A new find...a Lawnboy!

[myhooverco]

Here is my latest find while out looking for Hoover products. I ran across this well used 1968 Lawnboy model 5236. I just had to take it home! (I also bought a model 584 Convertible at the same house which is the same vintage!) It runs but is getting too much gas at this point. Someone has replaced the rear wheels and put on a mulching plate. This one will be great to restore. I can't wait to use it next spring. It gives me the winter to tinker with it. Does anyone have 4 good used wheels for this model?

--Tom

 

[myhooverco]

Another view...

Here is the little 19" Lawnboy again...

 

[sudsman]

My Lawnboy

Doing what he does best !

 

[appnut]

Tom, that's the exact same LawnBoy we had when I was in jr. high--the one my mom killed when he bought gas to refill the empty gas tank and put in the mower, sans the oil. Boy was my dad p-o-ed.

Is that a Cutlass?

 

[mixfinder]

LawnBoy

The only thing more soothing than walking behind a Lawnboy is watching your laundry roll over in a Maytag while licking the beaters from your Sunbeam Model 11 and smelling the cake baking in the oven of your Frigidaire Flair after you vacummed up the flour on the red oak flooring with your Hospital G Electrolux. It just doesn't get any better.
Kelly

 

[captainmoody]

I started collecting Lawn Boy mowers late last year, have about 6 now. I especially like the electric start self propelled ones, have two of those in storage in the basement. Here is a picture of a 1980 Lawn Boy "promotional" model I just got late this summer.

 

[captainmoody]

Oh! Tom BTW, if you need any Lawn Boy advice or help with parts, contact my friend Doug Harland in Chicago. He is one of the largest collectors of LB products and is the LB guru! I can get you his phone and/or email if you need. He loves to help other collectors save and restore these cool machines!
Nice Cutlass also! I have owned a few through the years, and love the 1976-1977 models especially.

 

[rickr]

Who doesn't love a Lawn-Boy?

My 63 Automower.
Dwight, I would love to have Dougs phone # also, if you he does not mind.

Thanks

Rick

 

[hoover1060]

So cool!

I always thought Lawn Boys were good mowers, I remember several neighbors had them when I was a kid.
My parents were rough on mowers, I remember two came and went before I was 6 or 7, which was when my dad bought their first self propelled Toro with the side bag. I learned to cut grass with that one!
That model maybe lasted til 1980 or 81, it was replaced with a rear bag model that I really liked. My mom always loved cutting the grass, and she wore that one out but good. It was replaced about 1996 with a Troybuilt mulcher that my mom insisted on, and when they got it home boy did BOTH of them hate that mower!! SO that was repalced about 2000 with another Toro Rear bagger. If I ever have a yard, thats probably what I'll buy.

 

[captainmoody]

No problem Rick! I sent it to you and Tom. Hope he can help.

 

[captainmoody]

Here is a link to Doug's page.

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view/?p=999&gid=10107850&uid=4901904&members=1

 

[Cybrvanr]

Nice find there Tom!!! I love that vintage mower too Rick! Unfortunatley, I grew up a little too late to enjoy using lawn-boy mowers too often. I do remember how smooth they ran though the rare few times i've used them. Their smell was great too. Typically, I connect the smell of 2-cycle engines with boating and the water, because outboard boat motors are 2-cycle (yep, and Lawn-boys were built by the same company that built Evinrudes and Johnsons!) Whenever I used a lawn-boy mower, I was quickly reminded of hanging out on the water on a summer's day!

Well, the lawn-mowing season is coming to a close here. I mowed my grass for what I think is going to be the last time this year, The maple tree out back and the pine trees out front are all dropping now. Yesterday I also seeded the front yard.

 

[myhooverco]

Thanks guys! I have contacted Doug through email...I have talked with him before and he knows Lawnboys. They are probably the best mower I have used at actually giving an even cut. I have to admit I love the smell they put out! I know it sounds stupid but it reminds me of when I was a kid helping with the yard work.

Nice "Promotional" machine...why did they call them that???
I really like those Automowers...they were bullet proof. You just cannot beat those 2 cycles.

Yes, folks that is my 1977 Cutlass Supreme with 31,000 miles. My grandmother bought it new. It is now winterized as the cruising season is over. I have all of the paper work on it as Grandma saved everything...even the original keys with the key "plugs".

Anyone else collect Lawnboy mowers? I would love to see some more pics!

--Tom

 

[jasonl]

Old-mobile

Yep, those are sweet cars. Granny cars that were fast (Big block v8 inside)

 

[whirlcool]

We used to buy Sears Craftsman lawn mowers, but they'd fall apart by the time they were 4 or 5 years old. Then we had a Murray that lasted one season before a weld broke that held the front wheel on. So we bought a Weedeater brand mower in 1992. It's still going strong. We need to replace the wheels as we have worn the tread down and it slips a lot on the grass and can't get traction. It's self propelled. It has been a good value for the money.
When this one finally gives up the ghost, I think we'll try a Lawn Boy. Most everyone seems happy with them.

 

[helicaldrive]

Enjoy your Lawn Boy!

The unique sound is so wonderful, isn't it?

If you want to collect vintage ones that have already been restored to better-than-new condition, then visit Stellhorn Hardware in Ft. Wayne, IN.

Steve

 

[rickr]

Someone will MAKE you buy one if you vist Fort Wayne, won't they Steve! <:

 

[helicaldrive]

That's right

But it's so much more fun when someone "makes" you do something you want to do even though it's hard to justify -- like buying a third Lawn Boy you don't need but want even though you already have two.

(And what's even more beautiful is being single, so afterward you can simply put green lawn mower #3 in the garage and smile, without having to listen to a boyfriend ridicule, criticize or crab that you spent $300 on something you didn't need and don't really have room for. And then if the Maytag man comes by to fix something and he looks a little askance at 3 green lawn mowers in the garage, you can simply smile to yourself and muse about what diagnoses he might be hypothesizing, and what description he might offer to his wife over dinner that evening when he relates that he got the creeps in this weird guy's house because he had THREE brand-new-looking green lawn mowers.)

 

[tomturbomatic]

When I first saw the title of your posting, I thought it was a Nifty story, but then I realized that there are Lawn Boys and then there are yard boys.

Question to anyone who has tried this: What would happen if a lawn mower were pushed over snow? If the snow was not too deep would the mower blow it to the side?

The Maytag man would probably be thinking the same thing you wrote about how nice it would be to live alone in his house where he could have 3 mowers or 3 large flat panel televisions or 3 Maytag washers or 3 vacuum cleaners including a wet vac or 3 cars or trucks or 3 of whatever he wanted without having to answer to the domestic war department.
Tom