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Thought I would share the latest work on the 551 Rat Horse. I picked this up from @dells68 at the PA show in June. It is a Rat Rod based on a 1961 model 551. It is powered with a 6.5 hp Predator engine. When I picked it up it was in a clear coat over rust. Pulled it apart and sandblasted it and repainted in flat black with blasted cast iron sheet metal. Repaired the head stand and restored it to it's original upright orientation which allowed the hood and fuel tank to mount in their original positions. Shortened the steering shaft to mount a three spoke deep dish lawn ranger steering wheel (hub bored to 3/4" dia), and shortened the shift lever. Fabricated a heat shield to cover the top of the engine and direct the hot air from the blower housing away from your right leg, and installed the Predator performance intake and carb jet. This past weekend it was pin striped by Rudy (out of Sandusky) at the New London Ohio FARM show. Am contemplating installing a flipped front axle to drop the front, and may drop the trans mount to lower the whole tractor, and replacing the black wheelie bar rollers with a new pair of red hub WH deck wheels. This fall will get a custom fabricated polished stainless steel exhaust pipe and muffler and a set of retro headlights. Looks a lot different from when it came home in June!

Looking awesome!!! The stripping is an excellent touch. Here is one idea for dropping the front end. This method gave about a 3" drop on my Suburban.

Found this on craigslist the guy had two wheel horse tractors for sale. He had a 520 H and the 312-8 for $350. He wanted 150 for the 312 and when I got there it was in pretty rough shape I said no the best I can do it 100. Then he told me he was going to scrap it for 100 rather than to sell it for that . So I slowly started walking away and he said finally if you want it for hundred take it. It is a little rough but there has to be a silver lining somewhere. He still has the 520 H and it is still for sale if anyone wants it. I told him about red square here and that he should put it on the site for sale. It has a 20 horse onan and it it does run. It doesn't smoke and sounds good.

probably did after though?

Started this project back in 2009. Just now working on it again. Some pictures. Maybe I will get it finished sometime in the next nine years.

Bought a used 36" Ridgid pipe wrench at a garage sale, asking price was $15.00 seller said he would take $12.00 for it. It needed cleaned up so I had it sandblasted and then I primed and painted the handle. Going to get the #7 shaped piece powder coated black. No before pics.

Bummer @diddy78c and thankfully no one was injured in this event. It does highlight the importance of checking and re-checking straps as well as inspecting and replacing worn or broken ones. And for those people who think one of those dinky little 1 inch ratchet straps made by the cheapest bidder will hold a tractor well enough, please reconsider. Always at least two straps. Redundancy.... two hold downs. God and Gravity don't count when it comes to keeping stuff secured to a trailer or even in the back of a truck!

Working on a 42 inch sickle bar mower I got last year. Needs some restoration work ! Rust removal, paint, new bolts and pulleys. Building a frame plate setup with new pillows , shaft and bearings. Also on this one.

Happy Birthday @JimmyJam, we are all glad you were born!

Hey, and I wasn't even drinking when that happened.

I decided to get out the little K91 that i got from @BOB ELLISON at the Big Show. I really can't believe how smooth this little guy runs. I can't wait to get it on the rj. I've got one of Jake's @Jake Kuhn Recoils for it. What do you think about the finish for the engine? Leave it white with the nice recoil on it? Paint the engine to match the recoil? Im not sure. Oh well, here's a video of it running to get your juices flowing😉.

OK let me chime in here YES some of the Lawn Ranger Unidrive transmissions used a bushing at the axle ends and if I remember correctly it was early 1965 was the last they used the bushings. The ealry 1965 Lawn Ranger also used a steel flanged axle hub instead of the cast iron hub. Wild Bill in Richmond, VA

Headlights continued. The mount was from alloy sheet. White border painted on. Will look better with a decal fitted. The two holes were the first attempt at mounting the headlights via a bolt through the original painted reflector. After scrapping this idea holes were cut using a large washer as a guide. Easier than expected using a very fine saw but had to take care not to damage the paint too much. Should have thought of plan 2 before painting. Next are the lights with plastic retaining rings held onto the rim with very small self tappers. These three photo's show the lights fitted, then the rings painted. Also showing the bulbs which are just a push fit. These appear to look cross eyed on the front view. As said previously, these lights were worked on over approx one year on and off, trying different idea's etc. The next photo's show hub caps which were quick and simple and were only made / altered recently. Jumping the gun a bit here but not to worry. Looking around for something suitable the cap from a deoderant bottle was found to be a good fit over the wheel hubs. Black plastic which was painted white. The end didn't have a sharp edge which would have made painting the red easy so plastic discs were cut and fitted using small expanding rivets which I had a stock of. Three more bottles were obtained which gave the required four. The result, better looking wheel hubs and a nicer smelling wife. OOP's, shouldn't have said that. The discs mounted on a rod ready for painting. The four stages and the rivets. Front and rear wheels with caps. The fronts were a nice push fit but the rears wouldn't go over the hub weld without stretching resulting in chipped paint. A few spots of glue cured this.

I think that would almost bring me to tears. All that hard work and then something like that happens. Sickening.

I expect to be there Friday AM as usual, but we'll see if earlier is possible. This will be the 11th year that we've displayed at the show as a group.

Dan's @Achto brother Tim had a freshly painted mint Ford come off at highway speed and made a mess of things. I think it's time for a refresher thread on proper trailering & tie down techniques.

Nice Tim ...REAL nice... Dan beat me to the spindle fab idea but ever give any thought to some 6" LR fronts? Might be too small tho??? I temporarily put same later style long frame fronts on a 401 just to be able to roll it and do like the looks tho!

Thank you Wawa, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania based service station chain for bringing ethanol free gas to Florida. No 2-stroke carb rebuilds each year, every year for 4 years after switching to ethanol free fuel. A splash of Sea Foam does seem to help the 2-stroke weed eater engines come into full song a few seconds earlier in my opinion. The Wawa subs (hoagies) are pretty good too!

I will be there as well!!

@Lake Delhi to If you were to use one of my mufflers, you would only remove and replace the 1" nipple and leave the 1-1/4" reducer in the block. Thanks @pfrederi for the !!!

When I removed the nipple that was threaded into the block on my 16 automatic, I used a sawzall to cut it perpendicular to the threads of the block just enough so as not to cut to deeply into those threads. Then used a steel chisel to crush the pipe and break it free of the block theads. Fairly easy. Then I installed one of Jim Kemp's stacks made specifically for a 16hp Kohler.

Last week I was hauling the c-121 back from my daughters softball practice (I used it to drag the diamond) and I made a right hand turn and stopped at the stop sign. As I made the left onto a non busy county road I watched in my right mirror as my horse decided it didn’t want to be trailered any longer. It rolled over 1 completely time and sat on its wheels. Unfortunately it broke some parts and tweaked the hood and deck lower-lift handle. I did manage to put it back on the trailer as a tripod and get it home. Always check your straps and rigging. Found the ratchet failed in my case. And unfortunately i cannot download a picture for this🤨

Well it's that time for the Pioneer Power show in Le Sueur Minnesota, August 24,25,26. I'll be there setting up Thursday morning. http://www.pioneerpowershow.com/

Nothing on the B80 yet, this fall after building is up. Rat Horse was far less work and wanted it ready for rest of shows this year.

The ever dreaded mouse condo is probably in there! I picked up a 312-8 and the mice had eaten the spark plug wire off of the mag/coil...birty little dastards!

@Lake Delhi Thanks Tyler for the order. The muffler is on it's way by Priority Mail and you should have it by Friday or Saturday. How about some pics here when you get it installed. Thanks Jim

Now if you can find all the parts you start putting it back together.

@dells68 I glad you like it. I know it ran sweet for me but I don't have anything to use it in. It idles as good as my c160. I would repaint it red like the recoil. Just don't paint it green or I'll come get it back. Haha

Backhoe for sale ???

Nice!! That looks very familiar, this year we’re hooking the 1257 up to it as well with the radio playing!!

Wow Tim, you don’t mess around! I was just wondering the other day if you’ve done any work on your grand daughter’s B-80... but it looks like you were paying attention to this little guy. I didn’t think it needed anything but that heat shield you thought about at the big show, but what you’ve done is pretty awesome!

The entire performance is fantastic. These kids are great and Tommy Shaw still has it.

WOW!

@19richie66 well done sir. As long as I can remember I've had a love for orchestras and big bands being combined with a rock group or song. That is an absolutely fantastic rendition of that song.

Great stuff there! Thanks for sharing. I really like this thread because it introduces us to things that we may not have had on our own radar screens.

I might have bend the tins some to get a better fit Tried the new bulbs. They seem to be a dime a dozen on eBay but chose these because they were the closest... https://www.ebay.com/itm/PAR36-LED-Landscape-Bulb-9W-900LM-50W-Halogen-Equivalent-6000K-Cool-White/323370106103?epid=7011961495&hash=item4b4a5c3cf7%3Ag%3AhuQAAOSwtPlbW6wb&_sacat=0&_nkw=PAR36+LED+Landscape+Bulb%2C+9W%2C+900LM+50W+Halogen+Equivalent%2C+6000K+Cool+White%2C.&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=m570.l1313 bezels removed new led on left: Halogen exposed, LED covered: LED exposed, Halogen covered: Both LED's installed: Paul

That’d be WAY cooler to ride around at the dragstrip instead of a lame pit bike scooter!!!

One thing we want to be sure to mention is that if your exhaust has any extra weight to it you should put a bracket of some sort from the bottom of the pipe down to a bolt or bracket on the engine or frame to support the muffler so as not to crack the Block in the area where the exhaust goes in. Trees and bushes are definitely a concern for some. Especially those of you that use your machines to mow. We don't do that here. All of the area that we put our tractor is cleared enough that my 6 ft + tall self can walk around easily. I have a Jim Kemp Muffler here that I have yet to install on a tractor but it does appear to be very well built. The stack on my b80, Patriot horse, in the picture is sort of a home built. I made it out of a cub 10 horse Muffler and a piece of chrome drain pipe from the plumbing section.

here's my 3 horse hauler's even some of the loads. The enclosed trailer is a portable storage building when not being used to go to a show. The car trailer I had custom built back in 1991, to narrow to haul horse any more since I got the 2016 Appalachian 20 ft 10,000 lb trailer. Plus the township does't like me having 2 trailer let alone 3, so it's stored at my brothers 18 miles away one way. can't find any good pictures of my wheel horse 4 wheeled wagon , tub cart and my 2 wheeled 10 cubic foot wagon eric j

Here is a few that I had over the years. Two different 1257`s same cart with different moons. 3rd is my currant trailer with a 73 no Name I had.. Last is the best running W/Horse I ever had towing the boat.

My new brush wagon. PO did good upgrades. Especially lining the inside of the box with 3/4 plywood.

Here’s mine, 551 is still a work in progress.

Trailer been here since the show 3 years ago.

Smoke 'em... if you got 'em.

A little back yard parade.

This is one of my favorites.