by SpeedyNH » Mon Dec 02, 2013 7:54 pm
when i was a kid we had a wheel horse with the 'turf-saver' rear tires (rather than the standard tractor-tread ones) starting somewhere around 1956. i thought that was a pretty cool name for a garden tractor, and it was red to boot. it was like a mini sprint car except that it wouldn't slide. (yeah, i always tried- but man that thing was tight!)
even with the brine-filled front tires and the motor up front, it would wheelie right up if you let it out too fast. sometimes i had to go back and re-mow the places where i got a little aggressive and nailed it when i turned around.
i remember once i launched it right into the side of the house foundation at about a 60° angle- i was Trying To Turn but the front wheels were off the ground! (duh.) anyway, it didn't even bend anything and my dad didn't even get mad at me. to this day i'm not sure why, except that he's the one who taught me to always run the thing wide open. when i first started, he'd come out in the yard and pull the darn throttle all the way out on me.
i remember the 3-speed plus Reverse gearshift H-pattern was sideways left-right rather than up-down and it would pull the front wheels on both shifts, much better going into third.
so, did i miss it? does Harry have one in scale? i don't think i even have a picture of ours but i sure remember it pretty well.
thanks for the memories! sorry if i sidetrack thread. that's a nice looking oval.
speed