Wheelhorse Sheet Metal - Last Style

[leeave96 487]

I was thinking about the last style sheet metal that Wheelhorse used on the hoods of their tractors and the color of it. I'm talking about the style hoods used on the 520H and other 300, 400 and 500 series tractors (see pic below) - as well as the Workhorse models and maybe others that I'm not aware of. These are the hoods with what I call the crinkled sheet metal below the headlights.

Were the Workhorse silver and black tractors the first to use this sheet metal? And if so, were they the only ones to do so - or was the C-series hooded tractors in production at the time too?

Then I see pics of all red hoods of this style, not to many, but I see them. Was this factory or were these paint jobs by the owners of the tractors?

At some point, there are Wheelhorse red hoods with the crinkled portion painted black below the headlights and Wheelhorse logo's along the hood sides.

Finally, the change to Toro red and Toro/Wheelhorse logo on the hood side and again with the crinkled portion below the headlights painted black.

What were the timelines for this hood style and color changes?

Thanks!!!!!!!!

Bill

[SousaKerry 500]

That style hood was introduced with the LT-1000 series tractors starting in about 82-83 IIRC. The C's of that era were using the "Black Hood" the squarish hood with the center black section. After the holding company/Toro took over in 84, all tractors started sharing the modern hood, there was another hood used on the 240, and 260 series tractors similar to the modern series but a little more squared off.

In my opinion I think the modern hood was designed to be cheap to manufacture for the low end tractors, unfortunately they decided to keep the cheap hood for everything and ditch the wonderful "Black Hood" The main difference is they were able to drop the expensive aluminum casting for the dash and replace it with a stamped piece of sheet metal. Unfortunate as many Horses suffered worn out steering column mounts as a result of this poor planning. Which wasn't fixed until the 520's

[leeave96 487]

Bump,,, :)