Why do you collect these tractors?

[SAM58 30]

Quailty...

We have had a Raider 12 in the family since 1974, it is a 1972 model that the dealer had for a while. My older brother bought it new, and it has been resotred twice and is still going with the original engine.

2010 the tranny gave out because of abuse, and that put me on a quest to find a tranny and restore it once again.

My brother owned it until 1996 where he had let it run down and set out for 3-4 years. I traded him for it got it running and did a partial restore, use it to mow until 2010 when i did somethng to the tranny.

Found Red Square, and a lot of help, heard about the 2010 June Show and it snowballed from there. Bob Maynard sold me a tranny, found a hood, with lights for 20.00, and various other parts.

Dave's tractor world sent me a dash with choke & throttle cables, key switch, complete restore on the deck and it's back in service. It has been rolled twice with minor repairs.

Since then I have owned 6 others, presently have my two favorites...

Had to sell a few just to see if I could. Ha!

http://i811.photobuc.../IMG_0623-1.jpg

[AMC RULES 36,945]

Ahh, that a no brainer...I collect because of my interest in all things AMC and of course.

[Kingwood990 16]

With me it was because my grandpa owned the 244-H I have now. I remember when I was a little kid how he would show me how to check the fluids and that you should always keep the tractor covered up when not in use. He washed that tractor every weekend even when he did not use it. I remember my grandpa and my dad giving me rides around the yard on it. He was proud of that tractor. For the first two years he owned it, he would pull it out to the front yard and would just sit there and look at it for hours and hours. He did not even use it for the first few years. He hired some one else to mow the grass because he did not want to get the 244-H dirty.

About 12 years ago grandpa passed away and my dad got the tractor. He used it every weekend for about 10 years. He taught me how to drive on that tractor. It was the first tractor I have ever driven. I still get the same feeling I had the first time I drove the 244-H. I own other brands of tractor besides WH but I just don't get the feeling of pride when I use them. I have been known to mow grass that has been mowed 2 days before just to get some seat time on the WH.

Here is a picture of my familys pride and joy of many years. It is the one on the end (right side).

[Matt71 6]

We got our first wheelhorse back in 1985 and believe it or not our nieghbor 2 doors up rolled a suburban with the plow out to the curb for garbage. luckily my brother and i saw it first so we quickly rolled it down to our house. We threw a little gas in the tank and gave it a few pulls it wouldnt start so we took the air cleaner off and poured a little gas in the carb and she fired right up. we couldnt believe someone would throw this away. It also had wheel weights on the rear tires and believe me we found out what a good little tractor this was the first time it snowed. My brother and i shared this tractor for many years and he still has it to this day. About a year and a half ago i finaly got one of my own a suburban 551 and im currently looking for another round hood for my son. but ever since that first little tractor ive been a round hood fan. I know one tractor doesnt make me a collector but you gotta start somewhere right. However my son and i intend to purchase and restore as many of these little tractors as we can find and afford so hopefully one day soon we'll have more to share in our posts!!!!

[Fun Engineer 859]

Wow these are some great stories with what seems to be a familiar thread "family". My addiction goes back to when I was around 4 or 5 and my father would sit me on his lap when he mowed with a Farmall Cub. Something like a 56 or 57 vintage. My family bought their first Wheel Horse in 63 or 64, a 953. At some point I think my mother convinced my dad that she wanted a smaller tractor and they purchased a Commando 8 (see signature). We had a AC 110 for rototilling but the Commando was the mower. I was probably around 10 when I learned to operate the 953 but my sister and I spent most of our summers mowing about 4 acres of lawn on the Commando. My father passed away in 1980 and my mother kept the house and yard up until 1984 when she decided to move into town. This was probably the hardest decision she ever had to make. So obviously she sold the Commando to a guy down the road. Fast forward to 1999. So I'm telling my moms new a neighbor about our families Wheel Horses and he said he has an old wheel horse and would be willing to sell it to me if I was intersted. Interested, h*** yea I was interested. So I bought a beatup 857 that for the most part only plowed his driveway and the city sidewalk on his block. His back yard which was his biggest yard was hardly wide enough to turn the 857 around. Don't know why he ever bought it. Maybe he was bitten So my youngest son and I restore this tractor to be our first trailer princess and find out about that crazy group of Wheel Horse collectors. After the 857 and a 1848 Workhorse I bought a 67 Lawn Ranger from my uncle. I always wondered what happened to the old Commando. One day my curiosity got the better of me and I called the neighbor who mom had sold the Commando to. They had moved years before but when they did, they sold the tractor to their neighbor. So I'm thinking what the heck. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. So I stop at the neighbors house only to find out that he is an school friend of my oldest son. Sure he'd be willing to sell the tractor. So about 8 years ago I purchase my families original Commando 8. After my mother sold it, it was not taken very good care of. It appeared to be kept outside a good deal of the time. However she ran like a top and I used it up until 2 years ago to plow snow every winter and grade my new lawn and driveway. I've nearly completed a complete restoration of the tractor. I've used two other parts tractors and have taken apart every nut and bolt and rebuilt everything but the generator. This one is not going to be another trailer princess. She's a worker (backup worker )but I think she'll be in better condition then when new. I'm working to have it ready for the show this year and hope to see alot of other family tractors there. This has been therapeutic in a sense. I'm sure my father would have been thrilled to be involved with it's restoration. Keep these stories coming. Dave

[mrocket49 23]

My wife and I moved into our first home that had a decent lawn in 1981. All I had was a 21" push mower and 3/4 acre of tall grass. (the previous owner had stopped mowing the lawn about 3 weeks before the closing). After pushing the mower through half of the lawn, the engine seized up from the tall grass.

I was panicking and found that one of my neighbors had a Sears 10 hp lawn tractor that he sold me. It mowed the lawn fine but my other neighbor had a Wheel Horse Charger 12 (if I remember right). I was jealous of his larger tractor and so in 1984, I went shopping for a garden tractor. After checking out Cub Cadets, Sears, White, Bolens, etc., I narrowed down my search to John Deere and Wheel Horse. I didn't like the variable pulley drive of the JD 212 or the plastic engine side covers. I thought the Kohler single was a beautiful engine and didn't want it hidden behing a cover, so it was going to be a Wheel Horse.

I went to the dealer and told him I wanted the largest single-cylinder engine (12 hp that year) because I liked how it was constructed all of cast iron. I also wanted the 8 speed because it too was probably stronger and a real tractor has a manual transmission. I decided on the C-125 and loved it. I still have it also. I'm one of those owners that wax their tractors!

[mid60's 93]

Guess I'll get on board this time around.

I brought my first horse home in 1978. It was a Commando 8 and I thought I was probably nuts for buying a 10 year old lawn mower. I used it to mow, push snow, dirt and gravel for the next 25 years. My son used it to mow lawns and saved enough money to buy his first car. I still have it today, refurbished and retired now. I pulled my second one, an 867 off a scrap metal pile in 1990. It was complete except no engine. It sat in the corner of the shed for about 10 years. The Commando 8 was getting tired and needed an overhaul but I was using it almost daily. So, I picked up another Commando 8 In 2000 to use while I fixed up the old one. I refurbished this tractor instead with the 867 following it. And now there are 25 that run and a few donors in the barn. Oh, well, it keeps me off the streets and out of the bars. I've quit acquiring them a few times, but that only seems to last until I come across another one. Most of mine, I have brought back from the dead. My workers now include a Commando 8 with dozer blade, an 867 for neighborhood association property mowing," volunteer work", as I mow my own yard, "much smaller now", with a Toro personal pace, and a 1057 equiped with a snow thrower. I thoroughly enjoy this hobby and have used this forum for an incredible amount of research, so keep up the good work guys.

Larry

[6wheeler 586]

I bought my first one 3 years ago when one of my green ones bailed out on me. That was it, I was hooked. Since then I've bought a couple, sold a couple and bought another one with the money from the sales. So now its a C-165/8spd and a 520h. I don't want a smaller one cuz I know I wouldn't use it. I can't justify having to move them out of the way to get a job done. But if a deal came along, I wouldn't pass it up. I'd probably fix em up and sell em, so that way someone else could enjoy em. Unless of course, it happened to be a D-250.

[clyde 5]

when i was going to marry my wife my soon to be father in law give me his 604 wheelhorse as he upgraded to workhorse.thus the virus started.last count 12 have had 16 at one time

[Wyattrrp 59]

Growing up I remember I mowed with a push rotory for years. Then when I was in High School, my father received a Sears 12HP he was given as a gift from my much older sister. He had a couple of them over the years and always paid for the extended warranty from Sears. Believe me he needed it. Every few years he replaced crap tie rods, mower deck parts and bearings, even a total engine rebuild. In 1980 when I bought my first and only house, I started looking for a rider so my then willing young wife wouldn't have to walk mowing the 1 acre lawn with an old self propelled reel type mower given to us. First year here it took 2 1/2+ hours to mow when she was not yet working. The next spring, '81, I diligently shopped for a good quality tractor/mower. Tested JD and others but tried the WH several times and was drawn back each time. I found a brand new dealer hungry for a sale and pulled the trigger on my C-125 with 42" SD Deck. No other attachments.

My dad gave me a 36" front plow blade from an old 2 wheel walking Gravely which I gerryrigged to fit the attach-a-matic mid and front hookup. It did lousy job since it was from mounted and only lifted 2 inches. It would push the front sideways if more than 2 inches of snow so i didnt use it much. (he also donated his 1948 Ford 8N which he owned since new with a plow blade so winters the WH rested). I mowed 1 acre and a path around the 2 hay fields and a wooded pathway with the WH. Then had to build a barn so I cut trees on the back 20 acres and hauled many 9 ft log lengths draggin with the C-125, using old wheel chains donated by my Dad. Not for garden tractors, instead from his old 58 Chevy Pickup. Look in my photo album and you see those chains still in use today. One 9 ft log caught a root while dragging and I remember due to the chainc digging in and the log not budging, the C-125 slowly rotating about the axle, upward with the front coming over the top and back onto me while I fell off the back of the seat. Lucky I was then able topush the clutch in and push the tractor forward bouncing back on the ground or I wouldn't be writing this now!! Anyway, I had logs milled and I designed and built a 20'x30' barn to keep the 8N and WH out of the weather (about 2 yrs after Dad passed), so I could again park in my garage and not leave these machines out in the weather, as he would never approve of that act!

A few years ago I decided to get rid of the 8N then buy a blower and plow for my still jugging C-125. I have always loved my C-125 and always tell friends it was my best purchase ever. I started shopping Craigs List and found a single stage low chute blower 3 yrs ago then 2 yrs ago scored a 48 inch plow with bracket and weights for $100. I swapped blade and blower depending on snow depth.

Only a little over a year ago I started checking out these various website forums and got the real WH bug. I figured I better pick up a backup tractor since there seemed to be so many still out there not so different from my original trusty WH. Seeing that I was mowing and snow blowing, I had better have a backup tractor in case of sudden breakdown in any season and winters I could have both ready with either the plow or blower attached. This past summer I found my 312-8 (375 Hr) locally and mowed the rest of the season with this almost new machine. It came with High Chute blower and several other attachments. Great package Deal. Hell my C-125 (no Hr Meter) I estimate at 1800+ Hrs, This new 12 Magnum is under 400. Then reading on here the thread about rear discharge decks mulching leaves and sweeping them, I picked up a B-85 with RD deck to use my Parker 1984 sweeper as the SD deck couldn't be swept in 1 pass. That worked better than raking until I found an 8HP Briggs Vac Trailer system to suck up the 312 SD mulched leaves. So I have the B-85 which runs great with no real use, but will be hard to convince myself to sell it in the spring as it has a parking place in that barn I built for the C-125 (shown in the gallery vac photo). Then a C-85 with blown engine and RD deck came up and I figured I need that as replacement parts for the C-125 or 312, so that is now parked beside the B-85. I gotta admit, I do like the Black Hoods best.

So I am now at 3.5 WH's and can't quite stop lookin' at CL for another? I am not that ambitious to to a restoration at this age, but I do appreciate the look and durability of each of these machines. Although the family members may snicker about the multi-tractors around here, they don't complain when it comes time to Plow, Blow or Mow. Each of my kids have ridden the C-125 for hours, and thanked me for never having to walk behind the reel self propelled !

Wyatt

[antiquetractors 4]

Hi. I'm Aaron and I'm an addict. lol

I'm curious as to what tractor started the craze. I remember very clearly seeing a nicely restored 1960 suburban at the tractor show in georgetown, oh and thinking man, I have to have one of those. With a few months of searching craigslist I found a rough and totally unoriginal 1961 401 suburban. Now I have two suburbans but my favorite is still my 1958 Bolens Ride a matic, She is my all original barn find from the original owners that I am currenty restoring!

So lets hear it.

[smoreau 658]

Restoring my grandfathers 875 was it for me. I remember plowing snow as a kid with this little gem. While doing the restore,and searching the web, I found a lot of great info! like I couldn't have finished the tractor without the great info from this site! Then I got bitten and decided I needed another! but I needed parts to fix this one and I decided I needed a parts tractor Then the tractor on evil bay, and the craigs list find. Well you get the picture. I am currently up to 8 and one is being sold to a buddy, but all are operational and will start without any extra effort.

[Challenger 27]

My wife's family had a B-80 which they bought new and kept until last year.

Eleven years ago I bought a friend's immaculate 520H -- I was hooked! I've bought and sold several Wheel Horses in the 300 and 500 series.

Now I have many Wheel Horse machines and many attachments. (Some suggest too many)

I am always on the look-out for more.

[Hodge71 663]

Oh Boy,

What started it for me was my Dad. He bought a 1973 12 Automatic in the summer of '73. It was used as a pit tractor when Pocono Raceway still ran Indy Cars and was also used at our local track called Evergreen Speedway. My Dad said it even had the checkered Flag Wheel Horse stickers that were where the hood sickers should have been. He took them off when he got it. I rreally wish there were pics of it with those stickers on it. He purchased a rear roto-tiller, aereator, dump cart, 48" snow/dozer blade and 42" mower deck with the lawn vacuum that was driven off the engine and deposited everything into the big canvas box on the dump cart. They all came from Hazle/Penn oil and Brake, which was our local dealer at the time. I used that tractor to mow my parents acre and a quarter. Later in my life used it to mow and plow alot of yards and driveways when he left my brother and I use it for our own neighborhood lawncare/snowplowing business, back when we actually got snow in winter, at least here in PA. Fast forward to now and I have a '58 RJ,'59 RJ, 1960 Suburban 400, a 1961 Suburban 551, 1973 18 Automatic, and a 1996 416 Hydro along with mower decks and plows for the RJ's and 'Burbans, a plow and mower deck for the 18 auto, plus a 48" powered thatcher for the front of the 416. SO yes I'm and addict, and my 6 year old son is too.....

[octfst 378]

I got the bug restoring my dads raider 12 he give me.

[bowtiebutler956 649]

Well, my dad gave me a 52 Bantam when I was a kid, and that started my love for garden tractors. Then about 8 years ago, I got a B-80 that I really liked, and just recently restored. Then my son took an iterest in tractors, so I restored my childhood 52 Bantam, and gave it to him. So, my Bantam is what started the love, but my turned me into an addict! So my name is Matt, and I'm an addict, and its good to have you with us Aaron.

Matt :flags-texas:

[MalMac 1,328]

Back in the late 50's through the mid 70's we had a Wheel Horse dealership. When I was just a kid my dad would put me to work helping assemble the new tractors. Then when customers wanted a demonstration or wanted to try it them selfs I got to take what ever tractor out with whatever attachment they wanted to see operated and help demo them. After a death in the family we got rid of the dealership but not the love and desire I had developed with the tractors. After several years of messing around with the tractors of collecting and buying and selling I stumbled onto this site. I had no idea that there were a lot of other people out there that shared the same hobby. I found on this site that there are a lot of people that are way more knowledgeable than I am on Wheel Horse's and I think that is great. I have passed on some of my knowledge but have learned a lot more than I knew. In my opinion this is one of things that make this such a great site.

[BryanO 2]

My grandpa had a WH when I was a kid and got me started mowing on it at about 4 or 5 years old. I remember sitting on a concrete block on the seat. When I grew up I looked for one when I got my own house and ended up buying an '85 314. I wouldn't really define myself as a collector yet as that's the only one I have...but after hanging out on this site for a couple of weeks I think you guys have turned me in to a full blown addict. I'm going to look at a C120 and C165 this week!

[Zeek 2,284]

I started attending this show about 5 minutes from my house

I wanted to get into tractor restoration and shows. I started searching for Wheels Horses because of their history, simplicity, durability, mechanics and I just got hooked :wub:

[gcole 36]

What started my love for wheel horses was about 4 years ago my cousin bought a wheel horse puller. He used to always take me to the pulls with him. Then one day he let me drive it around for a little bit and I loved it. He sold the tractor and I wanted to buy it but didn't have the money. But my luck turned on January 30 2011 that's when I brought home my 75 c-120 and Ive been locking for another ever since.

[Rooster 191]

Have always wanted to restore a tractor, but i live in town with a small yard and simply have neither the room nor use for one. Wheel horses and me are a perfect fit!!

[55rj35jr 623]

My story also began with my dad who is now 80 years old and in poor health,when I was 5 years old(I'm now 50} my dad started collecting hit & miss engines I would go to the show's with him just about every weekend he was a hooked on the old engines as we are on the old Wheel Horses he and I would go out at least a couple eves a week on the "hunt" of them we would find them behind barns,in the scrap piles etc...it got to the point he would wait to bring them home after dark so my mom would not see him lol! so back in those days the old Wheel Horses were still pretty new to the market and were being used not collected you didn't see them at tractor shows only the old engines,farm tractors etc..as I was growing up my dad always was working and repairing garden tractors and lawn mowers for extra cash and we had a garden tractor to mow with and to use around the house he had various brands but the Wheel Horse always stood out in my memories.In later years my dad began to collect the Wheel Horses and always said someday these tractors will become collectible and will be at the tractor/engine shows and he was right as we know from our hobby today.One Thanksgiving day I was down at my dad and mom's for dinner his neighbor has a small wrecker business with scrap cars which we had lived there for 40 years my dad asked if I saw the old tractor setting on top of the scrap car next door,so we walked over and looked at it,it was a 1957 RJ35 at the time we had not seen one that early so really didn't know what kind of tractor it was all we knew we didn't want it to go to the scrap yard.So the next day we asked the neighbor if he wanted to sell it? and his response was are you planning on restoring it? we said yes the next day he pulls in the drive with his wrecker and on the back was this little tractor he said the only thing he wanted for it was to see it when it was done it is yours! That was my first one and is restored today,,, so that is when the Wheel Horse collecting began for me and the hunt was on! Now that we are in the Wheel Horse collecting hobby my wife and I (which has her own tractor too) have met some great people and have some very close friendships through out the years.

[MarkPalmer 80]

I have been a garden tractor addict since I was about 8 or 9, when I started helping out on a mink farm in northern Illinois. There I got to experience and use my first GT, a JD 112 which I thought was awesome compared to the crummy Sears LT my dad bought for me to mow the lawn with. (Yes, unlike kids today being trusted to do heavy chores was a way of life back then, and I was responsible for my age.) I made a lot of money through high school fixing lawn mowers, and taking any junked Lawn Boy from the pile behind a local mower shop and fixing and reselling them. I collected all the GT brochures I could from any make any time I went in to the mower shops to get parts. My grandfather had a Jacobsen Chief 800 that I got to play with when he passed away that I wanted really bad, but my cousins stole it out from under me. I started refurbishing Cub Cadets in 2006, and have owned several of them along with a few of the older 200 series JD's.

The WH 867 I have now is my first WH. It's easy to see where this make can be addicting, as they are very easy machines to work on by comparison to most of the other makes of GT. I saw the 867 at my father in law's house many years ago, he was still using it at the time. A couple of years ago I heard it died, and he bought a new tractor. I asked my wife if the WH was still there, and learning that it was I begged her to tell her parents not to trash it and that I would take it if they no longer wanted it. For whatever reason that couple of years went by with it sitting taking up garage space, then they told me it was mine if I hauled it away which I did, and it is now being refurbished. I'll likely look for more horses now as this one has been a lot of fun!

-Mark-

[horsesaver98 18]

well i am thirteen and have grow up in the back woods and i come from a long line of engineers and have grown up with some kind of toy with a motor to work on and last year my grandfather gave me a 1970 wheel horse charger 12 and my addiction started with three and 4;5;and then i sold one and now at and now 6 so it is slowly going up and up but it started just me then my dad got into it and it is a bonding exspirans for both of us and that is my wheel horse story

[SousaKerry 500]

I grew up as many of you know on the on a Fruit and Vegetable farm in Ohio. We never had a Wheel Horses but had almost everything else, Ford, International/Farmall, Case, Allis Chalmers. Grew up mowing on a Allis B-110. Fast forward a few years and I am in Michigan and buying my second house on one acre with a huge hill out back that screams "MOW ME" A friend of mine has recently restored an RJ-58 he found under a wood pile and plants a seed. Someone at work is going through a divorce and has a Wheel Horse C-125 sitting in a barn buried under a mound of shingles, I buy it sight unseen for $50 and spend the next few days getting it running so I can get it out of the barn.

Well the tractor did not have a deck but it did pull like the dickens and helped me pull out many downed trees and clear a fence row before it threw a rod. A free MTD pinch hit with the mowing for a year before I killed it. Somewhere in that time I went to the Big Show with my Buddie and I was totally hooked. Later that summer I picked up an 1137 with no motor but it had a deck. Stole the motor from the MTD and got the 1137 going for the next season. A replacement K301 soon came along for the C-125 to handle the rough stuff.

Another year and I find a deck for the c-125 and I find a Series II KT17 so the c-125 gets an upgrade. By this time the 1137 has gone through 2 transmission on that hill so the C-125/175 handles everything. The old lady notices I spend more time with my tractors then here and tells me It's here or the tractors, I don't miss her at all but I do miss the house..

A few more years and a few more tractors come and I start stuffing them everywhere I can. If I could I'd fill a warehouse somewhere with every model they ever made, but that lottery just won't hit.