Leaderboard

...well...actually, very gifted indeed, considering the Joisey Hawg Glenn passed this gorgeous example of a '68 500 Special on to me today. All for just the price of gas to stop by and pick it up...what do you think, was my lucky day, or what? As you can see, I'm pretty happy, was a really great time hanging out with Glenn and the boys this afternoon.

Well The GT pull got rained on so I went Friday. Had to fight lots of construction. Just took a few shots

My new addition to the herd 1054A purchased over Labor Day weekend in its original skin(and will stay that way) runs like a champ,came with front blade,rear plow & original paperwork,the former owner had it for over 20 years, I am very happy to add it to my collection.

Hmmm....What was your address again Jack. I need to visit your apple tree.

Pretty much, all back together now... just got a no spark issue to deal with... but I think it's because of the mouse hotel all packed in behind the engine tins. Just had to call the game because of rain.

A nice, sweet tractor - and two nice forum members together!

Obviously a Feather Craft. Looks to be a Ranger that someone may have removed the center walk thru deck (which also served as the front seat backs) to make more room for crab pots. In the second to last picture It also looks like some kind of somethings were added to the side of the boat in the rear... Not good for the value to a collector.There is no way to identify the year with out seeing the ribbing on the floor and the transom support bracings etc. As far as value... Fisherman killed the value on a lot of these boats by removing center decks and drilling extra holes everywhere on them. I have owned a half dozen Feather Crafts and trust me, these alterations effect the value. The fact that this boat still exists is cool. How much is the guy asking? The first two pictures are of my brothers Feather Craft Ranger and one pic shows the deck I believe someone removed from it. The third pic is a Feather Craft Ranger open row boat that I owned. Both boats have no alterations. I don't know of a Ranger such as the one you are interested in with a factory seating setup like that.. Speaking of Stevebo, spent the day on the water with him today. We had a great time, especially me... Not once, but twice... Class was in session for ole Stevebo.

Thanks to Van "Wheel-N-it" and his friend Hal this 953 is now home. I bought the 953 in April and planned to pick it up at the "Big Show", but the need for spinal surgery got in the way. James "Jrblanke" was kind enough to bring it to North Carolina and Van stored it for me until I had recovered sufficiently to retrieve it. Today was the day and I had a great time meeting Van and Hal and look forward to meeting James soon so I can personally say "Thank you" That is Van on the right, thanks to Hal for snapping the photo.

Having a bit of fun with my 312h. I have been using it for cultivating the gardens because it is the perfect size. I have a set of Mankan 5.00-12 tires and rims off of a walk behind tractor. I was having a beverage or two and, came up with yet another brilliant idea. I wonder what these would look like on it. Or, would they even fit? Well, low and behold? The bolt pattern is a perfect fit. Looks a bit strange with 5" wide tires on the back. These are narrow with very tall bar lugs. They looked so cool on there. So, I took them to a friends shop and he blasting the very rusty rims and painting them for me. It looks like it will be a couple weeks before he can get to them though. Auction in2 weeks. Maybe I can find a another set and put duals on it.Cool. That plan worked out so well and my brilliance was oozing everywhere. So I thought, why not put my 48" deck on it and see what does? I have not had a deck on it since I blew a whole $25 bucks on the tractor.It came with a 42" that needs major repair. Turns out it handles the bigger deck with no problems. I changed the hydro oil to Farm Rated brand universal transdraulic. Again, no problems. Clevis hitch installed, works flawlessly. The tractor has 741 hours on it. Now I think I have to find an 10" moldboard plow for it. I am definitely not done finding new and exciting ways of taxing this little monster. After all, life is about taxing right? I will try to get pictures on when the wheels get back.. Pat

Finally got some batteries and got the Cam out. They should be shining them up in about 2 weeks. One Apple tree is loaded and one is bare.

That is some nice sausage you have there.

Here is the one I picked up this week. Buffed out nice and painted the loader.

I got this today has not run in years and needs a gastank but it has a nice 42RD deck and a 12hp kohler. I wasn't even looking for a new project this one came to me

Almost done with the bucket weld the ends and put a cutting edge on and paint about 2 more hrs tomorrow.

I hope you never get totally gifted Craig or we won't have any more Wheel Horse at all !

Looks like you guys had a great time. Can't wait to see what Craig does with this beauty.

Your lucky day indeed MAC. That's a dandy roller and will make a fine resto or refurb project. Love seeing them brought back to life. And nice pics too. Good to put faces with members you haven't met.

Nice machine and 2 Fine Members. It will go together and make a nice machine!

Nice! I love the hood stripes! Mike........

I think I missed something Dennis. What mower deck are you talking about ? Or you're just kidding, right? I don't think I am building this to mow with, lol

Great find, W/H did not make very many of these gems. I have one an I put a C-series dozer blade on it just by using that 520 series blade extension and modifying the rear blade mounting bracket, I will post a few pics. Oh and I also made it a hydraulic side to side blade.

couldnt have went to a nicer guy. best of luck craig. it was a slice today. glen

TO You need at least two to start with, one to work and one to play with and I recommend you become a supporter because you will want to post a lot of pictures. If you are not already you will soon be addicted.

Personally, I would have the bore sized while you have it down. If it needs to be bored, now is the time do it. I would also take a close look at the valve seats and guides. Even If your plans are to baby the tractor, you have the opportunity now to make this motor right for the next 30 years.

I must be that ugly, he never even mentioned a camera! But it was a good trip and we got a load of goodies for my project!

Looks like it's a 50's Feather Craft. But Ken or Steve should no for sure.

I'm sure Stevebo and KenB will have an idea.....just don't let em know where it is.. ! Mike.........

Passed on from one good man to another! The original paint looks great! Happyn to know you are the new owner Craig, the Indy Special has for sure gone to a good home

Craig a Sale? NAAAAAAHHHHH!

Craig Looking good. I am sure you have it all together in no time. Another Tecky. H60 back in service? Enjoy the ride Gary B............... Mike I think you said it right THE HUNT. But that is the game we play It is all in the chase. A.K.A. Chasing Classic W/Horse.

WISHBONE???? BRING BACK THE POWER SWEEP!!

OK...this is what I really wanted to say...BRING BACK THE WISHBONE OFFENSE!!!

it works...... 11967639_10204926551067943_1951104965_n.mp4

OH! No...it's OK Steve... was using my Canon.

I was slightly gifted today.

It is going to come down to having them both open, You will need to change out the 11/44 toothed gear and it will have to mesh properly with the bull gear of the differential...so you can have your brake shaft come out that hole in the trans. You will also have to get rid of the longer cluster gear shaft so you can put a cap bearing in that hole. If the parts from the 2 transmissions, open at the same time allow you to do that, we want pictures and video for sure. I do not see any reason why it will not work, but having them both open at the same time is the key.

That is a nice tractor and you will enjoy it. Sounds like you bought it from a good egg! It's nice to know that there are honest people still out there.

I worked on the 5xi project for 3 years. The average person doesn't realize how many man hours and money go into the development of some products. They see the end result and judge it from there. Another person helped me on the 5xi build. I think the demise of the 5xi was the price. If you could afford over $10,000.00 for a garden tractor with a deck you would probably hire someone to mow your yard. There were 4 wheel drives out there that were better at the use of attachments. There were about 7 designers, a head engineer in charge of the project, an engineer working on the power for the tractor, an engineer from Wheel Horse was brought out of retirement to design the transmission, and the 2 of us building the prototypes - all who were dedicated to the project for the 3 years. There were 2 people from test dept, an electrical engineer, the toro stylist designing the look of the tractor, someone doing the finitite analysis insuring it was structurally sound and the marketing team that was driving the build of the 5xi. The cost of development along with the costs for production - Tooling for all the stamped steel and plastic parts and setting up the lines for production were a lot to recover. A differential lock was designed but never made it even into the prototype.

Almost tolerable... when they're not green.

OK, here's a pic of me plowing with the old C125 from two winters ago. She was a beast, and I was stupid to sell her when the 418 came up for sale locally... Here's my current 314. Nice machine, but it just doesn't have the same attraction as the older ones [emoji17] And a pic of my other machine.... Please don't throw me out 'cuz the paint is orange [emoji13]

Yep....

I though you were having a sale cause you were out of room. Why don't you "pay it forward" and pass that on to me. I happen to have just enough room for one more tractor. I have a real nice 8 horse pull start Kohler to drop right in there! Seriously!

Nice !

Glad you found us, I too am a fan of the '50s and '60s to

I wonder if you sent in the warranty card, would you be covered for a year? Nice looking tractor!

Jack, Take a close look at the headlight fixture, you currently have two bulbs in it. The 5xi can actually take four bulbs, the extra two go to the outside of the existing ones. From the back of the fixture, there is probably a piece of tape over the lamp socket holes, as supplied by the factory. Order from Toro part number 95-7858 sidelight kit, and it will come with a wiring harness that wires into the existing harness, has the two new bulb sockets and bulbs. Installation time of about 10 minutes and you have double the light. I added it to both of my 5xi's when I had them, and was happy with the increased lighting. The kit is currently listed for $37.05 on jackssmallengines.com, but you should be able to order it from any Toro dealer. Hope this helps. Rick

Well, it took a little time, but I pretty much have the re-power job complete for those of you interested. Here are some pics of the finished product and notes on what I did to get everything to work. I must say that it's not as hard as it might seem. Just some head scratching and a desire to make it as clean an install as possible. I can't stand cut rate options, so maybe I spent a little more $$ than someone else or time making it just right. But I will say that I'm pretty proud of the result. Cut the grass yesterday and plowed through 12" high grass with a 60" deck with hardly whimper from the 25 horse command. Let me know what you guys think! I have a couple more "tweaks" to accomplish, like re-configuring the oil drain tube to make oil changes convenient. And for those contemplating the switch, rest assured, it's possible! With the base in place, the engine was ready to mount. After 3 prototypes, I wound up with this design. It consists of 1" square stock with 1/4" X 2" stock welded together. Had to add a 1/16" washer under the engine to make sure the coupler lined up perfectly with the hydropump. I had to carefully measure the distance between where the PTO needed to be and the coupler to determine the final resting place for the engine. The dimension of the part I had machined to attach to the flywheel also depended on this. I placed the old engine in and took the necessary measurements. Had the crankshaft been a different size, I would have had to change the dimension of the spacer at the flywheel end. Looking back, I'm not sure a shorter crank would have worked. After getting the engine positioned, the next challenge was the pivot point for the clutch arm. Fabbed this "L" from 7/16" round stock and threaded one end to mate with the threaded hole on the engine block. I tried using "all thread" for the prototype because I could not locate any 7/16" stock. But I didn't like the way it ended up. Looked a little harder and found some at Tractor Supply. Welded a washer on the end to act as a stop, and drilled a hole for the cotter pin to make sure the arm stayed put. Next, the arm itself was too short. The original K series with its horizontally opposed cylinders had a lower profile above the cylinders compared to the V Twin design of the Command. That meant adding a little extension on to the end of the arm. I was a little concerned that the extra length would compromise the amount of pressure the clutch would provide when engaged, but it proved to be a non issue. The connecting rod from the PTO control from the driver's seat had to be lengthened and reshaped. The original straight rod would not clear the valve covers of the V-Twin design. I put the first bend nearest the control lever, then picked up some 1/2' round stock and threaded one end to fit into the adjustment "nut". Made another bend or two to that piece to end up with what you see here. It's still not the way I'd like it because it hits the air filter housing when engaged, but I spent so much time on getting it to this point, I'll save that project for another day. Spent an inordinate amount of time bending, re-bending and adjusting that dang thing to make sure there was enough pressure on the clutch pressure plate, but not so much that it didn't disengage. Cable connections ended up being pretty straight forward. I picked up a couple "Arnold" universal mower throttle cables, discarded the cheap plastic lever that came with it and modified the length to fit. Both the choke and throttle don't have the same "throw" as the original. Full on with the choke and full throttle and idle require much less distance. Just have to live with that. Found a happy medium and need to learn the new touch. The last piece of the puzzle to figure out was how to attach that little PTO brake. Using that same 7/16" all thread, I welded a piece of scrap bar stock to the original L shaped bracket that held the brake. Used a nut as an adjustment so that I could position the brake exactly where needed. Then, used the original adjustment means for exact positioning against the pulley. Had to make sure this piece ended up under the pulley so as not to interfere with the belt for the blower this winter. Here's what I ended up with! Would I do anything different? I don't know. The electric clutch option is still out there. But I really had no clue how it would attach to the PTO and finding a dual pulley arrangement was difficult. It also would have added at least a couple hundred bucks to the total. Out the door, I've got about $1200 invested. Yes, I know, that's what I paid for the tractor. Who cares. Those are the things you try not to think of. Engine was $800. Used, but low hours. Maybe 100. Machining the extension to the flywheel and labor was another $160. Turning the crankshaft from 1 7/16" to 1 1/8" was $200. Then just some miscellaneous supplies. The one thing I have to get used to is the lack of "jowls" the tractor seems to have compared to the old horizontal cylinders of the K. I kind of miss that look. Hope this helps someone else facing the same decision!

That is a project we will want to follow. Running a 60 inch deck at the same time will add weight but also make for a very strange lawn mowing monster. I have a Kwik Way loader and the under carriage prevents use of a deck at the same time. The mid and front tach-a-matics are used for the loader. I am sure it can be done somehow but we will be very curious to see how you do it. I have also seen a set up with a plow blade attachable to the bucket so you can also plow without removing the loader.