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To all Vietnam Vets and Vietnam Era Vets, thank you for your service. Today is Vietnam Veterans Day. I was reminded of this by an email to pickup a free sandwich at Mission BBQ today. Just walk in and show a copy of the email or your credentials.

Several months ago one of the other drivers at work mentioned he'd been given an old chain saw by his neighbor. He already had a newer one and his first thought was how Trina and I harvest our own firewood. He's been here to help and take some home in the past. Never even tried to start it or compare it to his current saw. He's not normally a person who keeps extras of anything so he offered the saw to us. That saw is a 1990 something Jonsered 2054 Turbo. The numeric designation back then meant Jonsered installed a 20" bar and the saw has a 53.6 cc engine. Round up to 54. No pics of it yet because I took it straight to my favorite small engine repair place. They'll check it over and advise. Likely (hopefully) just needs a tune-up and a bar & chain. I got to texting back n forth with @Stepney about it and he mentioned that he had another Jonsered that maybe I oughtta own. He came up for a visit yesterday and we swapped some machinery around. He showed up with TWO saws & left with a tractor. The Workhorse GT1800. The saws are a Jonsered CS 2171 and a Stihl MS291. Pics below. The label pic is of the Stihl. The 2171 is a 70.7 cc. Currently outfitted with a 24" bar. There's also the original 20" bar. That may end up on the 2054 if it'll fit. Interesting thing about this 71 cc saw is that I've occasionally wanted a larger more powerful saw than my current 49 cc Echo CS490. That's a great saw but every once in a while we tackle a larger tree. This year we're clearing more land and felling several bigger hardwoods. Excellent timing. The Stihl is a 2017 Model year. 56 cc. It'll need a repair to the spark plug threads and a tune-up, at minimum. I'll post follow up info as the repairs are done. With any luck I'll have three saws larger than the 49 cc.

Well oops I did it again! Picked this up today. Runs ok at about half choke but is clearing up so may just be bad fuel. But a carb cleaning will still come. This is the only picture you get today. More to come tommorow.

Leading the Horse to Water

A lot done today. Moved the dog cable from one tree to another. Felled two trees in the backyard. Sectioned up and piled the brush. Trina and I have learned to team up over the years and talk over where a tree will land. She'll show me where to cut the mouth and hinge it. Most often she's within just a few feet. This is a large beech that's had some past storm damage and top rot. Not super tall but about 18" across the bottom. She showed me where the cut would make the tree land by the black barrel. That's where I'm pointing 👉 Right where we wanted it.

Got ambitious & hopeful that the snow is done. I'm sure I'm wrong but took plow off 654 & put on mower deck. Looked at yard, especially the front & decided to mow. Back yard was still wet & muddy in places. Right tie rod broke loose at ball/socket. Had to knock it back in a couple times w/hammer to get finished. Went thru my stash of junk & found a new set of the rods. Not a really pretty tractor but its been a really reliable worker, mowing, plowing, hauling trailers, etc.

I also took a photo shoot with the three running Wheel Horses and something else thats pretty special

My mom had a few vessels filled with old buttons and other .. stuff. They're from a time when they didn't throw away perfectly good items because things were often usable for a different reason and place. In that assortment of stuffs Trina found this VERY old apparently hand cut key. It's less than 2 inches long.

Similar to Punxsutawaney Phil thing, Don sees his reflection...... six more weeks of Wheel Horsing.

More progress today. Did not get it finished but I'm definitely in the home stretch. Should be able to finish this up with another days work. Maybe It will be ready for some Easter glamor shots.

Ours is a 2 door Biscayne with a Blueprint 396 and 5 speed in it. 59's are one of the coolest looking cars there is

March 29, 1982, 19-year-old North Carolina freshman Michael Jordan makes a 16-foot jump shot with 15 seconds left to give the Tar Heels a 63-62 win over Georgetown for the NCAA Tournament championship. "To tell the truth," Jordan tells reporters in New Orleans afterward, "I didn't see it go in. I didn't want to look." The winning shot cements Jordan in the national consciousness, and he goes on to become one of the greatest basketball players in history, winning six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls.

Those older Sears machines were pretty stout units. You see a few on plow days, chugging along. They were well built, durable, and almost bullet proof. Good machines. I wouldn't discount one, nor a good old MTD machine either.

@JCM I could be wrong but if you could find a nice set, not scratched up and or rusted you’re probably looking at least $350. And maybe when I come up there I’ll bring the ones that I have still in the original wax paper in the original box! Sometimes I take them out just to look at them, then I see the smile on my face reflecting back at me 😂

Took a trip yesterday to about 45 minutes away and got four 8 inch cragar hubcaps to put on the tractors for only 30 bucks. Two of them are mounted on the 702 and the front tires are 17/9.50-8 Goodyears, I believe they are what used to come on the lawn rangers

I hear 2026 is THE BEST year for a vacation in Maine.

I dont remember ever making D-81 decals, but I will be searching my old drives tomorrow. I've had a lot of custom requests over the past 19 years, so it is possible.

@JCM When I do finally get up there I will bring my LSE and we will put some time in the clock! I think it’s getting ready to turn a whopping 25 hours on the meter! Also like to bring my 418’s to put next to your 418-A. But I would also like to show you my Work Horse GT-1800 and my restored C-Series and that all original C-101 I picked up last year. Now that I think about it I’m definitely going to need a bigger trailer 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I was able to work on my tractor today. Given this fact I have some progress to share with y'all. Started by going back to work on the engine. Ignition components installed. Engine buttoned up and ready to mount on the frame. With the engine ready I moved on to the chassis. Front end assembled. All the fixen's installed on the tranny. Where I left off for the day. Tune in tomorrow for more progress, hopefully.

Added some cabinets in the shop and did a bunch of spring cleaning. Projects have stacked up so I really needed to get things organized and make some space. Finally getting some nice weather and more daylight

One of the trees I cut to make way for the driveway on our Ky. property was an oak about 18" in diameter. It started falling the way I wanted it, then a large vine up in the canopy that also hooked into another tree tightened up and pivoted the fall direction almost 90 degrees. Ended up with a 40' tall leaner. Was at the end of the allotted working time for that trip, so I took it as a sign that I should pack everything up and head home. When I got back to it, it had blown down. Was real happy to see that!

Adjusted the backlash as advised. Took a small amount of play, maybe 10% out of the steering. Looks like most of my gains will be by adjusting/removing shims from the fan gear shaft mount. There is significant backlash there with everything else snug. Will deal with that along with the missing grease fitting and the misaligned quadrant next season, most likely.

Thanks for serving people

No D-81 file in my data.

When I see all those layers of paint and pealing paint it makes me want to sand blast it all off to give it a proper coat of paint and make it shine again. Even better would be to have someone else sandblast it while I watch 😂

The 1984 Workhorse GT1800 we originally built for our friends a couple years ago has gone to live with @Stepney

I got this one but needs painted. Pick it up and It is yours. I am in Rices Landing. Just let me know JoeM

if you are looking for a 42 inch deck -- either side, or rear, discharge - - here are couple examples what they look like - top and bottom - these have been rehabbed -- the factory original pulley covers were red and the rear discharge model did not have the vinyl rear flange

Sent ole Blackie down the road today. Kinda sad as I bought her back in '95 brand new. Brought my second born home from the hospital in it. Dino splilt his wine in it. Cab corners gone and lot of rust but hopefully keep him out of trouble and he's real good mechanical. Sold it to @jeremi3210 's boy Jacob for a buck. Figured what the heck only get a couple hundred for on market. He's a good kid and due to get his DL the end of next month. 'Sides he does a lot of work for me at plow day and camp. Now i can really boss him around! Certain stipulation tho are grades in school and no more missing or tardy! It's more than road worthy yet but Jer got a brand new 10k trailer and wanted to take it's 🍒 Really a nice rig. 20' and very wide. Get a few GTs on it.

That must be one big bleeping dawg! Today I added a seat strut on my primary worker. Helps keep the barn cats off the seat if it's flipped up... Then the same machine finished the fences, then moved a load of briars and underbrush, then a load of junk moved to the storage building. As always, it did alot! Still a favorite!

It is very satisfying to drop a tree right where you want it.

Wow! I just went through the same thing! Rather than replacing the fuse block that had a melted fuse holder on the charging fuse I figured I’d just replace it with a stand alone weather tight fuse holder just for that one fuse. After I cut the wires and installed the new fuse holder it wouldn’t start. I printed out the wiring diagram and also had an entire spare wiring harness out of another 416 to look at. After countless hours of pulling my hair out I came back here and found this post. So I went back and looked at the spare harness and sure enough I saw the hot bar in the fuse holder. This is not really made clear in the diagram. I ran a 12ga wire from the battery to the new fuse holder to energize it and the tractor fired right up. It’s now charging properly! Thanks @RED-Z06 and Red Square for the help! 👍🏻

Don't forget the "Classic Service Station " tire brush and bottle for your "classic" Coats tire machine!

Thanks Joe. Got it.

Father had a 1959 Chevy Impala 4dr hard top Gray 283 powerglide loved the look

That is a nice snow shovel, most are plastic today.

@ebinmaine I there an old handmade heavy chest you have tucked away because you didn't have the key? Filled with scrap lead painted gold and silver

Got the wheels painted with another coat of flat white and dappled some tiny drops of black on the nuts that hold them on. Also got the scratch built frame attached properly.

We had the push blade, garden plow, cultivator and disc harrow which were all Sears Branded. The garden equipment needed the factory 3 point hitch to attach them. Take a little time and search the garden implements for the Sears Suburban tractors and if you needed it it was likely available. I miss Sears and their brands of tools and stuff.

Yup, custom 10 tecky!! The snowblower on the trailer, the old owner was trying to talk down about it! ‘It’s only a single stage, it’s not made for much snow”. I showed him the video of the same exact thing throwing snow about 30’ in the air!!!

If they were on 12" rims, there is a pretty good chance that they will fit.

Here's the Workhorse GT1800. It went to a new home with @Stepney today. And our snow team.

Nt really a problem. take off teh big Plastic shroud and put on a old fashioned round A/C cover.

Just somthin about a fresh bore... Its like when a engine always seems to run better after a oil change.

Nephew and niece taking the ol C160-8 for stroll. Nephew 4 and already drives like its his. Niece 5 Is a little more timid about operating but guess thats just the difference between girls and boys.

I work on transmissions, I don't stick to much of anything, but I am well lubricated.

The pot calling the kettle black

Back on this project! Motor is in! 450hp 383 stroker with aluminum heads and a retrofit roller cam setup. I've got the old seat recovered with new vinyl, new vinyl headliner, new carpet, new speaker/subwoofer combo and a new Blueteeth radio. TONS of pictures coming soon....