Being April is Autism Awareness month, I will nominate my 1968 Autism Horse. Started with a nice original condition 1968 Commando 8 Wheel Horse, complete with nice 36" RD mower deck. The K181 Kohler engine has been rebuilt, carb completely rebuilt. Still has all the original Wheelhorse embossed tires. Custom decals donated by vinylguy from over on the Redsquare WH forum. Tractor will now promote Autism Awareness at every show and plow day I attend. Tractor is still a worker, mowing my grass and doing normal chores we all use our GT's for. Still some minor things I want to do, such as the embossed WH hub caps and such, but will have to wait for summers mowing income. See, I myself am on the autism spectrum, and income to spend on hobbies beyond family bills is hard to come by. Keep your eyes open, for now its the only WH done up for Autism that I am aware off.
The hunt for a tractor to make into a custom decorated one took a year or so, I first got a nice JD212 with Hyd lift, but it was to large to mow our small lot with all its landscaping. So I sold that tractor and started looking for one of the later short frame Wheelhorses as I knew they could turn tight and had small mowing decks. They are also easy to work on, less complexity = less anxiety, something I have enough of on a daily basis. I looked at several tractors, I didn't want a real rough one as I have lost most of the patience and desire to deal with a real rough condition tractor. I found this horse on Craigslist a couple towns away from where we live. Most of the paint looked good except for the top of the hood and fenders, which was faded to an almost pink color. Once the custom decals were installed, I was able to buff out the remaining paint on the tractor. I still want to put a couple more decals on the tractor, just haven't decided what yet.
First we have the before pics, both at the seller's house and on my trailer
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Then we have the Autism Horse with her rear discharge mower deck installed and custom hood and fender decals, Ecco strobe light for safety, working front and rear lights and even a functional cigarette lighter(no I do not smoke).
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I will take some nice outdoors pics in a day or two when the weather improves, very windy here today. Being on the spectrum has its challenges, they are different for each person as no two are alike. Without my tractor and my model trains, I would be a hermit and stay in the house all the time. But with my tractor, I get myself out among others and try to make friends and be somewhat social. I hope to add more attachments for the tractor to use and attend more shows to help raise awareness and acceptance of those of us on the spectrum. This is very important to me as there is little in the way of help and support for adults, espically the ones missed as kids and have not had the benefits of therapy and training to cope with the disorder as an adult. You do not grow out of this disorder, just learn to better cope. This tractor serves as a segway to help me communicate with others outside of the online world. Mike the Aspie.
Weather finally moderated where I could dig the Autism horse out of the garage for some nice pictures.