Nothin like the smell of a brand new vehicle..... Now get that decal ordered.

Some amazing looking cars you ole geezers had back then . sadly we didn't have any American cars here in UK , probably caus you had the steering wheel on the wrong side .

My parents old Station Wagon, dubbed the "war wagon". It was a 74 mercury monterey with a 454 under the hood. It was about to size of a Vista Cruiser. In the way back, jump seats folded out of the floor, with a magnetic checker board table in it. Was cool as a little kid, but was really cool as a teenage driver. That floor pocket held a keg nicely with the crew. When with the girlfriend, the back seat folded down to a queen size bed. That car wasn't much to look at, but man I had some good times in it for sure. Cool topic, and thanks for the memory lane trip.

I built a two sized pulley for a 48" sd to increase blade speed and found it was sketchy at best. It seemed that the biggest benefit was the extra lift created under the deck really helped keep the grass stood up tall in order to get a lower cut. The problem with that is these decks already cut pretty low and adjusting it upward causes a loss of seal of the deck to the ground so you then lose the extra lift you had gained. Another problem was the smaller pulley did lose enough contact surface to allow the belt to slip, not to mention the extra violent gyro created by the extra speed. Also, keep in mind that just flipping a stock two sized pulley over may not be the answer because it may change the size of the center pulley compared to the two outer pulleys (at least on decks with three blades). Once you do that, the two outer blades are spinning a different speed than the center which makes for an ugly cut also. IMHO, adjust the deck properly, file the blades about every three uses, and enjoy the ride as long as possible. If you're going to mow large areas and time is a concern, better get a big zero turn.

I would have called it the "Stovebolt Six" My Falcon had the 170 "Boat Anchor" six with the glass bowl carb. It burned oil so bad a plume would blow out the down draft tube and out the back. Every one thought I had duals!

Hey Bob, Based on the pictures and your text on the wiring, I would suggest you remove that wiring, put it in a 2 qt pan then add meatballs and sauce over low heat.

1971 Chrysler 300 with a nicely warmed over 440 six-pack. Mine was Maroon:

61 Ford Falcon

And of course Ronald McDonald was Willard Scott!

Someone took a lot of time and effort to do that..............WHY!!!!!!!!!! From looking at the exhaust maybe he was delirious from the fumes?

Sadly , I bet the price would go up. And there are people that would buy it and not know any different.

Today I lifted the front up and made sure all of the bolts underneath are tight. I also fitted a couple of extra earth wires as with everything powdercoated earthing can be a problem. Where the console bolts to the frame the frame is threaded, I have also put a locknut on the back side of all 10 of these bolts, which is probably unnecessary, but I can be sure it is all secure. Fitted the engine mounting plate and lowered it back down. Now I was ready to fit the engine. I decided on a repower for this build and purchased a 23hp Briggs Vanguard kit from the SEW. It only took about 5 days to get to me and I am very happy with it. The tip of the exhaust is slightly damaged, but I can straighten that out. The engine bolted straight in onto the original mounting plate and the wiring harness just clipped together, it couldn't have been any easier. That is where I got up to today. The front wheels are temporary off a Bolens, I will get a pair of rims powdercoated to match the rears which have 24 x 12 x 12 tyres. I also have to get the transmission input pulley refinished. Next thing is to connect throttle and choke cables, make up battery leads and then I should be able to fire it up. I have a Caswell Black Oxide cold plating kit which I haven't tried yet. I am going to coat the bushes for the transmission drive linkage to see how well it works.

That's really a nice thing to have. Very cool!

Very nice surprise, a unique piece of footage. Can't be many folks who have first day footage of their horse :)

Your right about that...I feel sorry for anyone in this hobby in that area! Mike.........

About ten years ago I picked up this 400 Suburban near Geno's place, bet I couldn't get away with that today!

There's a Martian following me!!

These are awesome tractors. Nice job putting it back together! If you were closer to St. Louis, I'd be trying trying to talk you into a horse trade Steve

I don't have any in the mirror, but Mrs R. took a few through back windows. The '56 RJ-35: The '55 RJ-35: