My mistake!! I went out and re-checked the numbers. I missed a digit. My model number actually is HH60-105115H. However, before I spend $65 on a new carb, do you guys think its worth it? Or should I try a repair kit first? 15 years of gummed up gas is making me think I should just replace it. Does the carb have anything to do with the slope you're tilling on?

Toro bought Wheel Horse in 1986, but the Toro name didn't appear on the products until 1990. The old Wheel Horse plant in South Bend, IN was sold early on, I don't know the exact year but in the late 80's I believe. I think the story on the Classic is simply that Toro has been hugely successful with ZTR's (which Wheel Horse actually had in the 80's, by the way) while their traditional lawn and garden tractor sales have been slipping. They are also losing traditional consumer oriented dealers, as many of the ZTR sales seem to be from commercial oriented dealers who may have never even heard of a Wheel Horse tractor. So I guess the bottom line is they have made a business decision to just about kill off all their traditional lawn and garden tractors. While I can't agree with the decision, it's not mine to make, and I have to say a big "Thanks!" to Toro for keeping the traditional Wheel Horse alive for as long as they have. I will add that Toro has a long tradition of making all sorts of turf care related products, and they seem to have always adjusted and altered their product mix to the demands in the market they sought to serve. Perhaps because their specialty early on was in the commercial side, many people do not realize this company goes back to before 1920. Turf care has always been their business, not agriculture, and I think Toro was a bit uncomfortable with even touching into agriculture with their garden tractors. Why else would they have designed the otherwise very capable 5xi series with no provisions for a rear pto, no added hydraulics, and no 3-point hitch? Various ag type attachments that WH had offered were also dropped. There's no question that modern design l&g tractors have more engineering in them today. Engineers are good at figuring out the least material that will perform the intended function, and safety factors today are obviously not the round 2 or 3 times like they used to be. So today's l&g transaxle, for instance, is built to a relatively tight tolerance for HP and torque, and is expected to handle the loads for "X" number of cycles. It's kind of like "battery science" - if a Sears battery claims a "4 year" life, by golly that's usually pretty close to what you'll get out of it. On the other hand, the Wheel Horse uni-drive was designed in the days when iron was cheap, things weren't supposed to break, and owners of garden tractors expected them to not only mow grass, but to really be more of a small tractor and not just a lawn mower they could ride on. The first tractors to use the modern style, 2-piece cast housing WH uni-drive transaxle were the 5.5HP 551 and the 7HP 701 in 1961. While the design had changes and revisions over the years, most major dimensions did not change, and the fact that some of the later 6-speed transaxles are handling 50+ HP in competitive pullers is a sure sign that they were built to last a lifetime in the intended application. Todays thin-wall close-fit aluminum castings and powdered metal gears may be very cost efficient and are probably well suited for most of today's purchasers, but they are nothing like the old cast iron gearboxes that Wheel Horse, Cub Cadet, Bolens, Peerless, and others used to make. I can't do much about today's realities in terms of lawn tractor purchasers, economies of scale (the box store "make 'em cheap and sell millions" syndrome), and manufacturing economics, but I'll sure do what I can to preserve the remaining thousands and thousands of Wheel Horses that are out there! Ed

Moonie- I do agree with you- there's no place like walking thru my gardens- especially now- the huge oak tree over shadowing my little cottage home is turning a brilliant orange & gold & brown against the brilliant blue sky today- what a sight to see! and- the smell is so earthy & delicious! The air smells like fresh clean snow in the early am, just as the sun's coming up- it's been particularly beautiful this fall! I can't believe it- I heard tree frogs out last night- as cold as it was! It's supposed to get warmer this week- I haven't been doing much in my garden- I have a whole trailer full of horse manure mixed with sawdust to start my new Lasagna garden beds... Losing steam I guess... Kasha77

Don't know where you are, but keep in mind what I say comes from a hot and super dry climate. I use a LOT of horse manure. Local manure gets sopped up with all sorts of different materials, mostly whatever wood shreds the stable can buy cheaply. Ten dollars a yard is a good price for what you describe. No weeds. Ever. I also let it all sit (most is considerably fresh!) for a long time before using with food plants, although I have planted flowers in very fresh manure and never see "burning". Burning is just one hazard of using fresh manure; the other is pathogens, real or not, but you gotta be safe with fresh stuff. This stuff here sits on fill sand left over from construction nearly fifty years ago. Haven't worked my way over to the clay/caliche areas much yet. It's laid on straight, maybe three to five inches a year because of lots of shrinkage. I don't dig, but it gets mixed with the sandy stuff anyhow through planting and pulling and burying of garbage. But no weeds. Ever. Manure loses its N fast! It gasses off, especially if you let it dry out. One other thing to consider when using manure, mixed in or not, is the products of breakdown leach down into the sand and that's where the plant roots go too. These leached breakdown products, humus and larger colloids, are what make the minerals in the ground available to the plant roots. They will get there! If adding manure to sterile sand, one's first season may somewhat suck, plant nutrition-wise, but after some time one finds no need for much additional fertilizer, if at all. Again, local conditions. But no weeds, ever. YMMV