William Adams
Well-known member
Hello all,
It's time to make the new addiction official by joining the forum! I've been dragged into this by our 13 year old son Will and his love of garden tractors. A quick timeliness review:
Then 10 year old Will announced he would like a small (old) garden tractor for his birthday. I talked to a couple of friends and quickly secured a 90's vintage Simplicity Broadmoor in need of some engine work. We discovered the problem (exhaust valve seat popped loose in one head) and quickly got that fixed with minimal effort. I just drove the seat back in and staked it into the head. A new head gasket and it ran like a kitten. He drove (and drove, and drove) that one but told us a "real" garden tractor needed to be a cub cadet. He found two hanger queens, a 123 and 125, on Craigslist last fall for two hundred bucks each not far from us in Hastings, MN. We picked those up and quickly got the 125 tuned up and running well. The 123 was in pretty sad shape, though reasonably complete, so we set that aside for later work. Around Christmas, we set to work making a bulldozer from the 123. After 4 weeks of work, we've got a running, driving, plowing bulldozer. Will spent 2 hours yesterday cleaning the driveway and making snow piles with it.
During the build, a friend of mine approached me to see if I wanted a Craftsman gt3000 hydro tractor. Sure....why not... now we have 4! I guess that, like VW's or old Hinda motorcycles, it's impossible to just have one or two. The craftsman is now running well and is slated to be donated to my brother for his lawn mowing duties.
I'll be posting a short thread on the 125 and a much longer thread on the 123 conversion but just wanted to get in our intros. Last, my own background is retired Army with post-military career as a mechanic/air cooled VW guru.
It's time to make the new addiction official by joining the forum! I've been dragged into this by our 13 year old son Will and his love of garden tractors. A quick timeliness review:
Then 10 year old Will announced he would like a small (old) garden tractor for his birthday. I talked to a couple of friends and quickly secured a 90's vintage Simplicity Broadmoor in need of some engine work. We discovered the problem (exhaust valve seat popped loose in one head) and quickly got that fixed with minimal effort. I just drove the seat back in and staked it into the head. A new head gasket and it ran like a kitten. He drove (and drove, and drove) that one but told us a "real" garden tractor needed to be a cub cadet. He found two hanger queens, a 123 and 125, on Craigslist last fall for two hundred bucks each not far from us in Hastings, MN. We picked those up and quickly got the 125 tuned up and running well. The 123 was in pretty sad shape, though reasonably complete, so we set that aside for later work. Around Christmas, we set to work making a bulldozer from the 123. After 4 weeks of work, we've got a running, driving, plowing bulldozer. Will spent 2 hours yesterday cleaning the driveway and making snow piles with it.
During the build, a friend of mine approached me to see if I wanted a Craftsman gt3000 hydro tractor. Sure....why not... now we have 4! I guess that, like VW's or old Hinda motorcycles, it's impossible to just have one or two. The craftsman is now running well and is slated to be donated to my brother for his lawn mowing duties.
I'll be posting a short thread on the 125 and a much longer thread on the 123 conversion but just wanted to get in our intros. Last, my own background is retired Army with post-military career as a mechanic/air cooled VW guru.
