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Just got my FAVORITE rag in the mail today, LGAT and just thumbing thru the pages to get to coverage and I find this. Our very own @Achto's rat rod! We hauled this thing out to the BS last June and well trained eyes in the form of Matt @grnlark Castagno spotted it as a center piece for a such a well written article. Dan says a big THANKS Matt! This tractor is always a show must have for Dan and gets looks....alot of looks. Too many as it would seem as youngsters want to play on it and pick the moss off much as Gretzki (his wife as I call her) would have done..oh no no no... patina. I remember one lad proclaiming at one show "daddy this tractor has grass growing on it, we need to mow it!" I think it was at Symco Dan I CRS but 'bout died laughing. Had another looking at it once and said why don't you sand...I stopped him short and threatened bodily harm. Since Dan is considered a regular at most of the shows we attend the Rat Rod is quite well known local and he, and I the few times I have run it, often get the flip up hand signal meaning do a wheelie. Unbelievable how people just love that! Now I had known about the Rat Fink caricatures for many years but never knew about the Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's creation of such a character that provided such a good humor to many sports & hobbies and it will be always a big part of Americana history. Thank you Matt for that tidbit of info. Many more pics and input to follow.....

so mom was going through the computer room today and found a folder of dads named wheel horse. in there i did a little searching found a reply from a forum thread here on redsquare so i looked it up and bam found my dads old account name. my dad died july 22, 2017 to stage 4 lung cancer. he couldnt remember his account name at all but before he past i was doing the posting on this account. so quoting a reply from one his threads we did find out what this one was lol 1962 502 and he had the hood all the years he kind of like painted it and then forgot which one it was too lol Buzz, When you figure out what that is ae; 702, 502, or whatever it may be please let me know. I have one just like that, minus the hood, that someone painted a God awful maroon color. They even painted over the serial # on the shift patern and the decal on the belt guard. Anyway your find is putting me closer to find out what mine is. Thanks alot. Bill

Lately about every issue Jay has something in it. Not sure but I think Matt has been given a couple of pages an issue for us "Horse Barn" folks thanks to our friends @ http://www.lagtmag.com/ Some of you may have seen this already but one of the guys in our bunch of tractor show campers had tees and can koozies made up with this on it. Pretty neat when we all get together for potluck suppers and everyone is sporting one!

Love that Rat Rod for sure! Well deserving of coverage. Ed Roth would have appreciated it too I'm sure, Loved the cartoons and his car creations as I became a certified Motor Head! He has been gone since 2001, but certainly not forgotten. RIP Ed!

I fixed the big hole in the ole Kohler Series I......with a cheap Chinese 22 hp

Seriously is there a 12-step program for Wheel Horse owners ? 😁 I know there's guys just got a lot more than I do but I just bought number six and seven. Bought a 520h with 650 hours on it with tiller, snow blower and mower deck for 400. Only thing I could find was wrong with it was the regulator rectifier was gone and about a pint of water in the gas tank. Got it running fine and the hydro and everything is okay. About a week ago I bought a 417a with 805 hours with mower deck for $50. Don't really know why it was ever parked but it was covered up with a heavy tarp for a number of years. Of course moisture came up from the ground and rusted a lot of stuff but not real bad. Took me about half a day to get the engine going right. Had carburetor issues and the points were bad. Also again a bunch of water in the gas tank and fuel lines. Everything works fine now. I was going to post a video of them running but the file is too large use. Stable: 3 417A's 2 C175's 1 520h 1 Toro WH....257 if I remember right 4 48" mower decks 1 48" tiller 2 48" single stage snow blowers 1 2 stage snow blower A few mule drives hitches and other miscellaneous stuff

There may be a 12 step program and you state you just bought numbers 6 and 7. 5 to go.

Love me some Rat Fink and I wore my shirt proudly at the Steam Pageant. Dan's tractor was parked next to my spot on "Squonk's Corner" and made things rather busy! Wish I still had my Rat Fink models.

Here are a few of my personal favorites. First one appears to have some DNA Please pardon the color on this one. These are the real deal, made by Mow-Cycle. Saved the best for last, the future of lawn mowing

A well deserved article for such a legendary machine! Congrats Dan It always gets me how the tractor that you probably put the least amount of actual work into is the one that generally gets the most attention. It is a super fun machine that brings together the tractor culture and the hot rod auto culture and I believe that is one of the key reasons that sooooo many people like it.

Might be in better shape had it did Lane! Actually this one is not bad as it was dry which is odd considering it sat outside for years with nothing more than this for a lever boot. Tuff part will be getting the detents to loosen up to get the shift rails out. The rest is gravy. Not to worry as I have other trannys to fall back on including a choice six speed for this project. The problem is I have an abundance of 1" hubs I would like to use but shy on 1 1/8 ones. The six speed was rebuilt by @stevasaurus and features full length keyways but needs to opened again as The Dino is not sure he has the diff bolts in the right direction. He's wrong I told him I'm coming for one of his home brew wine jugs to make a e tank!

Congratulations @Achto Hmmm, seeing as how I really do find myself "Mowing at Dark" quite often, is there a possibility of establishing a Texas Tractor Mafia chapter. I realize I've got some practice to do on my disassembly and truck loading skills, but if I make it to the BS on 4 wheels this year it ain't gonna be pretty

Congratulations Dan @Achto that is well deserved. Perfect example of “the rat” 👍

Congrats @Achto Dan!

Intervention? You're just getting started... besides, no picts...it didn't happen.

Yes, there is a program! It's called moving to Texas. Move here and your supply will dry up completely. That's the reason I only have 1! Can't see why anyone would ever want to kick the habit, though! Any pics?

Looking through Facebook I ran across this. Little bit more red paint and maybe......

You mow at night you might be a good prospect for that TX chapter Ollie... practice on dismantling the wife's car and a crash course from pullstart on loading techniques and ya might earn yer colors! OK nuff ....some more pics of the honoree... Hook em up! Gettin a little squirrely .... this thing does it all! In the line up! Chain piling. ..told you this thing does it all! Nothing like being a little hard on the tranny!

Congratulations Dan. Outstanding.!!!

There are plenty more steps to get deeper into the addiction! @WHX21 Jim’s plow day, @stevebo‘s meet and greet trail ride, @ebinmaine Eric’s mountain goat boulder climbing tree pulling competition, local shows, Big Show, auctions, Craigslist, eBay, Redsquare and so many more!

Just start by admitting that you have a problem. Then things will be better. Then you can get more without feeling bad!!!

I'll keep the progress photos coming. The tub turned out pretty good for how bad it was and then just being spray painted.

I bought a pretty rough RJ back in May for $250 and have been slowly and steadily been doing a shade tree restoration. Below is what I started with:

Look for the dreaded double set screw too. Pull the set screw all the way out of the hole to be 100% sure there isn't another one down below the first one. The open hole also gives a direct shot for soaking oil right to the shaft inside the pulley contact area. Smashed a pulley off a shaft before because it wouldn't budge only to find out it had a second set screw. That taught me to always look now!

Thanks for the congrats & comments every one. Truth be told I find it quite on honor to have an article written on my rusty old hot rod. I think Matt did an awesome job with the pics & the write up. A big thanks to him.

Congrats Dan! Just got my mag today and noticed it right away Lately about every issue Jay has something in it. Not sure but I think Matt has been given a couple of pages an issue for us "Horse Barn" Matt is doing the "Horse Barn" Wheel Horse article for every issue now so interested RS members should subscribe

A couple more...

Bill, very sorry to hear of the passing of your father on behalf of RedSquare we offer you our deepest condolences. It looks like your dad's account was never re-enabled after the 2011 crash, but I have found it and placed him in the Members at Rest group. His account is here: https://www.wheelhorseforum.com/profile/1133-btk07/

You may be able to remove the entire jack shaft with the pulley attached. Loosen the set screws in both bearing lock collars and the shaft may slide out. Then press the shaft out of the pulley. Make sure the key has not raised out of the key slot and is jammed preventing the pulley from coming off.

visited advanced auto parts with the bearing Timken 11949 they matched it with national brand ( china) looks well made for a good price AS WELL $8.50.. thanks again for your good input

The Mow-Cycle units would be right up @WHX21 alley. Unsafe at any speed.

Glad to see Matt C's article on your Rat Rod Dan in the latest issue of the Lawn and Garden Tractor magazine! Good pics!

Thanks guys. Guess I'm a bit late to the party, spent most of the day playing with the kiddo.

I might have made up one of those, but I think it should happen!

Rare to find an original dash plate in such great condition.

No known cure, but in my opinion none is needed!

That portion of the hood would have been painted a satin black when it left the factory.

Well, I finally found some free time to get back into things a little. for the long hiatus and leaving things hanging the way I did, but other things just took priority for the last several months. I think I saw someone else post a while back about how they were working on the longest restoration project in history, but me thinks I might be in the running for that title myself . Anyway, as I said in the previous post, you guys (and gals) haven't really missed much. I've done a few little odds & ends on the project throughout the summer (and I do mean a few) but didn't have the opportunity to post any pics or even keep up with the forum for that matter, so I can catch you all up pretty quick as to where I'm at. I did finally get a chance to sling some paint on everything just last week and I'll post more on that later. But first, to pick up where I left off, here goes: I believe that I was working on bushings and bearings in order to tighten things up a bit when I last posted, so here are a couple more of my "fixes". First, the upper steering shaft. I decided to eliminate the original nylon bushing in the cowl housing and replace with a bronze flange bearing as this has been a sore spot for me for quite a number of years. The play in this thing has always been beyond excessive as you can see by the wear in the shaft: The only reamer that I have for this size hole is an adjustable one which is not the ideal tool of choice for this type of work, so I rigged up this little jig to keep the reamer in alignment while I SLOWLY and CAREFULLY bored the casting to accept the bearing. Took a while, but it actually worked out quite well when finished: I mentioned in an earlier post about also placing a bronze flange bearing in the link hole of the brake/clutch pedal. Here is a pic of the installed bearing: And finally, the little linkage arm for the attachment clutch was totally worn out, so I just made a new one and pressed a couple of bronze bearings in the link holes: I also made a few other modifications and added some bearings back around some of the clutch and brake assembly, but just realized I forgot to take any pics. I will post some photos, however, when I get to the re-assembly phase of these pieces just to keep everyone up to date. It's getting pretty late now, so hopefully tomorrow I can post a few more of my little fabrications and fixes, then slide into some of the prep work and repairs for the painting portion. Again, sorry for the long delay and sorry for not keeping up with everyone else's posts on the forum. Its been a crazy last few months for me. Hopefully I haven't totally lost all of my following on this project and you all still have some interest in the outcome.

Wish I could have met the guy who started this job. I like the way he thinks and he did a great job so far. I will have to finish his dream machine. He must of really cared about his horse.

Agree, nice Dan. I left my subscription run out about a year ago because wheel horse was seldom seen...

First batch of red paint. I scuff the etching primer with a grey scuff pad, degrease, and spray paint out in the driveway. Two light coats then a third, heavier coat of red.

I had to pull the transmission apart and did all new bearings and seals. Also had all the parts of the back of the trailer sandblasted and sprayed with etching primer. A forum member helped me out with a nice hood. Recently a friend filled the extra holes and fixed the cracks.

It's a great addiction, no intervention needed.

I heard Arthur prefers power steering!! Randy

Don't always blame the seller. Doesn't seem logical that an eBayer would charge more than they had to for shipping since eBay charges a commission on shipping as well as on the item. I think the major problem is that sellers use services like the UPS Store and other shipping stores. Those stores typically mark up shipping 100%. And don't ask them to pack it for you. That's another rip-off. USPS is usually the cheapest service, and in many cases Priority Mail is cheaper than First Class, or Parcel select. Not to mention boxes are free. There are many ways to reduce shipping costs if you take the time to find them. I always use the least expensive way that I can find, and I'm still embarrassed at the prices that I have to charge to ship.

The way that @stevasaurus explains things makes what you might call difficult into an easy job!

Just don't matter what flavor of paint Horse as long as it's RED

Did the same for me on a Wheel Horse Planter. Top notch I always use the priority mail boxes, no surprises, quick and easy.

I didn’t realize the Titanic was a three speed 😳😳

Got some super cool stuff in the mail today. I just want to give a special thank you to Terry. @Vinylguy I know those stickers are next to impossible to see but the script is of the 60s vintage and the color of the hood side stickers is going to be very close to that of the engine and wheels.