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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.

Welcome. The transaxles on these machines are very tough. Odd are excellent that, with the double flush and fresh 80/90 the guys above suggested, you'll have a lot of life ahead in that machine. Make a note on your calendar to change it again in a year. After that, you can change it based on hours of use, per the manual.

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

I have decided to go with a one piece hood. Hinges and latch/s to be determined at a later time.

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

Trina and I spent a couple hours clearing the pathway out to the garden area. Shaved off a few stumps. Trimmed a bunch of saplings. I laid down the tree in the pic. 40+ foot hemlock that had broken in the past so it was 60, 70 ft or more at one point. Stump is at least 24" across. Blue is the stump. Red is the top. Same pic, no lines. Path is now done enough for the excavator machine to get down through.

I have to say I’ve seen a lot of home made wood splitters. But I’ve never seen someone use actual wedges to build a wedge. My grandfather built a couple that I grew up splitting wood with. My dad and grandfather teamed up and built one or two more and the one that my dad has now is a custom beast. Seems like most people around here have custom splitters. We have a pair of 4 foot splitters at work. One home made one John Deere. The home made kicks the Deere’s but every day.

875 and 857 and Jeffrey who loves to go for rides. When he isn't riding in the back he is biting the tires

Not sure there's really as much open mindedness as you think! Rather, the ones that don't like what you guyz are doing are practicing "closed mouthedness" ! Which is a good thing too!

I was going to say Dan’s probably booked up and Jim only reserved one slot in the garage.

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

I prefer bare metal also, but, sometimes after a couple days in Berrymans, and a couple cycles through the sonic cleaner, they come out a little funky looking.

Would that not require a radiator?

My cup of tea as well.

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.

“Jane” is a Commando 6. Note the skinny front tires. See how they fly. @8ntruck there was a Commando V7 Stateside, but I believe the Horizontal flavor was European market only.

Love it! Have a C161 that is about the same. It will be my beautiful rat!

I am back in business. I thought it has sheared a pin. It wasn't that simple. It never is. It actually threw the chain. After digging in the snow and finding the chain, I saw there was no master link. I completely rebuilt this unit last year, so if there was a problem with the master link, I guess it fall on me. My bad. I had another. I also tightened the chain on that blower, which is no mean feat either. I ended up grinding one of my tappet wrenches down to the width of a dime, but I got it done. The turnbuckle and cable can no longer part ways. They are joined like french fries and ketchup, never to part again. I took it out for another trial. I asked Allan Funt if she would care to video, she declined, and no so politely I might add. These snow blowers would probably be OK for 2-3" of snow, 5" plus is too much. When I went out the second time I had both chutes facing the same direction. With the awesome power of these blowers, the right one was just dumping snow in front of the left one. You can imagine how well that turned out. I was hoping it would snow, well, as they say, "Be careful what you wish for.............." We have well over 5" and it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. In the end, I believe the theory is a good one, and it will work, with the proper equipment. Two 1964, 15", 2 1/2 HP, Lawn Boy snow blowers, aint it. I am on the look out for another 24", 8 HP, 2 stage walk behind snowblower, but I have to wonder, will it be possible to steer a tractor, with that much weight hanging on the front of it. I am going to have to winch mine up and weigh it. Maybe if I do like I have seen suggested here, and put roller chain on the front tires, it will. In the mean time, I have another modification in mind for Casper. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't. The fun is in the trying. Anyone know where I can get a relatively small, but very strong torsion spring?

I was lucky enough to work with an old time finish carpenter that was very willing to share his knowledge with me. His way of thinking was the more I knew the less he had to worry about or had to do. I carried that thought through all the years I spent in the trade. It allowed me the time I needed to keep a job running smoothly, and to be able to spend my time doing things others were not ready to tackle just yet. Just seemed to make for a better working environment all the way around.