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Took advantage of being snow bound. No reason to get out and too cold for me to enjoy being out so I went through our hundreds of slides and transferred them to the computer. Fun to look back to the mid 1960's of family photos. Lots of memories and things I hadn't thought about for years. For one, that's me on my first mower. I don't remember what it cost. I'm pretty sure was a Montgomery Wards, one forward speed and one reverse speed. The blade was a direct drive--If the engine was spinning--the blade was turning. I believe Ward's mowers had tread on the tires and Sear's mowers were smooth. I'm guessing that if it was in gear and a lad pulled the starter rope and it fired off, said lad would be slow chasing his mower.

Cleaned up after the 417-A with two stage blower today with the 418-C. I have the skids setup a little bit on the blower so I can go across the grass. This way my dog can have a place to go, and I can get to the place I dump my ashes from the wood stove. Scraped the driveway down with the 418. Tomorrow if I get ambitious I might get the C-141 with the sweeper out and clean the driveway a little better.

Been there!! My first rider was a similar Sears model - but it had a blade clutch. But I did start it in gear one time... ONE time.

January 27, 1984, In a freak accident, pop star Michael Jackson's hair catches fire after sparks from a fireworks display shower him during filming of a cola commercial. Jackson, who was singing his hit “Billie Jean,” suffered 2nd-degree burns.

During a party this past fall my wifes cousin Linda took a liking to my late 1970s C160-8 speed plow rig. Linda is the woman I've mentioned before with stage 4 ovarian cancer. She said she wanted one... well I told her Id build her a unit. I put together a 1985ish 310-8 and got it delivered to her country home in time for this 2 ft snow storm. She knocked back all the snow and im glad she had fun doing it. I believe the quote was "it kicks ass" Yah it broke a tierod... no biggie I'll get one to her before the next storm which is suppose to be bigger this coming weekend. I love spreading the Wheel Horse joy... there is no better unit out there! PERIOD!! Cecil had better have set up shop in heaven... or I aint going!! Tony

Now available: the discontinued 116324 hydro rod assemblies with the ball joint. $50.00 plus shipping. If interested, private message me here , or call / text during normal business hours. Please DO NOT COMMENT ON THIS THREAD and please NO EMAILS as they do not get checked regularly.

Eric how much snow did you get? I had to use the 14 hp blower to get the huge leftover banks form the plow trucks. The blower did short work of it and three neighbors driveway entrance. At lest it was not hard packed snow.

I’m glad to have two horses set up for snow duty. Had a chain come off my D160 so i finished up with my 417. We have another storm potentially brewing here NJ. Possibly a NorEaster.

Here is a comparative viscosity chart that cross-references the common SAE engine oil, SAE gear oil, and ISO VG (hydraulic fluid) grading systems. Note that while oils on the same horizontal line have similar viscosities, they contain different additives and are not always interchangeable; Kinematic Viscosity (cSt @ 40°C) ISO VG (Hydraulic) SAE Engine Oil SAE Gear Oil 32 ISO VG 32 SAE 10W SAE 75W 46 ISO VG 46 SAE 15W / SAE 20 - 68 ISO VG 68 SAE 20W / SAE 30 SAE 80W 100 ISO VG 100 SAE 30 SAE 80W / SAE 90 150 ISO VG 150 SAE 40 SAE 90 220 ISO VG 220 SAE 50 SAE 90 / SAE 140 320 ISO VG 320 SAE 60 SAE 140 Back at the Power and Hydro plants turbine oil is rarely changed ie I replaced 50 year old oil when doing major rehabs. A Conoco Phillips oil chemist recommended we use hydraulic oil as additive oil to our turbines to boos the gradually lost additives. We also did additive testing every few years and on rare occasions had the oil company make us a special 5 gallon can of super additive oil. So my 2 cents is to keep using a Hydraulic oil to get additives. Then again garden tractor loaders are low pressure 7-800psi, so there not like the 3000 and 5000 psi modern industrial systems. So additives for pumps and valve surfaces aren't as critical.

Didn't realize the wife was recording from inside her warm kitchen. Like I said earlier, I love Hydros!

Now available-we have reproduced the recently discontinued 108333 hydro speed control cams, $30.00 plus shipping. we also have a limited supply of NOS originals in stock - $ 40.00 plus shipping. If interested, send me a private message or call / text during normal business hours. PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ON THIS THREAD! AND DO NOT SEND AN EMAIL as they do not get checked regularly.

We sure have been talking about these a lot lately. I use the offshore 9.98 ones with no problems but any low pressure 2-4 or 5 psi will work. Search on electric fuel pump to find those threads. Just installed a cheapy on a 520 that was a notorious hard starter. Started right up the other day at -15 out. Another one in progress.

Outstanding Tony! She looks like she's really enjoying that tractor! Well done sir!

Gave her a test drive today. Most definitely a huge improvement, and I already loved this thing before. Reduction steering is a massive plus on fat front tires. I can steer with one finger now. Hydro is much faster. Now it drives like any other Eaton as far as I can tell. Of course the foot control makes it better. I went ahead and changed the engine oil and filter, even though it had only 10 hours on the clock total. I built this engine so I wanted to make sure it was cleaned out just in case. I always do that with rebuilt engines. Oil change before 5 hours and once more about 5 hours later. She's good now for 50 hours run time. Took pics just to prove we do in fact occasionally get some form of white stuff...

Couple 857 pics as it leaves the warm basement after a repair and gets put back in the cold shed

Not sure where to put this as this is actually going to be about my Power King but it can apply to Horsies as well. I built my loader about 15 yrs. ago . Pretty much a std set up like a ARK loader with a belt driven gear pump, Uprights that double as the storage tank, 4 cylinders ect. I used AW32 hydraulic oil way back when. I haven't added any oil ever. no leaks. Haven't used it much the past 6 or 7 years. got it out last winter once and had to get it out with this past storm. I had mag heaters on both sides of the tank for a couple of days and the garage was about 35° when I started today. The pump whines when cold but eventually it goes away. Used the tractor about a half hour pushing the piles I made with the 953 back. I had to leave the King (Elvis) out side as I needed to move a few things around in the shop before bringing it back in. It sat out side almost an hour in 10° weather with a 0° wind chill. When I started it back up the pump whined again and the loader was really sluggish. I want to change the oil to maybe automatic trans fluid or a different weight oil for the cold weather. I don't want to wreck anything. Do I really need to get "ALL" of the old oil out? What would be a good oil for cold weather? Calling all of the hydraulic EX-Spurts!

Thanks for the offer, WHX??. I think I can get by for now with the blade on 'Ol Rusty.

Well done Tony. She looks happy riding the tractor. I am glade we don’t get storms like this one every year.

@Beap52 As you found the pie is excellent warm, add ice cream and it gets even better. Its also excellent cold, straight out of the refrigerator. Now you went and made me hungry for some!

This I did not know but it was suggested by PF Engineering, where the loader plans came from, to use 10 weight. I have no idea what the loader builder @cschannuth used and he didn't remember. I have quite a few leaks, more on that in another thread, and when it got low I just put generic tractor hy fluid in it. fine in the summer but for pushing snow around real slow. It's now in the shop and undergoing upkeep and it's gonna get log splitter oil which is advertised as 10 wt. Not gonna worry about what was in it. Never gonna get it all out anyway. The big tractor when I did the 50 hr fluid change out I wasn't gonna buy their 900 a jug fluid so I used AW46 which is supposedly 20 wt. Sluggish yes in the cold and never gets warm. The HY system draws off the hydro fluid which the transmission casing acts as a huge heat sink. I would just stay with 32 Squonky. Always wondered if 32 would be better in say a 520 hydro for winter. They whine like crazy when first started in cold. What about 0w-20??

I can attest to the tastiness of this pie. Stuck in the house because it's too dad gum cold to be outside so grabbed a homemade pie crust out of the freezer and filled it with blackberries from last summer and WALA good eating . This one is a keeper! I used about 1/2 cup of evaporated milk and about half brown sugar/white sugar mix. Baked for 1 hour and fifteen minutes--maybe could have stayed in oven a little longer--but is still warm when I cut it. I've had the recipe printed out for some time and finally got around to concocting it. It's wife approved and I'll take a chunk to mom tomorrow at assisted living--she gets tired of the food there.

Picked up a couple of 314's with some extras today in a package deal The one with the bagger is going to be my SIL's for her smaller yard and I think she'll be happy with it. I need give it some it some maintenance items and lots of grease and lubricant. Basically she'll get all the best stuff in the package and I'll have the leftovers for pickup and I'll be maintaining it when I do mine each year. There are 2 sets of chrome hubcaps, one set rough with some dents and lots of rust. and other set is nice. Lots of light scratches, but They will shine when cleaned up. It has about 400 hrs. Deck is very nice and solid. Both were from original owners and got to chat with the gentleman for over an hour even though i was in for a long trip back home. Such nice guy to deal with. I was able to get some original papers as well! Even came with a new iSaveTractors carb. Not sure exactly what I'm doing with the other one yet... it runs very good despite higher hours.

Well, my spouse and I took a short vacay with a planned return on Sunday, the 25th, to New York. By Friday it was clear we needed a new plan and traveled on Saturday instead (our original flight was later cancelled. Whew!) By this morning we had 14” which needed a session last evening after the first 8 or so inches and then again this morning for the rest. Two neighbors had their snowblowers break down so I got a lot of extra seat time being a Good Samaritan. Two and a half tanks of fuel on the sipper K181. Today’s learning? I’d retired my walk behind blower to storage after the blade did such a great job last year and up to now this year on spaced out snowfalls of up to 5”, including the wet stuff. Well, the blower will get un-retired this week. We don’t have enough places where the 854+blade can park a heavy snow so extra pushing past 18” high banks took a lot of time. A pass down each side with the blower could’ve knocked down those banks to make room. Forecasts tell me what we have isn’t gonna melt soon and more is coming!

I got a blower you could rig up on a A-90 for her Doc. Some Briggs power... 💪

Agreed

If for some reason you don’t have one, I will gladly send you one for her.

That's awesome !!!!! She looks like a kid with a brand new toy.

Good idea I was actually gonna purchase one for reloading to clean my brass

Yesterday afternoon we fired up 2 tractors and the walk behind snowblower to stack them in better position. My 78/79 C121 hydro was NOT happy about being awake. Once it started I walked away for a good 15 minutes. I left the park brake on & hydro belt engaged. Definitely worth the fuel spent for the smooth running happy tractor.

Warming it up first worked and she fired right up. Ran through 2 tanks of gas. Some of those drifts were pretty high too. Luckily the neighbor across the street was out there with his loader and also pushed my 3ft + DOT piles to the side for me. The DOT plow piles are always the test of durability on the 2 stage's chain

Looks like it came with the super rare cutting board belt guard !! 😂👍🏻

Not sure if you’ve done it yet, but you might just need to clean your carburetor up. Soak it in some Berrymans for a few days and clean your jets out. I had the same issue with my 418. When you shut off was full of junk some of it may have dislodged and made it to your carb.

Made a make shift weight bar and used some old weights that were kicking around so I could get around with the 44” blower. Didn’t have a problem going anywhere but definitely had to watch backing up. Probably going to seek out some wheel weights this year though.

Had this happen on a tractor & turned out PO had monkeyed around with the idler tension and wrong spring on. Too much belt flop. Check the spring for being proper. 7473 shows up as the belt for a 417 hydro and gear jammer. Guessing you have these but just in case ... Belts for Riding Mowers.pdfChart Belts Tractor drive.pdfBelts_Mower_spindle_and_drive_belt_charts.pdf Gotta be a tough one in this kinda weather Don ... hats off Pierce rigs ... made right here in Appleton WI. Been in their plant many times.

I got it back running it acted like the bowl was completely empty when I got it back going I had to have the choke on then it still wanted to die im thinking the fuel pump i have a electric one i was gonna use on my other tractor i guess I can get it on this to see if thats the issue

Pretty much over and it sounds like this one found some weakness. My stuff ran okay. The little 2 stroke blower needs and edge and paddles. And the old xi slows a bit when the trans gets hot, (I knew about the trans but not sure if I am going to switch out to another machine or repair) After the storm.

Sorry, I keep posting the same tractor…first pic was sometime this morning, last pic was this evening. Snow is still coming down

Don't forget to give the girl on the wall a beach towel to keep warm or she won't have a cold beer ready for you when you come in after blowing & bladeing. @c-series don Say hi to Lucy.

Long distance side shot.

Check out the dry rot on them sidewalls. These are tri rib and they look like that in between the ribs also. Have a set if deestone tri ribs that’s supposed to be here today . Cant complain these are probably at least 17/18 years old. Deestones came in figured id side shot them too.

‘90 510-8 (520-8)

I’m having some electrical work done in one of my sheds so I had to move the tractors out to have room for them to work. So I brought them in my garage.

Front side... 5" fresh poof this morning...

Had the 416-H with 60” deck and 8hp Peco vacuum system out today for the final leaf harvest!

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Is to early for Christmas carol. Got this from @Pullstart at big show this year and haven’t got to mess with it much….Yet

Little 856 really likes its new to it wheels and tires.

Had some of the C series Herd out today.