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My latest acquisition isn't a Horse, but I think you could say it's related by marriage... It's a 1968 5HP Toro "Deluxe" riding mower. I thought it was unique because it is so tiny. It was one of those typical "too good to pass up" deals. It doesn't run, but it looks like it did in the not too distant past. At first I thought it was pretty clean & original other than the deck being taken off and some floor boards fabricated, but as I look it over closer and find a few (and only a few) pictures on the internet, somebody put some time into it at some point. The kids are exited about getting this one running to ride around on, so stay tuned.

11-5-1975 UFO Abduction On November 5, 1975 Mr. Travis Walton was working with a lumbering crew in the Sitgreaves National Forest near Snowflake, Arizona. While riding in a truck with six of his coworkers, they encountered a saucer-shaped object hovering over the ground approximately 110 feet away, making a high-pitched buzz. Walton claims he left the truck and approached it, when a beam of light suddenly appeared from the craft, knocking him to the ground. The other six men were frightened and supposedly drove away. Walton claimed that he awoke in a hospital-like room, being observed by three short, bald creatures. When they left, a person entered the room wearing some sort of helmet and led Walton to another room, where three more people put a clear plastic mask over his face and he blacked out. Walton has claimed he remembers nothing else until he found himself walking along a highway, with the flying saucer departing above him. In the days following Walton's UFO claim, The National Enquirer awarded Walton and his co-workers a $5000 prize for "best UFO case of the year" after they allegedly passed polygraph exams administered by the Enquirer and a UFO organization. Walton, his older brother, and his mother were described by the Navajo County, Arizona sheriff as "longtime students of UFOs". Some UFOlogists believe Walton was abducted by aliens. UFOlogist Jim Ledwith said, “For five days, the authorities thought he’d been murdered by his co-workers, and then he was returned. All of the co-workers who were there, who saw the spacecraft, they all took polygraph tests, and they all passed, except for one, and that one was inconclusive.

Lawn Rangers are good Wheel Horse tractors. Cecil Pond said it was his favorite Wheel Horse model! At $150 each they are a steal-soap, water and tractor time are cheap! The transmissions (mostly the #5053 from wat I see in the pics) can be interchanged with almost and two piece transmssion with a four spped. I buy almost every Lawn Ranger transmssion I find as I know they are generally tractors that were not abused -so they generaly have great transmissions. The Lawn Ranger can do lots of things-I have a snowblower on mine (and own a mower deck and snowplow too) and use it as a dedicated snowblower tractor. The Tecumseh H-60 with electric start and recoil would be standard on on the Models L-155, L-156, and L-157 and on one of the 1968 models. The earlier Lawn Ranger versions do not appear to be in any of your pictures. I do not have the Tecumseh problem a lot of folks do . They are a different motor but I actaully have a 1963 or 1963 6HP (painted black) on my 1967 Lawn Ranger. I bought the motor new and it had never had oil in it for over$300 several years ago. I finally put a new battery in my Lawn Ranger this year which was gettign hard to start and it it now starts on second or third key turn! In the cold winter snowblowing weather the Tecumseh works great. The pics I posted are of two I have owned. The first pic is of the first I bought in Micigan and paid about $150 with no motor. It sat in a friend's garage for three years before I brought it home. I had purchased a second one and exchanged the red Tecumseh motor you see in the second photo. Denny Clarke bought that one from me for his grandson! The third photo is of the one I use now with an H-60 Tecusmeh electric start and recoil. **** I have seen the A-60 at shows and yes batterires are high but that is a rare model. **** I would be curious to get more info on that green tractor as it looks like a good candidate for restore too! The other items you have selected on your " wish list " are all good too Glenn. Snowplows, snowblowers, etc are usually fairly easy to resell. In my opinion it sounds like the "pricey" sale terms are prices that run more like Midwestern asking prices not the East Coast selling and asking prices I see all the time on here and other garden tractor blogs etc.

I have some GREAT friends at work. One asked me if I wanted a 46" snow blade that was missing parts. Sure!!! Welded up a mounting bracket for the BIG TEN. All that I have to do yet is make up the lift arm and rod.

Glenn, here's an idea. Buy the whole lot $100 each. Keep two that you want and sell the rest for $200 each to RS members. This makes it a group effort to save your "Barn Find" of Wheel Horses. We will get some good threads and discussion on the forum, and some good campfire talk at next years Big Show.

Today I came across a true barn find. these were offered to me, not cheap, havent run in years. what would you fellas do and consider? one rj, 4 lawn rangers, one commando 8, one GT 2500. and possibly a tall shoot single stage. you will see by the dust. I didnt take many pictures, but will go back for more. Enjoy the pictures I took, and please advise. like I said, pricey to. Glenn

Interesting dilemma you have gotten yourself in Glenn. I am a 520H guy and not familiar with those years and models. So if the wife says ok and you have the space, time and are willing to put out the effort and money to bring them back to life Do it. Like has been said, you can always clean 'em up and sell any or all in the future if you find you have bitten off more than you could chew.

Dam, think I found only a crop circle of what was left of that thread, missed all the good stuff.

OK, having done this more than once, here are the things to look for: Auger sprocket worn: The teeth on the sprocket should not be pointy or narrow. If they are that means the chain is stretched and the sprocket needs to be replaced-it is welded on. Likely the drive sprocket will need to be replaced as well. If you are not sure what a worn one looks like, want to see what a new sprocket looks likes, go to Tractor Supply. They usually have a bunch in the store. Chain rusty and binding: Sure sign that the owners did not clean the salt off it at the end of last season Bearings may be toast. Run the thing for 15 minutes, shut everything down and then put your hand on the auger bearings and the drive shaft bearings. They can be warm but not hot. If you cannot keep your bare hand on them for more than 10 seconds they are hot, they will need to be replaced. Auger bent: while it is running, watch the auger rotate. It should not wobble Finally like others have said, lift tube, lift flag and helper spring (if you do not have a hydro lift) all need to be with it to make it operate. Depending on how fastidious you are, your standards for your equipment, your capability to repair equipment, do machining and or welding, you could sink and additional $100-$200 into this blower. Remember, thing never fail on a warm fall day-always in the middle of a raging blizzard. Good luck

The 1993 movie " Fire in the Sky " was based off Travis Walton's book " The Walton Experience " about his alleged abduction . Scary crape if you're believer . I don't judge anyone anymore after what I seen in 2003 (and no I wasn't drunk or high) and can't explain what I had just seen . A UFO is just that a unidentified flying object . Im not saying it's Alien , because who knows what technologies the government is keeping from us . When you have your experience at 1:00am with nobody to backup your story and everyone calls you crazy . I'd didn't believe it either until a huge silent black triangle with five big square amber lights blinking (strobing) in sequence across the back floated over my head 300' off the ground . My only regret was not running over to dads to wake him up so I had a witness , but I just had to watch in amazement as this thing just floated by . I was scared to death , every hair on my body stood straight up . I watched this for five minutes until it disappeared in the distance . To this day I still get ridiculed for opening my mouth about what I saw . Call me crazy but I can't unsee what truly happened . Now everyone here knows and could care less of what you think of my experience , but until something like this happens to you , don't judge ! And come on people I know there's some of you with experiences don't be afraid to share ! I'm not the only crazy one in this bunch.

I spent the day with Grandsons Reed and Jake as they competed in the regional robot competition in Ambler, Pa. Their TECH FIRE 225 robot teamed up with two other machines to win the gold. Could this be my next WH build?

Nice weather outside today so I thought I would go out and get some seat time. Figured I would give the lawn one last mow for the season with the 315-8 with the power flow bagger. Started in the front lawn and things are going fine then I noticed a smell. Apparently I had missed picking up one of the dog's land mines. Then all of a sudden the heat shield from the muffler falls off and I run it over with the mower deck and it gets sucked up into the power flow bagger. Oh boy now I get to dig the shield out of the impeller of the bagger system right after i sucked up the dog pile. So a bit of cursing and swearing I dislodged it and here is what it looks like now. Is this considered art?

OK...now that we are back on track...how many of "us" have actually seen something they can't explain?? I'd like to say that..."what happens on RS stays on Rs", but this is social media. I, myself, have seen plenty of things that I can't explain, but then I have been all over this country and camped out under the stars from New Mexico to Maine. One of the off the wall things that I have seen was up in Canada fishing one night. Actually, a couple of things I have seen were up there.

ACman - I just re-read my thoughts.... I hope you don't think I was downing you - sure does sound like it - I assure you I am not -- I'm just bummed out about the way our country and values and morals and everything else has gotten to, that I'm ready to burst..I don't know why I took that particular time to rant...at 77 my brain is in 1st gear, low range, anymore, and it just spouts off when I least expect it..

Truer words were never spoken, we are all a bit crazy, why else would we be here? In 1966 near Porto Rico I was the duty radar operator on a USS Pandemus one mid shift and the officer of the deck called down asking for coordinates and CPA (closest point of approach) on an object they had a visual on; there was nothing on the screen. I stepped out onto the bridge, saw it for a second, then it was gone. No entry was made in the ship's log book. The Unidentified Thread self destructed; it vanished into thin air! A few of us were becoming politically incorrect; however we were equal opportunity offenders; we trashed everyone!

Now, that's what we need to see... a big orange Squonk running around the big show.

This thread was taken off topic with some political posts when I first saw it, so I locked it and sought council from the Mod team. I chose to delete the political posts and re-open it with a note about political posts. Apparently that caused more confusion than anything. I have merged ACman's (Jeff's) post with this one as he requested to keep all of the posts together. This is a good thread guys, so have fun with it without the politics please.

I'll bring the pie! EGADS! I got to get some spray tan for my legs! Stuff will be on sale next week!

Strange voice in my head---"If you build it, Howard will sleep" Or one like this, It's up to you Howard.

I bought that transmission off of Craigslist and I was told that it works great he never said that I would need a ratchet strap to hold it in 3rd gear luckily I took it apart before I installed it on anything!

Works great, has a soft mellow tone. I used a belled pipe coupling to go from 1" to 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" muffler clamp.

150 bucks a pop? why don't you have all if not most of it home yet? i would have it home by now, mostly because even a bad horse cant be had for under 750 here

I wish my life problems looked like this. I would take all of them and pack them quickly. If you clean them and resell them with accurate info, you should recoup your cost while doing the collector community a favor. Maybe nice finds are more rare out here. That collection is almost unbelievable to me. I wonder if you are overthinking this. Either way, this is coming from a man who only owns one Wheel Horse, and I would barely have the garage space to stack those up!

Picked up a 5hp MacKissic chipper shredder awhile ago . Today I got the quick attach brackets made today , just need to get a belt.

Well please don't keep us all in suspense! What happened Steve? Or did you reconsider and edit out the good part as there's an edit tag to your post.

I change engine oil often. At least 3-4 times a year for the worker. As such, I have nothing against higher end oils or synthetics but tend to use straight 30 weight oil. I think I have used travelers front tractor Supply. I go higher end ATF for Hydros. I usually change that 1 time a year. Ditto to JAinVA as far as grease gun.

Gator blades are great for mulching but will still throw the grass or leaves out the discharge chute.To completely mulch you need to block the discharge on a SD deck.Tractor Supply has a good grease gun.I own 2 and like them both.The ones I have are about $22.00 each. JAinVA

I agree Lane....That's why I own four of them..

Not to spoil Glenn's thread, but those are some Dandy's Lane.

@Jerry77 none taking ! Yes this country is falling apart and it's going to take more than a president democrat or republican to fix it . This is far as I'm going to go with my political views . Please keep politics off the forum ! Don't need this thread to self destruct too . @Digger 66 , I surly wish I had a camera phone in 2003 . Didn't see that one , but seen lots of meteors . Most memorable was in 83/84 just a young boy then . I was walking out to the barn to feed the calfs and three fireballs larger than the moon in the eastern sky streaked through the sky . Watched the news later that night and they said they were all the way off the Virginia coast . That's along way from Michigan just wonder how big they looked in VA. @953 nut , I've talked with other military members and they've had similar experiences . Just sweep it under the rug like it never even happened . Who knows what we have now flying in the sky . Something had to replace the SR-71 Blackbird , Stealth fighter , and the stealth bomber after they were declassified ! Thanks for sharing Richard I hope others will come forward and share their stories .

Anyone see THIS FIREBALL Last Tuesday ? I saw the sucker ! Out of an East facing window about 2 O'clock over the southeastern horizon at around 8:15 PM

Absolutely........considering the low morals and depravity of a lot of Americans nowadays: nothing surprises me anymore.

Oh my gosh, I busted out laughing when I read this!!! The reality is I could actually envision this happening!

Lol... Sorry Craig! I've been dying to get back to it to assemble the grille. Here's the first look. I laser cut everything -- all the parts... The horse head, the wheel, the red border, the hub and the lugs (not yet put in on the pic). Next I have to mount the lights in the metal body of the tractor and we'll be good. The thing is, this shiny piece is going to make my tractor look like a piece... Of you know what. Lol. Guess it'll have to get broken down and painted next year!

I personally would throw out those balance gears while you have it open unless you want one of these.

Tractor 1980 E- 81 5-Speed RER D&A TIPL SN.pdf I tried to give you a link but I'm not that computer savvy . Anyways I'd use three gel 12v deep cycle batteries (wheelchair). If you keep them on the charger when not in use , they should last 5-7 years . That's with every day use . Follow 0

We old far#ts need not worry about the future.The new generations have more skills than us and what they can accomplish is truly mind boggling to us oldsters.Congrats to them on their win.You must be one proud grandpa.Well done.JAinVA

I guess I can say sh*t happens.

Dang it...I missed all the unfavorable behavior that happened here (for once). I just wanted to see the New Mods get their feet wet... Did somebody copy the post before it magically disappeared. Send it to me, or is it not in the log books. I'm trying to figure out how anybody got political with what Richard posted. "Is there anybody out there?" pink floyd

They still can't figure out crop circles either...... The Cubs won the world series so anything is possible including aliens and flying saucers...........

, save those Horses and share them with fellow members !

This is too cool.....and yes Richard.....That scoop makes it !!!!!!This is THE show scooter...!!!!! Howard857 Horse in VA

Should be hundreds of thousands of Harley mufflers available for cheap or free. Anyone ever see (hear) a Harley with a stock muffler?

Must be this one Garry

Forget knurling anything.That is something you might do if you wanted get it to appear that all was right with the engine.Based on the pictures of the tractor the engine deserves to be done right.Have the block bored and honed.Do it right and it will out last you.The K series Kohlers are tough all nails.JAinVA

I meant the one on the right guys.....my bad...geez now I feel better Steve...I put a bad one back in that Lowell doesn't have Looks like you were grinding the candle at both ends...grind me a pound....speed shifting were we?!?!

I finally found the ID plate when cleaning it up. It is a 1978 C-i21 The iD# is 81- 12K801. That little beastie was such a pig to clean up as it was used to pull a small auger on the farm to load corn into the grain bins. If any of you have ever been around the farm. the dust and chaff can be corrosive because it sticks so hard and then glues itself on with moisture. Really the only way to get it clean includes painting it . I tore it down to sub-assemblies and now the transmission case is already painted with a brush which suits me fine for cast iron. My plan is to get the frame rails done and make it a rolling unit and paint the thin metal with a spray gun. I think that painting the rough stuff like the frame rails with a brush is a good idea just because traces of oil in the corners combine with the paint [Rusteoleum] and bond in well. I prefer to spend the lions share of my efforts on what shows and that is the sheet metal. A body shop man advised me on how to fill in the small pits in the sheet metal, so now I am hoping for a very pretty finish on the important parts that show. Wish me luck--this is gonna take a while.

Yep, this works very well. I work at a major automotive drive train remanufacture and they use this in the diesel department often! I used this process on a broken bolt in a ChoreMaster handle. Couldn't budge it with penetrating oils, so I heated it and put some wax on the bolt....let it cool some, grabbed it with the vice grips and it screwed right out.

Be wary.... this one does not appear to be an RJ, but rather a 1961 Suburban... either 401 or 551. I've circled some identifying marks.... 1961 decal suburban lift sector cast clutch pedal choke/throttle on left/right of steering column.

IDK, I see wrong parts and engines in there for what's shown in those pics for a "pricey" score. I'm not a big Lawn Ranger fan and don't really think they have the "round hood" value as the other round hood tractors do. They've certainly been sitting there for a loooooooooooong time. Guess it also depends on what you consider "pricey" too, as that's a completely different sum to different people.