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Many of you will have read my thread about the Raider I had stolen, I'm very pleased to say that yesterday she was returned to the site she disappeared from. Just last week I decided I would have to replace her as I do rely on her for many jobs through the year, not least to save me many hours mowing my allotment and other peoples grass. I ended up being offered a C121 at a price I could afford and made the decision to spend the money I had put aside for the reward I was offering on my missing tractor. Here is the Raider happily returned home alongside her new stable mate. I first became fond of Wheel horses in 1995 when I took a pocket money job at a small country estate, there there was a C141 that the boss had purchased in 1978, the year of my birth. This in fact was the first vehicle I had driven and I soon learned to reverse a trailer with it too. I'm now in charge of estate maintenance at that estate and I still run the C141 pretty much every day, whatever is required of it it manages, from raking driveways to scarifying to aerating lawns to hauling mowers around the grounds on a trailer to hauling many tonnes of wood from the woodland to the yard. She is very well worked and the engine shows wear in the bore and notably where the governor spindle exits the crankcase, you can wobble this about like a knitting needle in a bucket! Over the years it has been suggested several times that she be replaced but I won't have it and if she ever has failed myself or my Dad (sadly no longer with us) will spend a little time in the shed rectifying the problem and off she goes to work again. A few years back after realising our modern Kubota didn't like cutting the long grass areas I used two scrap tractors I sourced to build one good one and this is now used solely for long grass cutting and sports a sixteen horse engine. Here are my two flanked by the ever trusty C141 and the 16BHP mongrel. The wood you see behind them plus many hundreds more tonnes have all been hauled here from the woodland by the little C141

Here's the photos

Thanks James, yeah this project is flying a bit now.. It might of even been done by now had we not had engine troubles.. A bit more progress.. That's what you call deep pitting! The deep pitting belongs to this part, the top bit of the chassis?/part the steering is welded to.. It must have a name but I've no idea what it is..! Just out of shot on the right we had to let in some new metal as it had rusted away.. I guess the correct way to fix all the rust pitting would be to cut it out and weld in fresh metal, the trouble is we would of have to replace about 85% of the panel! So after killing off all the rust on went the dreaded bondo/filler!! I hate the stuff! That looks way better Engine painted, still have the tins to do which will be sprayed at the same time as the bodywork. The Dynostart getting a coat of red.. We are currently working on the fender pan and bonnet/hood.. It's a lot of work to get them looking good but worth it

Hi chaps just another quick update I have been fabricating the hydraulic ram steering cylinder mounting brackets and I've also been doing the final touches to the track rod end bracket it I've tested it manual and it seems to go from lock to lock with out any issues, next step is hydraulic pump and resovoir for the hydraulics ,

A massive thank you to everybody that paid attention to my posts about the theft of our little tractor and kept eyes open for her. After over three months the tractor is now back at home and we have two happy children and a very smiley me. I had a phone call from the Police today to say my horse had been returned to the house she was last spotted at. Strangely it was found by the same man that had last been seen moving it onto the driveway! He "apparently" found it dumped in a place I had searched previously, a local park. Anyhow I'm just overjoyed to have her home and I wish to express my thanks for all the kind words and thoughts that have been sent my way.

they are my dads, I do most of the cutting and clearing and keeping the most of it clean and tidy, its a joy to work an play in!

Haven't done much today because of the rain. I think its rained all day with 15 minutes in between the showers. I got the front top rail on and the cross beams to support the roof.

Ransome MG2 137 lives.

We'll have to sort out a meeting time, place and day. I suggest, Saturday. 1pm. By Jonathans digger/dozer. You can't miss that. I assume he's taking it. If not 137. We could do the same Sunday, for anyone who can't make Saturday.

Hi all, this is what my wheel horse goes through on a regular bases. it works to it limits in the woods, for moving wood of big and small sizes and for jobs in small areas that the big tractors cant get to.

I dont buy paint off the shelf, I always have mine mixed by a local automotive paint suppier in 2 pack

love a happy ending!

As today was dry ( well almost ) I managed to get a bit more done. Despite the high wind I've got the roof boarded and felted, i ran out of adhesive so had to go out which put me behind, ive got to do the edges yet but at least it should be dry. I'll load a couple of pictures in a bit for Stormin to look at

it will be having a set of AG tyres on it soon

And a few more

Here's some pictures

4 or 5 years ago i was clearing pallets from a ride-on tractor dealer, they were what the new tractors came in and were nicely made of thick wood. I had so many at one point i had to put up a store to put the wood in to keep it dry before we could burn it in the stove. As the wood pile went down I sneaked a few Wheehorse parts in there but just recently i seem to have more in-coming than out-going so decided to give it a makeover and make it more accessible and watertight . Some photos to follow shortly for Stormin

I'm glad they didn't, I personally prefer the original finish, you only get it once!

Who's that nutter with the big silly grin?

The grass I cut is often 12" and is quite a thick sward. I may get cussed for horse cruelty now but, one more than one occasion I've had dried grass catch fire in the cooling fins nearest the exhaust port but for this job is the reason "the Mongrel" was born. I wouldn't be as harsh on any of the other tractors and as those two tractors were destined for the scrap boat to China I don't feel too badly about the abuse. Oh, and the reason I don't use a larger machine for this job is the limited access.

That's coz you got LOADS OF MONEY .me and Ian are poor people

Power steering!! Your be fitting assisted brakes and a cup holder next Great work James, your flying now your back into the build

Looks good mate

That's great news

Nice work Nick, you can't beat simple home built attachments

should be a very close match to the lighter ih red

Looking smart mate bet your please I have a Bradford engine very similar to that and it's a pig to start !,

Just need to make some doors now.

That's great news that you have recover your WH!

Fitted smaller jets,engine was an absolute pig to start again, managed it by opening the throttle 1 degree on the lever each attempt until it started. Once running top end revs were perfect, ran it for about 20 minutes before I slowed it down enough to get it into gear. Ticked over at about 350 rpm, tried to slow it down a bit more and it stopped. Ran yesterday with 18 thou plug gap, ran today with 20. Once it cools down I will take the plug out and have a look at it.

We will all have to get together, introduce ourselfs in person that is who has not already met.

Now, what to do about the grill assembly, especially the non existent lower section. A few popped up in the US, top and bottom units but all were listed for SS16 tractors. Again most with various damage and high cost with the usual lottery win postage problem. I did contact two sellers asking if the lower SS16 section would fit a GT16. After supplying engine number and other details the reply from both was "Can't be certain". At the time I couldn't see why as both the SS16 and GT16 grills looked similar on various photo's. I wondered if there was a difference with the mounting bolt or hinge pivot positions, neither of which would have mattered due to the non existence of either on my tractor. I now have a good idea why both sellers were unsure, more of this later in the build. So, what now. After studying lots of photo's, both of complete tractors and upper and lower grill sections, it was decided to make my own lower half and repair the damaged top section. Working from a good dead on side view photo found on a US forum and from my damaged top section, I was able to work out the size, width, height, depth and angle of the side panels etc of the lower section. Not to the nearest thou, but close enough to compare with the photo's. Could I make a pattern and mould one in glass fiber as I had done with model boat hulls.? Too much bother compared with a boat hull so that idea was thrown out. If I was to make a pattern why not use the pattern as the finished article. So that's the way I went. Mainly softwood and birch ply glued and screwed together. I started off by repairing the hinge mounting bar of the top grill section bolted and bonded onto the remains of the original. There was just enough left at each end which also gave the correct angle for the new wood mount. Seen in the first photo with the roughed out lower section. The following photo's show various stages of the lower section build. This seemed to take forever with constant checking both on and off the chassis, including cutting out approx 1/2" from the center of the base as the side panels were not quite at the correct angle. The next few photo's are of the almost finished assembly with modified cabinet hinges. These "Might be useful one day" hinges were cut to suit, re drilled and had the fixed pins reduced slightly in diameter so that they could be removed enabling the top section to be lifted off leaving the lower attached to the chassis. Similar to the original units. As said, it took ages getting things to look like the original. Constant assembly and dis assembly, especially with the hinges to get the gap correct between both sections. There are also various angles on the lower section inner faces, not easily seen on the photos. These were determined from the angles of the top section. More to follow. I'm out of breath from all this talking.

Good result

Great result, nice one

Smashing

Great to see the ole girls working , who's woodland is it?

Well done mate, a good and happy result

That's great news.

Hi glad you got it back i hope its all ok cheers nick

that's great news, hope you have fun on her!

Playtime... Kids were up at 6, I wasn't far behind. Opened the curtain and greeted by this. It was a blizzard outside I had a run up the lane whilst Jake got the snowplough out. And Finn wanted a tow on his sledge It's raining now and the garden looks a little worse for wear Video to follow

We like photos of working wheelhorse's

Lit a fire in the stove to burn off the yellow paint. Finally all finished with hot plate installed. Just needs a coat of high heat black paint to tidy it up.

hi kev when are you sending out the forms for tractor fest 2016? cause i will be bringing a load of stuff! tried to pm you but it wouldn't let me! looking forward to this years shows, new year, fresh start. pete

Steptoes yard Very tidy!

Hi all been busy on the tractor I thought to my self before I go any further on the project I would test drive it and test the articulation with the chain on etc bearing in mind I don't want it to twist to far and let the chain slip so I've tested it on a ramp and took a few measurements on the angle and I'm quite pleased with the results of the first test !http://youtu.be/Ru7qvO6TIyA After that test I've decided to take the rear load body off and make a new fuel tank which I have made out of a big old ransomes mower diesel tank it was to big so I cut it in half and welded it back together again here is what I have done so far Now that the tank is nearly done I have not got to think about the bonnet and steering console etc because the kubota. Engine is a big lump it sticks proud of the original alignment of the bonnet so I have lifted the bonnet 3 inches on the bonnet and and 2 inches at the moment on the console. I put longer bolts in the con sole with nuts on under the console so I can make adjustments so I no my exact size I need to make the plates etc

Love the speed you guys are working

yes I've entered some of my plant machinery in this time, the idea is to have a selection of machines from the 1960's through to the late 1980's