Wheel Horse Forum

Anyone know much about the GT14? I may have the opportunity to talk a friend of a friend out of one. It has the PTO attachment and is in decent shape. This one would be a worker and not for show. I live in a subdivision with concrete roads. The developer refuses to turn it over to the county and he will not let snow plows be used on the concrete roads in the subdivision. I was thinking of maybe buying the GT14 to prevent being snowed in for the third year in a row. What do you think, will it do the job?

The GT-14 was made for four years, '69–'73: Garden Tractor, 14 hp Kohler. It was designed to be a heavy duty garden tractor, and could take 3-point garden impliments (catagory 0 I believe), just like a larger tractor, with a live PTO. It could also easily use a front bucket with the hydrolics. The introduction, imports of the Kubuta-class of Japanese tractors is what stopped production, their lower price.
This GT-14 tractor is well designed and very heavy duty and can easily handle all the tasks, the only weak-link may the hydrolics (keeping the filter clean-clean-clean).
Good Luck

The GT is truly a beast, i put a 42" blade instead of the 52" and it'll push any thing out of the way! Like Glen said the only downfall is the hydro, mostly because the age.

Thanks for the info. I talked to the current owner today and finally got him to name a price - $1200.00. I was hoping for more like $700 but he isn't going to budge. He claimes that not all the GT14 had PTO attachments and that very few had the hydraulic cylinder to allow for a skid loader or bucket attachment. This is his reasoning behind the hefty price. Does all this sound correct to you guys and assuming this thing is in good working order (which I believe it is), is it worth the money.

I paid $2,000 for mine (with a good deck, a front loader system, an extra front bucket, and a engineless junker-parts GT). My GT-14 basically works fine but there is problem with bucket hydrolics, a speck of dust somewhere that slows down the entire hydro system to about 1/3 speed and power. I'm very happy with the price and the tractor, it will just take me some time to clean everything in the hydro system. It's original, a little rusty and dented, but not bad condition, I did not get any rear garden attachments with it when purchased in October 2004.
Get all the impliments with it that you can, and any spare parts laying around there, and be sure to ask for the manuals, all of them, they are very very important -- hopefully he is the original owner and still has them (don't pay in full until you get everything).
Only a fraction of the GT-14 models did have the hydro system for a bucket, and the same for the live PTO. Attachments can be very hard to find as they were unique to the GT-14 system, look, beg & find them. I feel that $1200 price tag is very fair for a working machine.
Glen (and feel free to post your questions here, we all share)

Thanks for the info on the GT14 - sounds like you guys agree that it's a worker. The guy has no attachments and or manuals and also seems like he isn't going to accept $1200.00 now that he has had time to think about it. Maybe I'm just lucky but I have wheel horses being offered to me left and right. I looked at what I believe to be a 1973 Wheel Horse 18 automatic. The model # 106108 serial #954465 with an 18 hp. kohler model #K482S. The body and frame look very good (no rust at all) but the motor looks a little rough. There are no attachments with this one either.The owner wasn't home when I stopped but the guy who turned me on to it said it ran. If you could have either the GT14 or the 18 automatic which would it be. Keep in mind that I would love to have a bucket on one of them if I could ever find one, which would be easier to find parts for. Did the Hydro get any of the bugs worked out by 1973?

The main problem with adding attachments to any tractor may be the cost. If you purchase a tractor with it (front bucket) already on, you know it must work and probably is all there. When you buy a used attachment to add on, you have all the little bugs to iron out, additional needed parts & misc. can really add up, if it does fit your model. Just like cars; the same model may change slightly each year for both the tractor and for the attachment.
Don't quote me on this; but I think the early 70's 18hp Kohler had a technical problem, (something like not splashing enough oil up in use), you might want to look into that question on an engine forum.
18hp is more power than 14hp, but the GT-14 (ID #1-0502) was designed for heavy garden use, more-so than the 18hp (ID #1-0600). To get a snowblower with the tractor as a package would save you a lot of money.
---I've also noticed that as soon as you show a strong interest in something that is for sale, the owner realizes that they might be able to barter their price up to get more money. Good Luck.