Wheelhorse

[bjamison]

Josh - the foot control works like a DREAM!!!!!! One of the guys on the redsquare wheelhorse forum fabricated a kit to retrofit the later model wheelhorse tractors with the Eaton 1100 hydros in them. IMHO, the foot control brings these old iron tractors in to the present day and nothing Deere offers is any more modern than the 520H with a foot control kit.

 

[bjamison]

Here is a pretty cool vid of a Wheelhorse blowing some snow. It is a single stage snow thrower, the tractor is 16 hp. Later models of the snow throwers had a longer chute on them. I've got the same snow thrower with the short chute on it, but it will really fling the snow too. Don't know if the long chute helps, but that's what this guy has on his and he is really throwing some snow.

I use to have a pic of a guy with a 2 stage snow blower wheelhorse offered and he was literally throwing snow over the top of his house to the other side - LOL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaoFbnurLEE

 

[jstertz]

Bill J--That is quite the video! That single stage is really moving the snow. I just missed out on a local deal. A guy was selling a C-160 with weights and chains and a two stage blower. The cool thing is, the blower was a Berco from when WH was subbing out to them. From the research I've done, it is hard to beat a commercial grade Berco for snow blowing!

 

[bjamison]

We got hammered with a snow here in the mid-atlantic states. This snow was particularly tough. It was light and fluffy, but was trying to melt from underneath, and was wet and heavy at the surface.

I brought out my mighty Wheelhorse 520H to deal with most of it. This tractor was top of the line in the day, hydro drive and lift. Had gear reduction steering which feels like power steering. Added to the mix is a foot control kit which is really nice when blowing snow. The engine is a very torquey Onan twin at 20 HP. It has a sound of its own and is great!

The blower is a 42 inch single stage. It is belt driven off the engine PTO. The blower works great and if I fill it up enough will throw snow from the street to the home front porches along the street.

 

[mschutz]

Bill, My nephew had a 310-8 given to him and I am trying to find a mower deck for it. I'm wondering why a lot of Wheel Horse have no mowers. Are they thin metal.

 

[bjamison]

Decks are pretty easy to find for the Wheelhorse. I'm pretty sure they are 12 ga steel. Typical rust spots are on the rear LH corner and where the round bar that runs across the back of the deck (which holds the gauge wheels) attach to the deck. Also, sometimes there is rust where the baffles are welded to the deck in the rear. But it takes a lot of years to rust out a deck and if you are mowing wet grass, not doing at least a yearly cleaning, after long time, it's going to rust.

I can't say I've seen a lot of Wheelhorse tractors in my neck of the woods without a deck - most have them. Sometimes the engine is wrecked on the tractor or some other costly damage has been done to the tractor by a crap PO and one buys the tractor just for the deck.

I've got several spare decks for my Wheelhorse tractors. One of the great things about the C/300/400/500 series tractors is that the decks interchange from around 1974 to around 2005ish when they quit making the tractors. Sooo - you can safely buy a used deck and know it will fit the 310-8.

The deck sizes are 37 inch side discharge (which is a two blade deck and not one I care for). A 36 inch rear discharge deck. This deck gives a GREAT cut and is narrow enough to fit into the back of a small Nissan type truck if you don't have a trailer. A 42 inch rear discharge deck is available. Nice thing about the rear discharge decks is you can mow on both sides of the tractor. Direction of cut means nothing. You can pull a sweeper while you mow and I've mowed and swept grass after a hard rain - works great. The rear discharge decks don't have hardly any vacuum and as such when it's dry and dusty or you are mowing where there is some pebbles, it won't make a dust cloud or sling rocks everywhere. They are pretty much impossible to clog, but will make a mess of the underside of the tractor. There is a side discharge variant of the 36 inch deck, a 42 inch and 48 inch side discharge deck. If you had a 520H Wheelhorse with the swept forward front axle, there is a 60 inch deck for them. New decks and shells are still available, but very pricey.

There is no separate subframe with the Wheelhorse C/300/400/500 series tractors. The tractor has quick attachment points at the mid and front. The mid point is where the deck attaches and there is a mule drive that attaches to the front attachment point. The mule drive takes the belt from the engine around the front axle and to the deck. Works like a champ and is easy on/off.

The Wheelhorse decks are ground supported, not unlike a Simplicity, except they don't have rollers. You set the height via the rear gauge wheels and the front of the deck, while having anti-scalp rollers, is cantilevered and does not touch the ground. These ground supported decks give a great cut - especially side to side.

Good luck finding a deck - let me know if you have any questions. BTW the 310-8 is a fine tractor too.

 

[mschutz]

Thanks Bill, Good info. I'll let you know how I make out. I would like to find a 42".

 

[bjamison]

Spread around some grass seed and fertilizer with the Wheelhorse 314-8 last night. This tractor has 3 fwd gears, 1 reverse with hi-lo built into the tranny for 8 speeds total. It has a Kohler Magnum M14 - 14 hp engine in it. It is a 1997 year make and I bought it new. In 1998, they moved from the cast iron Magnum to an aluminum block Command, away from manual PTO to electric.

The Scotts spreader, I picked up at a yard sale for a couple dollars - looked like a great opportunity for seat time excuse and it surprisingly works very well.

Also - I forget, but it seemed like a week or month or a couple years ago there was some talk about belt drives.

Here is a pic of the drive belt arrangement on a Wheelhorse - like I've shown above. Basically engine pulley, transmission pulley and tension pulley. Very simple design.

 

[jgoodine]

bill does the belts ever slip on that wheel horse when your hauling that spreader,

 

[bjamison]

Joel G - no belt slippage....

The fertilizer I used, I bought last year at a yard sale (just like the spreader). There was some low end 10-10-10 in 50 lb bags and I bought 4 of them at $2 each. At the same yard sale I bought a smaller bag of some kind of Scott's turf builder fertilizer maybe for $1. The low end stuff was course, about the size of BB's. The high end Scott's stuff was fine as powder.

Having set in my somewhat damp basement, my biggest fear was that the fertilizer would harden like concrete. It was a tad dampish, not a problem for the low end stuff, but the fine Scott's fertilizer just wouldn't fall through the spreader, but hold its form like wet sand. I had a piece of CPVC pipe I used to stuff that bag of fertilizer so it would spread - LOL!

The gear drive is wonderful for fertilizer spreading with the constant speed it brings.

 

[bjamison]

Some chat about front mounted generators on the main board. Wheelhorse offered two different front mounted generators. I believe they were 3 or 3.5 kW and 5 or 5.5 kW.

Here is a pic:

Here is a better pic of via a youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpnVfR21OqQ

Also - chatting with some guys on another color board, someone mentioned front mounted mowers. Wheelhorse offered a front mount carriage that the belly mower would attach to. Not to sure how well they worked, but I guess if you were mowing under trees or fences maybe there was some benefit. Here is a pic:

The first Wheelhorse I bought, I got a 42 inch rear discharge deck for it. For me, the idea was the ability to mow in ANY direction without respect for the clippings discharge. The ability to trim on both sides. Not slinging grass or gravel against the house or car.

Turned out, all of that stuff was possible, but even more. There is pretty much zero vacuum on a rear discharge deck, so when it's dry and you ride over a patch of dirt, no dust cloud. Motor across a gravel driveway, no gravel being picked-up and thrown about. Because the grass is constantly being left behind the mower, there is never a clog issue with mower like a side discharge and you can mow some very tall grass with it.

The down side is it can make a mess of the underside of the tractor and if your grass is very tall, it doesn't really disperse or recut much clippings. When you first mow - with tall grass, you can see the clippings. Lot of folks don't like that - but for whatever reason, if you wait until the next day, they are usually gone. I guess the wind scatters them or they just fall into the lawn. Wheelhorse made a 42 inch and a 36 inch 3 blade rear discharge deck. The 36 inch will fit into the back of a compact truck, like a Nissan Frontier, between the wheels.

The other thing you can do with a rear discharge deck is sweep your grass (or leaves) while you mow. If the grass is soaking wet, the RD deck will mow it and the sweeper will sweep it. If you're good with a sweeper, you can stripe your lawn with it too.

Here is a pic of a Wheelhorse with a front mounted dethacher, mid mounted 42 inch rear discharge deck and a sweeper working some grass - pretty cool IMHO.

 

[jgoodine]

Bill them wheel horses look like decent tractors, I have never really looked a one closely. I just don't want to catch another tractor/color fever, yikes there might be a divorce, an she's a really good cook.

 

[jchamberlin]

Bill,

I'm intrigued by your setup with the rear discharge deck feeding the sweeper. The dethatcher in front is the icing on the cake. I would think that the sideways mounting of the engine would make driving front attachments easier.

 

[bjamison]

Jeramiah - I haven't tried a front dethatcher on a Wheelhorse, but spent many hours with the rear discharge deck and sweeper. I have a bagger set-up for a 48 inch side discharge deck and while it works great, I prefer the sweeper. With the sweeper, I can mow regardless of the grass condition, i.e. wet or dry - and sometime I have to mow when the grass is wet, like after a thunderstorm after work. I have a tight schedule between work and family - so mowing grass when it's dry might be the ideal, but in my situation, it is simply not realistic. The sweeper doesn't care if the grass is soaked or totally dry, it picks it all up. To combat deck rust - I clean and paint the underside of my decks and have began collecting some spare decks and shells for the eventual rust-out. All decks, 48", 42", 36" side discharge and 42 and 36" inch decks for the C-series and 3/4/500 series tractors from around 1974 to the end of production around 2005 are totally interchangeable - as are most, if not all the implements too. It makes for easy/low cost outfitting your Wheelhorse with attachments.

The engine mounting position with the implement belt coming off the side of the tractor does make for easy and uncomplicated attaching power to mowers and snowthrowers. The clutch is on the engine too and is super easy to service and adjust. You can simply pull a couple of hitch pins and the clutch is off the tractor and in your hands.

Check your e-mail as I sent you an e-mail with a Wheelhorse brochure too.

 

[bjamison]

Ground engagement this evening with the mighty 520H (w/foot pedal kit).

Foot control is normally nice for keeping two hands on the steering wheel or freeing the hydro ground speed lever hand to operate the lift. However, foot control hydro is especially nice for plowing. As the ground changes, so does the traction. Foot control lets you vary the speed to minimize spinning and in doing so, maximizing the grip available to the ag's. No thinking required, simple as mashing the gas pedal in a car.

It was a beautiful day...

 

[jchamberlin]

Bill, that looks like a lot of fun. I can only image how the earth smells after you've cut into it.

 

[mschutz]

Bill, Nothing better then playing in the dirt.

 

[bjamison]

I found a pic of the garden I took the day before - before I did the plowing. I worked this garden last year and the year before - so thought though it had a fair amount of vegetation from over winter, it was much easier than plowing sod.

Having said that - it was brutal. I don't think any chore taxes a garden tractor (IMHO) than plowing a garden. The Onan would grunt some, the stress on that tranny boss had to be tremendous - especially with the 12 inch plow. With the foot control, I could speed-up and slow the tractor based on ground conditions and pull within the row. The idea is to keep from spinning, because once you do, you've lost a ton of useable traction. So if I started to spin, I would slow, the ag's (worn as they are) would regain their bite and pull me forward - sometimes from a dead stop and the plow fully buried! That alone puts great stress on the tranny, the engine to tranny belt, axles and hubs. When I would slow and then increase speed - the Onan would pull a bit into the governor and just go like crazy! The sound was amazing of the Onan working - the only thing missing (good thing) was a puff of black smoke like a diesel would belch! Plowed for 45 minutes - used about 1/4 of a tank.

I mentioned in a post maybe a year ago - that when plowing with the Wheelhorse, no more babying. Not going to abuse - but I've only got what four of these 520H tractors. If I rip the clevis hitch boss out of the tranny plowing, so be it! Full steam ahead!!!!!!! And I did. The Wheelhorse worked like a champ!

I've plowed with hydro's/hand control and gear drives - all good, however IMHO - the foot controlled hydro just beats them hands down as far as being able to change speed and keep your hands on the wheel (hanging-on) and able to look over the shoulder at the plow and just focus on plowing totally.

One thing I tried this year - which I've never done before, was to start in the middle of the garden. In my first post, you can see a pic of where I had made several passes from the center out. The idea was to save time (doing this after work in the evening and dark coming fast). So out to the end of the row, do a 180 and back down the other side of it. Worked great! This is what the manual for the Brinley recommends - but until this time, I had always worked from one end of the garden to the other. Don't know how everyone else plows - direction wise, but would be interested in knowing.

Next plow day - this fall when I turn things under.

Here is the pic of the garden I started with:

 

[snicklas]

Bill,

When we plowed ours, or anyone elses garden we always started in the middle and work to the edges. It does save alot of time, since your are not dead-heading on both ends. I also understand the stresses while plowing and the sound of engine being worked (a 14hp Kohler in a 149) but I love to hear the single cylinder engine a barking when being worked hard. Most of the plowing I had experienced was in a well worked garden. I wanted a garden at my house, and the soil in the back yard had not been worked since is had been a field about 20+ years before. The plot lies between a couple of smaller trees, which doesn't help, but I experienced 2 things in about 5 minutes, that I had not experienced in 30+ years of plowing. I was using my 1450 with chained up turf tires, and the same Brinley plow Dad and I have used for years. One pass I hooked a tree root, and pulled the front wheels off the ground about a foot and a half in an instant. Recovered from that, finished that furrow. One the next pass that direction, I hooked a root again, and flat killed that 14hp dead, from full throttle. I can just imagine how much force that Brinley adapter put on the bottom 3 bolts of the transmission. They are still on there tight, so it didn't break anything, but it was an abrupt stop. I look forward to plowing again, this time though, it will be with my 1650 with ag's. First tractor we have owned with ag tires. Plowing is a very enjoyable and relaxing experience. I agree with I believe it is Steve's signature about time spent plowing a field.......

 

[jbaker]

Bill, I took this picture just for you, it was a vendor at AJs Jambore