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And some pics of the RJ in primer. And some pics going back together...

Well the RJ58 restoration has been on our list of things to do for a couple years now, and we finally got some time to do it. I really enjoyed restoring this little tractor with my two sons, and of course its like a brand new toy for them now that its all painted up and shiny. But the best part was the learning experience, for all of us. For me, I learned a lot of about my two boys. And for them they learned a lot about patience, how things come apart and them go back together again, and most importantly they learned how much hard work goes into a complete restoration like this. It might have taken twice as long verses if I just did it all myself, but it was worth it. They seem to have a lot more respect for it now, compared to a new toy that was just given to them. And as many memories as I already have with this tractor, we just added some more. I'll post some pictures of the process from start to finish, I hope you guys enjoy! Here are some pics of the RJ back in 1996. Here are some pics of it loaded ready to go back home for a full restoration. Some pics of the tear down.

I finally got my copy of "Straight from the horse's mouth" in the mail! It's a very interesting book. I would recommend it to anyone who has any interest in these fine red tractors!

Here is something else different CL Green Bay

Hey guys, sorry it's been so long but I finally finished restoring the RJ this past summer and wanted to share some pics.

I wasn't in the NAVY but I was in the ARMY and I will say naval ships are some very impressive machines. And my hat is tipped to the ones who ran them and maintained them.

4 New tires on the C195. I like the look, I hope they work good. Also put thrust bearing on the axle spindles. cleaned the wheel spindles and greased. New seat should be here saturday

Seems that the majority of the people who liked the GRAY were in the US Navy!

I cleaned the carb three times on my p-220 Onan before the surging stopped. Installing the fuel lines after cleaning can dislodge "new" dirt. to the Dave.

Dave Some fellas report having to clean the carbs a couple times. A new fuel filter I presume?...never mind just saw it.. Check/replace the fuel lines . Might want to check the intake manifold for leaks. Spray some wd-40 around the intake when running. If engine pitch changes you have a leak there. Lots of other threads on this common problem. Search on Onan surging. Almost always a fuel delivery problem. You could try a new fuel pump they are fairly cheap. I have the same problem on a 20 to get sorted out someday.

No problem Sarge... yes the 4/5K colors can glare off snow.

A. That can be repaired with small herd increases. B. I'm thinkin No one here would disagree with that! Great words of wisdom there.

I am one of the few "single " guys so... my take is wee bit different... I am cheap - very cheap...So I go with what my C-105 came with for free - A plow blade... It works way faster than my two stage blower and is way more fun!!! After all - If I need to spend a bit of time finding places to put the snow - what is the problem? IMHO More seat time is not a problem...

Did a nite test tonite and were just as illuminating as the OEMs if not a tad more. The 3k color is much like the 4411's. Unfortunately the tall chute blocks quite a bit of the light and the fact that the bezels block abit of light as well, leds and originals alike. Like putting a round peg in a square hole! Going to swap them out to the short chute tractor for more tests. I don't need lighting on the main sno chucker (short chute till the deuce ship comes in) as the cab lights will land an airplane but for after dusk tub rides in the summer for the kids & love rides with the Missus might be just the ticket. I believe I have seen these offered up to 70 watt equivalent. Some more research is in order.

Not saying the grey doesn't look great... just would like to see it accented with a little bit more of our original red. Maybe with a nod to our Workhorse lineage... accomplished with a custom set of decals from Terry, our Vinylguy.

I got 2! One for me and one for dad. He had the first edition also

Growing up, I loved plowing at night on a 604 with no lights and lake effect snow coming down. Of course nowadays I can't see well enough to get my underwear on straight

Check the spring on the opposite side of the transmission. I replaced mind and help solve the problem. Also there is a tab (/) on the arm that holds the pulley. Bent the tab down do there less space for the belt to jump off the pulley. Solved my problem on my 310-8.

Hi guys, My 312-8 in snow moving garb. Here in SW Ohio it is rare to need rear wheel weights. The air-filled AG tires work great for me.

Very ingenious loader design with external cylinders and the resiovor doubles as a weight box , now why didn't I think of that......

I sound like a broken record, but always check compression first to see if you have a good engine. Make sure that the welch plug near the idle mixture screw is still intact. If it is still good, clean the carb, you may need to remove and replace the welch plug to clean it properly. The plug will be destroyed when removing it. Cheap kits are available online, but only use genuine Onan manifold gaskets.

Updates as “product testing” warrants...

The only one I have used so far this season, 416 with blower and cab is still sleeping

Like the title says let's see your WH snow rig! Very interested to see what everyone is using out there to tackle the job. Is anyone using a D series with a blower? Is the 520 a common tractor everyone uses to do the job? My two rigs are a 416H with 170 original hours on the blower and the D160 with a 54" push blade with hydraulic angle. My dad built the whole entire plow assembly.

I finally moved the tower pivot points forward a couple inches and did some hydraulics mock up. I’m not crazy about the lower tower mounts but I had the 1”x2” bar stock so that’s what I used. It looks a little clunky but it should work. I still need to do some welding cleanup but it looks like everything fits and will clear after some final adjustments.

I caught that I was just saying what I said cause I have always truly admired and have been fascinated by the naval ships. But it was never a thought of joining the navy for me. I was hard charging in the direction of door kicking and ground pounding. But regardless thank you for your service and thanks to all the other veterans on here. And most of all I'm loving the OD Green machines!

Hammerhead's War Horse is another of my all time favorite OD green customs.

Kerosene or diesel for flushing it. Probably a good idea to get a new shifter boot as that one you have is beat. That's how the water gets in there.

I wasn't in the NAVY but I was in the ARMY and I will say naval ships are some very impressive machines. And my hat is tipped to the ones who ran them and maintained them. That is why I said majority. My brother served in the US Army and we both feel we made the best decision on branch of service. He loves going camping and I was never into it, other than an RV. Thank you for your service. This is for you!

That gasket does look like inferior material. Do you know if the head is flat? I don't think you are to use thread locker on the head bolts, usually you use a drop of oil.

Some welds are nice.... then there is the rest.

Well yes, I think for now I am going to paint the wheels and put the new seat on and use it. But maybe I might paint the whole thing.

I thoroughly enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing it with us. Glenn

I reeallyy like the way that's set-up. .... I really only need to be able to lift 3 or 4 hundred pounds. Big guy like me needs all the space he can get in the leg area and steering area. That thing would actually be a perfect setup for me. Not sure what the limitations of the external cylinders would be.... I'm quite sure a three-quarter pin should be able to handle a couple hundred pounds each though

I think the controls are coming through a cut out area on the front of the right hand rear fender.

An electric fuel pump mounted below the level of the tank output solved the problem on my 516

Hello, a little progress report: The shifter does have four flat spots all the way around. The oil isn't oil anymore! I drained the gas and fired up the old boxwood stove.I got the shop very warm and then used a heat gun for a little "boost". The ice thawed and the sludge began to "plop" out! I filled the top of the first pan and then started on another. The forks finally aligned and neutral was found.Now a good flush would be nice before I add the new oil 90-140. What is the best flushing agent, kerosene? I usually use this for everything.......

I was gonna say to completely REBUILD the carb, beacause I had the same exact problem with my 520h with the Onan p220g and this fixed it 🔝 Hope it helps

I got the same bulbs. haven't needed to get the tractor out in the dark yet. Anythings better than the std. halogens. And a UEI !

This can be caused by a worn shifter, the ball on the end of the shifter or loose doughnut piece where the dog point screw holds it Loose dogpoint set screw The forks should form a square opening when in neutral. Use a screwdriver through the hole to try and find the one you can't see. It should slide back to neutral. If your trans is freezing it's because there's water contamination in there. Oil doesn't freeze solid.

If John hadn't made a motor cycle out of a snow plow frame you could have used his. There goes Van for a test drive!

Great upgrade Jim! I have been happy with every LED upgrade that I have done so far house or auto! These will find their way on to JackRabbit for sure... thanks for the great tutorial

A tractor for every implement....The only way to fly.

There's some really neat old stuff here and it's fun to look at. Thanks for sharing. I just got rid of my "vintage" '97 F-250. It was a good truck. I missed it for a couple of days after I sold it, but that mourning period was a short one. I don't foresee keeping my current truck more than 5 years before trading it on something with a warranty, good brakes, and good tires. We had a chance at a couple of really nice 1948 IH farm trucks a couple years ago. One a 1.5 ton, the other a 2 ton. One had 22000 miles, the other 30k. Rust free beauties from Kansas. Problem was licensing for them was just too expensive to have desire to deal with. Sweet trucks though. I've kind of soured on old vehicles in general and would never again want one as a daily driver or something I need to depend on. My days of tinkering with old crap is largely over since I've lost the time and desire for my vehicles to get me dirty. But I am SOOOOOOOOO glad guys like you keep them on the road since they are a blast to look at and dream about! Unless an old, completely stock and original, first generation Bronco fell in my lap....that might flip me back. Steve

I see a couple of you are also squarebody chevy owners! Here's my setup, 89 414-8. Finally have the setup dialed in pretty well, it hasnt gotten stuck one time this year.

Same problem here - two of us got caught with a cold snap in October on a 1-day job doing traffic control for an emergency guardrail job. Contractor stuck both of us at the top of the hills on both ends of the job with radios to communicate - both of us got frostbite. I even got the inspector to let me have my truck sitting there to warm my feet and hands once in awhile - it did help but the damage was done, now I basically can't take any cold weather jobs for even a day. Our Union does have some re-training, but generally being a Journeyman Laborer you're expected to be able to handle everything within the scope of our work - it's a lot more than anyone would believe. We do go off a skills list and recently my BA and I have removed a lot of stuff that I cannot do any longer due to injuries and just general issues from wearing out my joints. Our work is highly physical - no way around that and we generally let the older ones take the easier stuff - but in recent years even that has gone away due to competition for what little work is left out there. I'm going to argue the Politics with anyone - but the campaign of the last 25yrs against Unions has not just hurt us a lot - it hurts every worker out there. People believe the misinformation that Politicians are using to repay their election sponsors - that's the simple truth. What people don't understand is how we fight for everyone's rights as a worker - most times its things that don't even affect us. Right To Work and other tactics have done nothing but drive wages down for the workers - it saves the taxpayers nothing and in the long term costs more money, not to mention eroding safety standards at the same time. This is the ugliest within Heavy Highway work - the contracts are not cheaper for the work performed - the only difference is the Contractor's profit margins. These workers are risking their lives on a daily basis - yet their wages are generally 40% lower for the same work and there is little industry accountability for how they are treated - it's disgusting. When I got hurt on the job in '06 my Union helped us a lot to survive the game that insurance companies play with injured workers - we have fought against that practice for over 50yrs and frankly are losing the battle now. Even here in Illinois they have changed the Work Comp laws to benefit the insurance companies and left injured workers no recourse to get the help they deserve - you're basically at their mercy and could face a lifelong battle of deep poverty. That one injury event cost us our credit - that hurts a lot more than you think since now even auto insurance companies use your credit score for your rates - for my age and perfect driving record I pay some ridiculous prices for my coverage. Anyway , enough with the rant and back to the boots... Hope I can get out more and actually enjoy working outside again at least for a short time. Last few years between the injuries and frostbite plus the Raynaud's it's become a really painful experience to plow snow or do anything in cold weather. These boots and good quality wool blend socks are working pretty good so far - time will tell and I'm sure we will have some brutally cold days here in the Plains soon. Kind of figures, I found some good boots that will work and now Wednesday the temps are supposed to be nearly 45*, welcome to Illinois...lol. Sarge

My 1257.... got inside wheel weights and weights behind the rear hubcaps. Just yesterday broke the shifter pivot screw so shifter is loose. Other than that she runs great and plows like a champ.

While still at the rear of the tractor, another item which had me head scratching for a long time, was how to provide a support for the steering shaft. As this emerged through the rear panel at an angle due to the differential being in the way, a block of something with an angled hole was required to give more bearing surface than the thin panel. Could I drill an angled hole in an alloy block without a lot of measuring and setting up. ? NO. I had already looked at various plumb blocks and rose joints on eBay, all being unsuitable for various reasons. Then I remembered some small rose bearings I had found in a box of goodie's while clearing at friend John's. Problem nearly solved. The first few photo's show an alloy block being bored and the edges milled to tidy it up. The lower inside face was also milled to clear the tow bar. As is often the case, a change of plan meant that I needn't have removed so much metal. Also seen being turned is a reducing bush for the inside of the rose bearing. The steering shaft is a length of 7mm steel rod. Why 7mm ? Because I had a long length which was originally the drive shaft from an old strimmer / bush wacker ? I was given years ago. There was already a short 7mm thread on one end, made slightly longer, and a new thread cut on the other end. The bearing block assembly is shown next with the unfinished overlong thread. Overlong to start with as I just eyeballed the squareness of the die to the shaft. If it was out of true after an inch or so, I could cut off and have another go. After a little tweaking of the first few threads and checking at intervals all appeared OK. After threading 3 to 4 inches there was no obvious run out. I can do small threads using die holders in my Unimat 3 lathe but it would have been a struggle with this especially as the die was not of the split type. A few nuts were drilled and tapped 7mm. A 3/8 impact wobble drive socket was obtained to connect the drive shaft to the trailer steering ( when finished ). There appears to be no slop in an impact drive compared to a standard universal joint, but not sure at this stage if there is enough wobble. Time will well. The square plug, drilled and tapped 7mm, was part of the previously scrapped 2 speed drill. Just needed filing down slightly to be a good tight press fit. The front axle end of the shaft uses a 3/8 to 1/4 adaptor with a standard U/J to allow for clearance at the differential. These last photo's show how little clearance there is between the shaft, axle and gearbox. Approx 3/16th above and below the shaft. Still need to paint the wheels and hubs too.

Here you go..... bring the snow .... no worries......