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My baby girls 1st birthday was last weekend (19th), but we pushed her party back because of the forecast (🙄). We decided on a Unicorn theme.... now isn’t this just the cutest “horse” you’ve ever seen?? Figured some baby pictures would brighten up this overcast day haha!

Design by Nathan Amyx & Barry Gundlach started as a basket of 854 parts. powered by 6.5 predator with build kit. Currently produces appx 11-12 hp. The larger wrench on left side is hand clutch. This has right foot throttle control. Yes, it’s pretty fast. I’m really happy with the way this turned out. My entire collection is Wheel Horse Custom Modified’s. This fits right in.

Back to the decal project that I am much more knowledgeable about than motors. The decals I made for this tractor are digital printed on Satin finished clear overlaminate vinyl and then a layer of satin overlaminate to encapsulate and protect the solvent inks. After that I Laminate the 2 layers of clear onto a little longer piece of brushed chrome adhesive backed vinyl making a fairly thick decal which does make install a little easier but not nearly as forgiving as the vehicle wrap vinyl I use for most of my decal sets. So I cover the decal with medium tack transfer paper to help line up the hood decals as shown in this first image. Once I get it registered where I want it I put a piece of masking tape over the middle of the decal as shown in the next image. This will hold your decal registration while your applying the first half of your hood decal. I usually start with the left end of a hood decal first. Does not matter which end you apply first it just seems natural to me to apply the left end frirst. The chrome vinyl has no air egress adhesive like the wrap material (that is so forgiving and easy to rub out any air pockets after install) So I revert to the traditional decal prep and application. Make sure as always to clean your suface to remove any dust. Best to wipe it with isopropyl alcohol . then remove the tape from the end your starting with and peel back the liner then cut off the liner. A pair of scissors comes in handy for this. sometimes a third hand is helpful. Next I use a plastic squeegee to apply the decal forcing any air out as I go to get a smooth bubble free application. Then remove the masking tape from the middle and the opposite end. Lift the decal away from the hood to peel away the other remaining piece of liner and finish applying your decal. Now your ready to carefully peel off the transfer tape as shown And as simple as that you have your finished install. Yes you can use the wet application method if you feel more comfortable with that method.

I didn't do this all today, but I did take it off paint it and reinstall it. Bracing the transmission mount. I had already done this to my 312-8. This the C-120/180. The black reinforcing is 1/4" x 1 1/2" that I ground to fit in between the ridges on the transmission plate. I also used new bolts that were 1/4" longer. My neighbor did the welding as I can't see anything after the flash. I put these new seat on my tractor a while back, they sat up to straight. I had already put a 1/2" spacer under the hinges on the 312-8, so I made some for my C-120/180.

FINALLY added this 104 to my collection today. I've been after the previous owner to sell it to me for about 4 years now, and after he replaced it with a john deere he was ready to part with it. Never had a cub with a hydraulic lift like this before and I'm really excited about it! It has a 48" deck and lights. Original engine took a crap in the 90's and it was replaced with a new k241 at that time. Had the lighter too, but it went missing at some point in time. I have a snow blade here that will fit it, but I'm not sure what I'll need to hook it up to the hydraulic lift. Really happy to have this one!

And here I thought we were just getting started 🐾🐾⛄❄⛄❄

Been sliding a piece of vacuum hose on and filling with oil. Go back the next day and it's lubed to the knob.

Ha you guys whining like a bunch of school girls... This is what I had for an outside temp with the morning coffee...

along the lines of a "patina" restoration here is a 701, I did all mechanicals and only painted the rims, all the metal was scuffed down and hand buffed with Johnsons paste wax, it really looks incredible in person, keeping all the original paint and scratches memories, etc.. something you might want to consider being you guys owned it since new. also I attached a picture of my 854 this was an ex pulling tractor I returned back to stock and I cut my grass weekly with it, all the red was buffed and polished and the wheels and seat were painted antique white

I actually found the bolt p/n 911400 the spacer p/n 100309 bushing p/n MW2195 and the pulley p/n MW8821 from the local Toro dealer score, locally sourced 3/16” bar stock and in the process of make a new link. installed new point condenser coil and plug. Put a new fuel pump and rebuilt the carb. Hooked up a fuel source and a battery fired on the first couple of turns and no smoke success. started to rewire. And now I noticed hydraulic fluid leaking from the cam box I hope it is just “o” rings. Then I will be able to see if the hydro will work. Never ending on these old machines.

I had a couple of those once of a different flavor. Somehow I woke up one day and they were 6'4" and 240. Enjoy the heck out of it man! What a bug!

Finished both hubs and mounted the wheels, I didn’t realise how narrow it would be compared to my GT14... So left with the quandary of making bigger spacers or modifying the centres I went with the latter. I drilled the spot welds out and beat the crap out getting the first centre out. Holes welded up up ready to grind down I ran out of mig wire, so that’s it for this weekend...

I would love to find a round hood while the kids are still little for them to put around on, but I don’t doubt it one bit, she loves the tractors haha. She’ll be the one that would pick out a “D” series for her own too 😂.

Think I need to clarify something here.I wasn't using the C17. when the rear locked.I had started it and moved it a week or so before.and it was fine.The next time I started it and tried too move it was when I smoked the belt,I actually thought the rearend was frozen to the ground until my son pulled it out of where it was parked and then discovered the rear end was locked up.Again though it was probably in the 40s the last time it moved to the 20s when the belt blew and now it sits n 1-2 ft snow so nothing is going to be done with it for a while.

Pics of the 5-7321 drive belt, and mower deck belt guard .

I've been taking my parts down to bare metal and using an etching primer first then putting regular primer then sending smooth before paint. Then using a rattle can and have had great results so far.

Not to mention all those Projects on hold that's ready for paint. Need some warmth to get back on them, get them reassembled and electrify the heart brining them back to life!

42 til daylight savings. 10 th of March.

Starting to put it together today I did some touch ups along the way of the paint. The anticipation is killing me!

Man I wish I lived closer. To get paid to do something that I enjoy doing....oh I see that he said reputable...lol. Really need to see pics of the 854 in question. I have one that is in line waiting for summer to begin for it's rebuild. That is one of my favorite tractors. Oh and welcome to the forum, I'm waiting to follow the thread on this one.

Those 26in tires you want to run are bigger than you think. Here is a set I made up to go on a 74 roper SS16 I use to pull a 10 in moldboard plow. I had to space them out 4.5in to clear my fenders. I still had to twerk the fenders a little to get 1/4 of clearance. It is a neat look and they work great. A set of turf savers would look really good that wide on the 875. Go for it.

You can use the wet or (light soapy water or windex) method if you are more comfortable with that method. The dry application method is faster and much less messy for me.

Cute! You know she is thinking..."Hey Dad...This Unicorn thing - it's nice and all, but...Where's my Wheel Horse?...Maybe a little Lawn Ranger to start...then when I can reach the pedals, I'll take a C or a D... "

We are home from FL. Daytona Beach to Middleville, in 26 hours total

@Bear G that thing looks terrible! You surely don’t want to be seen on that one. Tell you what, how about a couple of us ole VA boys come and take it off of your hands? That way you won’t have to worry about looking too cool cruising it😂! Seriously, fantastic build! I love the stance!

Absolutely, I make no attempt at denying it haha. She is the most sure of herself, confident, head strong baby I’ve ever encountered. I thought my mom had prophesied my son when she said “I hope you have one just like you some day”.... over the last year I’ve come to the conclusion that she was talking about Little Miss 😂

Only when Mommy and Bubby aren’t around haha. I’m third on her list, but at least I finished in the top 3 😂😂

Well done! That install looks professional! Who’d ya hire?

Welcome thats a good looking 52 year old tractor and great to here it has been kept in the family. There are some sundstrand transmission experts here. I’m not one, but one thing I picked up on is it’s helpful to have tractor running to do transmission diagnostics. So you might tackle the carb to see if you can get it running a little better (while you read up on transmissions). Type “Sundstrand” in the search box and go through the transmission section here for others past repairs. @daveoman1966 is one of our resident hydro guru’s so look for some good info in reply’s to others by him. One area to take a close took at is the transmission mountain plate since it has seen many years of plow duty the tranny mount is a weaker area of these horses and can develop cracks. This is not a deal breaker, and there are many good threads on repairing this As others have said a good fine wet San and buff can bring a lot of paint back. If you want a little more metal protection for a worker, a couple of coats of clear coat is my personal preference. Redo your Horse in the Vendors section has great replacement decals. Of course I also did a full bladt and paint on my sons 312-8 and currently on some suburban. The important think is keep it in the family and make the restoration your own. PS. Any pictures with your grandpa or you as a youth with the tractor would be great to see

I think the guys have you covered so the only thing I can suggest is move to Florida. Yep, as this winter has turned more normal for Missouri, a move south is looking better each passing, freezing day. I just checked yesterday when the temps were warming up to 17 here, it was 53 in New Orleans, 50 in Baton Rouge, 45 in Jackson, Ms,.......Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama would be more my choice than Florida, but it would be a few degrees warmer more south you go in that state.

Gary bought the building 11 years ago for his business. He is a Harley man so when we decided to build a bar it had to represent. We had our sign shop here for about 6 years till we retired. Here is a picture of the powder coat room.

Not the horse, but the hauler........ Got bored and made some “carbon fiber” window decals. Now the hauler is official. 👍

So I may change the fluid in my new to me '77 C160 auto this weekend weather permitting, it hasn't been above 57 degrees in 3 days . As I said earlier it looks to be ATF, I'll know for sure when I drain it, I plan to use Dex/Merc if it is. This is my first WH hydro, should I still lift the front end to drain or not since there is no hump, how much fluid do I need to refill it with a new filter? Is there a bleed valve, the only hydro I've done a fluid change is my '97 Simplicity Sovereign, it has a bleed valve, any other advice?

Well well well we are on the warm side here but are headed for a deep freeze here in Nashville tues possibly two to three inches of snow Wednesday morning . Hey I might get some seat time!

I hate it more and more each year, the cold, driving in it, salt killing my vehicles. if it wasn't for our jobs, family, good school for the kids and house, we would be out of nj and in Florida.

YYEEESSSSS !!!!!!!!!! Said my honey and I agree. 16 degrees when we got out of bed this morning and the high temperature only got up to about 25. late next week the lows are going to be some below zero for 3 or 4 days in a row again. Yeah. We've talked about it. We may be snowbirds a little later in life.....

the 854 is nicest looking wheelhorse, I have 1 use to cut the grass with and restoring another one. you say complete restoration, this can be taken many ways. are looking for the kohler to be completely rebuilt, the transaxle to be taken apart with new bearings and seals, sandblasted and painted or powder coated, new tires? another option is to preserve the original paint and patina? I would figure a budget number you to go with. you could spend a few bucks to get it going or thousands making it into a museum piece. post pictures of it that could offer better advice

Good way to repurpose those blade wrenches. Nice ... thanks for sharing!

I’d be seen on it! Haha. Really cool build!

Definitely, looking like a Daddy's girl there.

Horn is not a Wheel Horse accessory. D-250 had one standard.( I don't consider the D-250 a Wheel Horse but that is a different story. )

I think the reason why they put a horn on it was to honk to get the green ones out of your way!!

So here is what I am making. ope I like it once it is on.

My luck has been pretty good lately with Wheel Horse finds. Picked up a 312-8/plow a couple months ago that I serviced and sent on its way. Next came my 418-C, which i am totally keeping for the foreseeable future. This past Saturday i awake and pick up my phone to find a new Craigslist alert email. Less than an hour after it was posted, I was reading the ad for a 1984 GT-1600. Cliffnotes of the ad body were "Parked 3 years ago when my son-in-law lost interest in it", "Runs if you pour gas down the carb" and "sorry its a bit dusty". The few pictures in the ad indicated that it was no longer grey, but now red. A bit of a bummer in my eyes as i used to own a Work Horse and loved the odd coloring. The best part is that it featured a plow and rear wheel horse wheel weights. For 300 bucks with those accessories, how could i go wrong?! I happened to be the first to call at around 8am. About an hour and a half later, it was on my trailer on its way home. The guy couldnt believe the interest he had in it. He said he fielded another 5 callers after me! Its in great shape and appears to have very low hours. The drive belt looks great and the 10yr old battery even holds a charge. The paint job actually looks quite good. Someone masked the stickers carefully prior to painting. Got her rolled into the garage and apart in no time. With something like this that hasnt run in years, my first stop is the carb, but this time started at the fuel pump. The insides of the fuel pump on the carb had seen better days, so we went and picked up a rebuild kit for it. Got that back together and cracked open the carb to find some ugliness at the bottom of the bowl. I removed the idle jet screw and cleaned it out with carb clean and compressed air. "Hey Matt, have you seen the idle screw? It should be next to the screw spring, which is right here!". As luck would have it, I misplaced the screw and had to order a new one. In the meantime, i found the petcock to be clogged and the grommet leaked, so i have one of those on order as well after spilling about a gallon of gas on the floor. Saw that the shift boot was cracked, so ponied up for a new one of those too. I expect those parts later this week. I am not sure what my plans are for this one. Its a perfect time to sell it as it is snow season, but i really like it! It should be a very capable machine with that big 16hp twin in it. It would be kind of neat to see how it does next to the hydro tractor at next years tractorpalooza event! And its always good to have a spare on hand should something go wrong with the main steed. Only have one picture of it so far, but will post more as the project moves along.

So sorry to hear about your pain and suffering Scottie. I’m in Kiev, Ukraine on a missions trip right now and I’ve been praying for you... May God give you the strength to get through this most difficult patch and to a tomorrow filled with much less pain. Glad you got the care package from the Local Circle in cheddar country!

Update on Scottie... It has been a while since I last updated you and a lot has happened. After our little trip to St. Mary's emergency room on the 6th of January, we found out that he had a blocked suprapubic catheter and the urology medical team wanted to see Scottie on Tuesday (01/08) as an outpatient to change his catheters. I was a little skeptical as what the medical team was planning on doing on Tuesday, was Scottie going to tolerate this procedure without being put under, or was he going to require surgery? We arrived to his appointment on Tuesday, Scottie was in severe pain from just traveling over to Rochester, that any other movement or transfers was going to send him over the top for his pain. Please keep in mind that he was very medicated before we left home. Once we got into the room, Scottie had to be transferred onto a table in which made him cry out in pain, and he needed to have his bladder full of normal saline in order for the two urologists to change out both of his catheters. Well, the nurse started to put in the normal saline solution to fill his bladder, and he only put in 30 cc out of 150cc and Scottie was screaming so badly that I told the nurse to stop and to go and get the doctors and let them see Scottie like this. The doctors came in and stop the procedure and scheduled him for surgery instead, because they did not want Scottie to be in so much pain. We were sent home with a surgery date of Thursday (01/10). Lowell, and I got Scottie all ready to go and into the truck and off to St. Mary's for his catheter change. The urologist was uncertain if we could replace the suprapubic catheter and be able to drain it like before since he was unsure of the placement of his bladder. We were told that if he was unsuccessful with the suprapubic catheter placement that our other option was to drain the bladder from his penial stent. Not the option that Scottie wanted nor did Lowell or I want. The surgery was to last for about 30-45 minutes once Scottie was put under, much too Lowell and my surprise 30 minutes later Scottie was out of surgery. The urologist came out and talked to us about the procedure and told us that he was able to replace the suprapubic catheter and the urethral stent without any complications. He was also successful with allowing the suprapubic catheter to drain his bladder. We also were told that Scottie's bladder was high in his pelvis after the accident on 12/12/2018, but after the scan on Thursday 01/10/2019, he was able to see the bladder returning to the normal location. Since the surgery, Scottie has been in pain from the bladder spasms and from any type of movement. When he has a bowel movement, it causes pressure and he strains (not intentionally) and it triggers a bladder spasm. We were told this week that we are looking at two more surgeries from the urology stand point. One for another catheter change which will be two months out and the second surgery will be for the bladder and urethra reconstruction which will be three months out. Providing that we don't have any other complications that arise between now and then. We go in on Friday for his orthopedic appointment to check on his pelvis and his other fractures. We will find out if his hardware needs to be in permanently or if he will need it taken out. Will he be there for the Big Show in June? I truly can not say for sure as of yet. All I can tell you is that Lowell and I are planning on him attending but we will have to see how Scottie is doing then. Scottie is one spoiled little boy by the Wheel Horse guys in Wisconsin. Thanks to WHX21 and others, they made Scottie's day!!! I love to see him smile!!!!

Swapped out the old headlights in the 520H loader tractor for some LEDs. Here’s a before and after picture in my garage with the garage lights off completely. The before shot is actually darker than it shows because my camera tried to compensate for how dark the room actually was. The tractor still doesn’t light up the world but it’s much better than it was before. The wall is about 30’ away from the tractor.

I finally got the templates adjusted and have stayed up past my bed time putting this concept together. I really like the way it turned out. Step 1. prepare your metal dash and powder coat or paint the entire dash plate with whatever color you prefer I chose to try Cowboy's new chrome powder and I think it looks awesome. I happen to think you could do a silver paint or white or maybe even linen beige any of those would look great. Step 2. Get out your decals. the red die cut vinyl (Wheel Horse) decal and apply on the top of your dash. the black letters for the rib are printed on a clear adhesive vinyl which is almost invisible on the chrome powder. It is long, skinny and thin but really pretty easy to lay down on the rib. I found it easier to line up the word ignition centered under the hole for the ignition switch off course. then the throttle lettering will be positioned correctly when laid down. then just work your way back to the left till it is all applied. You should have about a 1/16th left hanging over each end of the rib which you trim off with your exacto knife. Step 3. Remove your black and brushed chrome decal for the bottom of the dash plate from it's backing paper. step 4. position it up against the bottom of the rib with the lock arrow centered over the throttle hole. If it is lined up close to center you will have about 1/16" of decal hanging over the left side of the plate and about 1/4" hanging over the right end and bottom. IT should look like the following image when you turn it over to trim. step 5. turn your plate over and lay the bottom flat against your table (preferably a cutting mat) and trim all excess decal from your plate. then turn it back over and trim out all the holes . BOOM your done!! Much easier to install and you do not have to fight the rib trying to make the vinyl stay down in the creases. What do ya'll think.