Interesting Toro Fact

[MikesRJ 552]

Ken Melrose is currently the Executive Chairman of Toro. And I quote ...

"

We displayed the Toro rider next to a Toro unit panted Wheel Horse red and asked our employees. "Which has a higher quality appearance?" Almost 100 percent preferred the Wheel Horse red. Over time, we changed all our Toro-brand products to Wheel Horse red.

"

Interesting.

pg. 185 - Making the Grass Greener on Your Side, by Ken Melrose

[Kelly 1,028]

And what year was that???

[MikesRJ 552]

The year after they purchase Wheel Horse, and decided to incorporate the Wheel Horse business models best features into Toro (and vice-versa), rather that "Toroize" (his words) Wheel Horse as they had done to all other acquisitions ... 1987/1988.

[buckrancher 2,678]

So when you buy toro paint from a dealer buy the toro red not the candy apple red

as toro red is wheel horse red and candy apple red is old toro red

Brian

[bobert94 38]

This is when Toro starting marketing there New Toro Red paint [AKA wheelhorse red] Part #361-10 sray and 361-11 gal, The paint is made by NCP coatings in Niles,MI www.ncpcoatings.com. Ive been using this paint for years and always had good results. Its also available in quarts but i dont know the part # offhand. :thumbs:

[JC 1965 1,528]

:thumbs: Very interesting ,thanks for the info. :thumbs:

[TerryJW 0]

:thumbs: Thanks for the information.

[mavfreak 11]

things that make you go ummm! :thumbs:

[VinsRJ 721]

Toro should have kept more than just the color, how about like the over all design of a :thumbs:

[hounddoghundzsa 7]

Toro and MTD more or less killed the good old steel garden tractors and replaced them all with plastic coated Jap crap. :thumbs:

[HankB 16]

Toro should have kept more than just the color, how about like the over all design of a :thumbs:

I thought they did. The '85 3xx series developed by WH and introduced in '85 was sold through 2006, no? A 20+ year model run isn't bad. It did see an engine change, but that was true under WH as well (K301 to the Magnum models.)

I suppose one could ask why Toro didn't bring the design forward and at this point I'd ask about the 520Lxi and related models. Do they include any WH DNA or are they Toro designs.

[T-Mo-(Moderator) 4,350]

I posted about that book way back in 2007. http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/index.php?showtopic=320&hl=

There's a link in that original post that takes you to an excerpt from the book - unfortunately I don't think the entire excerpt is there anymore.

[MikesRJ 552]

My point was really directed toward the paint color decision, not whether or not the book had been mentioned here before.

I was always of the opinion that the current Toro paint was more accurate of the mid-80's Wheel Horse color, but had nothing substantial to prove my theory. When I read that passage it was one of those "hot-damn" moments.

As I have said many times before, we all sometimes make rash decisions as to the "facts", but more times than not have nothing concrete to back-up our statements. Here we have an example of "fact", stated by the man who was in charge at the time, when Toro switched to WH-Red in the latter portion of the 80's more or less quantifying my previous suppositions.

I thought it very interesting and the rest of the community would appreciate it.

[Coadster32 793]

When Toro switched their red to the wheel horse red, they called it "new toro red". The saying goes "new toro red for old Wheel Horse tractor". I painted up my 854 and my 551 with it. It seems to work pretty well. On a side note, I used rustoleum primer, and have had no real problems. (at least that were'nt self-inflicted) :thumbs: