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WHGuy413

How did it all start???

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rjg854

I was looking for a project to tinker around with after I had rebuilt a 1947 Bolens Huski Gardener, 2 wheeled tractor that I plowed the driveway with.  I found a 68 Commando 8, that I liked the looks of.  I bought it pretty cheap and I found out why, but that's basically how I got interested in Wheel Horse.  They are simple well built machines.  And with so many attachments, one tractor just isn't enough :eusa-whistle:

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WHGuy413

Wow this thread took off! Awesome stories! Keep them coming!

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PeacemakerJack
21 hours ago, WHGuy413 said:

...my dad's 73 12 auto. I don't remember it before he did the Briggs swap but I know I had seat time then...he tore this ole beast apart fixed anything broken re painted and added the 18hp briggs...I'm gonna restore this one just the way it is now. Wrong decals and everything cause that's how my dad did it all those years ago.

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When you have a machine that has that much history with your family, I think it is really cool to retain as much of those original cues as possible.  The quote “necessity is the mother of invention” applies to a tinkering man.  Such was the case with my dad.  His 875 was bone stock original when he purchased it in 1975.  By the late 80’s, it had a lot of modifications performed by my dad to suit his purpose much like your dad did on his 1973.  When we restored it, we could’ve returned all those items back to original stock, but we wanted to retain them because they are what tell the story of that machine in our lives.  Dad recalled why he did most of them and shared it with me. If you care to read the whole story, it is recorded in the restorations threads here on the forum under “875 Iron Horse”.  I support your decision to restore it like it is...

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Super-C 4 me
3 hours ago, ohiofarmer said:

:bow-blue: Two words----just wow! :bow-blue:         And I thought that I was buying "too many"----

I like to have 2 of everything! 😜

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roadapples
12 minutes ago, bmiller0457 said:

I like to have 2 of everything! 😜

Better hope the wife doesn't see this....

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WHGuy413
3 minutes ago, roadapples said:

Better hope the wife doesn't see this....

Just do what I did. Get your wife into these tractors. She now has 3 of her own.

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roadapples

I meant 2 wives....

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19richie66
28 minutes ago, bmiller0457 said:

I like to have 2 of everything! 😜

Hence the new nickname “Noah” :laughing-rolling:

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The Tuul Crib
27 minutes ago, roadapples said:

I meant 2 wives....

Two wife's? How do you find time for your machines?!

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roadapples

Refer to post #33

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JCM

I remember going to the local WH/ Ariens dealer in 1973 with my dad when I was 15 to purchase a new 7 hp 24 inch snowblower, while he was making the deal I strolled over to the WH section and looked over a C series and thought to myself that for a small tractor that was a serious piece of equipment and knowing I had to let my imagination run wild, I knew better than to mention that we could use  that to mow our  half acre.I want to say in the late seventies dad mentioned going back to the dealer to buy a riding mower,I could not even imagine having a  WH in the family,it would be like the brother I never had.When we arrived at the dealer he by-passed the WH section and went straight to a Snapper rear engine rider with what looked like handlebars in place of a steering wheel? it took a few minutes to talk him out of that and said if we can not get a WH can we at least get one with a steering wheel, the decision was made to buy an Ariens rear engine Fairway which my brother in law still owns today.Anyway my WH dreams came true 1989 with the purchase of a 312-8 the one I really wanted was the 520-H which was next to the 312-8 but was 4700.00 and the 312-8 was 3400.00 that was a lot of money in 89.I am grateful to have a nice bunch of WH tractors  but hope to find a real  clean 417-A someday, right place at the right time, they are very addictive.          Thanks for this topic.

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Super-C 4 me
2 hours ago, roadapples said:

Better hope the wife doesn't see this....

Fortunately for me there isn’t a mrs.

but I guarantee if there is a future mrs.

she will like :wh:

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oliver2-44

In 2005 my oldest son was interested in mechanical things and a friend  gave him a non running but solid 312-8 with deck. He tinkered with it fixed wiring and carb and he got it running.  After a while took it to farm to mow trails to deer stands. In 2014 my son had gotten married, bought a house.  I had realized how solid the 312 was so I did a restoration and gave it to him.  By the time I had it restored I had bought a C160 for me and it grew from there

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ericj

I guess mine started when dad bought a 73 12 AUTO. Me and my brother went from fighting dad about having to mow the yard with the push mower, to fighting over who was going to mow the yard with the tractor. I won becuase he got his driver's license and a girl friend  shortly after dad bought the wheel horse. Dad later bought a D200 which we used for the 1 acre garden dad use to put out. Most of the work falling on me to use the tractors with. I put that old 12 horse through h-ll and back. Dad traded the 12 AUTO in on a 417-8 with electric when the old 12 kohler got tired. The shorter story fast forwards to 1996 when I bought my house. My little brother had bought a 416-8 a couple of years earlier, SO I just had to have a wheel horse myself. I didn't think I could afford one, or at least a new one. I bought the Toro rear engine rider. HMR1200. It was a good mower but not a Wheel Horse !!!.

 

I was at a customer's house one day doing a service call on his oil furnace when I saw a poor old wheel horse sitting in the weeds by the wood shed. I asked and he told me the story on it , I then asked if he would be interested in selling it. He stood back and rubbed his chin and asked how about $ 50.00. I didn't even hesitate and said sold. Turned out it was a 74 C120. I brought it home and somehow managed to get it running with the some help. I then found a mower deck and later a snow plow, and a snowblower. The snowblower wasn't for a C series so I adapted it to fit. Well every time I tried to use it, it would break. I would have to lay out in the snow and swap back over to the plow. I kept thinking wouldn't it be nice to have a tractor for each.

 

So I bought a 75 C120, but it had issues ended  up blowing a rod. After I finally saved up enough money to commit to rebuilding the motor, my wife came into some money and agreed to buy me a brand new 1999 314-8. But I guess by that time I was hooked cause I kept looking at customer's house for old wheel horse tractors to buy, Here and there I would drag another one home. As I learned more I started to work on them myself. Now I have somewhere north of 30 running tractors and not sure of how many non running tractors. I don't count non running one lol

I still have both of dad's tractors, his 417-8 and his D200 which had sat in the barn for 19 years or something like that, till I rescued it

 

I enjoy dragging a dead horse home and putting my skills the the test to see if I can get it running again. I do tend to specialize in onan powered tractors. Ever since I first heard my brother's 416-8 run and it reminded me of a muscle car with cam sitting there idling I was hooked on them there onan's :hide:

 

 

 

 

 

eric j  

Edited by ericj
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LengerichKA88

On accident would be my answer haha. 

 

My Father in law had mentioned wanting to do some small engine repair work to have something to do (he’s retired), and I found a WH on Facebook in decent shape, with a deck for 200 bucks. I sent him the link with a message saying “There’s a project to be had there.”

I’d never heard of Wheel Horse, but once I did some digging and found out they were made here in Indiana, it piqued my interest. This was late August last year(2018). I started doing little things on it here and there,and eventually started looking for a dozer blade to push snow. I mentioned this to my FIL and he started looking for one as well. Enter our Charger 10, which we originally bought solely for the blade, but for a few bucks more than the going price we got another machine too. 

Now I don’t want to let either of them go, so I’m making sure they don’t go anywhere: I made an offer to my FIL for what he paid for both tractors, both decks, and the dozer blade plus 25 (it was his gas that got em here). He shook his head and counter offered. Usually the one coming out  of pocket with the cash is the one trying to work the price down, but we agreed on $450 for the lot. I guess I qualify as a Horse Thief now 😂

 

I hope to have them around round for many years to come, and have plans for restomods for both, but we’ll cover that later haha. 

 

 

 

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Edited by KyleLengerich
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ebinmaine
On 1/30/2019 at 9:22 PM, bmiller0457 said:

Fortunately for me there isn’t a mrs.

but I guarantee if there is a future mrs.

she will like :wh:

I'd have to agree that that is muy importante...

 

Trina has two tractors here in Maine already and another one waiting in Massachusetts thanks to @Herder and @WHGuy413.

 

Who knows how many we will end up with in the permanent Fleet but she really does enjoy taking them apart and putting them back together.

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Stepney

Well, let's see here. I was brought into WH's when I was about 3 years old, my Grandfather had a '68 Electro 12. He lived in MA at the time, and the few times a year I would visit, he would take me for rides 'round the yard, till I was old enough to drive on my own for the first time .. put it into a large bush at about 4mph. When I was about 8 or 9, the ignition switch broke and no shop claimed they could fix it (Looking back, I find that remark hilarious). So my grandfather bought a new Scotts and retired it to the shed. When he moved up to Maine with the rest of my family, he brought the old E12, but left all the implements for scrap. 
It sat in the yard for years after that. Somehow it didn't get much worse then it already was. 
In the meantime, I had a visit to a local museum, and was introduced to hit and miss engines. When I was 10, I bought myself one. Around the time I was 12-13 or so I got myself a '67 Cub Cadet 102 for riding at shows, but wanting the E12 running never left me though it was in a really poor state, grown into brambles in the yard. I spent years on and off trying to get it going to no avail. Turns out the mag was dead.

 One night it came to me, that the magneto fired K301 in the Electro was the same engine otherwise as the Battery fired K241 in the IH Cub. I went home one day and tore the IH to bits (Parents weren't too proud of this..) and hauled the parts up to my grandfathers, reassembled it as it was on the Cub, and the machine fired right up and drove into the garage. Kept it in somewhat regular use till 2016 when it developed a crack in the block and also seemed to have broke a ring. After that it was too weak to really move and the smoke to this day has been unmatched. 
From that point when I got it running in 2012, I got a lead on a 1975 WH B80 from a local man. I saved that from the crusher and got it going enough to ride around. It was torn down for overhaul but I was really too young at the time to do much with it. This later became @ebinmaine 's Patriot Horse. Between 2013 and 17 I've probably had about twenty other WH's come and go. 

 

The old '68 E12 has since been repowered with a K-341 from a C160 and that smartened it up just enough to have the rear end let go. She's still here, patiently awaiting the last of a mechanical rebuild. 

 

 

 

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ebinmaine
8 minutes ago, Stepney said:

This later became @ebinmaine 's Patriot Horse

Thanks for sharing the early (to you) history of that tractor.

 

 

10 minutes ago, Stepney said:

old '68 E12 has since been repowered with a K-341 from a C160

 

And I have the rest of that rig as the chassis, steering and transmission for my Cinnamon Horse.

 

Cool stuff !!!!

 

 

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formariz

It all started here on a visit to the local lawnmower repair shop in 2005 where the 753 was proudly displayed. It just gravitated to us or us to it i am not sure which. We knew absolutely nothing about it or wheel horses. However its looks character and all original patina just went right into our hearts. Little did we know at the time that it would eventually change our lives for ever.

 

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SylvanLakeWH

September 2015...

 

My brother gave my then 16 year old son the C-105 for him to use for his 6 year old neighborhood lawn care and snow removal business...

 

Son “retired” from lawn business at 18 to go to college, so I have inherited the WH...

 

She still sees active duty plowing snow and helping with chores...

 

Pics are of my son on the summer day we brought it home, him plowing, and me more recently doing “chores” with the nieces and nephews...

 

Life is good on a :wh:!

 

 

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PeacemakerJack
6 hours ago, formariz said:

It all started here on a visit to the local lawnmower repair shop in 2005 where the 753 was proudly displayed...

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@formariz thank you for sharing your story and the :text-coolphotos: especially this rare one of a younger Billy Crystal on your Wheel Horse!  I had know idea that he was into them:lol:

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