“What does a tractor have to do with Barn Finds, SG?!” I’m just getting ready for any possible negative comments for showing what is basically a garden tractor rather than a muscle car. This 1969 Wheel Horse GT-14 is posted here on Facebook Marketplace in Appleton, Wisconsin, and they’re asking $2,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Lothar… of the Hill People for the tip!
I was joking about showing a vintage tractor here, of course. We’ve seen a few, and sometimes it’s nice to break out of dusty muscle cars and look at something different. A lot of us could use the heck out of a tractor like this Wheel Horse GT-14. They were made from 1969 through 1973, and Wheel Horse touted the fact that they were as user-friendly as it got for a tractor. Their advertising says that “You never pull, shift or lift to start, drive & operate the new 14 HP automatic GT-14.”
The seller says this one “comes with a mower deck of unknown condition”, so I’m assuming it isn’t working, or they would want to say a working mower deck. Wheel Horse says the GT-14 can mow 1,356 square feet of lawn an hour, and I wish the seller had shown the mower deck, whether it works or not. One thing they do show, as it’s attached and functioning, is the Johnson Work Horse hydraulic loader. That would be incredibly handy for someone with a big yard. In case you were thinking of restoring this one, replacement decals are available.
“Power features do the work while you enjoy the ride.” This tractor is “fully automatic, with electric start (as seen in the seller’s video), automatic drive, and hydraulic lift for the accessories.” It even has a lighter for those who like to have a cigar while mowing the back 40. They also had headlights, but it appears that this example has been upgraded or at least outfitted with LED headlights. This tractor is about 70 inches long, 38 inches wide, 41 inches high, and weighs 875 pounds.
The engine is a 512-cc Kohler air-cooled single-cylinder with, you guessed it, 14 horsepower. It’s backed by an automatic hydrostatic transmission with forward and reverse, and the seller is incredibly light on information, but they show a little video of it starting and idling. This would be the perfect size lawn tractor for us with a big yard and lots of gardening chores to do, but nothing too heavy. Are any of you into small, vintage tractors?
Wow!!! I absolutely do like vintage Garden Tractors!! This one is in remarkable condition for its age. They really went to town ordering this thing from their local dealer for sure. Garden tractors, especially back then were built very well, many had a drive shaft and a real transmission ( none of that wussy belt drive stuff). Not sure what the setup is on this one or how the automatic works, but you have to admit Howard would be all in on this one with the Automatic lol. I can’t get over the fact you can actually get decals for these too.
Great find Lothar of the Hill People and
write up too Scotty. I truly enjoy everything that gets posted on Barnfinds.
Here’s a modern jab at ya’, it’s a power port, not a cigar(?) lighter. You mean someone smoked a stogie while operating this? You bet! I was lucky(?) enough to have a Wheel Horse dealer in my small town. He catered mostly to homeowners, and this is borderline contractor, most did not have hydraulics, but stout machines, none the less. And why not, they were made in Studebaker/Oliver, and apparently, Wheel Horse, City, South Bend, Ind. No junk ever came out of South Bend, Ind. Wheel Horse was big, primarily using Kohler, but Briggs too, and I read, they were the 1st with hydrostatic, aka, automatic :) drive in 1965. They had a lot of competition, however, JD, Case, IH, Simplicity, and many others all offered “garden” tractors, many times, just miniature versions of their bigger ones. Eventually, AMC bought Wheel Horse in 1974, , for $30 MIL! as the company tried to diversify, and we all can imagine where that went. Finally, Toro bought them in 1986, and were badge engineered Toros, and in 2007, the name was put to rest.
I had a Simplicity Landlord 101, mid 60s, then a part of “Auntie Allis”, like a medium duty below this, in the 80s, I found it, 12hp Briggs, gear shift, snowblower, mower, tiller, and snow blade, not running, for $50! The whole magila. The problem was a bad coil wire. I used that machine for 15 years on my farmette, it did everything, tilled the old lady’s garden, plowed/blew snow,( chains another must have) and I had 5 acres of grass to cut. It never failed and neither will this. The loader a huge plus, and yes, automatic, way to go. Go ahead and sneer, but when you can’t push the clutch in, tell me about it. Great find, and in Appley-Town, paper products ( and pizza) city. I’m simply astounded this is still available. Maybe it’s the manual choke, the other anti-theft device, that’s killing a sale, OR, more accurately, there is a big downturn in home ownership, some communities want to ban gas lawn mowers, yep, that’s right, tree huggers from Colorado mostly, another sad indication of where we’re going here.
Yeah Howard tree huggers from Colorado. Sure. Like everyone likes waking up to the racket the gas powered ones make and smelling exhaust fumes. That said, this one is pretty cool with tire chains for plowing snow I guess? Better have more than a suburban lot though.
My neighbor, who has all the right flags flying from his house, got a JD zero turn electric mower last year. It lasted one season. He now has joined the rest of us, with our Cro-Magnon gasoline powered garden tractors. And we now all enjoy that racket and those fumes.
It’s kind of odd, years ago, noise was all around us, and yes, I’ll admit, the older I got, the more annoying noise is. However, it’s not like we live next to gravel pits, and generally, the mowers are done in an hour. MY gripe, while clearly NOT a tree hugger, where is all the juice going to come from to power these things? I read, it’s estimated, 50 MILLION gas walk behinds and 12.5 MILLION riders are in use in America today, thankfully, not all at once. FWIW dept., a gas mower operating at full throttle for an hour, puts out more pollution than 6 new cars going 60mph for the same period.
Just keep plugging them in,,,POOF,,oh, oh, ma, get the candles, another power outage. We average at least 1 per week.
Well, I intend to put up with the noise and fumes for the rest of my life. My ‘79 John Deere 20CS might shoot out a little smoke from time to time but it still putts away. My neighbor’s Stihl gas-powered weed whacker makes a lot of noise (almost as much noise as his 2 idiot dogs) and has been doing that for 20 years. I have a Stihl cordless weed whacker which lasts about an hour before it needs to be recharged. That means a break to plug it in or anti up $100+ for a spare battery. Bottom line: I’ll take the noisy smoky annoying yard maintenance equipment over the modern Electrolux-based, limp-wristed, whisper-quiet, glorious malfunctioning landfill fodder any day.
Soapbox is put away…
Before “compact” tractors started coming out of Japan, Wheel Horse and Bolens made some really heavy duty garden tractors.
Hi Jim, part of their “diversification” process, was to make snowmobiles too. Most all the small tractor outfits made snowmobiles, Bolens was a nice one. Wheel Horse marketed a sled, the old Sno-Flite and didn’t do so well. Most bought out struggling snowmobile makers, and couldn’t compete with the biggies. I don’t recall too many Asian small tractor makers, though. I think Kubota was the 1st we saw.
Don’t forget the Gravely (a Studebaker owned brand, built in West Virginia) had a rear engined tractor, but they were probably best remembered for their “Convertriple” “L” Series, in a configuration similar to the David Brown, but powered by their own “T” headed Flathead with a V-belt driven fan, shaft driven Magneto, an optional Sulky- you road on behind the tractor and pressurized oiling system and numerous implements you bolted to the front of the tractor or the Ford branded Gilson Tractors with their hydrostatic drive.
Now Gravely makes Zero-Turn mowers primarily for Landscape Contractors.
I used one of those Gravelys when I was a kid mowing lawns at a church.
It had the sulky and I found it went really fast down hills in neutral! It had some strange, two-lever system for controlling propulsion… we used to call the settings “fast / fast mow”, “slow / slow mow” and “slow-mo mow”. We thought it was funny anyways…
I also found that small rocks would come flying out past the chains in the back once in a while. Safety glasses were highly recommended for that one along w/ not smiling.
I went back to the church some 35 years later and, unsurprisingly, the Gravely is gone along w/ every other piece of equipment we used to use.
Time marches on…
I believe Gravelys claim to fame was they did not use belts, it was all gear drive or driveshaft for attachments. I knew someone with a 36v GE Elect-Trac, which I think was the 1st all electric tractor in the 70s. It had 3 12v car batteries, and seemed to do a good job,,,for a while.
I’ve been mowing on one Wheel Horse or another for the last sixty years (the real things, not Toro rebadges). My current one is over thirty years old with around 1,500 hours on the untouched Onan twin. They were quality units.
Wow this just hit the flashback button. My favorite uncle, Tony, who is still with us at 87 years young, had this exact tractor back in the early 70’s. This is the first lawn tractor I ever drove as a kid when visiting him for a couple of weeks each summer in Louisville, Ky. He had his own plumbing business, and I went with him daily to help with the work. Mostly digging gas line trenches for the city from the street to the homes. Thank goodness he purchased a trencher and trailer one summer and simplified that work! He and my aunt, Pauline, still reside there. It’s a small suburb, called Shively, and that area has taken a turn for the worse the past few years. He is as close to the character in the movie, Gran Torino, as you will find. The small white frame home still has the best kept lawn on the street but now has a chain link fence all around it with cameras and alarms. He and his next-door neighbor, Tom, were always in competition on who had the prettiest garden and lawn. They had opposite political views and would stand by the big oak tree that was on the property line and lightly discuss their views in the evenings but didn’t want to kill each other afterwards as you see today. I owe him and my father for teaching me at an early age that hard work pays off. Didn’t mean to go so long here, but opening the laptop while taking the 1st sip of coffee on Friday morning and seeing this just struck a heart string. Love the comments and history from folks here who have been around and know things I didn’t! Great find and writeup!
Sure it won’t run 12 sec quarters. But have you ever tried to scoop gravel with a Camaro?
Wheel Horse was a stout piece of equipment,have owned two though the years. Both cut a lot of grass though the years. Last one had the front snow thrower attached in the winter neighbor had one with a plow. Well we had some extremely heavy wet snow one week and it had packed where he couldn’t push it any longer. I went next door and put it into low gear and that machine had no problem cutting and throwing it up and out of the way. Even had the rear tiller which worked quite well.
It can mow 1356 square feet an hour? Might be better off with a pair of scissors
Sorry to disappoint you Scottie, no negative comments so far! How about, uh, “what the heck is this? It ain’t no snow machine or toy motorcycle Scottie!” Sorry, could not resist. It is a cool little tractor and a well written write up though, so write on Scottie!
Thanks, david! Maybe folks are used to seeing unusual things under my name by now. “Today on Barn Finds, we’ll look at a 1972 Poepil Pocket Fisherman, mint-in-box…”
Wheel horse may not have been the Cadillac of garden tractor’s but oh were they built to last. The history is an interesting read.
Nice post Howard! I have a 1975? Allis Chalmers 700 series. I bought it around 1980 and at 50 years old it continues to do anything I ask of it. It still has the original, untouched Kohler engine. Although is does spin rather freely at shut down. It has fallen through the ice of our pond plowing 6 times. The last time I was trying to kill the engine as I bailed out and instead turned on the lights. It went under at full throttle but it least it was easy to find. I was sure that it would bend a rod but it was fine. I know, that tells you too much about the owner. Every time, I drained the fluids, cylinders, put in fresh gas and was on my way. However, the seat cushion was like a rock until the next thaw. The frame is 3/8 inch steel, not the garbage folded tin that is used now. Great, fun post!
SIX TIMES!
I used to push the snow off of the pond with the Kubota for ice skating.
Then the last time I saw a big Crack forming.
SIX TIMES!
I used to push the snow off of the pond with the Kubota for ice skating.
Then the last time I saw a big Crack forming.
SIX TIMES!
I used to push the snow off of the pond with the Kubota for ice skating.
Then the last time I saw a big Crack forming.
I just see “barn finds”, not barn finds cars n trucks.
Most of the barn finds I see here are often not barn finds.
I like seeing this Wheel horse and all sorts of neat stuff… Fast or slow.
Case 446 from 70s was hydraulic drive but not hydrostatic drive.
What’s the difference?
Which is this wheelhorse?
I have JD 112, 210 and 212 reside here for things smaller than the Kubota B7200HST w/loader
Grandson sold his house and his:
Simplicty
Springfield Never heard of it and he thought it was a round fender . JD112 when he saw the ad
David Bradley Tri-trac and walking tractors
Case Ingersol that’s modified Chev 6 lug 15″ and lift in front
are here.
I was living in the lap of luxury when dad FINALLY bought a riding mower in 69/70 for our 1/2 acre lot, A Wheel Horse rear engine 8 HP. Neighbor’s dad bought one of those goofy little lawn tractors with the single front wheel about the same time. Being the brilliant young men that we were, we decided to “hook em up” in our driveway,
Wheel Horse pulled other mower back just a little and then stood straight up and turned over on its side. Scared the crap out of me…not because I could have been hurt, but for the fact that I was probably going to get hurt when my dad got home.
I mow my property with 314-H Wheel Horse ,same 14hp thumper.
I’d personally like to thank the site, the author(s), and all that contributed their stories. The site, more specifically, the author, somehow finds the tid-bits of our lives, not particularly earth shattering, just everyday stuff, many images I thought were gone forever. Tip of the hat,, :)
I completely agree Howard!!! Some great memories and great names showing up on here.
truly great stuff brings us back
Toro makes some fine Turf mowers. Greens and Fairways. Neat tractor here, units this size are fun to operate.
Really enjoyed the write up and comments 👍 👍
Most car guys are tractor guys. I’m a Case-Ingersoll guy myself. My “daily driver” is a 4120 with power steering, 3 point, Johnny Bucket, tiller and lots of extras. I have several parts tractors etc and 2 running.
Listing update: this one is gone, gone, gone!