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Hello All, so instead of adding onto the thread about my 2013 Sierra getting totaled I figured I'd just start a new one... Looked for several days online and driving around. Didn't find anything worth pursing that was under $15000... went and came very close to buying brand new but decided against it---$15000 down and $320 a month for 75 months plus the property tax and insurance and so on. Looked at a few off lease ones but payments weren't low enough to go that route. While driving around to various wholesale spots (I have access to whole sale license...) I saw this and stopped.... long story short, its a one owner out of Florida... 78 year old Portuguese man bought brand new 03/23/2001... it has 122,000 on it and is so clean it could be mistaken for new... never seen snow or salt or any off road even. It was sitting in front of his sons detail shop---the son says the father is selling his CT summer home etc... and going south permanently. I drove it and its amazing... only issue is a flaky gas gauge... and it could use some shocks and TLC. He said "Dad wants $7000... I said ask dad if he will take $6500" Dad reluctantly did... I pick it up tonight. If I get 2 or 3 years out of it and get at least one of my kids finished with college then maybe I get myself a new one. Its not what I REALLY wanted but is a huge step up from the 2013 2wd V6 regular cab long bed I was driving.... Tony

Installed my riser blocks for the rear attach-a-matic to lift the snow/dozer blade higher on the 520H. Added an extra bit on the left side to "level" out blade from the twisted A frame. Also installed the new angle lever I fabbed up last spring.

Mowed up the last of the Fall leaves in the front yard today! Going to rain, snow and sleet the next four or five days according to the big storm weather reports so last good day to do this job without being in a muddy mess! plus I got the trailer out for a Saturday trip to round up some more round hoods! More What’s in My Rearview Mirror Pics will come on Saturday !

Eric, Just like with Wheel Horse tractors, it’s only a matter of time until you get a second snowblower for Trina, then it will be all about upgrading and modifying them. The next thing you know.....

This is my 2002 Chevy 4X4. 18,000 original miles. Believe it or not it came from a salvage yard. My nieces husbands family own a salvage yard and the previous owners wanted to scrap it. Sat for over 10 years unused. Well it was junked at the same time I was going into the hospital for my cancer surgery. My nieces husband called my mother and asked if she would buy the truck ( for the scrap price) he would do the work it needed and they would give it to me when I got out of the hospital. It needed new brake lines, fuel lines, tranny lines. New brake pads and rotors. New e-brake cable. Tires and wheels. Truck runs and looks brand new. Why they wanted to junk it I have no idea. I sat in a hospital bed 7 weeks and couldnt wait to see and drive it. Pulled me through a very tuff time in my life. Love my family for doing that for me. I have only done one thing to the truck since owning it. I put a " F@#K CANCER" decal on the rear window. Finished my last radiation treatment in late September. So after 2 surgeries, 33 rounds of radiation to head and neck I am feeling better everyday. Guess you can call me and my truck both " survivors" .

Highway departments in New Hampshire use this method. The taller the sticks, the taller the snow potential at any given time. There are several Notches in the White Mountains where vehicles pass through between two taller peaks. Crawford notch and Dixville notch (which is in the video) are more prone than the others to get buried in deep snow. I am no weather expert but I suppose it would be because of factors such as proximity to peaks, direction they face, close distance to those same peaks, etc.

Yup sure looking that way.... Gotta love the under the orchard tree engineering tho! OK Ill shut my mouth and not chime in again until at least two grinders are toast, the BFH and the rosebud and coat hangars come out!

@MikMacMikeTHE THEORY AND THOUGHTS OF RELATIVITY .....PROPETUAL MOTION,,,,,,,HYDRO DYNAMICS...and other applied sciences,,,,are mysteries we all ponder... But to our group.....we still wunder..... weights,? chains? and are turfs really better,??? Human kind may never know,,, @pullstart

This popped up for sale in my area today and made me think of this project. Love those fenders. Ad says it's 43x55.

Eric, My advise when using a snowblower: Be careful when you are blowing snow out of the dog run. Sometimes the rattling you hear in the blower isn’t caused by rocks. And, don’t direct this snow towards your vehicles. Once it melts, you’ll be in for a surprise. Dave

Very nice indeed. I can see Trina running it already. . She probably would say '' "Heated grips?, We don't need no stinking heated grips,”

I finally had enough chances to mess around with the 603 to get almost finished. I still need to reinstall the knurled nuts on the hood, but otherwise it’s pretty much finished. I cleaned the entire tractor, sanded all tins with 800 and 1000 grit paper, followed by a generous application of linseed oil. I did make one mistake - I liked the hood and just meant to leave it overnight, but it was almost another 12 hours before I got back home from work. When I returned anywhere it was too heavy had gotten quite sticky - took a lot of work to get rid of that sticky residue. Moral - dry it down before you leave it for the night. All the red paint you see is what she left the factory with! I then removed the wheels and painted the rims with Rustoleum almond, followed by painting the tires with Miller’s tire paint. Looks great I think. I want to put rubber caps on the front hubs, but am not sure if I want red or black. I can’t wait to get it out in the sunlight and see it after this polar freeze passes!

Colorado marks the highway edges in the Rocky Mt. This is near Estes Park Hydro plant.

You and me both Buddy! The new Silverado has heated seats and steering wheel. I might have the A/C cranked and the steering wheel on come summer time!

I shortly thinkered about, still the import cost incl. tax will be not be the problem but the Container overseas and also the rework for a local Roadaproval and the following tax/year will be all in all that expensive on that Cars, that it blasts my hobby budget ... otherwise i could be really weak.. oh, Kathi, o there is no Bar arround, but look what i‘ve found.. 😂😂😂😂😂 what a luck that i have not much hairs..😎

Jim I had to TIG weld a bolt to my plow stake hole maker so I could run my slide hammer on top into the frozen ground the other night. I couldn’t find any filler, but found a steel wire looking hanger thing on the floor in the shop. I have no idea the material, but it flowed as filler just great! It’s been a while since I ran a torch and clothes hanger. Seems it was on a plow truck to get it in to the welder from a driveway though! Maybe I should do a backwoods build some day. Drills, grinder good sized hammer and torch welder. Thanks for the idea! We’ll call that tractor Smokey or Chewy or Jim Parsons or something. Real simple and backwards!

If the tow valve is in tow position then you should be able to push the tractor IF you push the hydro engagement lever down (engaged). I know it is counter intuitive you would think you want the hydro disengaged...but when you pull the lever up you are setting the parking brake(if it still works) It is one half turn. Long piece forward is drive mode. Back is tow. Note you want the hydro engagement lever down to push.

That's just plain funny right there I might share this with Trina but if I do I might end up with my car covered with.....

When I did my Parking Brake repair I used a piece of copper bus bar from an old electrical panel to back up the area that was missing. Steel welds will not adhere to copper. I made several passes with my mig welder and then ground it smooth. Quick easy job.

@Achto Dan, growing up on dirt bikes since the young age of 13 and racing motocross in the mid 70's I was taught to do that with the master link clip so it would not accidentally open up, good call. In Southwick Mass there is a wonderfull Motocross facility with a jump called the spectator jump in front of the bleachers. Would hate to have that clip come off that chain while launching off that jump and having no power to the rear wheel when landing, would not be a very good outcome. Thanks

I picked up a set of those for my 953 at the show.

All great advise given above . One more important note of advise. When you install the connector link clip, the open end of it should face away from the direction of rotation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1YJ8Hf-RIk

Congrats on your new machine Eric. I hope you like your Ariens as much as I like mine. The heated hand grips are a nice feature. You could run that blower in cold weather with out gloves but you'll wanna wear some to insulate your hands from the heat. It is nice to have the ability to turn them on when your finger tips get cold.

I don't know @dells68 I think I may have to bring that one back home with me in June. That thing looks sweet, great job.

First of all. Thank you everybody for your advice and help with what brands you like. We did a ton of research and obviously included this thread. We chose this machine because we felt like it would give us the best long-term reliability and bang for the buck. Also because I was able to purchase it off the showroom floor at a local dealer .... not use a box store. I was initially going to limit myself at $1,500 but I splurged just a bit. $1,599 plus tax and blah blah blah... I bought an Ariens Platinum 24 SHO. 369cc. 17 ft lb torque. Horsepower is not advertised but expert guesses put it between 12.3 and 13. 120-volt electric start. A light so you can see in the dark which is pretty important to us. Heated hand grips. I've never had those so I don't know if I like them yet. This machine has a very interesting feature called Auto-turn. I'm not at all sure how to describe it so I included Arien's own video at the bottom. I put it down into a snowbank in the back and this thing is VERY impressive.

I found this little guy locally and inquired about it. As much fun as building a custom box might be, it would be nice to just modify one to fit as well.. It’s a 60’s/70’s era Jacobsen “Garden Butler” trailer. I like the back gate action, it looks like a dump truck multi function unit!

Would anyone be able to tell me the year and model of this one? Thanks!

not to get into the details but yesterday in 2 separate areas of nj, groups of kids were out on frozen ponds. sadly 2 kids didn't make it out. even if you did already tell your kids again the dangers.

This design was also used on a 704. If it was a 603, some one installed the wrong steering wheel and added fenders. A pic of a 603. A 704

Agree 100% Jabel... absolutely no power but you want to send your nice hot sunny days my way?!?! the paste wax is a tried and true method. Even then with Dells progressively smaller grit method one has to be careful as to not apply too much elbow grease.. don't ask me how I know. One has to be gentle and lots of patience @Jennifer Mike @prondzy has considerable expertise on bringing out patinas hopefully he will chime in. I do applaud your wanting to to keep things orginal Dells. I always thought is was easier to do full blown and paint but now considering the time and patience, which I have little of, to stay orginal. In looking at your pics that is just wonderful.

Ya know Billy we don't particularly approve of hydros for plowing but with that rear end setup it would be interesting to drop a 12 on the back of that rig at my plow day just to see where the bear crapped in the buckwheat! Maybe just to see if we could light up the hi temp hydro light! Geez thinkin like a redneck now ...

Installed the rear attach riser blocks and @richmondred01 the new angle lever I fabbed up (from your template you sent me, many thanks) along with the 56" moldboard and 5 position angle quadrant I acquired from a WH ZTR , the anti-sway bracket I made up a few years back... Maybe this summer it'll get a fresh coat of crimson and black.

It's not a 754. I'm guessing someone transplanted that 7 hp Kohler engine into a 604 or 654.

You callin’ me old?

That must be a thing of Age.. 😂😂😂 i can miss an A/C, i can miss a Windshield, but i never want miss my heated Seat, that was first thing i changed into the Silver.

Here‘s the same. as long as you put the items to scrapyard you go out for less, if they pickup you have to pay for. best situation here is to spent them to local Firedepartments as Training Object. they mostly glad to get free of charge items to trainee rescue and rescue tools. So this items have a last sense and who know‘s maybe they saved once our Live

I made a how to video on how to adjust the 69 electro wheelhorse. my youngest daughter has one my late dad gave her. Check it out on my you tube if you need to. These are such great machines!

I wonder if the die hard Ventrac guys are miffed much like I was when Toro grabbed WH... I'm over it---I think for the most part they treated us well. Tony

First and for most I want to apologize for placing my query in the wrong category, I did not realize WH had built a battery operated tractor. I assumed the electro 12 would fall in that slot, so thank you to every ones comments. Richie66 I do have a 417A roller with all linkages and such, but looking the pictures of your project it is not just a simple swap of all parts. And Ed I have considered the value of the parts you listed among others. I wiil move my next question to the wheel horse tractors slot.

I agree with Eric it's best to call the yard you're planning on going to before making any final decisions. Here in Oklahoma I always pull the batteries and cats before running them across the scale, but the yard I take them to pays a flat rate per ton for scrap cars no matter what is or isn't still on them. I then usually keep the batteries either for scrap later on or to use as cores when I need to buy a new one but don't have a core to exchange. The cats I usually sell to a friend of mine who does a lot more scrapping than I do...I dont get full price out of them, but it keeps me from having to store them until I get enough to make it worth my while to sell them

I remember when L.L.Bean was a decent place to go The head office in Freeport is around an hour from my house. There was a point in time where they claimed almost all of their items were made in the USA. I just now looked it up and it looks like about 75% of their stuff is imported. Of course that's only an estimate. Now they've taken away the lifetime warranty which is a business decision that I understand. Combine that with them being overpriced and I'm basically finished buying anything from them.

Broken springs mangled spring seat. Failure is common enough that Wheelhorsepartsandmore has made replacement springs. I will post a picture later today of the broken up mess in my forward acceleration valve. Haven't been able to get the reverse out yet.

I like your logic ... But what makes you think I would get a SECOND snowblower for TRINA? You think she's going to let me touch this one???

Here's what the tension blocks looked like... As well as an idler sprocket for upgrade...

:My dad and I used to love it when the Herter’s Catalog arrived. He ordered bamboo fishing rod supplies from them and built fly rods for me, our neighbor and some of the guys he worked for. I remember the jig he built to hold the rods while he wrapped the guides onto the shaft of the rods and how much he fussed over getting them perfectly aligned. Wow. That takes me back. Dave

I don't remember her exact words but you're pretty close.

Looks great @dells68! The Patina is awesome on that machine, hope to see it at the show in June!

@daveoman1966 has lots of great posts on Sundstrands. Here are your axle seals. https://www.ebay.com/itm/TORO-Wheelhorse-Axle-Seals-6449-Set-of-2pc-FREE-SHIPPING/142042768245?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160811114145%26meid%3D44d045110a5c434d9af2b89eddb98bcf%26pid%3D100667%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D7%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D181442383639%26itm%3D142042768245%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2334524&_trksid=p2334524.c100667.m2042

Can’t risk getting them mafia boys after me! I hear tell that the last person to mess with one of their tractors ended up dipped in boiling linseed oil! I like the look so far and it makes me feel better than robbing the little tractor of all of its history.

Some how missed this thread early Dells but that tractor looks great! I had taken Tom's advice on the linseed thing more than once and it does look nice but one thing I have found is it does attractor, pun intended, dust. It does protect the metal tho. This 'Burb was done like that. I'd say at least once a year rjg. @Shynonwill chime in. Matter of fact fellas this girl is in the shop right now trying to get the Clinton to run even half @ssed......and a refresh on the patina. OK I know how out you guys are hard on yer pics ... Pullstart told me to to tell you Dells stuff it ...not tryin to steal your thread.. as @JCM said it's all good!