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Tried out the 418-A today for the first time with the 44'' 2 stage. A few observations. For the past 20 years between 2 520's both with cabs I can say that the snow coming out of the shute when it blows back at you still feels the same Don't miss that at all. My left hand kept going to the left side of the steering wheel coming up empty when I needed to lift the blower, that is going to take some time to adjust. First time for 4 link chains, now I know why everyone prefers 2 link even though they were ice chains. I guess I'm used to 2 link for the past 35 years blowing and blading, they seem to back up better. Steering is much easier on the 520. Hydro levers work great on either tractor. I would assume fuel usage is close, not that it matters. Sound of the Kohler vs the Onan, both are music to my ears. Power, the Kohler throws the snow as well as the Onan just didn't operate it long enough for a good comparison. If the 418 works like I think it will the cab may be headed on that one, maybe not this Winter though.

Like sitting around a campfire, no matter where you move the smoke blows in your face...

One comes across expansion auger bits all the time. Usually found with all kinds of rubble in flea markets and peoples basements. Many are in relatively new condition where most are just rusty. Asides the main reason today where if one needs to drill a hole anywhere from one to three inches an immediate trip is made to Home Depot to buy a hole saw, the actual reason is that most people just do not know how to use it correctly. Also if used correctly when it eventually dulls it is not understood how to sharpen it correctly. At that point it becomes frustrating and useless and to the bottom of the pile it goes for the rest of its life. Sharpened and used correctly it is a valuable tool to have if one does any type of woodworking or carpentry. It will drill holes all the way to 3 inches and any custom size hole in between which would be impossible with any other bit. There are many different types out there , my favorite being the solid head Jennings . New they are less expensive than any hole saw. The secret to them is mainly the screw. It has to be sharp and clean so it will pull auger constantly into wood. There is absolutely no way one can drill any hole over 1-1/4” by merely applying pressure. Absolute sharpness and correct angle of cutter are essential also. In addition one should use a large throw brace for leverage and use it with the ratcheting feature by merely pulling brace’s arm towards the body. It is a mistake to attempt a full turn with brace. It it not only extremely difficult if possible at all but what that accomplishes is the stripping of wood ahead of screw by tilting brace with the effort needed to make a full turn. Once that happens it will no longer pull auger in . Jennings solid head on left . Drills up to 3”. Cutter solidly enclosed on Jennings. It is precisely screw adjustable. Large 12” throw brace. Courtesy of @Jeff-C175 Clean entry 2-1/2” hole Efficient quick cutting 1/16” thick shavings Opposite side clean exit. Faster and cheaper than a trip to Home Depot.

Wheel Horse did keep production records of their tractors, but the information that remains has never been made public. In the early days each tractor serial number and date was recorded in a hand-written ledger. The record keeping was apparently quite Byzantine as each unique tractor model was assigned a specific color of ink and there was no pattern to what serial numbers were assigned to a series of machines. So decoding the entries is cumbersome and time consuming. At some point - probably in the 1970’s when they were becoming a big company - I’m sure they modernized the record keeping. I believe I also recall that there are several years of ledgers (late 1960’s?) missing. As of the last ten years or so, Toro still had these ledgers and records in notebooks tucked on a shelf. As far as I know they’ve only ever been been viewed by one member here and I’m not sure if he saw the whole set. And it’s not Mike M. I’ll bump the person who saw them a PM to alert him to this thread in case he wants to add something. But I don’t think he’s been active on here for a while. The contact the collector world had at Toro was a member of the old guard who worked for them when they were still in South Bend and who was one of a few that made the move to Bloomington, MN. He retired a few years ago but I imagine he still makes it to the shows once in a while. Periodically, before he retired, he’d look up something for one of us on special request and provide the information. I believe the model 754 production was one of the hard numbers he came up with and I know I talked to him about 420’s (of which there were 200 but for which they had set aside another 200 serial numbers they never issued). He also confirmed the numbers of D250’s that were imported (1000 in 1976 and 500 each in 1978 and 1979). And he’s where the 225 number for the 520-8’s comes from. There isn’t really a benefit for Toro to share this information or have one of their employees spend time going through it. I suspect the best we can do is guess at what’s out there and safely assume they produced a LOT of tractors through the years. Not many are rare and there are so many virtually identical models it’s hard to make distinctions. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that even though they built a ton of tractors, Wheel Horse was run like a small company for many years. They certainly didn’t have the rigidity and polish of a Deere or IH and while their products were generally pretty great, they were a little loose on some details. Ive been lucky to have had a chance to hobnob with many people “who were in the room when it happened” and every once in a while something will jog my memory to share a detail. But I’ve no clue about any of the production records of the old tractors. I had a plan at one time to put a bunch of this sort of thing into a book but never took the time finish it. Maybe some day. Steve

Had to use a ladder...

Trina's like that. Do NOT tell her I said that.

Don't forget your safety suit.

At first glance I thought that was bubble wrap.

Glare was harsh...

Finally have some time to work on my horses, and it's getting down to do: custom seatpan support to make some storage and lift the seat, 4" hoodlift, and then a full disassembly for painting.

Reminds me of another funny...

Gassed, oiled, Super Lubed @peter lenastyle on the blades and ready to roll for Michigan’s planned Snowmageddon tomorrow through Thursday… anywhere from nothing to 6” forecast with rain to start it off tomorrow… even gassed up Dad’s old two stroke toro to help with tight cleanup duties where needed…

Little different clean up here in NC. With the three small snow storms we got there was a lot of other stuff to clean up, This is the last of five loads of limbs and leafs i've clean up in the last two weeks. The other four load came out from a live oak.

"My opinion...nothing wrong with that plug. It's got a nice burn where it counts." I tend to agree .... A one time reading is not very reliable - working under load, cold weather, several factors could affect the plugs appearance. So, maybe the plug is not "ideal" but I really dont see anything to get excited about.

I for one, sure do wish we had more!

I have found that using sealant on a flat rubber gasket results in exactly what happened to the gasket in the picture. Sealant will lube the gasket and cause it to push out when it gets tightened it down.

most the plugs I pull have carbon build up or even some some oil. Kohler manual doesn't have color pictures. This is from K341. Just static checked timing it is dead on...

@D_Mac check out this kid… another D Mac!

Personally I think it's a fantastic look. It's time to conquer your fears. Confront them. Stare them in the eye. Look at the glorious rolls of striping tape!!!!!

Got to lube it first

Yeah. That's what I'm afraid of... It isn't correct, but it's mine and I like it...

I got another video but can't upload it at the moments. A new belt did fix 75% of it, but I found the other 25% and I think it's what caused it. My transmission pulley was in so deep it was rubbing against this piece of thin vertical steel behind the pulley. I'm guessing it's a stop to keep the pulley from going further but I don't know how rubbing that is any better. I also noticed my belt was angled a bit "in" towards the center of the tractor. I slid the transmission pulley 3/16 towards the outside of the tractor and shimmed the idler and now it's near perfect. I just need to get a replacement idler pulley that is the right size vs the 2 5/8 one I have on there but it's working good all of the kicking is gone. I'm not sure if the belt angle is due to me putting the magnum engine on the shaker plate for a K series or if those had a different plate or mount. I never saw that engine on the tractor it came from. I know putting a K series where a KT series was is a great time. Come to think of it, none of my wheel horses have the original or same type of engines on them. Oh well haha.

That happens to you too, thought it was just me! Bob

Customer pulled in yesterday with a mower and said hey you want a mower...i said sure why not. He rolls off a clean 2006 Deere 155C, 25hp Briggs, K46, 48" deck. Said it wouldn't run right and he was tired of it, another shop nearer his new house had been working on it and they were done trying....he said no matter whats wrong with it he doesnt want to know... So, it ran only on choke and ran fast..told me air leak. I pulled off the intake...they had added a rubber gasket behind the carb and pushed it out leaving a gap between the carb and intake..then cranked the nuts down so hard it warped the intake flange. Also missing 2 of 3 screws for the upper cover..that leaks air right into the idle circuit. I sealed it temporarily with goop and it ran fine about 20 seconds. Ill plane the manifold flat and new gaskets, shell be a runner.

Here's a stop action top (ish) shot from the BBT cruisin by on the Millie...

^^^^^^^^^ This is the reason... ....... Says the guy who built hell horse If you guys poke around online for a few minutes I think you'll find there's more information. Seems to me I remember him doing that just for the exact single simple reason that he wanted to.

The perimeter of the plug is black indicating that the mixture is rich or the engine is consuming some oil. The center electrode appears fine indicating the spark plug heat range is good. The side electrode is very white which leads me to believe that the mixture is lean. I would adjust for a richer mixture and measure oil consumption. When taking a plug reading, work the engine hard for a while, then quickly shut down, you shouldn't idle at all.

On this rig, that "kick in all of a sudden at high revs" could be quite, ummmm, exciting! Kind of like the time I rode my friend's KZ 1000. Grabbed a hand full of throttle, then took 3 blocks catching up to the bike so I could shut it down.

Just to make it run, a cam change would do it. I suppose you might be able to get there with a stock can by getting creative with the valve train to somehow get the intake lobes and exhaust lobes to actuate the opposite valve in the heads. To make it run right, I think one would need custom heads to optimize the intake and exhaust valve sizes and a custom cam with lobes that line up with the valves. Or, possibly using a reverse rotation cam with the crank running in the normal direction? The Ford Cosworth Indy engines in the mid '60s had reverse flow heads to allow using 180 degree headers in the valley of the V for better exhaust tuning. I think they used them in the small block GT40's too.

I know I have a couple of those bits in my drill box...also have the ratchet brace.

Was fortunate as a kid to work on building a house with my Dad and Grandfather and a (to me at the time) OLD carpenter . I learned about these bits by wanting to help and ending up with what I now know was scut work--drilling holes in the studs and joists for BX wiring and for plumbing runs! But I sure learned how to hold a brace and use the ratchet! And I still have those very tools.

Two years ago I re-did a P218. I'd never worked on a twin before and was very intimidated by the (to me) complexity. With encouragement from this group, I went at it slowly and carefully, step-by-step, and it came out quite well. Yes, I did bring some applicable mechanical skills and tools to the party from other work I'd done, I had a sheltered place where I could leave the "work in progress", I enjoy researching problems to find solutions, and I had the time to learn before doing. Plus, I was game to give it a go. I have friends expert in other areas, though, who don't know a carb from a differential and simply don't care to, so I fully recognize that for your own reasons you aren't going into this machine. All of that said, I encourage you to start looking now, before you have the pressure of an urgent need, for a shop that you're willing to trust to do the necessary preventative maintenance at a price you find fair. Good luck!

Great tool for sure. My dad gave me one with other bits and braces a couple of years ago. He gave them to me because he knows I appreciate and take care of my tools, especially my vintage stuff. Thanks for sharing your tools and knowledge with us!

I'm going to use that. Eveything I have is refreshormoditorized....

It's a refreshtoration.....?

absolutely! This can be like those signs you might see on occasion…

Don't think disc brakes on the skis would do much anyway.

love to hear that kind of history -- any of that type info that Red Square can memorialize to their web site will be great for years to come and for future generation owners - I was particularly interested beyond the annual or gross sales..... but in the stats of the "by model" sales over the decades - I find that kind of data interesting - but also great insight into the appeal of the different horse models by what appealed to buyers based on planned usage. Yes of course the geographics by state are insightful as well -- thru the mid west up into Atlantic states and New England etc --- but to me the reasons why a C series of a certain era would be appealing versus a 300, 400 or 500 series, or particular horse power, or attachment capability, is also compelling to understand the evolution of the WH story -- right up to and including the years "after" the Toro ownership and name were added -- into 90s and 2000s. thanks for writing this added info to the WH chapters - perhaps more can be added by others

Some more progress

I realize the demands I’ll be placing on the belt are not the design of the belt. A snowmobile has much more surface area for grip. I’m planning on enough tire slip at first throttle to hopefully make it past that first demand. with no ground engaging action (Sorry @SylvanLakeWH, I’ll not be plowing the garden with this one!) I’m hoping there will be less overall stress and load when under way. There’s plenty that can go wrong. Other than time and energy, I’m not $1 into this project as far as new acquisitions. If it all gets scrapped (the ideas, not the materials), no harm no fowl.

They were predicting 2-4 here in western Mass. then they jacked the totals way up over a foot. At the last second they dropped back down to the 2-4. Alex plowed the bulk of the driveway with my bronco 14 yesterday. He was in a hurry to go ice fishing so he finished it today. Love the smiles. IMG_6058.MOV

100 pages.

Being avid rough country campers and professional owners of a backyard fire 🔥 pit the Trina and I have been around more campfires than you could shake a stick at. I assure you all. Smoke does follow you. We've scientifically proven it multiple times. I've wondered the same about blowing snow. Seems no matter which way the wind is blowing or I'm facing I manage to get a good quality covering of ❄️❄️❄️. No worries though. Saves me a shower later. 🤪

So should I put the rust back on

You play snowman Jim?

I wanted a motorcycle so bad I could taste it. Asked my Dad and he said "Sure. As soon as you can pay for it with cash, plus the insurance, plus the extra cost on our health insurance (extra for motorcycle operators), and all the maintenance." Never happened.

Form over function

Ready…

Check the tube you have the one on my 520 was so rusted I ordered the complete kit. I got it opened up but didn't want to destroy a new cable in that rusted tube.

I got to try the plow out today. Took the advice from @Achto and tightened the stabilizer bolts. Figured it made sense to limit the movement of the plow on my first try. Just gotta say WHOO HOO! Used the C-160 and what a great job on turning over the ground for my garden. Even plowed up a 3 inch root! It was a bit stubborn to steer but manageable. Only problem was the C-160 has the hydraulic lift and it was challenging to set the plow depth correct. Had the plow almost buried a time or 2! Nice having the hydraulic for lifting though. Very impressed with the tractor and plow arrangement! Knocked the furrows down after plowing with the C-120 and blade. Added my chicken dung and followed up with the 416-8 and tiller. Awesome finish! So much fun, I just wish I had a bigger garden.