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Not too wide, but juuuust right


Talntedmrgreen

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Thanks MarksA-C for the oem dual wheel adapters.  I think they added a great touch to the demonstrator Wonderboy and Groundsaw. Final task is returning Wonderboy hood badges to the hood. 

Anyone have a good way for removing JB Weld from a painted surface you are trying to preserve?  Someone used it to hold 725 badges to the hood, on the inside, on each badge peg  

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Edited by Talntedmrgreen
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Hello, Have you tried a heat gun that may soften the JB weld ??  don't use to much heat, that you soften the paint.

 or you could take a pair of pliers and  see if it will crack  under pressure .

 

 

Thanks Ken in Mi

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7 hours ago, maxwood said:

Hello, Have you tried a heat gun that may soften the JB weld ??  don't use to much heat, that you soften the paint.

 or you could take a pair of pliers and  see if it will crack  under pressure .

 

 

Thanks Ken in Mi

I was thinking mayne heat gun and then an ice cube?  Try to stress each JB Weld 'button' anough that it eases its bond the pick away with pliers and a putty knife. 

I think it will free from the hood easy enough but I dont want to hurt the badge pegs and they need to end up clean enough to pass thru the holes in the hood. 

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9 hours ago, Chris727 said:

Josh, Explain more about this being a "demonstrator."

 

Well it's more of a story that has come along with the tractor than anything, but I feel theres enough evidence to support the claim.  I first saw this in 2011 when it popped up on craigslist in Maryland. When I talked to the seller he claimed that they were cleaning out a simplicity dealership and that this machine had been there since new and never sold to a customer and that the tractor and trencher was used as a demonstrator machine.  It wasnt running from sitting and the gas tank leaked when they attempted to start it, so they had a spare to go along with it. I of course, went bananas but had never shipped anything at that point and missed out on the opportunity.  It was gone in a day or two  

 Fast forward to 2016 and my buddy Paul in Connecticut sent me some photos of a trencher tractor and asked if he should pick it up. A Deere collector had contacted him and was looking to find it a home with the Simplicity guy.   I recognized it immediately. Since the tractor wasn't running the JD guy had never operated it but claim to have had purchased it from the dealer clean out in 2011.  It now had a replacement tank in place.  Paul and I came to terms on how I might end up with it the following year, which is now. Paul never had a chance to get it running well, or get it in the ground either. 

So as far as I know it only ever operated while at the dealership and the tractor and trencher have near zero wear. Worst part of the tractor is that the hood appears to of been used as a table like any other tractors I've seen.  I knocked the barn grime off  ut it needs a nice gentle wash.  A  ad battery must have sat in there a long while and there is some nasty scarring as a result.  

There's some interesting features on it and they seem to align with the story I was told by the original seller back in 2011. There's an ammeter added to the tractor which we know these never had and it is done very nicely. They also added a non-Simplicity choke. The hood badges were swapped out at some point for 725 badges.  I had originally been told that the dealer jazzed the machine up a bit with non-standard features before presenting to customers.

 Inspecting the tractor I can see that it has never had a mid PTO on it. There's no witness marks on the paint from engagement or the assembly itself. Doesn't look like there's ever been a rear lift on the tractor and there were no witness marks on the front for many attachments. Front PTO cover is still in place and though the tires are aged and showing some dry rot, the remnants of the tits on the tires are still there.  The most notable feature is that the seat still has the original plastic on it. The manufacture logo is very clearly visible all over the plastic wrap and there's some faded marker script on the seating surface that appears to be something from production. The Serial number tag is in nice shape and identifies it as a Wonderboy and the serial number is 00016.  Everything about the tractor points to Wonderboy.  It runs beautifully now (although the needle stuck on me last week and I need to get into the carburetor now).  I talk to Paul Funk often and he tracks any groundsaws that pop up. The serial # on this one is the lowest we have seen on an H-900 so far.  

 

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Wow Josh, I didn't realize the seat still had the plastic on it, I thought it was just dirty. 

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9 hours ago, Chris727 said:

Wow Josh, I didn't realize the seat still had the plastic on it, I thought it was just dirty. 

The plastic is discolored and feels somewhat brittleso Im babying it. I dont know if it would clean up so Im leaving it as is. 

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i wish I could figure out the seat manufacturer from that crown logo. 

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Josh not know a lot about these but lots of hydraulic hoses and I don't see a pump , how is it powered?

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On 4/23/2017 at 7:43 AM, 720nut said:

Josh not know a lot about these but lots of hydraulic hoses and I don't see a pump , how is it powered?

Lloyd, I'll do up a video on how it operates.  As soon as things dry out, I would like to give it a test run at my folks place where they have some open space, and could do some video then as well.  

This unit actually makes 3 speed tractor essentially hydraulic drive as well.  The drive belt to the transmission is removed, and instead (using the same length belt...great engineers!), there is a hydraulic motor on the trencher that drives the transmission input.  You can still use your transmission gears, but the trencher has forward and reverse motor direction, as well as a fine-tune for speed.  It is a real creeper for trenching work, which is something other Garden Tractor trenchers lacked at the time, and relied on an operator 'driving' or riding a clutch or hydrostat control to keep things slow.  This unit really doesn't require anyone ride it while you work.

It is powered on the PTO side by three small V-Belts, to a hydro pump.  The reservoir holds 7.5 gallons (50lbs).  There are controls for digger chain direction & speed, as well as boom height, and of course, the direction & ground speed.  I'm not hydraulic guru, but it seems to be well designed.  The digger is chain drive, from a hydraulic motor, and the tractor is belt drive, from a separate hydraulic motor.  The greatest strain on the engine seems to be lifting the boom, but then again, I haven't put it in the ground yet.  I still need to find my dozer blade hitch, and I'll set this up with a backfill blade, as in the literature.  In one photo, there is a partial view of some sort of weight carrier, but it is never mentioned in the literature or parts lists.  I think it would be necessary...the unit is 375lbs, before the special order, 6" wide chain and fluid, so maybe 500lbs?
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  • 3 weeks later...

Very cool. and even better to have that story to go with it.  I can't find an electronic copy right now, but I have factory literature talking about early Broadmoor demonstrator models.  Josh probably has seen or heard of them, but if not, I have seen a couple around.  I can't remember if they offered dealers other models as demo's or not.  They had a sticker that said Demonstrator on it.  Dealers were given a break on pricing as an incentive.  Tim

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11 minutes ago, TimJr said:

Very cool. and even better to have that story to go with it.  I can't find an electronic copy right now, but I have factory literature talking about early Broadmoor demonstrator models.  Josh probably has seen or heard of them, but if not, I have seen a couple around.  I can't remember if they offered dealers other models as demo's or not.  They had a sticker that said Demonstrator on it.  Dealers were given a break on pricing as an incentive.  Tim

Tim, there are a lot of folks who'd like to see that Broadmoor info. I have one of them myself.

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You have me curious Tim!   I have so much literature its hard to go theough it all.  I have boxes from cleaned out dealers that I havent even opened yet.  It would be neat to find something like what you are referring to. 

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If each of you send me a reminder, I will look for it.  I thought I had scanned it at one time.  Does anyone know if we can post a PDF here?  I don't think we can.  I will probably have to email to you.  It may take me a few days, but eventually I will get it to you.  I wish I could just scan all of my stuff too.  One of the coolest things I have is a series of radio ad copy from the late 60's that Bart Star did the voice over for. 

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