Wheel Horse History

[Racinbob 12,967]

Most of you saw the recently posted AI generated video about the history of Wheel Horse. The inaccuracies were abundant and glaring.  Having lived a stones throw from South Bend all my life I vividly remember the tremendous amount of manufacturing in the county with Oliver, Studebaker and many others as well as what Wheel Horse went through as it was happening. You hear a lot of conflicting stories about AMC, Munn and then Toro and what they did to Wheel Horse. I stumbled on to this one this morning and found it to be, by far, the most accurate of any I've seen. My awareness started in 1960 as a child but the memories are still there. Sit back and relax.  This is just over an hour long but it kept me glued to the puter screen and brought back a lot of memories.

 

The Brand That Big Box Stores Destroyed: The Fall of Wheel Horse

 

I did catch a major error near the end. Since when was the LX420 the last of the models with any Wheel Horse heritage? It had zero. The last was the Classic GT aka 300 Series, aka 315-8, whatever you prefer to call them. Last year made, 2007.

Also, many of you want to see the Ireland Road plant on an upcoming visit to the area. 

 

 

No, it doesn't look like this now but you will still recognize it. The picture they used when making that statement was the BACK of the plant. For many years the less faded paint under the Wheel Horse name was very visible. 

[rhondamack 1]

17 hours ago, Racinbob said:

Most of you saw the recently posted AI generated video about the history of Wheel Horse. The inaccuracies were abundant and glaring.  Having lived a stones throw from South Bend all my life I vividly remember the tremendous amount of manufacturing in the county with Oliver, Studebaker and many others as well as what Wheel Horse went through as it was happening. You hear a lot of conflicting stories about AMC, Munn and then Toro and what they did to Wheel Horse. I stumbled on to this one this morning and found it to be, by far, the most accurate of any I've seen. My awareness started in 1960 as a child but the memories are still there. Sit back and relax.  This is just over an hour long but it kept me glued to the puter screen and brought back a lot of memories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Brand That Big Box Stores Destroyed: The Fall of Wheel Horse geometry dash 3d

 

I did catch a major error near the end. Since when was the LX420 the last of the models with any Wheel Horse heritage? It had zero. The last was the Classic GT aka 300 Series, aka 315-8, whatever you prefer to call them. Last year made, 2007.

Also, many of you want to see the Ireland Road plant on an upcoming visit to the area. 

 

 

No, it doesn't look like this now but you will still recognize it. The picture they used when making that statement was the BACK of the plant. For many years the less faded paint under the Wheel Horse name was very visible. 

Good video, mostly accurate with a few minor mistakes. One thing worth noting is that during the Toro takeover, they didn’t fundamentally change the Wheel Horse tractor design; they largely just added the Toro name to the decals. Toro often gets blamed for the decline of Wheel Horse, but the video does a good job explaining why many of the major, reliable tractor brands eventually faded.

A big factor was the rise of zero-turn mowers, which shifted consumer attention toward faster, larger machines, especially among younger buyers. At the same time, stricter EPA safety and emissions regulations also played a role—those standards came from government requirements, not Toro.

[Racinbob 12,967]

Exactly. Sure, they had a hand in it but ultimately they did all the WH nuts a favor by keeping the same design as long as they did but sooner or later cost factors must be considered. I think the single thing that amazes most folks is when they find out I'm running a 70's deck on my 2005 and my 76 ran the 05 deck. Take the sheet metal off and they are the same tractor. Just ignore the wiring differences. 

[Pullstart 69,979]

DJ Harrison pointed out to me, and I’m not too impressed with the use of my images and his video content.  They are surely making profit off our content and the copyright claim forms to fill out are lengthy and involved.  It’s kind of a weird feeling. 

[953 nut 66,134]

This is the same video that Karl @nylyon posted last month.

Another "Rise and Fall" video was posted by @ACman a couple weeks back.

There are two groups doing hack jobs on many brands, not just our beloved 

 

[SylvanLakeWH 31,440]

When you do it, it's copyright infringement... when AI does it, it's copyright infringement. Let's see how the courts "charge" AI...

 

This is bad and getting worse by the gigasecond...

 

I don't use it.

[953 nut 66,134]

17 minutes ago, SylvanLakeWH said:

gigasecond...

A gigasecond, 1,000,000,000 seconds would work out to about 32 years, a nanosecond would be 1/1,000,000,000 of a second, I think that is what you were going for.

Giga is a Billion,  Nano is a Billionth. 

[SylvanLakeWH 31,440]

55 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

A gigasecond, 1,000,000,000 seconds would work out to about 32 years, a nanosecond would be 1/1,000,000,000 of a second, I think that is what you were going for.

Giga is a Billion,  Nano is a Billionth. 

Thx.

 

Perhaps I should have consulted AI... not.

[MainelyWheelhorse 2,583]

It was not bad, it seems to give a decent overview for someone not super familiar with the history. The odd pronunciation of Cecil and other random words was a bit odd. The Dick Tracy narrator voice was a bit odd too. But overall an interesting story.

Edited Tuesday at 03:34 PM by MainelyWheelhorse

[953 nut 66,134]

2 hours ago, MainelyWheelhorse said:

Dick Tracy narrator voice

I knew that sounded familiar, just couldn't place it.                   

[MainelyWheelhorse 2,583]

2 hours ago, 953 nut said:

I knew that sounded familiar, just couldn't place it.                   

Or something like that. It sounded like a detective noir movie from the 40’s, like the narration in the Naked Gun movies.

[adsm08 4,483]

2 hours ago, MainelyWheelhorse said:

Or something like that. It sounded like a detective noir movie from the 40’s, like the narration in the Naked Gun movies.

 

I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

[MainelyWheelhorse 2,583]

20 hours ago, adsm08 said:

 

I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

Airplane is another good one. Leslie Nielsen was one of the GOAT for comedy movies like Naked Gun and Airplane. He seemed to generally enjoy it too. Look up one of the interviews he did with Johnny Carson. He brought a hidden fart machine and you can see both of them struggling to keep their composure.

[Retired Wrencher 6,665]

Thank you Racinbob for this great video. A must see for all to look at. I learned a few things. I saved it in book marks. 

[T-Mo-(Moderator) 4,849]

15 hours ago, MainelyWheelhorse said:

Airplane is another good one. Leslie Nielsen was one of the GOAT for comedy movies like Naked Gun and Airplane. He seemed to generally enjoy it too. Look up one of the interviews he did with Johnny Carson. He brought a hidden fart machine and you can see both of them struggling to keep their composure.

The Naked Gun movie series was derived from the TV show, "Police Squad" from the same people.  Even Leslie Nielson played the same character.  Police Squad only lasted a few episodes, it was a summer replacement in the early 1980s.  You can catch some scenes, the opening credits, and some entire episodes on youtube.  It was a funny show and as I mentioned, was the basis for Naked Gun which came after the TV show.