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Got a few of the Wheelhorse 's out this afternoon for a bit of grazing and sunshine

heres a 5 minute bodge - literally

Actually Iain you are on the right track. By 1965 tractors started to become more sophisticated and user friendly, gone was the primitive behemoth that took hours to change attachments or required constant tinkering. These newer and easier to operate machines were being designed for the wife. You see, here in America at that time most women stayed home, took care of the kids, the laundry, the cooking and cleaning, so it was only obvious that with an hours free time a week left over they could also mow the lawn and thus saving the weekend for dear old dad to relax and enjoys his pipe and pint.

Does this mean it's designed as a girl's tractor

Hey Andrew, your Squire 10 is on video

well here's what i've got so far and

Hello All, Last September when I was over one of my shows I picked up an old garden trolley that was slightly worn down it had no sides or anything of the sorts, I picked it up for a bargain price, and over the winter I've slowly been tinkering away with it getting it done a little by little ready for the first show of the year! which was the weekend just gone, I'll be uploading photos of that soon!.... I built the cart for my little nephew Tyler, so he can be pulled around the showgrounds or towed, and when hes old enough he can use it behind his own tractor hopefully! anyway here is the pictures of the stages, from start to finish! the last photo is him being pulled about like a king around the showground, its alright for some I guess!...

Just an update on what I have been up to this week.... Added a new starter switch so that it will start properly for Newby hall. I replaced the bonnet catches with some small bearings. Cleaned and zinc plated all of the wheel nuts which were incredibly rusty :/ I started on the steering wheel which was in a bad state Started to fix the split in the steering wheel by using a dremel to grind out the rust and bad plastic There will be more pictures to follow the restoration.

I cant see any white ones in there Chris

Ewan has been helping me this week whilst I've been at work The exhaust heat shield is now done The front hitch is well underway And the rear 3 point is painted and has check chains Wired the front lights when I got home, not much to do now for Newby

Here ya go Andrew. This is a link to Josh Green's Photobucket album where he is restoring his Montgomery Wards Garden Mark Squire 10, a right good name for a good machine. http://s1239.photobucket.com/user/talntedmrgreen/media/Squire%20Restoration%202012/20120923_135453_zps6dd20db3.jpg.html

I think all cream would look a lot better too!

I found an exact copy of the decals used on the Tecumseh OHV HH150 engine, they will make my 1556 restoration top notch. The big balloon 15hp decal goes on the top of the engine shroud and the long one goes on the side, with the small one on the air cleaner cover. The only problem is the seller forgot to include the big Solid State Ignition decal, I've written him and am sure he will make amends.

I am learning so much from this post, thanks Alain and Andrew. Iain

Simplicity employed the best engineers and used state of the art engineering going back to right after Word War 1. William J. Niederkorn founded the company in 1922, and started building riding garden tractors in 1939. Their planetary gear transmission was one of the best, their trans-axle one of the toughest, and the design top of the line. They offered a high/low transmission, dual lift levers, front, mid mount, and rear PTO capable implements and later introduced a shuttle shift transmission that was a vast improvement over vari-drive transmissions. A shuttle shift was a four speed hydro, pick 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th gear and the shift lever gave you that gear in forward OR reverse. In the mid 60s like many other brands they also started offering a hydro, but its design was not borrowed from any other design Simplicity made their own and made the best. A drive shaft went from the engine to a bevel gear box with pulleys on either side, one ran the mid mount mower deck and rear tiller PTO drive and the other pulley powered the hydro. This balanced design gave the right amount of power to tractor and implement. With this design the mower decks attached to the tractor on the bottom of the front axle and the rear of the mower drug on wheels, the belt came from below the seat forward to the mower pulley, that way the mower followed the axle and terrain. This was the mower that striped your yard. The Simplicity tractor built in the 1990s was not that different under the tin than the one built in the early 60s, albeit an larger engine. To give you an idea of their competence Allis Chalmers bought them and had them produce their outdoor power equipment going back to 1965. Montgomery Wards also used them to build their tractors including the rare and beautiful Montgomery Wards Twin 20. My 1975 Simplicity built Allis Chalmers 716H was 4100.00 new with just a deck, that was the same price as a nice Ford or Chevrolet car. Simplicity still makes Massey Ferguson and Snapper lawn equipment and is owned by BASCO, you know them better by the name Briggs and Stratton. They also make Ferris ZTRs and own Giant Vac. I will say, in my opinion, Bolens built the toughest tractor made, however Simplicity's design was and is one of the best ever made. All that said, I also believe the Ariens GT was the most versatile GT ever built. All these companies reside within 50 miles of one another in the state of Wisconsin and like John M. Kohler, Harry Bolens, Henry Ariens had a dream of building his product, his company and America. Under the stewardship of the elder Ariens grandson, Michael Ariens, the company acquired the assets of the lawn and garden division of Sperry New Holland, the New Holland tractor division was sold to Ford and Sperry went into a diversified business of aviation avionics and oil production equipment. Ariens had only produced a rear engine rider in the past and while a "johnny-come-lately" in the front engine tractor field, they built many walk behind tillers and introduced the first residential walk behind snow blower, so tractors were not their first or main game anyway. There is rumor of a Simplicity built Ariens and also a Manitowoc built Ariens front engine tractor, but very little is known about either. The Sperry Rand tractor was offered in 12, 14, and 16 hp S models, the last model year (1974) having a tilt wheel. These tractors were painted green and gold, but with the Ariens acquisition in July of 1974 Ariens coated them with their now familiar Ariens orange. Like Simplicity the tractor was virtually unchanged except for larger engines and power steering from 1969 until 1999. Features of the Sperry design included front, mid mount, and rear shaft drives for snow blower, rotary mower, and tiller/brush cutter, as well as hydraulic lifts front, mid, and rear, with a available 3 point lift on the rear and integral lift brackets on the front. The operator could select the desired hydraulic lift by a knob on the left side and employ one 1100 pound cylinder that could raise, lower, and float, as well as having down pressure. At first a Vickers Hydro was used, later the transmission was upgraded to a Sundstrand with a Dana trans-axle similar to the Dodge Dart. Kubota liked the design so much they virtually copied the tractor for its early intrusion into the American lawn and garden market, decks and most tractor parts were interchangeable. Andrew your Montgomery Ward tractor was originally gold as was most of their early power equipment, and yes there was a pulley for the front PTO and the snow blower attached to the tractor in reverse of the mower deck and utilized an upside down mule drive to power the snow blower, flail mower, or brush cutter, compressor, sprayer, or any of a host of other attachments. Back to the Simplicity, In 1967 after years of investigation, Allis Chalmers and several other American firms were found guilty of price fixing and operating under a monopoly. In 1960, the U.S. government uncovered an attempt to form a cartel in the heavy electric equipment industry. It charged 13 companies, including the largest in the industry (Westinghouse, General Electric, and Allis-Chalmers), with price fixing and bid rigging Most feigned innocence, but Allis-Chalmers pleaded guilty. Although one motive for the forming of cartels is so that amply profitable firms can try to become obscenely profitable, it did not apply in this instance, the attempt at a heavy-electrical cartel was a desperate (and foolish) attempt to turn red ink to black ink among fierce competition. To punish Allis the government required them to sell off many of their assets and acquisitions, one of them being Simplicity Between 1967 and 1974 Allis built their own line of riding mowers, tillers and tractors in Lexington South Carolina, in 1974 the lawsuit and punishment was withdrawn and the partnership with Simplicity was renewed, However many of those Allis built tractors of the last few years had no Simplicity counterpart and were much of their own design, especially the 300 and 400 series from 1972 to 1974. After renewing the partnership with Simplicity Allis closed the plant in Lexington and moved its operation back to Port Washington Wisconsin and in the end destroyed all spares for the tractors built in those years. The 1975 year saw Simplicity model 7000 series garden tractors like the 7010, 7012, and 7016 the Allis counterpart models were badged the 700 series like the 710, 712, and 716 and were offered in four transmissions and five different engine combinations. For the most part, after 1972 Simplicity used Briggs and Stratton engines and Allis Chalmers used Kohler engines. Sorry for the "novel", I tend to get carried away about OPE history, BTW, I did abbreviate this considerably from its original length , lol. It was close, but the later B series Allis tractors had differences from the Simplicity models, some so small they confounded many dealers and owners. yep, that is right

two for you landrover lovers

Another Rotovator from the stash. Fair condition. With prop shaft. Asking £100. Located near Cranleigh, Surrey.

He's got big feet Norm...the steering wheel is mahoosive

Either that's one heck of a big wheel, Ewan, or you've a very small foot. Your getting on well with it. Be nice to see at Newby.

You can buy 25 zinc coated wheel nuts for 12.50 on epay, not sure of international shipping cost, but that's enough to do three tractors

When my get out for a wash day, the wife always spots a "new" one, she is as tickled as I am when I get it.

"you need different shoes for different occasions....." I told my wife that and she said I was a shoe whore.

Awesome horses

Well I did not buy it Thought you have one??

That last sentence is the only reason why I bought the Monty so my dear wife can help me out in the garden whilst I have a few glasses of wine and look at other suitable tractors........in any case garden tractors are like shoes; you need different shoes for different occasions.....

Alain, Two great minds think alike. I just PMed you a few minutes earlier!

That's a very nice collection Mr Showman, no such thing as too many. It's great to see line up of machines. I'm with Andrew, I particularly like the round hoods. Iain

Alan, Is this still available? Thanks andrew

That or gumtree whilst he's out towing

all that hard work of you smuggling them in, you've let slide by a silly mistake

Thank you Koen. And Mark thank you thats amazing for 5 minutes, that sort of progress would take me hours! I still cant decide I think the yellow would be a little too much for the body! I also dont think yellow would look right on the wheels, so I may go for the propper look all cream with IH decals

You mean to say your neighbors DON'T shoot at you or your way when they get upset? How do yo tell if they are mad at you?

will see what I can do

Alain, Great decals. It is just the later Techumseh OH series that also had a "compliance with radio interference ...." decal? Iain

Alain, Thanks for your superb and detailed response! Brilliant answer and I now know something about Simplicity and Montgomery Wards. I couldn't find any good photos of a front PTO driven attachment for the Simplicity, A/C and M/W hence the one I posted up. Thanks Andrew

The rod sticking out of the top left side of the lift is for a pulley that runs from the bevel gear box to power a tiller via a belt, pulley, idler that attaches to the rod, at least that's the way the newer ones work

Yes, and past misunderstanding is why I have many many bullet holes in my house, barn, shed, workshop, electric meter, and well house.

I think that's a Bedford J Type Pick Up! the trucks and lorrys back then had so much more style and characteristics then the boring ones of today that all share the same running gear! There was a few there

Iain, here a picture of a Allis Chalmers with the same design as the Simplicity with a snow blower on the front PTO.