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We live in "haspengouw", the region is know for it's fruit trees. Apple, pear and cherries. We have had some frost here as well. farmers stayed up all night, keeping their fires lit to rescue the blossoms.

Howdy guys! So... this past weekend... it was raining, so I made an exhaust stack for my L-157. I got my Tillotson 212r put in... (runs great), but I do plan to swap back to my Tillotson stage 1 (governor removed) once I get the parts I need to fix it... I ran the exhaust piping through what was the gas filler hole. I did also put a steel flap (10 dollars at a farm store) on the top of the exhaust pipe (not shown in these photos). I fabricated a cupholder and a piston shifter, (the piston came out of my original Tecumseh engine!). I think the black engine with the black tractor looks exceptional! Here are some pics:

I remember as a kid the 'smudge pots' that the orchards around here used. On nights when there could be frost, they would put them all out and light them. Dad used to herd us all into the car to drive out and look at it because it was quite a sight to see on a clear cold night... all those smudge pots burning in the orchard. And the smell of the Kerosene burning... when I smell that it always takes me back. Some used the smaller 'bomb' type that were typically used at highway construction sites back in the day. I've got one of these somewhere out in my 'hoard'.

Got the 1257Heavys fuel tank installed now just need to finish welding the platform and cut a hole into the hood for the fuel cap, then she will be able to drink 2.5 gallons at a time!

This year we have an invasion of beautiful Yellow Finches. There are dozens constantly all over specially at Wife’s feeders.

Hey folks, I thought it would be fun to chronicle my 1985 312-8 here on the forum. Nothing too exciting but figured it would be a good way for me to log my progress and share with others. I like seeing others projects and work so figure I'd share mine. so to start, here is what it looked like the day I bought it. Paid $500 for it with 42" deck as the only implement. Everything was in working condition: Engine, Trans, Deck, Steering, etc. Mowed a few strips at the guys house before taking it home. A little dirty but all in all pretty solid condition that would clean up well. After a quick wash and rub down Next post I'll start listing the maintenance stuff I have done so far...

Once it burns the paint off it will be fine. Then some stove black on it and it will look great.

Red hot day here today so I decided I needed to make a fire pit. Honestly, the honourable Mrs.W is having her girlfriends round this evening and it will drop very cold. So I cut down an oil drum and did some modifying so it should work as a wood burner. Kind of a nice shape to it and a raised steel grate so she can burn logs.

Making a bit of headway.

Only trouble is its a girls only club so im stuck indoors all night while they drink gin.

Heck I might actually get some stuff done today on ole Hiram.

Able to bring home a nice pair of horses, C-111 and C-161 gear drive. The 161 has a neat Honda powered TracVac that hooks onto to a custom steel bracket attached to the rear axle. Both came from the original owner, garage kept and in great shape! Selling the 111 (currently posted in Classified section if anyone is interested) and going to try mowing our 3 acres of grass up at camp with the 161. I mowed it last year with my 141 hydro 42" but eager to try the gear drive setup on the 161 with the 48" deck. If anyone is interested in the 111 feel free to reach out, I'm open to offers! Take care

I made some improvements that I wanted to show......but decided to wait until I did a little more work on them. Oh what the heck, here's the photo take a look

Drew up a quick schematic for the engine electric system as it was when I got it. Snipped the wires off and removed some more parts from the engine.

My boss gave me a shifting knob. It not only looks cool but the cool factor doesnt stop there. Apparently it was the knob he had in his big rig when he was a roadie. It has been all over. Concerts like Ted Nugent, Blue Oyster Cult, Aerosmith. I kinda want to put it on Hiram, but I'm unsure if I should.

I don't think the smudge pots, helicopters, or fans would have worked here last night. We had 20-30MPH NW winds all night. May be the water spray would have worked, but I wasn't staying up all night to spray trees. Snow flurries now. May have to fire up the wood burner.

They keep telling us to eat less meat because of, “Climate Change”. If the bureaucrats see these pictures, we’ll be told to eat less fruit as well! 🍏🍎🍒🍐 Doug.

Woke up this morning to a broken refrigerator. The freezer was still below freezing, about 25° (normally 0-10) and the fridge was around 45° (normally 35-40), The compressor was trying to start every minute or so but it could not / did not. I thought, probably the starting cap. I have several in my junque boxe (sometimes it pays to hoard!). Swapped it out... nope. OK, must be the start relay. YUP! popped the cover off the side of the compressor and out fell the burnt charred remains of the relay. It's an OLD fridge! The relay is no longer available. What to do... I was able to salvage enough of the old relay to make a 'plug' onto which I soldered a couple wires, one for the RUN and one for the START. With a couple well placed clip leads I was able to start and run the compressor. I put on my McGyver cap and set to designing my own start relay with parts from my junque boxe. I had a P&B KRPA DPDT relay and socket with 120V coil. Of course I've got gobs of resistors and capacitors and diodes and transistors and yes, even VACUUM TUBES! So I rigged up a circuit that would 'pulse' the relay for about a half second and release it. IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM! Here it is before I cleaned it all up, got rid of the clip leads, applied heat shrink tubing and electrical tape and put it inside a small metal enclosure to tuck inside the control area: The whole ordeal took most of the day designing, prototyping, finalizing. Basically I rectified the 120V RUN signal, filtered with the caps on the right, fed the resulting DC in SERIES with the silver starting cap (12 MFD) to the relay coil. When the RUN signal goes high, the rectified DC sends a pulse through the silver capacitor and the coil pulls in. Once the cap is charged, no more current flow, the relay drops out. The resistors you see serve to discharge the capacitor after the relay drops out so it's ready for the next cycle. It was a fun exercise and took my mind off feeling 'punky' after my 2nd Moderna yesterday. Wife still wants a new fridge and that's fine. I said you can get your fridge if I can get the driveway paved. She said FINE! GO AHEAD! No more worry about rocks in the snow thrower! Easy to plow! At least now she can shop at her leisure for exactly what she wants. Started as a bad day, ended as a very good one!

I got some parts back from the media blaster today. They sure clean up nice. Wipe them with a little mineral spirits, and they are ready to paint. I have no plans for these wheels right now, so they will just get primer.

I’ve recently gotten into flux core welding and I’ve been making all sorts of attachments for my 310-8. I was wondering what other crazy things people have made for their tractors.

Spring . It’s time to start planting the flowers.

Wife was off getting her teeth floated tonight. While she was gone I decided to take advantage of the quiet time and get my hood lettered. I know that Terry now makes some awesome decals to letter your hoods, but I kinda enjoy the artsy time and I can do an OK job with a brush. As long as I had the brush & paint out I also lettered an engine shroud that I had sprayed for Jim. @WHX24

Just wanted to share a situation that's happened to me twice in 3 weeks now. Trina and I are very frugal and I spend (too much) time looking for the best deal on things quite often. Most times I win. Occasionally I don't pay enough attention or do enough poking around and I could do better. A few weeks ago I ordered a piece of metal. Days go by and a Home Depot box shows up. I DO buy from them but not that time. Turns out it's a seller on the fleabay that somehow does dropships. For a few seconds of data entry they gained about 30% or more. Maybe 12 or $15.? Similarly... A few days ago I ordered a large pair of vise grips for the best price I could find at the time. From fleabay. Today arrives a flippin' amazon package! Ok well fine. That seller gains $9.98 of my funds because I got complacent.....? The first occasion I don't regret because that person had more knowledge than me on where to find what I wanted. Honestly I'm fine with that. The second time.... Well that's on me. Obviously I just didn't do enough research. Coming from me that means a LOT!!! So pay attention folks!!! Double check the triple checks.

I'm assuming that your boss drove a semi when he was a roadie? If so, then the shift knob came off of a tractor - a really big, over the road kind.

Set the bead on flat tubeless tire on the new to me trailer... used rubber cement and boy did it work great...! Super easy...

The best you can do. Your Tractor have it‘s history, this knob have it‘s history, imho that sounds to a perfect match. 👍

True enough. I'll do it.

5 bucks includes the new valve stem !!!! Great people , 3 Generations of men running the show here...Owned since 1930"s

Do not use longer bolts then what you pulled out. I know Paul likes to change out his bolts, but it is really not necessary. New nuts are a must. It seems like Wheel Horse never used the length of bolts that you can readily buy. If you have to use them, put a regular nut on them and then saw to the same length as the ones you pulled out. Back that nut off to fix the thread.

Had the same thing happen to me last year. Just a couple days after knee surgery. Big ol GE. You can't find anything like this in a retail store anymore. Big pancake compressor. The condenser fan motor took a dump. I'm thinking no big deal. Unit brg. Motor. I go to the local supplier thru work. Nothing in stock but a $200 ECM motor. 2 local appliance stores closed. I have motors in my work van but I'm off on workman's compensation so I can't get them. I need a 2 watt motor. A store 25 miles away has a 9 watt.I take it. Refrigerator sounds like a B-17 bomber starting up but it cools like a mohambie. Real fun trying to replace it without bending my leg. Wife has to help me get up off of the floor a bunch of times. I got a 2 watter on the shelf now.

Hey all, looks like everyone has been busy for sure. For winter I tweeked my single stage snowblower, it now can even throw slush and wet snow. I have yet to try it on good dry snow but theres always next year. Ive also gotten a good start on a box scraper. As soon as I can Ill post some pics of both. Oh yes where the blower at full throttle would only throw snow 10 to at most 15 feet when its dry snow and may be 5 to 8 feet when wet and always plugging up, now it throwes it right back to mother natures yard, and oh hell does it ever send it. Ill post how far wet snow goes in the pictures I post ok. Gotta keep em wondering right heheheheh. Mike Hendrick.

You're better off mister man. Add all those words up and they spell "man trubble".

I'm working on a hitch-mounted winch crane...

I got charged 26 for both my tires and valve stems... 5 dollars each is awesome...

Ok I'll be nice. Instead of a belt guard I made a fence around the complete engine. I need to control the turning radius from the wheels getting locked up. Maybe two stops on the drag link?

Got to give them a little time to grow.

New decal set came in. Got the left side C-160 badge and WH bar on. All the decals on the right side came off during pressure washing. Should make a big improvement.

Ended up rolling off the back But never spilled my drink !!

As promised, here are some picture of how the cables look with braided wire loom on them. Last night I installed my new sediment bulb then left it sit over night so that anaerobic sealant that I used on the threads would have a chance to set up. I thought that tonight would be a good night to install a battery and see if the ole girl would come back to life. Before installing the battery I added a little bling to it, I think that the old school decal from Terry is a nice touch for an older tractor. After installing the battery, adding a little gasoline to the tank, and working the primer pump a few times. I'm happy to say that it fired right up. Then it was time to take her out topless for a cruise,I'm happy to report that it ran and drove beautifully. Sorry no pictures, I'll get you guys some glammer shots when she has her top on. Oh ya, @pullstart might get a kick out of this. Some "Jack Wagon" got a little carried away with the never seize when he was putting the exhaust together. Spent a good 30min cleaning that mess up after I ran the engine,

Until comes time to break the bead? I used RTV on the tires on my leave blower. I got pissed at having to fight them back on the bead every fall and said "I can fix that!" They still go flat after a few days but at least they don't fall off the rim! If the tire ever shreds I'll throw it out and pick up an eight dollar Harbor Fright combo.

I would love to have one, if I had the space. But if I had the space, I would probably buy another tractor to put in that pace, and then I wouldn't have the space anymore. It's a vicious cycle.

I'd put it on the tractor. Better then back in a drawer.

They are about the same. the rear tires are the smaller narrow ones, 22x7.5-12. they have tubes and are pretty cracked but getting the job done. I'll probably upgrade to new ones and do 23x8.5-12 at some point. The fronts are 15x6-6. Was that the stock size? Or were they a 5 inch wide tire? The tractor tracks and drives pretty straight. I've mowed a baseball practice field with it and don't have any complaints yet.

You have a lot to go through there. I think Achto was just trying to say...just do one thing at a time. If you do a bunch of things at once, you will never know what was wrong and maybe never get it to run. Little steps. Nice trailer!!

The cables mentioned Black choke + Throttle cables with Metal knobs Fit Willys CJ2A CJ3A CJ3B jeep | eBay I am going to try and cover them with a small piece of black shrink wrap if it pans out cover the whole cable. I'll have to put up a post of the original amp meter I am going to use.

He has been a busy man lately, so I didn't bother him with this adventure.

Nice and it even has whitewall tires! That must be a high end version