new to the forum so glad i found it while looking for info on me hough loader i bought recently at a farm auction. the farmer who had it i have know for ever but never knew he had this thing it was in the back of a shed where it sat for 35 years untouched where he parked it after he replaced it with a mustang skid steer. he had it running he day before the action with some fresh gas and cleaning the point but o auction day it wouldn't start sounded like no compression. the day after the auction i went back to the farm and pulled side covers off the motor and got the all 4 intake valves freed up put in a new set of plugs and it made the mile long trip home without any problem. it seems to run good and everything works except the brakes. i have been looking for info on what model it is but all i can find for numbers is one stamped on the left side on top of the side where you climb in it is 2BA31764 it has a 4 cylinder wakasha and it is manual shift just forward reverse than a high low lever. sorry for the long post but i will try to get pics soon thanks for any help
Periods, paragraphs, and pictures would help greatly
Only pictures i have right now.
Neat looking little machne! I would love to have something like that to play with, probably spend too much time and money fixing it up and painting it but still would be fun! Bucket actually looks a bit big for the rest of the machine. I have seen similar machines parked around the area probably should stop some time and ask about them, at least when wife is out of town! Where about in "upstate" that is a very open term to some people?
Thanks im in a small town called lebanon about an hour south of syracuse. I was told it will lift quite a bit or until the rear wheels come off the ground. My land isnt ideal for this machine but it has been doing what i need so far.
Hi Symond Your Hough is a model HA (B). It is a (early) 1963 as the serial numbers for this model started at 31657 in 63 & started at 32046 in 1964. Hope this helps
I've seen a few of these over the years. They look to be a neat little machine. Probably was real handy for manure removal in the old loafing barns that were all the rage in the sixties. Good find.
thanks alot for the info on model and year, and thats exactly what the farmer used it for cleaning a calf barn as you described as well as getting feed out of a bunk. I talked to him again today and he bought it with a bad piston in 1980ish, and come to find out he purchased it from the original owner who was my fiance's great uncle. That little fact suddenly made it ok with her that i brought home more "Junk" home. I think i stole it for $300 but i have never seen one sell before. I am thinking of making this a project this winter kind of a practical restoration.
Nice machine! Your Grandkids may inherit it and use it too. Some of the equipment in this era are very long-lived with proper maintenance and use. Thanks for you post.
If I came across one in running condition or near to it for $300 I'd be all over it in short order. Got plenty of little projects around the property it would be great for, never going to be a production machine but as an over grown self powered wheelbarrow/dump truck it would be great!
I'd think about a ROPS before you roll it over, or something rolls back over you. At least be aware of the dangers of a loader like that before you do anything stupid. Ken, I saw one just like that that had been converted to a forklift, not much more than $300, but I wasn't fast enough. That would have been a handy little machine, and a one of kind.
i think i saw an old add where forks could replace the bucket
It's a neat little machine. I by chance looked at one a few years back very similar, but 4x4. I can't off hand remember who made it but I feel sure it wasn't Hough. They are so similar, I wonder if one or the other was re branded. Willie
Hough made straight frame 4x4's, they were twice the size or more of these babies though. I was wondering if it could be a factory forklift, but it looked like somebody added a mast off of something else to the Hough unit, I didn't see it in person though.
Those things were made to handle material on a packed or concrete flood. They were real popular with dry chemical fertilizer suppliers. Inexpensive, overbuilt, easy to maintain and would last for years. That's why it had that big a bucket. Fertilizer doesn't weigh as much as dirt. The could load spreaders pretty quick with those. That was back in the day when they let you use their PTO driven towed spreaders in return for you buying their fertilizer. Most of those were eventually replaced by various brands of skid steers that didn't last nearly as long. Nurseries used em too for loading mulch and wood chips. Rick
Chester VT is in a big, (by Vermont standards) snow belt. The little four wheel drive version I looked at was used to move snow banks. With chains on all four, they are remarkably maneuverable in tight residential driveways. Find a nearby lawn downhill from driveway, build it out level. Some of these stockpiles don't melt 'till July. Willie