ebinmaine 73,006 #51 Posted June 11, 2020 @PeacemakerJack LOVE the pics man..... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PeacemakerJack 10,743 #52 Posted June 11, 2020 Thanks Eric but I have to deflect the kudos to my mom, she took them all except the one of Zach driving the Iron Horse. She instilled in me the importance of documenting with photos and I took it to the next level with videos😁 Great memories with a great tractor! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EricF 589 #53 Posted June 12, 2020 Fun story here... As I've mentioned multiple times, I grew up with a 1970 John Deere 112 that ran a mower deck and a snowthrower. Nice machine, and it was the only tractor we ever had or needed for the whole time -- there was never any need or want to replace it with anything "new" over the years. I can remember my father's search for a tractor when we bought the house. He looked at the top brands being sold in the area -- JD, Simplicity, Cub Cadet. But NOT Wheel Horse. "Not as modern. Outdated design. Old guys' tractor," he had nothing good to say about WH. Add to that, he was the top collections agent for the IRS in South Bend, and he never liked the thrifty way that WH operated in; no opportunity to grab any extra tax money for Uncle Sam. (Well, his words weren't always that nice, but you get the picture...) So JD it was that won out. The 112 was a very good, well-made and engineered machine. Like anything with a reasonably wide frame, it meant all the belts had to run inboard of the frame rails. Combined with the complexity of the vari-drive setup, it always made belt drive belt replacement, and even swapping the mower deck and snowthrower a bit more curse-word-inducing. And JD parts only went up in price over the years. Some of them were proprietary, although they were well-made and other than belts and a tension pulley bearing failure for the mower deck, it never really had anything fail that I can remember. My father was rightly proud of that tractor, but he never missed an opportunity to turn up his nose at any Wheel Horse he saw. Well, fast-forward to my adult life and the need for at least a lawn tractor to deal with the yard. Now, I don't have my father's disposable income, so something used was in the cards. As I started hunting, I had to settle for what ever a few hundred buck would buy, which turned out first to be a little AYP/Craftsman from the 80's, and later a Bolens "Suburban" which was fairly powerful for a lawn tractor, with a Briggs opposed twin and a nice 3-blade deck. But all along the way I kept researching what I wanted for a keeper; a proper garden tractor. Even as my income became more comfortable, I still focused on older equipment. Everything new was just too expensive, too complicated, and quite possibly not long-lasting enough. So whatever it was to be had to fit my thrifty urge. And I came to the conclusion that nothing fit the bill as well quite as well as Wheel Horse. Simple, heavy-duty construction. Standardized, common parts everywhere. Some of the toughest transmissions ever. Implements interchangeable across decades of models. What wasn't to like? So when I finally had the cash, I jumped for a 520H and thanked my lucky stars. Now, I miss the old JD 112 a bit; I'll never have it as it was sold off somewhere in my father's divorce or death; I'll never know. But given a choice, I'll take the Wheel Horse as my worker any day. Yes, the Wheel Horse design shows its age here and there with it's quirks, but there's just no substitute for the brute strength and reliability. The more modern designs like the JD traded some ease of service and economical simplicity for "keeping up with the times". The 520 has some modern conveniences bolted onto a bulletproof, time-proven platform, and that's just perfect for getting the job done right. Maybe someday I'll find an older JD or other brand to fix up for fun, but for relying on a machine to get work done, Wheel Horse is where I'll head very time. 2 1 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ebinmaine 73,006 #54 Posted June 12, 2020 @EricF Well said sir. Neither Trina nor I in our separate lives years past or since we've been together have ever been fans of Deere in general. They just seem to always end up being overpriced around here and not really any more reliable than any other type of good quality equipment. Since we've gotten into Wheelhorses a few years back, we just wouldn't want anything else now. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pullstart 67,066 #55 Posted June 13, 2020 11 hours ago, ebinmaine said: @EricF Well said sir. Neither Trina nor I in our separate lives years past or since we've been together have ever been fans of Deere in general. They just seem to always end up being overpriced around here and not really any more reliable than any other type of good quality equipment. Since we've gotten into Wheelhorses a few years back, we just wouldn't want anything else now. yap, I’m glad to have stumbled upon Wheel Horse FIRST too! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
echris 1,425 #56 Posted June 13, 2020 The WH dealer I worked at as a kid became a JD dealer too a year or two before I left. I could not stand working on the brand new JD's. Too hard to work on compared to an old, rusty, greasy Wheel Horse! Now that I'm finally working on my own 37 years later, I realize I must've been a pretty smart kid. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
8ntruck 7,883 #57 Posted June 13, 2020 The first garden tractor that caught my eye was my great uncle's Cub Cadet in the late 60's. Thought it would be neat to have one someday. In the 80's, my father in law got a 14-8 for mowing. When the family would get together, there was usually a 'discussion' over who got to mow with the Wheel Horse. In the late 90's, my Craftsman lawn tractor was down for some reason, so I borrowed my neighbor's Cub Cadet to mow a couple of times. Was an older gear jammer with a 50" deck. That reinforced my desire for a Cub Cadet someday. Turns out that when my wife and I ended up with her parents place when the estate was settled about 4 years ago, the Wheel Horse was included. Now I'm looking for another Wheel Horse. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Digger 66 3,488 #58 Posted June 13, 2020 On 6/9/2020 at 9:37 PM, echris said: the simple mechanics of the machine all comes back to you. It feels like the machine was designed from top to bottom with maintenance as the top priority. They're kind of a mechanical work of art. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites