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I know I haven’t been as active on RS since we have launched out in full time missions work fall of 2020. However, I still think this is the best GT site on the planet with a great group of guys. We had a wonderful Christmas holiday season as I hope that ya’ll did. It will likely be a busy first quarter of the year with trips scheduled to Gdańsk-Poland, Indiana, Texas, Ohio, Missouri, and back to Texas before April 1. I haven’t gotten much wrenching time recently but hopefully that will change for the month of April. For those of you that have been around here for awhile, you know that our family always does an annual Christmas Day Tractor pic. This year it was nearly 40 degrees and sunny—go figure for east central WI🤔. Hopefully, we will get to visit more of you in our travels across this great country of ours this year as we were able to do in 2021. The tractor in the background is Casey…it is a 1980 Case 224 repowered with a M16 single. It has been in our extended family for 35 years this summer and I got it back in 2001. It is now my daughters machine and it works well. Claudia and I are planning a sheetmetal refresh and paint this summer🤞🏻. My cousin (a Case expert) rebuilt a deck for Claudia two summers ago and it works great! Happy Holidays and a blessed new year to you all!

Here’s a few side shots of mine. Love all the pictures.

Well last night while scrolling Facebook I saw some pictures of stuff for sale on a local garden tractor page. I showed Alex all the different things this guy had for sale and he fell in love with this little Excello reel mower powered with a little cast iron Briggs and Stratton. It was kind of late but I sent the guy a message. He wasn’t really looking for much and told me to make him an offer. Alex gave me a number and the guy accepted. This morning we headed out early and met him at his barn and Alex purchased it with his own money. It all spins freely and looks to be complete. he tossed in a Hahn Rocket 20 for Aiden my older son that I’m hoping gets him back into the garage. here’s to hoping we can figure out our first reel mowers. I think they will be great additions to the boys small collection of stuff and to bring to shows with us. He also found a 36”rear discharge wheel horse deck and gave that to me. Nice morning for a drive with my boys.

Well we got some heavy wet snow last night so it was time to put the 875 to work. Even without wheel weights and chains the snow was no match for this Wheel Horse. Automatic is the way to go when pushing snow. Last year I used 857 with weights and chains. As far as how the tractors went through the snow, I didn't notice much of a difference. Much easier with the automatic.

Finally, some snow to move.

You need a harmonic balancer ( bolt grip) puller. Puller bolts into the threaded holes on the pulley. A puller that grabs the edge of the pulley will break it.

No snow yet, but finally got around to mounting and installing my triribs on my C101. also picked up a nice 42”SD last week from squonk.

My last haul I got from auction 2 months ago. A load of Briggs motors, parts lawn ranger and Bush Hog T63

Yes Jeffrey was adopted from the city pound just over a year ago. The picked him up off the street severely injured. He need surgery to close him all back up again. Here is his " side shot" showing off some of his scars. He is a great dog. Shhhhh he dosnt know he is adopted.

Well there nobody can steel my faux antifreeze.

And made a video. Holds 266 mowing at 77* ambient..its amazing how quickly the engine heat soaks on shutdown

My ole 71 800 grAss cutter&74 12 auto about halfway there.

Happy Happy Josh & say hello to the gang. Miss you guys at plow day!

So it's not really a side shot. Today seems to be snow removal day, so Casper and I went out. I cut a path through the deep stuff on the left with my walk behind. That part didn't get cleared yesterday. The rest was only an inch or two deep,depending on how the wind blew, but it was still fun. All went without a hitch, except.... that little red light on top of the board...when it's covered with snow, it's just white. Kind-a looks like this . Get it? It's just white.

Jim probably thinks Dan is to busy to work on more than one

Yup. I think you should add an air filter. Splitting logs is not the cleanest of jobs.

So I’ve made some progress on the homemade splitter. I’ve even managed to track down its original creator. It was apparently built in 79, and used all through the 90s. He ended up selling it and it pretty much dropped off the face of the earth until now. I ended up ripping a crappy MTD snowblower apart for the engine and mounted a generic China hydraulic pump to it. Surprisingly everything lined up perfectly. I need to clean the hydraulic tank and control module before I can start making up hoses, but I believe I’ll have a functional splitter soon.

Spittin' snow... and that Honda's raring to go!

Old and water in oil… Prop up front end and make sure all oil drains. There’s a hump in trans that keeps some oil in if not propped up… Put couple quarts of kerosene in there and run it around awhile. Change through all gears while driving. Drain again with front end propped up. or, just fill with 80-90 gear oil and run for awhile. Then drain again… Fill with 80-90 weight drain oil. May need to do twice… I’d change shift boot cover to keep water out… And,

I would like to throw my Season's Greetings out there also for you and your family. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers and safe journeys to you and yours.

@ebinmaine… Have @Pullstart build you one… old school bus, a few old Chevy pick ups, some WH parts and a winch or two… what else do you need and what could possibly go wrong…?

Just some junk I picked up in the last six months. Some recoils and parts. Nice 1290 and check mark 6-12 Silvertown. 2021 wasn't bad year

On another note, I REALLY appreciate the open mindedness here! All the off roaders do. To us it is similar to deer hunting- yes we hunt, but at the same time have the utmost love and respect for the animals as well. Doesn't make sense, but its truth.

@Snoopy11 hit the nail on the head. The benefit of having an automotive style bearing insert is probably more helpful than the strength of a billet. When these little engines are abused (or run low on oil) the big end of the rod gets hot due to lack of lube, the aluminum galls and welds itself to the crank, and thats what snaps the rod. That alone is the weak point nearly every time, on every small engine. Fix that issue, and these things are very hard to blow up. You guys will have to check in in a couple months- I bought a 20.5hp (the big boy 46ci) pressure lube Briggs opposed vertical engine, and after months of searching, found a horizontal pressure lube side cover, oil pump and pan. The search continued for a set of used billet rods, and I ended up scoring a set, plus a billet flywheel, STRONG factory 28ci Briggs single pistons (this was a trick I was not aware of) and a pretty healthy custom ground cam. This will be a 30hp, 7000rpm screaming oppy, and likely pretty much bomb proof.

There's nothing like having a "Big Johnson" ( or TWO ) when you need to do some heavy moving!

Looks like you was chasing a leprechaun and got a bit of his gold!!!! Nice!!!

I'll second that.

@Docwheelhorse , could not agree more , nothing like an empty road , road test , do that to heat up a gear oil change , and the flushing after word, usually bring a small tool kit , carb cleaner, test light , to get after any issues. pete

I use diesel. Also, be sure to consider how to dispose of it responsibly.

ok guys a bit of a update. jb weld was taking too long to do it. so even though i dont like using bondo to fix pitted metal i went ahead and bought some anyway. i worked at it all afternoon and my hand and arm said are you done yet lol. so i got it alot smoother than it was. i did sand it down alot more than what the unprimered photos show so dont hopefully it wont crack lol. so i am debating on the bedliner still. it will hide some of the imperfections and add durability. for local shows i might put my 1964 24 inch tiller in the wagon so would be nice to make it where it wont get damaged easily.

Not familiar with Toro, but I am a strong believer in the blue belts - they seem to last forever. I get mine at a bearing supply business.

Did I mention we have severe senses of humor here Deep?

Happy New Year everyone. We had a very uneventful New Years weekend here, stayed home out at the farm and tried to stay warm. Winter finally decided to make an appearance here in Oklahoma yesterday. We have been used to high temps in the 50s and 60s for all of November and December, I was beginning to wonder if we were gonna have a winter this year. Woke up yesterday to an outside temp of 18, and never saw much over 20 all day. Then this morning we woke up to about a 1/4" of snow, temp of 5, and wind chill of -12. Not sure if myself or the old 454 was more reluctant to get started to head to town As for the rest of the year, we have a lot of projects planned, starting with doing some maintenance and repairs to the 74 GMC camp rig to make sure it's roadworthy before tractor show season kicks off this spring, first show we attend ever year is the Steam & Gas Engine show in Pawnee OK every May. So we still have some time but at the rate I move we better get busy now. Also have some Wheel Horse projects I need to get back to, most of you have probably noticed I haven't been active here in the WH sections, only on this board or over in other brands. I still have three Horses, and still love them as much as ever, I just kinda lost interest in working on them after losing the boys a little over a year ago. Those little tractors were something that both boys and I enjoyed tinkering on together. But I'm starting to get the itch to work on them again, would like to finish getting the 753 repainted and put back together in time for the Pawnee show in May, and I did drag the two seater out from in the corner of the shop last week. Used the air blower and blew about half an inch of dust off of it, and took some measurements to see what I need to modify to mount the new Predator 212 on it. So hopefully in the next couple months I'll be posting a lot more in the main section of this forum, and for those of you who follow my YouTube channel, be looking for some Wheel Horse related content there as well.

Warmed up to a balmy 5 today. Even Casper didn't like it.

Went to bed at 9. Woke up at 2 to jiggle the chain. Didn't even acknowledge a new year. Had the day to myself. Started an attic cleaning project.

As much as I'd enjoy that... It'll be a better investment in time and money for us to hire a pro.... And the cost is about the same.

I ended up cleaning up the rust inside my single stage yesterday. Figured I’d paint the fins and inside of the chute because of the warm weather as well. Not a perfect match and a little too shiny for my liking, but after a few snowstorms in my gravel driveway it should fade a little to match the rest of the machine. Mostly just trying to keep the rust in check for now. When I inevitably restore my 310 the snowblower will get fresh paint and decals as well.

There’s a few in my stable that need some wrenches and lovin’ too. Let’s hope that happens this year!

There are. I don't put anything non metal in mine. I've left a carb as long as a week. Doesn't seem to cause an issue.

That's where the wire brush comes in...

Betcha 953 nut will like that. They are a favorite of mine. Almost more than a nice roundy. Just something about the tall seat and the drive ability, stock HY and a stout worker.

Would that not require a radiator?

I believe those are aftermarket. There are 2 of them welded into this deck. I bought those round inserts online then cut out the very cracked up spindle mount areas from the deck and had these welded in. I actually bought 3 but only needed 2. Of course this is a 48 deck so it also has the big plate on top. This is the deck as received. And the deck painted then assembled. I have others but this is my main one. Works perfectly with those plates welded in.

Most of us find that Regal Red from Rust-oleum is about as close as you will find in a rattle can. International Harvester red is also a good choice.

This may be of help… may not… No apparent definitive answer to your ageless question…

I don’t see any junk!