Ol' Red

As I mentioned in my last post, the hot weather encourages me to stay inside and surf ebay and craigslist. This leads to finding new projects instead of being outside working on projects I already have. This is extra encouragement I obviously don't need. The warm weather also seems to be motivating people to clean out their garages, because there has been a higher than normal number of tractors, carts, wagons, implements, etc. on Craigslist. That combination of more items available and more time spent looking at them is a dangerous one. As I recently mentioned, in the past few weeks I have already added a snow plow for the 70 and another wagon to the collection. This week was an even bigger addition, another tractor.

Back when I first started looking for a garden tractor, I actually first considered a 1960's Wheel Horse because a couple had caught my eye at a tractor show. I looked for a little while, and after realizing Deere's were much more common, I switched gears and started pursuing those. Obviously, I found one Deere, and then another. Still, there was something about those old round-hooded Wheel Horses that appealed to me. They again caught my eye at the recent Penfield show.

As luck would have it, a 1964 Wheel Horse 854 showed up on Craigslist last week. Despite some prior interest in that style of tractor, I still probably would have scanned the ad and moved on if it weren't for the way the seller advertised it. He said he wanted it out of his shed, and since we didn't know what it was worth, he would entertain any offer. That got me curious - what was it worth? So, the investigation began. I dug up what information I could about the model, compared the photos to others to see what was damaged and what was missing, and tried to come up with a value - hypothetically of course. Petty soon I had enough time invested in the investigation that I just had to carry through with making an offer on it. Long story short, after some negotiating, the tractor was mine.

I justified this one to myself as a true "garden tractor". It has an implement hitch on the back, which will allow me to raise and lower my disc and a plow. Of course that means we will have to expand the garden next year. All of that assumes, of course, I can get it running. It came with the typical "ran when parked" sales pitch, although "running" and "running well" are often far different things.  So far, I've just done a good cleaning, inspection and changed the fluids, but it's not moving under its own power, yet.

Despite adding the Wheel Horse to the heard, I couldn't resist another tractor that found me.  Just a couple days after buying the Wheel Horse, as I was on the way to work I spied a lawn tractor out at the curb a couple blocks from my house.  Sure enough, there was a "Free - Take Me" sign in front of it.  I drug it home.  It starts and runs OK, but the drive belt has come off twice so I assume it is shot.  It also leaks some oil, so the engine probably needs some TLC.  Still, other than having to put the drive belt back on, it worked fine for mowing, and left me looking for other things that needed to be mowed that I didn't want to use a "nice" mower for.  I will probably just part it out and scrap most of it, but for now it will save some wear and tear on Johnny. 

 

The Wheel Horse has taken some attention away from the new wagon, but not totally.  I did manage to get the side boards assembled and painted.  I still need to put the brackets on to hold the side boards in place, but so far, so good.  I still hope to have it done in time for the Labor Day tractor show in Pontiac.