In 1950, the year Ransom Olds died, four years after the first REO was made, REO had successfully cornered the power reel mower market. They introduced a suction carburetor (for the speedy Runabout) and the first electric powered lawn mower (an option on the Townhouse) In 1951 they sold their 500000 mower. May 23, 2012 The push reel mower solves both of those noise-related problems. The only sound it makes is a satisfyingly quiet “snip-snip-snip” as the mower cuts the grass. I love hearing that sound. It’s actually rather soothing. And because my manual reel mower is so darn quiet, I can mow my lawn early in the morning without waking up the neighbors.
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( first posted 5/18/2013) Note: Burt only sells locally. He is retiring, is selling everything in his lot, and is willing to make deals to clear it out. He is located in Eugene, OR. Please Do NOT CALL Burt about information, parts, service, or advice.Some of us have manged to fall in love with all sorts of powered machinery in our lives. Ever since I figured out how to start an ancient self-propelled mower and hook a wagon to it to ride around the Yoder’s barnyard as an eight-year old, I’ve been smitten. I’ve shared my and I’ll get to my riding mower soon.
Our town is famous for its curbside classics, but if your fancy runs to classic riding mowers and garden tractors, we have that base covered too, thanks to Burt’s.Burt’s has been a fixture here since well before I moved here twenty years ago, selling used Lawnside Classics and such to the cognoscenti for whom a modern badge-engineered machine just won’t do. Like with so many things (appliances, etc), today most consumer riding mowers are made by just a handful of companies. Burt’s is almost a museum, but you can buy whatever catches your fancy, like a Ford to match your blue Crown Vic. Let’s take a look around.Or this very husky Bolens, which had a rep for making tough machines. Genuine gear and shaft drive to the rear wheels; no belts here, except to the mower.Simplicity is one of the pioneering makers of riding mowers and tractors, and they’re still independent. This is one of their big ones, with a horizontally-opposed twin (Kohler, I’m quite sure).Wheel Horse is also a pioneering brand, from at least the early fifties, when the growth of suburbia opened up a big new market for riding mowers.Something a bit more modest: a Montgomery Ward 8 hp rider.
It looks to have been likely built by one of the mass-producers of lower end equipment, either MTD or Murray.An Allis Chalmers, to go along with your big AC farm tractor. After John Deere and International got into the riding mower/garden tractor business, smaller farm tractor makers like AC had to do. It wouldn’t look right, having a loyal AC customer riding a John Deere on the lawn.
I suspect it was built by someone else, a very common practice in this business; then and now.Inside the fence, its a bit of a jumble.Lots of John Deeres, including this 112, a direct descendent of the first JD garden tractor, the legendary 110 from 1963. Kohler engines were used, and they deserved their rep as being the best of their kind.I drove one of these “professionally”, in a short-lived job as a gardener’s assistant at a hospital in Catonsville, MD. It was a new-ish suburban hospital, and a giant expanse of lawn. I was sent out to spread fertilizer in the spring, but I wasn’t careful about my “lines”, and a week or two later, there were very obvious pale green strips between the lusher dark green swaths.
That did not endear me to the boss.Here’s an fairly early IH Cub Cadet. IH beat JD into the garden equipment market, with their original cub Cadet from 1960. The first three years of them had a belt drive to the transmission, but was then re-engineered to have direct drive, using the transmission from the larger four-cylinder Cub. Those Cub Cadets had a superb rep too.
But IH sold the Cadet line to MTD in the early 1980s, so they’ve been badge-engineered for a long time.More recent John Deeres are Burts mainstay, in terms of sales. They’re well built, and always in demand, although their lines sold at the big-box stores are not as well built as the “genuine” JDs sold at dealers.A view of more machines, including a couple of Hondas (the two red ones behind the one in front).
Although Honda is very successful with regular lawnmowers and such, their riding mower line didn’t catch on, and they exited the market in the mid-nineties.A colorful collection of garden tractors, featuring a wide range of styling gimmicks.But here’s the star of Burt’s collection: a Fairbanks-Morse riding mower that dates back to the late forties or early fifties.Here’s how it looked in its prime. Fairbanks-Morse was one of the most storied industrial pioneers and giants, dating back to 1823. It made a huge array of industrial products, and its opposed-piston diesel engines were legendary as submarine engines, and used in FM’s line of locomotives. In the post-war era, FM expanded into consumer products, including a line of riding mowers.This is a rather unusual machine, with its single powered wheel in the back. And its mechanical arrangement is rather different too.This one has had its original engine replaced, which had a rubber wheel on the front of its crankshaft that drove the mower deck’s big aluminum wheel, via friction. I assume the engine could be tilted to engage/disengage the mower deck.But the original round drive belt for propulsion is still there, looking a bit frayed.
Good luck finding a replacement!That takes power to the rear, where a rather complicated arrangement with a second (vee) belt, which has an idler to act as a clutch, and then finally a chain drive to the rear wheel. And it even has a tow hitch.American ingenuity. Sadly, FM’s fortunes took a dive in the fifties, as the result of family squabbles and a changing marketplace.David Bradley was another pioneering manufacturer of small self-propelled tractors and farm equipment. Their new Suburban line of garden tractors came out in the latter fifties, and was soon picked up by Sears, which sold it as their Suburban.Here’s an early Sears version.
Sears was (and still is) a big source of riding mowers, and their Suburban line was highly regarded. Back in those days, 10hp was about as powerful as it got in these machines. The early John Deeres and Cub Cadets started out with 7 and 8hp engines.Here’s the rather complicated guts of a Simplicity tractor transaxle; a mixture of belts and gears.Another Bolens. FMC was another American industrial company that went through a lot of changes since its founding in 1883.
The Bolens line was also eventually swallowed up by MTD.Another view, although some of you are probably more interested in that police-spec CV for sale next door.See anything that catches your fancy?If so, Burt’s the man to see. But hurry; some of his oldest machines are starting to be bought up by restorers/collectors. Yes, there’s folks who just have to have what they rode on in their youth, or saw Dad or Grandpa ride on. I understand about thatNote: Burt only sells locally.
Do NOT CALL about information, parts, service, or advice.165 Comments. A friend of mine had a deere 130 or 210 that he bought when he was 13. For the first couple of years he used it as transportation and for its intended use. When he got his liscence he treated his old deere to a complete resto/custom job. He painted it jd green bought the factory stripe kit and even got a NOS seat.
He had it all shined up and original when he decided to add a two foot long two and a half inch stainless stack to it. He has since let it get a bit faded but he gave it too my eleven year old car guy nephew who is in the middle of restoring it again. The stack is being retained and is still as awfull(IMO) as ever but hey at least it still shines. “Fairbanks Morse also built huge engines for ships and the like”The Fairbanks-Morse Opposed-Piston diesel engines, developed in the 1930s, each had two crankshafts, and each cylinder had two pistons. They were the power for most US diesel submarines, the backup power for nuclear submarines, and were used in locomotives, some of which are still in service today. It is still in production.It was reverse-engineered by the Soviets, but not entirely successfully as some of their engines had dismal reliability, unlike the real ones!. I believe the heavy duty lawn/garden tractors for Montgomery Wards like the one pictured were built by Gilson.
First lawn tractor my dad ever bought was an orange and white 8 horsepower Huffy from the local (pre-big box) hardware store with a 36″ deck, chrome moon hubcaps and a pull start rope through the dash unlike the electric start model (pictured below) which also had headlights. Had one of those liquid cooled 3813 Hondas too for 20 years. Indestructible engine and drive line, but just a so-so cut and way expensive parts.
I’m much more satisfied now with my 8 year old Simplicity Broadmoor, but the old ones bring back so many memories. Great article Paul!. I’ve got my eye on Dad’s old John Deere 112 electric lift from circa 1973, 46in deck, newer cushy seat, and chrome hubcaps. 12hp Kohler that was replaced in 1987 because mom was doing most of the mowing and wasn’t as religious about checking the oil like Dad. (Oil starvation is a bitch!) Still going strong and pressed into weekly duty around their 3 acre lawn.Dad may not be ready to part with it yet but I’m not going to let it disappear like HIS Dad’s mid 60s 110 did during the estate sale when Dad couldn’t make up his mind about whether he should buy it or not.My favorites are the 70s to 80s John Deere’s that had “unusual” configurations like a John Deere 118. 100 series body and frame but 18hp and a 46 in deck, sort of like putting an SBC in a Chevette. Models that end in an odd number are hydrostatic.
The above beauty is a 147: 14 = 14hp.My father, somewhere around ’71 got tired of push mowing the lawn, walked to the dealer in Lombard, IL, bought a new 147 and drove it home (down Roosevelt Road!). It was a very expensive tractor and my mother hit the roof as it was well over a thousand dollarsbut what a fine machine it ended up being.He bought the snowplow attachment and used it for many years, plowing out our driveway & sometimes our neighbors too. The mower deck rasied and lowered via an electric switch on the dash — it operated the hydraulic cylinder you see just below/in front of the Grey Brothers’ right legs.When our problematic Mark III Lincoln conked out a block away from our house in West Chicago years later, he towed it back home with the Cub Cadet with my mother steering the car. What amazes me is that he had to pull the car up a pretty steep hill: he said it was no problem for the tractor.The huge generator (black cylinder) in the pic is also the starter and I always loved firing the 147 up. It’s a wonderful sound: the gentle whirring noise as the engine turns over (no loud gear teeth to mesh/clash!) until the first few explosions as the engine came to life.
I could count probably 10-15 individual explosions until the engine actually smoothed out & began running on its own.I wish I could scan the pic of me riding on his lap when I was two-ish! Jim’s pic brings back fond memories.
My father may still have the 147: at least I hope he does. He never took care of his equipment and it was in terrible shape when I last saw it. It’s the one thing I asked him to leave me.A few years ago I bought a coworkers old 169 after it blew out its front oil seal (bad news on a Kohler so I’ve heard). It came with a non-running 107 (or 109?) “parts tractor” although not a whole lot will interchange.
I’ve got the oil seal but have put off installing itand so it sits in a shed now.I can’t find a pic of the 169 (it’s a Hoss) but here’s its poor lil’ brother the one whose model number I cannot even remember.I’m not a Harley guy but these things are the Harley Davidsons of lawn tractors to me. I’d could see myself slapping a Cub Cadet bumpersticker on a few of my rides.(and I don’t care for bumperstickers!) ?. I was wondering when someone would notice. The electric lens cover on my third Lumix started being erratic, but I didn’t notice it until afterwards.
But it’s toast now: I carry my cameras in my pockets (work pants) that are also always dirty, and dirt inevitably gets past the lens or casing and on the sensor.On my previous Lumix cameras, I could take them apart and blow off the CCD sensor with bottled air, but this one has a different design, and I couldn’t get it apart. It’s sitting in a pile on my desk.So I decided to ditch it and get a smartphone, so I would always have a camera at hand, and one without a moveable lens that lets n dirt, but it’s been a very frustrating experience so far. I accidentally had it set to video mode, so all my shots from the Iowa trip are useless videos, mostly of the ground and the inside of my pocket.I also don’t think I’m going to be able to use it on the go as easily as my Lumix, which I could power up, zoom and shoot with one hand while driving.
It’s avery frustrating situation. I’ll try the Galaxy for a while, but I’m kinda depressed about the whole thing. I haven’t shot anything to use for almost two weeks now.
I’m used to shooting constantly wherever I am.Maybe I should get a come kind of really rugged camera, that can stand up to my abuse? Or just get used to the Galaxy?. I’ve been using my Android smartphone but it’s often frustrating, takes forever to get into camera mode and certainly doesn’t take as good a picture as any real camera. Drive-by shots are impossible, low light often results in the blurries.
I’m getting an iPhone as soon as my two years are up, hoping that camera is better.But recently Lily got a and it’s a dandy little camera, super quick, easy and always successful. Real cameras have things like motion stabilizers that phones don’t have (yet). For my selfish CC enjoyment I urge you to go back to real cameras.(Cartoon stolen from the New Yorker.). I use my iPhone 5 for my roving CC shots now and it’s fine as a camera. It doesn’t handle as easily as my Canon S95, which is a very fine little point-and-shoot.
But when I’m in video mode on the iPhone, I know it, because pressing the shutter button doesn’t lead to the “shutter blades” on the screen and the camera-click sound. And my iPhone lets me go to camera mode right from the lock screen with a swipe.That said, I prefer the S95 day to day. The iPhone lens is at 28mm I think and so it makes cars look longer than they are. The S95 can quicly be set to 50mm (equivalent) for better proportioned photos.However, the iPhone fits in my front pants pocket (in a slip case), and so it has become my go-to camera.If you really want to use a regular digicam, consider buying entry-level Canons for about $100 and when they break, just go get another one.
An entry-level Canon will take fine outdoors CC shots all day long. 99% sure that the picture of the David Bradly transmission is actually a Simplicity. How do I know? I spent a fair amount of time looking at that on the Simplicity my parents own. Actually chipped a tooth on the pulley which is on the bottom right of the pic when the seat closed itself while my head was still in the way, hurt like no other.
The nearside belt is whats used as the clutch for the tractor, the far side is to run the attachments. Ours had a 2 speed planetary reduction to give an extra set of lower gears that was mounted on the input to the transaxle. Really durable tractor, able to tow way more then you think it would. While I have always had more than an acre to mow I never had a ride on mower until my until 2004 when my grandfather passed and left me his 99 craftsman. While Ive never minded mowing the lawn everytime I get on it I remembet him teaching me how yo use his old snapper when I was 5.
So I keep it cracked hood and unfinishplow and all. It still looks just the same crack in the hood unfinisheded hydraulic snow plow mount(he was working on this the day before he passed) and all. Its kinda funny that the battety has never been maintained nor have I used a maintainer but every spring it starts right up like it was never in hibernation yet my mothers husbands two year old craftsmant has been through three batterys in its two years all I do is keep its oil and filter and belts changed and replace or sharpen the blades every year. I’d go crazy in that yard. I don’t know if it’s the colors or just the myriad of styles but these tractors are very photogenic! I’d love to have one of these shots blown up & hanging on a wallas crazy at that sounds.Besides the Cub Cadets, I picked up an older blue Ford lawn tractor for $35 at an estate auction but haven’t torn into it yet.
An older John Deere 110 Hydrostatic was pulled out of the scrap pile along with a raggedy Craftsman tractor just because they looked like they’d run (they did!) and wellthey just appealed to me.I very much like the angular styling of the late 60’s to mid 70’s lawn and garden tractors — they are so handsome and car-like with their metal or fiberglass hoods and many had actual sealed-beam headlights. My 169 has taillights and a cigarette lighter just like a car ? In contrast, all the current products look like giant insects with wheels.It’s ridiculous that the old lawnmower collection is starting to catch up with the car collection here but it’s hard to not like all things mechanical. It really had a cigarette lighter on a lawn tractor? You’re kidding?I’ve never had one, we always had a lawn guy, but I remember our school had a fleet of Fords, 3 little ones like the one in the first photo, for the grounds around the buildings and a big Ford for the athletic grounds, I remember we would climb all over those while we were hanging out after school that’s as close as I ever got to driving one. The steering wheel in the big Ford tractor was the same as the one on the Ford school bus. My grandfather’s 1970s AMF lawn tractor had a lighter as well.As a kid, OF COURSE I had to test it – hmmm, it popped out, but the element didn’t look hot; the circular burn pattern that temporarily served as my thumbprint for the next few months proved otherwise!The most amusing location that I have ever found a cigarette lighter in was in my 1969 Cadillac M+M ambulance.
There was the standard Cadillac combination ashtray/lighter on each side in the back – one for the attendant(s), and one on the other side for the patient! Of course, there were large “NO SMOKING” placards, as there were oxygen tanks back there as well. If you weren’t on the O2, I guess you could smoke on your way to the hospital (not much else that they could do for you back in that time anyways). I grew up with two different Lawn-Boy push mowers, one after the other, and a Snapper – seemed like back then, in our corner of Southern Indiana, every rider that wasn’t a Cub was a Snapper. Dad then picked up a used M-F 8-horse, which went well, but he traded it on a new 2-cyl Cub Cadet some years later. After that, it was a big Kubota diesel, which they’ve now owned for twenty years or so.
I bought a used Honda rider last week – and sold my needed-a-starter 12 hp Craftsman to the guy who sold this thing to me. It is a rear (mid?)-engined beast, and I’ve never seen engineering like this on any mower before. I’m not quite sure when it was made, but it does appear to be well-built. I’m just hoping that it works well. Heres my lawnmower story; years ago, (late 60′s I believe) I talked my dad into buying a gas mower, as I was thoroughly tired of pushing that old, heavy wooden reel mower, so it was off to the local WT Grants (remember them?)store, and we came home with one of the store branded gas mowers with a 3 hp B&S on it. Well, I cut grass with it until I got married and moved out in 1979, and he kept cutting with it until around 1990 when it wouldn’t start anymore, you couldn’t even rotate the engine, it had seized up.
I checked it out and found nothing resembling oil in the crankcase. I asked him when he last checked the oil, he replied “never.” I told him to go buy a new mower, but being a thrifty child of the depression he simply put more oil in it and kept squirting it into the cylinder and working the blade back and forth until he freed it up and got it to restart, to my amazement. He used it for 3 more years before he broke down and bought a new one. I’m disappointed – no Gravelys (Gravelies?).Gravely was one of the first with homeowner-sized walk-behind tractor (pulling a riding sulky if one wanted to take it easy).
The IH Cub was much too large for the acre-and-a-half country home; but the Gravely filled the bill perfectly.Later, in the Studebaker years, Gravely came out with riding tractors – cleverly incorporating the Model L all-gear drive on a conventional-looking lawn tractor chassis.Now, of course, it’s just another brand for Ariens. A shame; and it was one of those “quality” products sought after by discriminating buyers. Those things lasted and lastedI worked with a 1953 Model L for years, up until 1980 when I got far away enough from home to not be called on to run the damn thing. It started with a STRAP, you see; and my late-fifties father was in no shape to be reefing on it.But, I guess, memories of Gravely are slipping over the horizon as well.
Likewise on the disappointment. Dad always had Gravely’s, the original one was a belt-start Graveley engined model, later replaced by an electric-start Kohler engined job. Reel mower, rotary mower deck, sickle bar, sulkey and plow. Then, after I left for college, he got a Wheel Horse lawn tractor.I inherited both, but was never comforable with the Graveley so I sold the setup off to a collector. Kept the Wheel Horse until 2004 when I was hit by a pickup while snow plowing the driveway.
Bent it in half. As luck would have it, the Toro/Wheel Horse dealer in Lynchburg, VA was also my Triumph dealer at the time, so I traded the remains (transaxle, mainly) to cover the cost of my Trident’s 66k service.By the way, that electric start Gravely didn’t have a charging system – after you finished the day’s mowing, you parked it in the garage and hooked up the battery charger. As to it’s age, well, the VIN plate said “Gravely Division of the Studebaker-Packard Corporation”.
Hmmm, I do think you’re confusing the two.The strap-start Gravely could easily have come from the Studebaker-Packard erakeep in mind, the “Packard” part of the name was dropped in 1961 or thereabouts. And there WERE electric-start Gravely-engined tractors; they didn’t have a charging system, as you note.The Kohler-engined ones started appearing as premium models in 1967, by which time the parent name was “Studebaker-Worthington Corporation.” The base Gravely-engined model soldiered on until 1975, when a Kohler 8-hp engine replaced the Gravely 7.5 engine. Much more compact, but also less torque. A revver.I believe the electric-start models with Kohler had onboard chargers. In any event, by that time the company was “Clarke-Gravely Corporation.” They sold their soul in choosing off-the-shelf power; and sortly became a plaything and finally a brand to sell Ariens equipment under.As for using it: I’m completely comfortable with a Gravely, but only because I’d been using one since I was ten.
Mowed lawns with it, as well as a 30-degree pitched field. Pushed snow with a blade and threw it with a wicked-looking snowblower.
Plowed a garden with the Rotary Plowif you knew what you were doing, there was no better way to turn sod.But that’s all gone. We’re in the age of the stamped-steel Rototiller and of Big-Box MTD-built styled garbage. There doesn’t seem to be a market for quality anymore. I’ve had a very serious crush on Gravelys since way back. I was quite aware of them as little kid; they were not uncommon in Iowa back then, especially on farms. I later found a Gravely dealer in the early seventies, and inhaled the brochure. That was during the time that they still had their own engine (7.6 hp), but I think one could already buy a 10 hp Kohler too.The Graveley’s massive all-gear drive and configuration, as well as its tough motor was very compelling.I own a BCS tiller (Italy), which in its configuration is quite similar to the Gravely, with all-gear drive.
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Mine still has the Italian Ajax (6hp) engine, which is the most amazingly consistent one-pull starter I’ve ever seen, even after sitting all winter (two years even, one time). I used to have a sickle-blade attachment when I had a 2 acre lot; I let the grass grow and go to seed, then mow it down so effortlessly; could have baled it. I see a John Deere rear-engine riding mower in the same picture as the Crown Vic, probably my favorite riding mower-smooth riding, and quieter and cooler as the engine was behind you.
Not very good at trimming-big turning radius, and you had to shift gears-but that’s what the younger kids with the push mower were for! Lost track of that one in Dad’s farm sale.Almost competition for that Fairbanks-Morse was a three-wheeled contraption we had on the farm in the late ’60’s, early ’70’s. Can’t recall the name-maybe a fellow flatlander out there knows, they were all over the place for a while-but it had a big plate-steel deck with the vertical shaft engine in the middle, two blades running off of belts from the engine shaft, two trailing wheels attached to the rear, and one drive wheel in the front, which rotated vertically to change direction, with a horizontal steering wheel. (So, you could easily pivot around trees, and go just as fast in “reverse” as forward.) It was driven by a belt running from a pulley on top of the engine, with some kind of control shaft attached to the steering shaft that you could flip over, gave you a high/low range. Maybe there were two belts and pulleys you exchanged with that lever, I can’t recall.
But they connected to a chain that ran down and ran the drive wheel. You sat on a pan seat with your legs straddled over the engine. Quite crude, but it cut grass and, when you were a teenager,was better than walking.
With a hitch on the back, you could attach a little trailer and haul apples or feed to the 4-H calves. Big limitation was there was no adjustment for height, no gauge wheels, and if you hit a gopher hole you gouged a good bit of the lawn.But I still want to get an old JD 110 like the one Uncle Mello had on Grandma’s farm. Not quite as tough, maybe, as the old Cub Cadets, but we were green tractor people, and that was a sweet tractor.
The belt-driven speed control level made adjusting to changing road or lawn conditions really easy, didn’t need a fancy hydrostatic drive with that thing. Do they still make Kohler 7/8 horse engines for these things?. Made me curious; so I hopped over to the Kohler engine site. I don’t RECOGNIZE those engines; their big recommendation is that they meet Tier II emissions limits.So, I’d guess not. Too bad; the later Gravely walk-behinds ditched Gravely’s own 1927 engine in favor of Kohler eight, ten and twelve-horse units, bolted into the gear-drive transmission.The advantage was, for a few hundred bucks, you could quickly re-power your old new-style Gravely walk-behind. Last forever.Except, of course, in the end, they didn’t. I haven’t seen one in decades.
Great commentary and photos by Paul, nice job! Very good point about folks wanting to recreate their youth in restoring these machines. My Dad’s Simplicity 6216, a 1982 model, is still going strong as the day he bought it. You do attach an emotional attachment to these things, thus we are loathe to trader her in on a new Simplicity. The Briggs and Stratton flat twin cylinder 16 hp has a different sound to her compared to these modern Vee twins; sort of the poor man’s Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer engine of the lawn-cutting crowd!Alvin Straight would have smiled at this article. Hmm, about 11 years ago a member of the Bay Area Engine Modelers (BAEM) hauled out pictures of his “new” lawn tractor. No recollection of the brand, but it was a tracklayer, with a single track.
I think it was derived from a motorcycle. Not a riding mower, mercifully.FWIW, anybody in the SF bay area interested in small engines would do well to check them out.
Baemclub.com Looks like they’re meeting at Chabot College now (I lost track when we moved to Oregon in late ’03). Lots of interesting projects, including half and 1/4 scale Rumley Oil Pull engines (the original has a 12″ bore) and some wild variants of the old Wall 4 50CC engine. (One guy gets 10K RPM with an F head design.). Love this piece Paul. My (and apparently lots of others here) interests definitely span from classic automotive to classic mechanized lawn and garden. There seems to be growing interest in this area as more and more people are recalling and acquiring the yard machines they remember from years past.I also believe a contributing factor is the increasing realization that, as with the current automotive world, the good old days (of the ’60s and ’70s) are over.
Today, badge engineering is rampant, and even some of the “premium” machines sold now are just not made very well, and will never last a decade of hard use.For nostalgia sake, I love the old Sears Suburbans as seemingly every neighbor in my early 1970’s typical suburban neighborhood had one. They were actually pretty well made (for Sears by Roper, I believe), and quite robust machines.But, for me, nothing beats the older (IH era, which was pre-1983) Cub Cadets. I still use a late IH (1982) Cub Cadet 682 to maintain my property. This thing just keeps going and going and is built like a tank. Cast iron front axle, shaft drive, transaxle derived from an actual farm tractor. And, it’s used VERY hard. Absolutely nothing like the new MTD “Cub Cadets” sold today.
Kinda sad actually. My Dad had one of those 8HP Montgomery Ward riding tractors for a short time in the early 70’s. We had a steep hill where we lived, and I remember moving boards we put in the street so he could climb the curb while he was mowing (I wasn’t old enough quite yet to be trusted on the steep part of the lawn, though I did mow much of the rest of itone time it flipped over on him, I had to shut off the engine quickly (no fuel cutoff switches then)he sold it after that, and we got a self-propelled lawn mower (probably also Montgomery Wardwe shopped there a lot back then; I miss having them around as a choice to buy things like that. No, to the question.Each of the major motor companies diversified at some point; often what they moved into and when, depended on the economy and the whims of management. GM was into locomotives; refrigeration, including home appliances.
Ford was into ag equipment, moving onto the edge of the lawn-tractor field. As well, they’d bought into Philcoand regretted it almost immediately.Chrysler, meantime, got involved with outboard motors and boatbuilding; and their Airtemp subsidiary moved into home air conditioning.
AMC bought Kaiser Jeep and Wheel Horse; and fifteen years earlier, Studebaker bought, using Lark profits, a whole satchel of businesses – the only central feature they had was that they were for sale.But GM, being invincible as they seemedduring their Golden Age, they felt no need to diversify. Electro-Motive was purchased as a startup company, not long after GM itself came into being; and probably the only reason GM hung onto it is that from the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s it was the world leader in railroad locomotive manufacture. I have a local handyman I use from time to time who seems to need money from time to time. (Same guy I got my ’89 Camaro from.) A while back he needed some cash badly enough to offer me his Yard Man tractor mower for $250.
Very cheap, but it’s pretty old (1980s at the latest) and not terribly reliable. Anytime I go to crank it, I have at best a 50/50 chance that the motor will turn over. It’s not the one in the picture, but it looks just like it. At 14hp, it’s a fun machine when it actually runs which, unfortunately, isn’t all that often.No cigarette lighter, but I do have plans drawn up to attach my Pep Boys cup (beer) holder to the right side of the hood.
And the raccoon plush toy that my Camaro’s previous (female) owner had safety-pinned to the rear seat, is going to be the Yard Man’s hood ornament. Interestingly I notice the absence of Case lawn tractors.
Well, I didn’t even know they existed till we bought our current house in 2007 and I persuaded the seller to leave his early ’70s model 220, complete with mower deck and ‘snowcaster’ snowthrower. It’s a finiky beast but is bigger and has lots more power than the John Deere that I got to replace it in 2010. And yes, I still have it. I put an ad or two on Craigslist each year to try to find one of these mytical tractor collectors to buy it. So far I’ve only had scrap dealers inquiring and I hate to see old ‘Thunderchild’ be scrapped out! This makes me feel a little sad.
All of this is familiar. I run a small lawn care business, and am the last person in the state commercially using a 1968 Wheel Horse. Probably last in the world. Everything in the fleet is pre-1980. Newest being a ’79 Toro 2 cycle GTS. Oldest being a 1927 Eclipse walk behind mower with a WHOLE 1/2HP engine! (POWER!!) I have 19 runs on my schedule.
And everyone loves it. All of my machines are fully restored. And I’ve only had two breakdowns in five years!
(Both being an old Sears Suburban.) And they were minor. I love my old stuff, wouldn’t use anything else.
I cant tell you how many times I’ve had people wanting to buy my whole fleet. You don’t see the old stuff anymore. Especially working! And the best part? EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT CAME FROM LOCAL SCRAPYARDS!
I love the feeling of making something good out of nothing. (And the look of horror on the owner’s faces when they see the stuff running again is priceless.) Oh, yeah. The transport truck’s a green 1931 Ford 1 ton model AA!
I love to see the old stuff. It’s disappearing as we speak. ENJOYED READING COMMENTS ETC.STILL HAVE MOST TRACTORS IN PHOTOS. HiI found your web site somehow.
What a great place!!Love the pics.I am so hoping you can find a used Drag Link for my ol hand me down 1998 Murray lawn tractor.I rewired it and got it running but the ball joints keep falling out of the socket no matter how many hacks I try. I think I’ve tried everything possible to try to hold it together. It just won’t steer without a replacement.Model # 464308a 42″/20HpThe part # for the left side drag link # 93061E701MAI’m a disabled Army veteran and it would take me 6 months to save the money they want for a new one. So I am so hoping you can help me.There’s no mowing until I fix this and I cannot stand or walk to use a push mower. So yeah I’m screwed. Please help!!873ED9B4-6506-40C8-B5E3-380DF514EA39⬅️ hackThanks so much.Happy Father’s Day!!Scott.
Imagine my surprise when I saw the opening picture with the faded Ford lawn tractor! I had not seen one of those, or its Jacobsen “brother” in many years.The two were identical except for color, graphics (decals) and front ends. There were not many engine enclosed lawn tractors in 1975 when I did the Industrial Design work that created the look for these almost twins. The side panel was symmetrical along its horizontal center line; therefore allowing the same dies to stamp out both sides. That tooling cost savings sold the design to both Jacobsen and Ford.
Latest Classifieds.Yesterday, 04:33 PMSet up for sleeve hitch. In very good condition. Pick up or will pallatize an.Yesterday, 04:21 PMNLA front weight carrier and 50 # weights. Check with dealer if it fits.
I be.Yesterday, 04:16 PMOff of a Simplicity Legacy XL 3pth would think it would fit most Cat O 3pth.May 05, 2020 03:29 PMPiston rod flew apart. If someone wants it for parts or to rebuild $20 or a 6.May 05, 2020 09:33 AMWTB; Bolens H23 Dash for 1983 Model 2389s Mine is plastic.
It ha.May 04, 2020 05:33 PMLooking for SImplicity 1690039, tiller bearings. It is actually a homelite bu. REO stands for Ransom Eli Olds, the designer of Oldsmobile. Ransom Olds was a brilliant man and avid entrepreneur. He was an inventor of many other things beyond automobiles.One of the many things he invented made possible probably the first powered lawn mower.
Powered by an Ideal hit and miss engine, the machine was a reel mower that was also self propelled by the striping roller, in the style of a steam roller. It was first produced in 1916: Ransom Old's contribution was the self propelled capabilities. For the weight of engines of that day, the operator couldn't have pushed that rig around without self propelled drive. The success of this rig led to a company called the Ideal Power Lawn Mower Company, incorporated in 1922. Those big clunky mowers were built up into the 1940'sHowever, while Ideal burned up rich men's yards across the nation, REO Motors, a separate corporation from Oldsmobile, built trucks in the 1930's and during WWII. After the war, the return to peacetime forced them to rethink an application for all the expensive factory tooling and production space purchased to fulfill wartime contracts. In 1946, during the rise of suburban culture, all the returning GI's had money and a mentality of 'this could be easier!'
That created a market for something as simple as the humble lawn mower, and REO made a decision to use some of the truck factory space to produce their own motorized reel mower. The Ideal mower was large and unwieldy, two things that don't make a lawnmower good for a suburban yard.
The new REO mower was light but also as powerful as the heavy Ideal machines. Ideal with its Ransom Olds roots switched to new light mowers, too, but a little late to conquer much of the market.The first REO reel mower was sold in 1946. Called the Trimalawn, it was powered with either a Briggs and Stratton NPR6 or a Clinton 700A. It was certainly an improvement over the original man powered reel mower that the operator had to push around the yard. As the reel mowers sold, and as the market responded very favorably, REO added a deluxe Royale.As sales continued to skyrocket, REO looked to save money by making their own engine. Enter the classic REO slant head engine.The legend is right: REO small engines do run backwards. The PTO runs the normal direction, though, because that shaft is actually the engine's camshaft.
The decision to do that was good for reel mowers since it eliminated a need for a 2:1 gear reduction system since the camshaft PTO operated at half the RPM that the crankshaft did. However, it also shot REO in the foot from becoming an engine producer. REO engines could have been as big as Briggs, Clinton, and Lauson, but by their reverse design and necessary 2:1 reduction, the applications were limited. That is also why REO made their own funky recoil starter since a standard starter (made aftermarket even in their day by Fairbanks Morse and others) cannot work.REO continued to prosper. In 1950, the year Ransom Olds died, four years after the first REO was made, REO had successfully cornered the power reel mower market. They introduced a suction carburetor (for the speedy Runabout) and the first electric powered lawn mower (an option on the Townhouse) In 1951 they sold their 500000 mower.
REO's name was synonymous with quality but also affordability, two things that made the mower sales grow exponentially in the later 40's and early 50's.REO had good business leadership, and they new that with their name for quality in suburban yards, they could also be a force in all aspects of power equipment. In 1954 they made their engine power a snowblower, the simply named 'Snow Throw'. They also introduced the Trollabout. This allowed a REO engine to be bolted at a slight angle to the bottom of a boat. Sticking a propellor on the end of the shaft drilled through the bottom of the boat allowed the REO engine to become an inboard power unit. Humorously, the Trollabout never really took off.
Maybe that was because a high REO executive hurried the process of installing a unit into a rowboat for a publicity shot in front of radio and TV personalities. The hurried installation leaked, and the boat capsized in front of the nation. Somehow that might have contributed to a lack of sales!Reel mowers were complicated to sharpen and expensive to produce. Although the deluxe models could also be self propelled, they could be heavy, and they were not champions at tackling high grass. In the early 1950's, companies began producing vertical shaft lawn mowers. Light weight, powerful, and easy to maintain, it was easy to see where the market was going.Engine manufacturers like Briggs and Clinton scrambled to produce vertical shaft engines to enter that market.
Up until then, there was really no application for vertical shaft engines. Suddenly, the market saw Briggs desperately trying to flip a Model N on its back and Clinton engineering ways to keep the V700 lubricated and working on its back, while groups like Lauson scrapped the idea of converting a horizontal design to vertical and produced a complete dedicated vertical lawn mower engine.REO watched like the old man who thought the world wouldn't change. The management said that reel mowers were still the best way to mow the yard. Although that might be true (nothing beats a manicured reel mower cut) the customers disagreed. REO dealers requested something to compete with the myriads of rotary mower brands cutting out sales right and left.In 1953, REO responded by offering three rotary mowers. The Flying Cloud used the classic four cycle REO engine, the Revo-Jet was powered by a two stroke vertical shaft Power Products, while the Electra-Lawn followed REO's pioneering entrance into electric mowers.
The Flying Cloud, though, became a public relations nightmare. Using the standard horizontal shaft REO engine, the engineers designed a right angle gearbox to power the blade. Although the idea was good and it was a less expensive way to penetrate the rotary mower market, the gearbox had a defect. A little washer used as a spacer on the engine PTO going into the gearbox was not secured by a tab to the casting. That little washer would begin to spin as the engine wore down the shims. Suddenly the washer would disentegrate and send metal all through the gearbox and engine oil with devastating results.
REO responded quickly, recalling 5000 engines. The damage was done, though, to both REO's budget and REO's reputation.REO Motors was still hard at work in the truck market, and they made a business decision to sell the REO lawn mower line to the Motor Wheel Corporation in September 1954. Motor Wheel was a conglomerate of a wheel manufacturing division and even an electric heater division.Motor Wheel was interested in chasing the rotary mower market. In 1955, the REO engine was redesigned complete to allow it to lay on its back, becoming a true vertical shaft engine, the model 3330J. They also introduced the Ride-A-Lawn, a self propelled reel mower that accepted a sulky, a popular model.However, in 1958, Tecumseh/Lauson knocked on REO's door and proposed to build a Lauson engine with the REO name. REO had had a relationship with Tecumseh's Power Products division for years, and Motor Wheel was already looking disappointedly at the tried and true REO power plant. It was 9 years old, heavy (still made of cast iron while the competition was beginning to move towards aluminum) and expensive to produce.
Motor Wheel jumped at Tecumseh proposition, and they offered 5 engine designs that ended up morphing to 10 before 1959 was over. 1959 was also the last year of the legendary Royale, the premium reel mower of its day.By 1963, Motor Wheel was tired of the REO line. REO's name in rotary mowers was never powerful, while they had been surpassed numerous times in the rotary mower market.
The public had also not forgotten the Flying Cloud debacle. Wheel Horse bought the REO name and products from Motor Wheel in September, 1963. Wheel Horse sold a riding mower, the REO Snow Throw (seemingly the reason for the buy out) and a couple models of rotary mowers. For those models, the Wheel Horse name was coupled to the REO name. The REO name in lawn and garden equipment was on life support.When it was dropped in favor of Wheel Horse only right before the AMC purchase in 1974, the REO name had died quietly in its sleep, ending a short but stellar career while leaving a legend.Article by Ben Wagner, owner ofOriginally posted in our in response to the thread. When I was younger, my first job was working at Eckharts, a lawn mower and garden repair shop that used to be in Dallas Pa. Floyde Hoover was frequent customer and a down right good elderly gentelman.He showed me pictures of his homebuilt tractor from a 1939 Chevy.One day he showed up with his 1935 REO 4 door sedan.
My boss let me go for a ride with Floyde. I will never forget the grind while shifting or sitting in the mole-skinned seat, not original to the vehicle but went well with it.Life moves on just like hitting the fast foreward button and several years later I shifted to bodywork only to find my next task was the 35 REO to repair all bodywork flaws and get ready for a final spray. There is a lot of surface area on that auto.
He loved the final job. 1935 was the last year of the automobile era. He told me about how Rio moved into building trucks, but never knew that they offspranged to lawncare products. Thank you for a history lesson and thank you for your knowledge and effort to pass on.
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