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Many of us here have run onto the guy that has a car, truck, or Wheel Horse sitting off in the weeds or bushes that they won't sell. Well, fast forward 20 years and:

On the list today for my possible acquisition was a decent little 312-A, and a latecomer--a C-141. Both of these were posted on Craigslist. I will try to keep this brief. Maybe all this was caused by the recent blue moon... I went to look at the 312-A that was supposed to be a "come and get it--I don't want it" transaction (gas to get there, and a minor amount of sweat loading everything). I get there, go through my process of assessing the Horse, do a test drive, and check all functionality. Everything was good, the hours were at a so-so 1150--but it's a Kohler Magnum 12 and I wasn't too concerned. No leaks, no smoke, no problem. I had pre-arranged the deal over the phone and the owner was glad to have me pick it up... so I thought. Suddenly the price went from "can't you load it any faster?" to $400. It had but one attachment, the tiny 37" rear discharge deck. I drove 3 1/2 hours to get to that one. I left without it. Here's where it gets really strange>>> On the way back home I stopped to see a C-141 that popped up on CL late last night. It was equipped with a snowblower, a 42" rear discharge deck and a 48" side discharge deck, extra set of AG tires mounted on rims, chains, weights, and about three of every necessary belt as a spare. I called this morning and pre-arranged a time and a price--only if everything was as advertised. We agreed to $300, and my adrenaline was pumping. I think that's a steal for a clean and working C series--especially one with lots of extra horsey stuff. So I get there and wait for 45 minutes for the owner to come out of his house (he was home, he knew I was there). Pretty creepy. During that time, I gave it the usual inspection. At about the 30 minute mark, and after knocking on every door I could find and pressing every doorbell button... I couldn't take it. He had verbally given me the OK to test things out as much as I wanted (per our phone conversation). So... I pulled the choke and put it at mid-throttle and cranked it up. It started a little hard--but it started--and purred. There were 2 immediately obvious issues: the motor was loose on its mounts (or broken mounts) and the drive belt and pulley were shot and whipping erratically and causing the drive clutch to jitter. The owner actually had to bungee the drive clutch release in the operating position because the shaking was violent enough to pop the clutch release. The oil was new and fresh, and the trans fluid was clean with a new tranny filter. But--the whole bottom half of the engine block, mounts, frame, and snowblower lift arm were covered in black oily sludge. It did not leave a good impression. It looked like he NEVER wiped up anything in the 25+ years he says he's owned it. He never came out of his house. I had a trailer and cash, and was willing to deal with the issues because they are all repairable. $300 for a C-141... I thought is was worth the price of admission. I knocked, dinged, and called him one last time and then drove away. Super creepy... I got about a mile away from his house, and he called my cell phone. The conversation went something like this... "Hey, are you the guy with the red truck?...Yes...Well, you just left my house...Yes, I know, I was there for 45 minutes and despite all my efforts to contact you, you never came out of your house..." Then it took a very unexpected turn. The next thing he actually said to me was, "You have some kind of balls to show up at someone's house and start his tractor and drive it around his yard... some kind of balls, buddy!" Umm, I was literally speechless. This guy knew everything about our arranged meeting and what I intended to do once I arrived to check out the tractor. He knew I was there, but completely avoided me. So, I left... what else could I do? I won't get into the rest of the ensuing conversation, but let's just say... I politely declined... ...And drove like a bat out of hell away from Wheel Horse Deliverance. Two nice finds, zero horsies on the trailer... crazy people everywhere! And a weird guy ("It puts the lotion on the skin" kind of weird) who couldn't come out of his house to take a handful of cash. I hope the next horse finding expedition turns out much better. WOW!

Weird! Must be something in the water. Did you have the banjo, or the guitar?

??????????

I've been secretly hunting for one to run a tiller & maybe a small 3pt blower . One from the late 80's slipped through my fingers a while ago

That's just to keep someone from stealing it Jim. Oldest trick in the book.

I take a black magic marker and before I remove the blades for sharpening, I mark which side was facing down. When installing a new blade, just compare it to the old blade and how it was marked.

You can't go wrong with a 857 they are great! Just finished one this year for my daughter

About time I came across a good deal. Got this Brinly disc set for $50.00! at a yard sale.

I sold a Smith and Wesson 9 mil on Craigs list a few years ago, guy called said he was really interested in the pistol ......wanted me to bring the pistol into the city at x location ( not a place it could be transferred .....off the beat'n path ) so he could " look " at it . Yea right ....lol ....I was born at night ....not last night . Sold a car, guy comes and puts a down payment on it we're all good - get another call from a girl says she wants the car - tell her it's sold.... she blows a major gasket and flips out, calling me names -starts making crazy offers over my selling price ....too bad - once I make a deal and/or give somebody my word it's a done deal - chances are she never had it anyway - can't post here what I told her .

I've sold a few things on Craigs list , almost every time I got one or two characters that needed a miner attitude adjustment .....some on the phone ...some in the yard ......I'm not nuts about craigs list.

That wacko might come out of the house with a gun. The C-141 would have to be mint condition to get me to go back. I'd forget it.

I used to take the PK to shows. Kept getting asked "What year Kubota is that?

Well the Blast cabinet needs new gloves and I need to upgrade dust collection before next round of use. So I spent a day using a wet sand blast nozzle with Masonry sand on a second set of rear rims, prime and paint( positives of 90 degree weather is paint dries fast) and then today I wrestled rear treads. Spent a bunch of time trying to mount new Vredstine 18x8.5-8's onto rims. I know when to punt. I will try and find somewhere that will mount these for me this week. The latter two pics are showing a cut out of corrugated plastic I used in conjunction with HF tire tool to protect paint finish on rim. Similar cut out below tire as well.

you should paint the blades yellow

I guess anything Orange is a Kubota. Lol On a serious note, I could use 4x4 capability so would someday like to have one. i also would not mind having similar Power King as the one in Squonks pics above. But with only 3 acres of Adirondack swamp and sand, it is hard to justify what I already have:-)

Thanks Craig. We got most of the plates up on the wall, 6 left that we have to find a good place for

There's a guy in Lakewood that has them for sale quite frequently . Don't know what the story is behind it though

I love my L3400 best compact tractor made Brian

Planning on being there!!! Hope all of the regulars and anybody else can make it. This is a NICE show and a very Wheel Horse and Garden Tractor friendly show .

One last job before Skonk is a taxi at the Steam Pageant. Hauling the shredder out to the garden to chop up a couple bales of straw.

Agreed, for that price you cant go wrong with a horizontal shaft horse. Especially if you get a 520 back!

So sorry to hear of your loss John. Its amazing the bond we build with our pets, they are like family! I've had many dogs thru the yrs. and loved every one of them. This was my Cocker that I named Archie..The two of us were as close as you could get,, he went everywhere with me. He loved riding in my truck, he would just sit there as happy as can be enjoying every minute.. He is the only dog I ever had that every single person in my neighborhood knew his name and everyone loved him. Many a little kid tugged on his big floppy ears and he never even thought of biting anyone. I could spend hrs. working in my garage and he'd lay on the garage floor just hanging out. I got him from a shelter when he was 2 yrs. old. He lived to be 17 yrs. old. Archie died about 15 yrs. ago., I'll always miss him...

I have some tractors that are the same way and I have a couple you don't have to choke at all at first start up. These tractors are just like real horse's they all have their own personality. Some bite, some don't, some kick , some don't, some are just plain mean, some nice and gentle.

Welcome to Thursday and an update from inside the workshop.... The bench WN was on ended up looking like this!! After the struggle of lifting her off the bench last time we decided the easiest thing to do this time was to slide drag the bench to the doorway and roll her down some ramps,,, To be fair on the bench it has put up with a lot of punishment for the past er... many years including the weight of the 6x6 being built on it.. The bench will be rebuilt a lot stronger and on castor wheels I'm very happy to report that all the changes that have happened on WN have been worth it.. Thanks to the new higher fuel outlet on the tank she starts up straight away with no hassles or queasy-start.. A little choke, no throttle push the starter button and she roars into life.. I also realized that I was no longer thinking about the brakes when using then, I guess the relocated front master cylinder is doing it's job now And now the big one.. Steering.. Gone is the twitchyness that was there under hard throttle while turning.. There is even a fair amount of self centering going on.. Oh, and the steering is so much lighter than what it was The only downside was the amount of wheel turning needed to steer.. It was about 1/2 a turn lock to lock, the A35 steering box made that 2.2 turns lock to lock!! This was sorted by drilling and extra hole in the drop link a bit closer to the wheel and giving the connecting rod a bend so it didn't hit the exhaust or anywhere else.. The lock is now 1.5 turns lock to lock which feels right.. In fact it now has so much lock that the front brake calipers hit the front axle on full lock, so I need to make a couple of simple stoppers to stop that happening.. The fender pan is as done as it's going to get before the shows, it still needs loads more work but that can wait until I get her ready for final paint. I have also installed a plug under the dash.. Nope, it's not for plugging in headphones It is in fact wired into the bikes stop/run circuit. The plan is to grind out some of the plastic bit that separates the positive and negative and weld both bits together. The idea being when it's plugged in to the stop/run circuit will be in run mode.. So if the plug is attached to the driver and the driver get thrown off for some reason, the plug get pulled and the engine stops Have some photo's of WN out in the wild. And for your Viewing pleasure, here's Part 17 and 18 of the build videos. Sorry you have to click on the links to see the vid's, if I post them up the normal way for some strange reason it changes the video links in my other posts! Why Not Build Part 17 Why Not Build Part 18

It's worth it just to get your 520 back.

So... Chris was able to finish up on all his work late last night. I ended up driving it home about 50 min ride and left my newer truck there. It has been a fun 24 hours for sure. First thing this morning I got some help from my boy and my neighbor came over and we installed the bed, bed wood and a few other little things. Made a few trips with it to the store and it is really fun to drive. It has been a long time coming that is for sure...

Well, horses don't get coffee, so they need a little extra shot of fuel to get going.

Not sure I'd be able to drive correctly with her sitting on me. That motor in the video was very soothing. Thanks for the clip.

Nice score... and welcome to the club.

My friend likes to have a drink or a few while mowing. Not sure what happened maybe his horse got drunk from the fumes. Another neighbor told me his C-175 climbed a tree in his yard. The Wheel Horse wasn't hurt as I have seen it since. Here are a couple pictures of the Tree Climber.

Sorry to hear about your loss John. Dave Burley Sent from my tractor seat.

John, sorry to hear about your buddy, I have been down that road before. That is a big dog, holy smokes. Glenn

Without a doubt you did the right thing as painfull as it may be , you wouldn't want him to suffer in pain . thoughts are with you mate.

Hello guys. A little update for you and some more pictures. I have now put the seat on the tractor just for more comfort when driving/testing. I have adjusted my brake/clutch so both work perfectly now I have also Turned the exhaust around 180 degrees so it face the other way to give me clearance on the bonnet (it now faces backwards) and subsequently it has given more air flow to the engine so its all good (as in its previous position it covered up the cylinder head) I have had to cut out a small notch on the carb side to clear the carb when the bonnet is in place. But it doesn't look to bad. I have sorted out a air box assembly (will show that when it arrives) not gone for originality but it will clear the bonnet. I have made a mount for the bottom of my bonnet as it sits slightly higher and got all the necessary bolts etc and it works quite nicely. I have also looked into making the old fuel tank work with a few mounts so it goes through the original fuel tank filler hole. (but the Honda one has been put back on so i can run/drive it) I have started to make a flange and pipe etc for the pepper pot exhaust but i'm not sure if i will use it now. It may just be for shows but i will see how it performs with it etc. That is all for now. More pictures to follow of the bonnet attached etc (i can't for now as the Honda fuel tank gets in the way). Thanks James

A year ago I bought a brand new 48" deck ordered from Toro thru my local dealer. Around $ 1400.00 if I remember correctly. I bought a 314 from the same dealer last summer and it had a 1 year old 42"rd deck on it. The receipt came with the tractor. I think that deck was around $1200. I don't have an issue with each of these 2 decks. They will last longer than my tractors will. To me the decks are worth it, I don't have to mess with rust, spindles, time and labor or headaches. I used a credit card to buy the 48" inch and had it paid off in 4 months.

Sorry to hear that, john.

Friday afternoon: decided to strip the remaining parts from the scrap deck then got sidetracked having discovered one spindle was good but the other had seized since I got the deck three years ago. Pressed the bearing out - hmm, doubt you can get these now, its the sealed unit with double D shafts. Managed to get some penetrating oil down into it (same way the wet got in where the seal had worn on the rusted shaft). Eventually got it turning again but its too rough to use and there's play in the shaft - so scrap value only. The cast casing though came in handy when I did finally get round to cutting the matting late in the day with shadows getting long. For those not familiar with using this stuff I thought I'd cover the next stages in more detail. I began by cutting pieces that would overlap each other. Working my way round... Until the whole deck shell had been covered once. Then repeating the process but the pieces were staggered from the first pass so that the overlaps didn't correspond. Stopped at this point and left the matting in the deck shell like this overnight. Day 2: first task was to make a rough sketch plan of the jigsaw as I removed the pieces in reverse order and put them on a pile. Then sanded off the rough bits of the filler paste before masking off.- in the pic below the hinge for the exit flap that a PO had added to the deck needed masking off. Not sure why it was added - to turn it into a recycler perhaps or maybe just to reduce grass being flung over the patio, but whatever the reason I decided it was worth keeping to give it a try. I can always cut it off later if it really isn't needed. Also masked off the mounting holes in the center of the deck and a couple of rust perforations in the sides of the shell before mixing the first batch of resin and catalyst in a clean plastic bucket (below top right) The first step was to coat the shell in resin using a roller with disposable head until the whole underside of the shell was covered. Until the whole shell had been covered. The table I was working on was covered with cardboard - this is a messy business and the card is useful as a surface for 'wetting out' the matting before applying it. There are special metal rollers specifically for the job and I had some to hand but ended up using the paint roller for most of the work when applying the matting. (The special metal rollers are either ribbed along their length or look as though they're made from washers spaced apart by smaller washers - indeed some are actually made just like that.) First layer of matting applied and rolled out to remove any trapped air pockets and work the resin well into the fibers. At this point the resin in the bucket started to set so a second batch was needed. Starting with a clean new bucket is important in that the solidified resin wont stick so you can turn the bucket over and knock it out before using it again to mix a new batch. Here the second layer has been applied together with an additional layer round the edge. The deck was getting quite warm by now from the heat generated as the resin cures which in turn lessens the work time you get as heat speeds up the chemical reaction. It had set perhaps ten minutes after the photo was taken but I left it for an hour or so to cool down and harden fully before the final step. Having cut must of the excess off using a cutting disk in an angle grinder it was finished with with a flap disk in the same. This makes a lot of dust and a mask is a must here. PO used red pigment in the resin he used which is a nice touch in that the underside of the shell wouldn't require painting. The down side is that without pigment you can sort of see through it and pick out any areas which need an extra bit of matting - there were a couple of these thin areas despite my mapping plan which I was able to correct before the resin went off. Anyway, hopefully Sunday will see the spindles removed - they've got to come off before priming the top of the deck and it will be the best one from this deck (one has a bit of a grumble as you spin it) together with the good one from the scrap deck that will end up being used. To be continued.......

Years ago I asked a friend at work how big his lawn was. He thought for a moment then said "Oh its about a three beer yard." Nuff` said!

Great! Now I can b#%*h at BMW, Lexus, Acura and now vintage Wheelhorse owners when they blind me at night! Nice work, Mike!

953 has a good point.Fuel lines are inexpensive and fairly easy to replace.I did that on my c101 and still had fuel flow issues.I pulled the shutoff valve out of the tank and found rust particles from the valve were impeding flow.Just a thought.Luck,JAinVA

Affixed to a new arrival here today.

Why do my pictures flip upside down?

Bargs Lawn + Garden, Freehold, NJ. http://www.bargslawnandgarden.com/ This is where dad got bought all of his new and 4 of mine came from, the 414 bought there new in 87, and 4 on the trip I took up there a few weeks ago. The 4 I got from him he sold new and took in on trade or were given back to him when the original owner passed.

Mount it behind the hood stand.use longer bolts through the lift lever cast bracket. There is a thread or two of mine on here with pics of one mounted.

I recently completed a major rebuild on mt 1054 and one of the first things I promised myself was to get rid of the strange method of using a key switch to activate the starter and go to the much more sensible solenoid method. With one of the generic solenoids and a generic switch and a minor rewire you should be able to get it done for some $20-25 and have a much better setup.

Great thread!!...lets add Mr Rafferty in Drexel, Missouri...dealership was Rafferty Plumbing I think...he was a dedicated WH dealer and I got to visit with him one day while he was near death but was able to sit in lawn chair and watch his wife mow the lawn with a new 520....he had just closed the dealership due to health but wanted his wife to have a "good tractor" as he told me.....said it was a good one but he paid too much for it!! lol The Wheel Horse sign you see in my avatar hung behind the parts counter....he sold his WH inventory to Midland Hardware in Joplin, Missouri and I think that business closed with an auction a couple years ago. My local Wheel Horse/Toro dealer is Lumax, Belton, Missouri..(named after his sons Luke and Max)...owner is a young Toro guy that doesn't know much about Wheel Horses but he is learning....I try to support his as much as I can...plus he stocks the WH boot for me!!!....have offered to bring a few Wheel Horse tractor to display on his showroom floor when he has an "open house". I also know of a local farmer (deceased) with a story that goes like this...Cecil Pond drove up to the farm one day and said he would make Parrot Farms a dealer if he would buy (3) Wheel Horse tractors....so he bought 3 and bingo, he was a dealer!!..I have a 40' trailer load of "used WH stuff" that came from that farmer which contained 9 ole WH's (one was a Surburban 400 all original with snow blade and deck)

From the previous owners records...the original sales receipt for my 653.