My Dad's last wheel horse

[Pinski1015 0]

My dad was an avid lawn tractor collector but his love was wheel horses. His interests changed and now he's down to his last one. I'm 18 now and remember growing up always working on these tractors. Anyway my dad used to buy his wheel horses in bunches of 3 or 4 at a time. This came in a pack and just sat in the barn until he told me to sell it because in this economy I can't get a job.

I don't want to sell it for nostalgic purposes so I've decided to get it running.

It's a Charger 12 that reminds me of the B80 he gave to fool around on as a kid. They look the same kinda. He told me these are really sought after??

Missing the carb, But has compression and is missing some other parts. Gonna throw some new oil in it and tranny fluid. We have enough wheel Horse engine parts to stock our own store so finding a carb and other parts won't be a problem.

Pics:

[stevebo-(Moderator) 8,059]

Looks good but you need to get an engine shroud on there before you try to get it running.

[tunahead72 2,346]

Looks like a good project, have fun!

And , lots of information and friendly people here.

Where are you located?

[horseheadhunter 17]

A great looking project tractor !! Have fun with it !! Thank's for sharing your pics & story .

[Pinski1015 0]

Now for some questions. Could someone give me an aproximate year this was built? When we got the tractor the fan shroud that was on it had a recoil starter on it. I've Never seen that on a wheel horse before. Any insight on that would help. My dad told me Charger 12's are collector's pieces and are hard to find. Any truth to that?

Any help is greatly apreciated. I'm doing this without my dad's knowledge so I might just fully restore it and surprise him.

I'm located in Indiana and am probably 10 min's from the old plant.

:banghead:

[Horse'n Around 22]

I bet you get it running in no time at all. :thumbs2:

[MikesRJ 552]

Now for some questions. Could someone give me an aproximate year this was built? When we got the tractor the fan shroud that was on it had a recoil starter on it. I've Never seen that on a wheel horse before. Any insight on that would help. My dad told me Charger 12's are collector's pieces and are hard to find. Any truth to that?

Any help is greatly apreciated. I'm doing this without my dad's knowledge so I might just fully restore it and surprise him.

I'm located in Indiana and am probably 10 min's from the old plant.

:thumbs2:

[rmaynard 14,939]

:thumbs2: Glad to have you aboard.

[COMMANDO6 20]

Looks like a nice tractor. If you're already stocked with WH parts for the engine, it should be an easy restore.

Is that an exhaust pipe by the front axel. I haven't looked too closely at Chargers, but something tells me that's not stock.

Good luck and :thumbs2:

[mavfreak 11]

:thumbs2:

[HorseFixer 2,012]

:banghead: :thumbs2:

[jusjeepn 59]

That is the stock muffler and it is installed correctly

[Pinski1015 0]

That is the stock muffler and it is installed correctly

Whoever did the welds was having a bad day. The welds look like someone blew there nose all over it.

Update, upon further inspection this engine can't be the original or I'm missing something. The engine is wider than the 2 frame rails and only 2 bolts are holding it in place while the holes for the other 2 are hanging off the right side. I'm gonna take a look through our stock of engines and see if we have any 12 horse kohlers to compare it to.

[can whlvr 991]

look underneath the frame and look to see if there are engine bolts from the bottom,thats how lots of the original motors are,you just cant see the bolts from the top