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Just wanted to start a thread for a place for anyone to say "thanks" to other members. Ill start it off by saying huge thanks @Chris G for going above and beyond to sell me a great tool box for my 701. I wasn't happy with the condition of the toolbox so he improved it! Most people Ive ran across would have just said "take it or leave it". Great member and representative of Red Square!

This is 4 wheel horses combined to make one. It has a raider rear end, with D axles and a D Differential, 520 swept forward axle and gear reduction steering, and a B&S cast iron 16hp. It has the frame stretched 6 inches in front of the motor. and it will handle a 60inch deck. I am going to put a ark 550 loader on it. It is a beast. It has a D hood and grill, and a early 80's dash. and it will also handle 16 rear tires. A friend of mine built this. I got it yesterday.

This is my new to me in March 2017 1977 B80 8sp.. Work on the restoration was done by PO. It sports a 36" side discharge deck and has had an engine rebuild of the original 8hp Kohler. This Horse is still a working horse even though she looks purdy.

If Aldon lived next door to me, I'd be divorced. But oh, the cool stuff we could come up with.

I will say thanks to all the members on here and our vendors. I appreciate all the information that's been giving to me and also appreciate all the parts I've got from folks on here.

I would like to send out a big Thank You to @gwest_ca for all of the excellent responses he makes and the great job he does with our Manuals section.

Thanks! Your welcome and it was not a problem by any means.

Just picked this up today, looks like the belt is maybe around 63 1/2" anybody have a number for the belt?

It would be GT14 Party City!

And thats a wrap! Plenty of room. Now the fun starts.

Did a little seat repair

Just throwing this out to think about it. I vaguely remember a conversation at a dealer in the 70's. A guy had brought a Raider in because of a clicking in the transmission. The dealer said there was a common problem with the 10 pinion differentials that would cause a clicking noise. It caught my attention because my Dad had a Raider 12 with a 10 pinion. Of course that was a 6 speed but I believe the hydro Bronco has a 10 pinion as well.

Loaded up my Mrs Rules, and our two twins(Suburban models 400&401) & headed over the mountain for a ride around West Point's Morgan's farm today. We were just in time to catch a few minutes with Ace, a little American miniature horse boarded there & his owner Cathy. Made for the perfect photo opportunity...capturing Ace, the mini real horse & two of our little Suburban Wheel-Horses checking each other out. And here's Ace taking a little bite out of the competition.

Hi, and welcome to Red Square. It is going to be really hard to give you good advise with out hearing the click. Maybe, you could do a short :30 video so we could hear it. These differentials and the bull gear meshing with the mushroom gear isn't sloppy, but it is not like a car differential. If you have one of the bearings with some wear going on, that would do it. If you have any seals leaking, that could be the worn bearing. Since it was your father's, you might have some knowledge as to how good it was taken care of. If you think it has had good care, I would be inclined to just keep an eye on it and see if it gets louder or worse. Here is the truth...the only real way to know is to open it up and take a look. If you can, try pushing it around (not on the blocks) and see if the noise is still there. Does it click just once per revolution or more? I would try a bunch of tests before I opened it and also before I decided not to open it.

Pictures of the difference between C & D differentials. The D dif. will take 35 hp.

PBR is how you get all that stuff put together. I knew I was missing something. Looks really cool. Love custom builds like this.

Johnny Cash would be proud! Looks like a great project. What is your supervisor's name?

Just thought I'd pop on my '79 C-81 fitted with '62 finger bar.

Thats either a 16 or 18hp Briggs in there but it's missing or has the wrong tins on it. Also those stacks are a problem because they don't look to have supports on them. Looks like a back yard resto job to me. Check it over good. Could have plenty of life left but I bet it's going to need some odds and ends. Good luck and

4" for the gt compared to 2-1/2" for the 5 lug. Not as much as the gt or D series but it should be more than strong enough. I already have custom 5 lug wheels. I figure if these 5 lug hubs were good enough for say the 520's it should be more than enough for me. I am in no way going to work this as hard as it could be worked. Although I havent welded the centers into my rims yet and I do still have the original wheels with 4 lug centers....... and the rims are shot but the centers could be removed and put in my 15"x10" shells. Well another project 😁

If the series II that is low hrs and should be no prob with excellent maint. If series I with splash lube, operating on flat ground and keeping oil at full mark at all times is critical. No hills or side mowing with it!

The arm is a primer arm like the later Bubble ones on new motors.

I am looking for a grill, and I might just leave it a rat look. Time may change my mind, what's left of it.

Just to add to that - the aluminum body of that voltage regulator must be grounded to the system to work correctly and is generally the culprit if they don't want to charge the battery . Remove the regulator noting the location of the wires , clean the bolt hole areas and it's a good idea to use a ground wire back to the battery and the engine block - the system will be a lot more consistent and stable . When re-installing the bolts I like to use internal tooth lock washer (stainless is best) to help keep the connection clean and tight - some dielectric grease helps as well . Sarge

WOW...It looks like it was well thought out. Should be a good loader tractor. Need to get rid of the PBR evidence though!

Me too! Thanks for following along. Its a journey.

Thanks for all your posts on this project. I came across it looking for some info for my GT14. I'm really curious to see how it turns out. It seems like your customizing ideas nicely address some of the shortcomings of this model. Keep up the good work!

Wait one Terry...trying to see if I can find a pict to post here. Finally found it... factory black Work Horse GT-1800. If I remember correctly, was told it was special order, & you could choose your color.

I have recently had a few customers who painted their Work Horse gt's red instead of the original color. They used the american series but I was just thinking maybe doing the original red decals in black. Pretty decent looking GT by the way.

Getting close! Measured my axles from hub to hub and it is really close to stock gt14 width maybe even a hair wider. So hopefully if I can get my son over here this week, there may be an Eaton 1100 transplanted into Skittles soon.

It come with blade, tiller, disc, yard roller , plow, sprayer, seed broad caster

1960 Suburban Model 400... & 1961 Suburban Model 401.

Toro acquired both Wheel Horse and Lawn-Boy, hoping to keep those high-end brands alive. They covered market segments where Toro wasn't as strong; Toro didn't have any garden tractor presence, and Wheel Horse also brought a line of smaller but well-engineered lawn tractors and alternate rear-engine riders to their lineup. Lawn-Boy was kind of its own special segment with two-cycle push mowers and a strong brand loyalty that extended into the commercial sector. (I usually saw more commercial Lawn-Boy mowers than Toro trimmer mowers in commercial service back in the day.) Toro supported the engineering efforts to carry the Wheel Horse line into the 300, 400, and 500 lines plus develop the 5xi, and they were the ones that brought Lawn-Boy into the modern age with the oil-injected/piston-ported "M" series 2-cycle mowers. They were very much trying to grow and build those brands. Unfortunately, economic downturns that favored the rise of cheap commodity equipment, a decline in popularity of gardening on a scale big enough to induce people to need GTs, engine emission regulations, plus the rise of zero-turns across pro and homeowner use, all really turned the market upside-down. Today, SCUTs have eaten into the garden tractor market and cheap commodity lawn "tractors"/riding mowers have gobbled up the homeowner market. Zero-turns dominate the turf care industry. Emissions regulations killed 2-cycle mowers. In the end, Toro's two big acquisitions went from being important assets to a mostly dead market. Toro actually protected the Wheel Horse brand by not applying it to anything that didn't have a genuine Wheel Horse engineering legacy. Unfortunately, there's no way to fit genuine Wheel Horse into Toro's modern lineup. So the brand remains dormant. Lawn-Boy still has name recognition, and just survives as re-branded Toro homeowner mowers. The "M" series deck lives on though, in slightly modified/updated form as one of Toro's (expensive) pro line trimmer mowers. Toro spent money and had plans to cultivate those brands and build themselves into a "family" of reputable names. Economics and outside market forces changed all that.

Stevebo's manual, and electric start '56 Ride-Away Seniors.

Happy Birthday @Tankman, we are all glad you were born.

Never had one, but I think you could dress it up with a couple good files. There should be 3 balls that lock the coupler to the shaft and the outer collar should be spring loaded to hold them in place. There looks to be enough good left in the coupler to work, or at least until you can find a replacement.

You are quite the Mad Scientist, Mr. Larry! Can't wait to see the final product!

Good idea I like that

In November of 1997 I bought my first new vehicle. Today, that old friend no longer belongs to me. It always was a bit of an unusual truck. You don't see many of these 7700 lb gvw Fords out there with their bizarre 7-lug wheels. Heavier than an f-150, but lighter than a heavy duty 3/4. I guess it was more of a 5/8 ton. It was a 1997 F-250 light duty 4x4 with the 4.6L v8. I paid extra for the automatic transmission thinking my then fiancé (still my wife today ❤️) who couldn't drive a manual would drive it periodically. It was the first vehicle I ever drove with an automatic transmission. In 20 years, she probably drove the truck 5 times. the things we do for love! It could carry 2700 pounds and it did that and more many, many times. It probably has hauled over 100 separate wheel horses in its 8-ft bed. Until 2003 it was my daily driver until I grew tired of the 17 mpg it gave. Since then I added another car and only used the truck as a truck. So the last 50000 miles or so were usually loaded with something...rock, dirt, tractors, drywall, etc. or pulling a trailer. In reality, it's worked pretty hard when called upon for the last 14 years. It moved me and my belongings from Illinois to Missouri to Indiana and back to Illinois. A friend borrowed it to move his stuff and ended up making multiple back and forth trips to West Virginia. its its been registered and titled in three states all under the same name -mine. Never an accident and until a hailstorm last spring that claimed the headlamps and windshield it was still 100% factory. It's going to be weird not seeing it around anymore. Hopefully it doesn't get crushed soon as I think it has quite a bit of life left in it. I'm sure it's bound for an auction as the next part of its life. age was starting to take a toll and rust was making weird things happen. The engine and transmission are still sound but it had been decaying around the edges. The exhaust manifolds are both rusted, the 4x4 system only works 75% of the time, the AC is dead, and general rust was making it somewhat unreliable. I had good luck in the last 20 years with this truck, but it did make me pucker the time the brake line ruptured at a rail crossing with a train careening across the road. Had I not got that sucker to stop by throwing it in park and flooring the emergency brake the day would have ended differently. Another er time it wouldn't start after launching the boat with the trailer still in the water. That was fun. And there was that 10-degree winter night between Decatur and Springfield Illinois when the heater core blew leaving me with no heat and a puddle of coolant on the floorboards. Thank god Home Depot was still open that night so I could cut the heater hoses and isolate the heater core. That last 120 miles to mom and dads house was cold and my poor dog kept looking at me with confusion on why we were freezing with the windows open a crack (to keep from fogging up)instead of running the heat. But it was still a good truck for me. Some time ago it hit that valuation that made anything beyond regular maintenance an undesirable investment for me. Filling the 30 gallon tank increased its value by 25% The new battery this spring kind of broke the camel's back so I kept it through the summer to get some work done around the house and decided to sell it before the plate expired in November. No regrets letting it go, but it's going to be missed for a while. replacing it and my wife's car is a Honda Ridgeline that better suits our current needs. We're back to two vehicles which just makes more sense. I'm sure others have old trucks or their first cars with which they parted and it might be neat to hear some stories. Farewell old friend! steve

Has been told & seen here... a few of 'em actually left the factory black.

that should have started life as work horse GT1848, which had an 18 hp Briggs and Straton motor and a 48" deck. As you suspected it should have been gray or silver type paint on it. a lot of them have been repainted red over the years for one reason or another. It should have also had the 8.5x12 rear rims with 23x10.50x12 rear tires on it which makes most, but not all 42" decks hit the rear tires when the deck is raised. Something to check for. In my area of Penn's woods a seller would have to sit on it at that price for a while before a buyer came along. Your area maybe different. The tractor, if taken care of and the deck in decent shape should be worth something close to that. Us collectors almost always try to get one as cheap as possible when we buy becuase someday when we find another, and it may be the one that has to go down the road, aka most of us only have room for so many and weather we like it or not have to sell some, to make room for another one. So we want to at least break even when we do sell it off, if not make a little money on it to help support the habit lol. So depending on condition while I think it maybe a little on the high side to buy, but not out of reason, if I was selling it depending on condition again I might well be asking something close to that. As been said many times on here all boils down to what you are comfortable paying and what the seller is willing to let it go for. good luck eric j

Traded a wood splitter I had 500 bucks into

Had a tree company take down 9 trees in the yard today. Lots of yard cleanup in my future! And some seat time hauling wood of course.

Picked these 2 up today.

Have been prodded by Craig and Bryce to enter, here goes. My great grandson having seat time on my half size D - 160. 7=1/2 months old and he loves being in the workshop.

I made one a couple years ago, need to update it as the Suburban changed hands and I have added several since then.