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The Infamous "Black Horse" 25th Anniversary edition (picture)

19631 Views 52 Replies 13 Participants Last post by  bontai Joe, 
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I thought you would enjoy the photo of my Troy-Bilt Kohler powered Horse tiller!!

It came black from the factory with every option, plus a few special features.


I got it new, and have used it every year since.
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chzuck
I got some info from a former Garden Way employee who was in marketing when the Black Horse was made. He called it a "styling and marketing exercise". He mentioned that a Hilller/Furrower and plastic wheel weight shells came with it.

U-Haul tiller: "The U-Haul folks prevented any accidents in reverse by the simple expedient of removing the reverse disc. They also wanted to use the Wisconsin robin engine for conformity with their inventory. That was a sweet little engine, but so light weight that the weight and balance of the horse was not very happy. And then, there was the ugly orange color.
I think things worked out better than we feared, as I don't recall spending any time in court on injury lawsuits. Not sure how many people came away with doubts about the mythical Troy built. And, there were some outlets that rented it with the times on it backwards. I can only imagine the amount of satisfaction by the user." Choppy Wicker
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chzuck said:
I got some info from a former Garden Way employee who was in marketing when the Black Horse was made. He called it a "styling and marketing exercise". He mentioned that a Hilller/Furrower and plastic wheel weight shells came with it.

U-Haul tiller: "The U-Haul folks prevented any accidents in reverse by the simple expedient of removing the reverse disc. They also wanted to use the Wisconsin robin engine for conformity with their inventory. That was a sweet little engine, but so light weight that the weight and balance of the horse was not very happy. And then, there was the ugly orange color.
I think things worked out better than we feared, as I don't recall spending any time in court on injury lawsuits. Not sure how many people came away with doubts about the mythical Troy built. And, there were some outlets that rented it with the times on it backwards. I can only imagine the amount of satisfaction by the user." Choppy Wicker
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Thanks for the information is is greatly appreciated. On the black horse from a quick inspection I agree 100% it seems just to be paint and decals with a few extras.
There is a black hiller in the batch and a set of plastic wheel weights so now I know for sure what machine they are for

The u-haul now seems to be a lot more than paint. I have never lifted a engine of that size so light in fact I almost dropped the first one after taking the kolar to the truck first I was expecting a lot of weight and there was almost nothing
I will list what I have seen so far on the u-haul below
Cheers
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chzuck
Choppy was their marketing guy. It was his job to research and develope new ideas. Take a look at the link below.
Marketing Strategy Consultant Albany NY develop small business growth - Crazy Ideas He said that after the 3rd try the company lawyers got wind of what he was doing and put a stop to it. The idea was to have this land in a field and be ready to till. It took three tries to get the balance right so it would not just tumble. The tiller was non-functional (internals removed to lighten it).
On my last trip to Troy I was able to meet Choppy Wicker. Quite an interesting person and I saw some of his ideas in experimental stage at his place.
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chzuck said:
Choppy was their marketing guy. It was his job to research and develope new ideas. Take a look at the link below.
Marketing Strategy Consultant Albany NY develop small business growth - Crazy Ideas He said that after the 3rd try the company lawyers got wind of what he was doing and put a stop to it. The idea was to have this land in a field and be ready to till. It took three tries to get the balance right so it would not just tumble. The tiller was non-functional (internals removed to lighten it).
On my last trip to Troy I was able to meet Choppy Wicker. Quite an interesting person and I saw some of his ideas in experimental stage at his place.
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Thanks for sharing. He is interesting for sure and I would stay a blast to work with

Well I am here sitting waiting not to use a tiller but a *** snowblower again
Yes we got about a foot of snow last night and it still has not stopped so much for spring here
Hope I can get the snowblower out LOL with all the tiller junk some would say I piled in front of them
take care
Joe
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There you go guys
Nice machine $1400 buy it now on e-bay

Troy-Bilt Horse Rototiller 'Dean Leith Jr.' 25th Anniversary | eBay
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bontai Joe
I used my Troy Horse commercially for about 8 years in northern NJ and northeast PA back in the 1980's. Now the location I mentioned is important, because we only have just enough dirt to fill in the spaces between the rocks. I think my machine is currently wearing it's fifth set of tines. But I would often till 6 to 8 gardens a day on weekends all spring long, with many being new gardens where I had to bust up the sod and packed earth. The Horse model is one of those rare machines that actually did everything that the manufacturer claimed it would do. And that machine paid for itself many times over.

And I'm making a list of stuff to bring with me if I travel to Nova Scotia
1. case of gear oil
2. shotshell wads
3. lead shot
4. Hoppes #9 gun cleaner
5. perogies (for my cousin in Maine)
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bontai Joe said:
I used my Troy Horse commercially for about 8 years in northern NJ and northeast PA back in the 1980's. Now the location I mentioned is important, because we only have just enough dirt to fill in the spaces between the rocks. I think my machine is currently wearing it's fifth set of tines. But I would often till 6 to 8 gardens a day on weekends all spring long, with many being new gardens where I had to bust up the sod and packed earth. The Horse model is one of those rare machines that actually did everything that the manufacturer claimed it would do. And that machine paid for itself many times over.

And I'm making a list of stuff to bring with me if I travel to Nova Scotia
1. case of gear oil
2. shotshell wads
3. lead shot
4. Hoppes #9 gun cleaner
5. perogies (for my cousin in Maine)
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Ok Joe, Now you are spooking me out. If this list is directed at me. Would love to buy some sae 140 gl1 gear oil and I am a huge shotshell reloader but have lots of lead, wads and hoppes but there are many here having trouble finding components
On the perogies and I kid you not I made a batch monday from scratch for my girls here
My dad was american from west virginia but Mom is ukrainan and we grew up on them
*** I have to start checking for cameras here LOL
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bontai Joe
According to my Ancestry.com DNA test, I don't have a drop of eastern European blood in me, but my cousin's family and I developed a taste for perogies when we moved to northeast PA. Lots of Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Russian folks in the area. He later moved to Maine and claims that perogies and Yuengling beer stop being available at the CT state line (LOL)
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Trent 89
mikeinri said:
I've seen one or two of these come up over the years, never have been able to get one for myself. Maybe someday...

Mike
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Hello, Mike.
I am in Ontario, Canada and inherited a 25th Anniversary Horse Tiller. It has a flat tire and a dead battery. I have no idea what it would take to get it running...it was stored inside. Not sure if you are still interested in one of these items?
Trent
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mikeinri
I am too far from you, unfortunately. I'm sure you can find someone local to buy it!

Mike
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Trent 89
mikeinri said:
I am too far from you, unfortunately. I'm sure you can find someone local to buy it!

Mike
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Thank you for the reply. I may see what it takes to get it going again to use it myself. The garden here is large and it sounds like this one may be a little more aggressive than my Toro.
Trent
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mikeinri
Did you try new gas and pull starting it? May just need a carb cleaning.

Mike
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bontai Joe
Trent 89 said:
Thank you for the reply. I may see what it takes to get it going again to use it myself. The garden here is large and it sounds like this one may be a little more aggressive than my Toro.
Trent
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The Horse model tiller is an amazing machine. If you use some patience and till like the manual suggests, a little deeper with each pass and not try to go full depth all at once, you can operate the machine with just one hand on the handle bars while walking along side and you can work the soil up to 8" deep. My personal garden back in the day was about 40 feet by 80 feet. The largest customer's garden I ever did was about half an acre (100' x 200'). If you have a garden, I'd recommend getting that tiller up and running. If you add the wrap around bumper, you can add a front blade to it for plowing snow or light grading of loose dirt. And there was a hiller/furrower attachment for the rear that was great to use making raised growing beds. My machine paid for itself several times over doing customer's gardens, and I had fun doing it, but I was in my late 20's age wise.
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