When I was a kid, I was the youngest of four brothers. We had a Wheel Horse tractor (sure wish I knew the model) in the 80s, and for fun, we would drive the thing all over, drive it off curbs, drive it through the woods, and generally beat and disrespect it as kids will do. The tractor had gears 1-3, with high and low range. When in high range, if you let the clutch snap up in third gear, the front wheels would pull an inch or two off the ground on the street. We of course did that frequently. The tractor was probably about 10 years old when my step-dad replaced it with a John Deere LX176...

After one week with this JD tractor, it was already falling apart. The PLASTIC hood broke. The idiotic "gas pedal" linkage fell off all the time and had to be jerry-rigged to remain on. The tires on this piece of crap were like slicks - not what you want on a moist hilly yard. We all hated the tractor and missed the Wheel Horse. 15 or 20 years later, I was still talking up Wheel Horse whenever I'd come across a tractor conversation.

Then a friend of mine bought a house, and the previous owner left a D-180 behind. My friend had no interest in this thing, and said, "Hey, I bought this house that came with a 'Wheel Horse' tractor. Do you want it?" But of course! I wanted it just because it was a Wheel Horse. I had no interest in getting into tractors or anything like that at all. Well, when I saw this thing, brought it home, and played with it, that got things started. I haven't had it that long, but I've managed to have a little bit of fun with it and fall in love with Wheel Horse all over again.

I'm a relatively new home-owner, and I'm finding that there are endless tasks for which the tractor comes in handy. While the thing may need some maintenance here and there, since it is 31 years old afterall, I've found that all of my glorification of Wheel Horse that I've spoken over the years was absolute fact. These machines are built to last. I would not be surprised at all to see this thing last another 31 years.

I must give some credit to John Deere, however. I wound up inheriting that LX176 tractor, and it's still what I use to cut my grass every week. It's need some work here and there, but overall it's wound up being pretty reliable. I just don't expect it to do anything other than cut grass.