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Been awhile since I posted on this forum. My girlfriend got me an 856 for my birthday in April. To surprise her I’ve been restoring it and am going to surprise her with it. Hopefully it will be done soon.

Fired up the Old Timer for a salute.. Shame.

Between projects now so it was a good time to add a long due improvement. When assembling work using a variety of fasteners , organization and accessibility of them while at the bench has always been a bit of an issue. They are either loose on bench or in their regular container (mason jar)always on the way and taking up precious space. I decided to adapt one of the cobblers nail caddies that I have to the bench . Now I can have a variety of fasteners at hand organized and out of way. Caddy can also just be pulled up and removed. Importantly it is also below bench top level so it will not interfere with work.

I have 5 tractors. 4 of them sit and have tenders on them. My mowing tractor is run twice a week so no tender on it. I replace a battery when it reaches 3 yrs. old.. I put the new battery in the mowing tractor and the battery that was in that goes into the tractor the oldest battery came out of. This way I pretty much buy 1 battery a year.

Yesterday I unloaded some 320 lbs of pool salt from the truck. I was glad to be able to deliver it straight to the pool house!

Quick attatch forks almost done. Need to finish up some welding and paint. Lifts 6.5feet high

Picked up this cart and repainted it and made a dump lever for it since the original was missing, perfect size for a ranger.

Mercury (Brunswick) is reportedly a great company. They command the majority of the marine propulsion market and own more transoms than any other outboard manufacturer*. The industry founder, Evinrude, never was able to climb out of the holes they dug in the last decade of the 20th century which culminated in their bankruptcy in ~2002. Canadian giant Bombardier Corporation bought the Evinrude and Johnson brands from the dead Outboard Marine Corporation and sunk millions (billions?) of dollars into advancing technology and rebuilding the brands. Johnson was dropped a couple of years later and Evinrude was continued as the sole outboard brand under the Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) banner. Evinrude bet the farm on advanced, direct-injected two stroke engines while the entire rest of the industry went to four stroke engines. Both were in response to air pollution regulations that took effect for the 2006 calendar year. Mercury, Yamaha, and Tohatsu all offered DI two strokes for a while, but none were able to match the Evinrude E-Tec in efficiency, power, or emissions. Despite an aggressive marketing campaign, consumers just didn’t adopt the two stroke approach, usually confusing the extremely clean and quiet E-Tec with the smoky, cantankerous, gas guzzling two strokes from our childhoods. anecdotally, every boater and dealer seemed to have a story about a nephew’s, boss’s, brother’s, secretary’s, neighbor that had an E-Tec that was a piece of junk. Few understood that the mechanical part of the engine was amazingly simple and robust with far fewer moving parts than any four stroke and which required virtually no maintenance. the engines are very advanced and are essentially run by their onboard water cooled computers. They run extremely lean and out-torque competitor’s four strokes. They weren’t perfect of course and certainly some did fail. But generally dealers were horrible at setting them up properly and diagnosis of even simple issues seems to mystify most mechanics who just plug in their computers and scratch their heads. They have some advantages: no oil changes, no valves to adjust, no timing belts to replace. And some disadvantages: the special oil they consume is expensive. But, in total they offer the same clean, quiet, reliable boating experience any clean technology outboard offers. But few consumers bought them. BRP and OMC before them really didn’t help their situation. They lost or alienated a huge number of dealers during the bankruptcy. They failed to lock down popular transoms and let Brunswick and Yamaha secure many boat builders. They stuck with a technology that while effective and practical just wasn’t gaining traction with consumers. And, aside from a short dalliance with manufacturing 25 and 30 hp engines in China for one or two years, they built every single engine in Wisconsin while competitors continued to use cheaper Far East labor. Lots of blame. But still It’s a shame that today ended an era of another historic product line. steve * Edit: Should note that Merc is the leader in the US market. yamaha/tohatsu/honda/suzuki are bigger worldwide

Many here will agree, plowing a field or garden is one of the easiest to bring people together. Nobody has mow days, but people have plow days! Other than a grader blade, or the FEL, a plow is easily my favorite!

Yes they get hot . Might want to pull off the blower housing to make sure there are no nests or grass on the engine fins. Your cracked air cleaner is probably due to the fact that motor is mounted on a shaker plate

I buy the cheap $20-$25 batteries from Wal-Mart or Fleet Farm. I have multiple tractors, some get used weekly some only occasionally. I keep them on tenders in the winter so that they do not freeze. On average I get about 4 to 5yrs out of them, about the same life span as the last $50 battery that I had from Napa. There are only 3 major automotive battery manufacturers in the US. Most Wal-Mart brand (EverStart) batteries are made by Exide, the same company that makes Interstate batteries and Traveler batteries for TSC. Napa batteries are made by East Penn. Johnson Controls makes batteries such as DieHard and Optima. Each company rebrands more than what I have listed.

Put it out there on EBay and CL - You probably do have $500 "vintage" headlights for somebody... just make sure to say "they ran when last parked"...

Mowed the whole place again with the 21” Snapper. I am not sure if my belly is getting smaller from all this walking but my tongue is definitely getting longer.

We haul 1000 pounds on a regular basis with the Cinnamon Horse. Loads and loads of wood that are anywhere from 400 to 600 pounds. Here it is helping to clear the land for the horse stable last year. Note.... ZERO hesitation even at low idle.

Grader blade moving dirt or stone. The pulverizer also helps get the job done but not as much fun. 20 ton of crusher run blue granite.

I have enjoyed them all because I like the seat time and how they improve the property and at the same time have fun doing it. The last pic is my favorite with no attachment at all just a nice Winter trail ride as the sun sets.

As stated by many, a battery tender helps extend life Hot Temperature also Shortens battery life. At the power plants the large industrial batteries were designed for a 77F ambient temp.and a 10Yr guaranteed life. With average life being 15 years. We had 2 dams with un-air conditioned battery rooms. The manufacture shortened the warranty guarantee To 8 years due to our 100F summers I fought any of us keep our tractors in air conditioned garages, parking them in a cooler spot is a good thing for battery life.

I just picked up another project FEL yesterday... I can’t wait to get it on my newly acquired 1054!

General consensus here on this site and everywhere I've ever read seems to be that a maintainer or trickle charger is your friend. We don't use them here because we run our tractors enough all year round to keep them charged on their own. We have two tractors that we use predominantly. Cinnamon horse has a group 51r that I got out of the salvage yard for $25. I don't remember the CCA but it's 500 maybe? IF you have the older larger style battery box I would HIGHLY recommend doing that. It starts easier in all temperatures. The other one is Trina's 867. That has a group u1 from our local Small engine repair place. Low amperage. Nothing special. We buy them from him specifically because I would rather give the business to a little company than a box store. He is honest enough to tell you that it's going to last either two or three seasons if you don't put a maintainer on it. 4 or 5 if you do.

I'll see your lunched rod Green and raise...

Today I changed the gearbox oil on one of the C125's. Pleasantly surprised to find that it had no water in it, but it was pretty black. Also changed the engine oil and put on a new air filter as have been using it a lot hauling dirt and garden waste around the farm Lots of muddy tracks between job sites and the wheelhorse just finds grip and drives through it all with no trouble at all.

Picked up a very intact B100 barn find yesterday and solidified an age old lesson: if youre too excited to look things over closely, make sure youre not paying much'- which luckily I didnt. Rolled the engine by hand, felt some resistance, loaded her up. Resistance must have been a combination of valve springs and excitement- more the second Broken top ring, ring lands beat to the point of leaving a burr on the piston, and rod babies in the oil pan- anyone want to guess what happened here? Luckily, there is very little bore wear, and no other damage aside from piston and rod. On a side note- check out these headlights! OEM Horse add on accessory?

On the 60s vintage tractors where they have a pull type cable people have been known to use clothespins. 1 for half throttle, 2 for full throttle....

Video May 27, 9 29 13 PM.mov

As i get older and everything seems to get heavier ... FEL!!! Not the most used but most appreciated when i do use it.

Photo department might have had a job shift... maybe she’s in the paint department?

Our Garden is in!

Hmmmm maybe I should mount the stack muffler I got from @squonk Should help and " make it cooler" ! Get it " make it cooler"

Breezy today and it's blowing the cow manure smell that overran our village this morning. Napping on the back porch with Belladog.

Sawwweet dude Looks like there is some attention to detail there.... ... you best put a ring on that girls finger!!

Sorry but for $14 my fuel pump can make clicking noises. Lets me know it is working when I turn on the switch and once she is running there are a lot louder noises from everywhere.

Tenders help, cycling / using them once in a while, age matters. My friend's Dad had two tractors, one winter, one summer, one battery between the two! He would remove the summer machine battery in the fall and install it in the winter machine. I guess it worked for him. I'm not into that and I have batteries in all the machines. I have two tenders and swap them around biweekly when the machines are not used. I also found out I only like the Deltran tenders, they seem to work the best but are the most costly. I have seen issues with the cheaper ones not working right or over charge. I make sure I have a date on the battery....time seems to slip by fast and it is surprising how long it has been installed. It can be a crap throw concerning price, I had expense batteries fail early, cheap ones last for years. Now I buy whats on sale. I have no proof but believe there are only a couple tow three battery manufactures.

There’s a clothespin in this pic too... they work just dandy!

Hope these are helpful.

I got a 401 and everyone asks me why there are clothes pins on the shift lever!

The Johnson 60 on my 14’ family runabout has been going strong for 30+ years without fail... I’ll take an old 2 stroke outboard over a 4 stroke any day... We’ve towed many a fancy go fast boat over the years with various issues... never been on the wrong end of a tow line... Sad day...

If not as Lift needed, it can be also misused with a bit wood and a Basket as a backboard.😎👍

Every WH I own gets nylon bushings on the hinge pins and almost everywhere else too.. tightens them up pretty good.

Well here is what I did and learned today. I decided my lawn need to get cut so instead getting the ole push mower out I said why not use the new Wheel Horse? Remember I live in the inner city my lawn takes 15 mins to push mow it so the ole 16 hp K341 might be a little over kill but " why not"? When I took the C-161 Automatic for its test drive after I brought it home I wasnt so sure about driving it with a stick. Seemed a little funny. So while mowing my small little yard with the 16hp 42" deck with the automatic stick I was like " THIS IS FANTASTIC !!!" I might be converted. It did take me a little longer to mow because I did have to get the push mower out to get to places the 42" deck couldnt reach but, this could be habit forming. Now I am thinking of putting a mulching kit on it. So I learned Automatic is SWEEEET, and BIGGER is always better. That 16hp Kolher is awesome.

I am laughing because I didnt think @pullstart ever let any get away !!

Here is one more procedure that will help increase the life of a battery. When you buy a new battery, bring it home and put it on a trickle charger 2amp or less and leave it for several hours so that it can come to a complete charge, then install it. If the battery is not at a complete charge the first time that you put load on it, you can create a memory in the battery that will keep it from fully charging in the future.

A snow plow!! I like pushing stuff around! LOL

have to say , plowing snow or cutting grass, i made these aerators over 30 years ago, 6" channel steel and pillow block bearings , also made the spiker blades from 3/8 steel , i regularly tow one when mowing ,really helped the hard dirt pack go away , pete

Pressure washed the decking this morning. Did very little of anything in the afternoon. Just a tad warm at 25c - 77f.

My C141 has the same problem! This muffler is larger in diameter than the one on my C160 which does not have this issue. I was told these mufflers came out as Wheel Horse was transitioning to the Black Hood series which I am guessing had a wider hood. I think I have an older smaller Nelson that I can install on this machine. I am in the process of cleaning up and painting this tractor and I don't want to ruin the new paint.

I've been lucky. Sorta. My mowing tractor (520-8) has the same battery as when I bought it over 3 years ago. But the diesel has had 3-4 since I got it running 2 years ago. The 520 is the one that gets used the most, so maybe that's why it stays charged. The diesel has a car battery, and while not even looking at it over the winter, it still had a charge. Not enough to start it, but now that it's running and use it now n then it charges and starts. I've had batteries that just don't hold a charge. Maybe this is where the saying "you get what you pay for" comes in....

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I dug out some manuals for the buggy and have begun to pour over those. I told the kids that we need to finish getting Comanche back together before we start another mechanical project, especially one that could get “a little messy” before it gets better. As I looked over my notes from a couple of years ago, it dawned on me that I was looking for that quick and easy fix instead of troubleshooting the problem. In the end I changed a handful of parts and got discouraged. This caused me to focus on other stuff in life and the buggy got stuck in my uncle’s barn—sound like some of the horses that have been brought back to life on this forum by someone who cared! One way or another we are gonna get the Blue Falcon up and running for the kiddos again👍🏻 I’ll keep you posted as we do. Thanks again for all the insight...

Here in Oklahoma Wheel Horses don't come around very often, so when I find one I usually try to buy it. Two or three years ago, I stumbled across a 1054 on CL in Oklahoma City. Don't remember now what the price was but as I remember it seemed like a good deal. At the time I was self employed and could take off whenever I wanted to, I should've drove down that day and picked it up. But I decided to finish up the two big jobs I was in the middle of and go get it on the weekend. Long story short the weekend came and the tractor was gone, to this day I still cuss myself for not hooking up the trailer that afternoon

Isn't that roughly the same thing as "storage light" ?