Boys And Their Toys - Vintage Lawn Boy Mower

[gyrafoam]

Rick thats beautiful! Like everything else, you sure do keep it nice.

I never cared to fool with mixing the oil/gas so I never even gave a Lawn Boy a glance. Give me a plain old cheap-ass Murray with a Briggs & Stratton.

Does anyone remember the gas powered reel type mowers? Now those will chop your feet off! Funny I forgot all about reel mowers----but I do remember whan people used them.

 

[jamiel]

My dad and grandfather both had gas powered reel lawnmowers...my dad's was bought used in about 1979 or so b/c the new house had a good bit of zoysia grass (looks better mowed short). That brings back some memories...it was a Toro Greenbrier or some such name...rather tall unit, looked like a hand-powered reel. Sears had some powered ones through the catalog in that era which were reversed-somehow, and the clippings exited from the front.

JL

 

[petek]

Yeah, the gas powered reel mowers seem to have faded away not that they were ever as common as regular mowers but you'd see them now and again. On one of the streets we lived way back in the early 60's I recollect 1 gas reel mower and a couple of manual reel mowers and that was it, everyone else had regular lawnmowers. Oh except Mr Font.. he had a Toro battery electric, used a 12volt car battery. Only one I ever saw and never saw one again.

 

[tolivac]

Yes,I remember the gas motored reel mower my Grandfather had-don't recollect the brand-bet it was Sears-He bought just about everything from them.The summers I used it was a very nice mower-ran quiet,did a great job,and was self propelled like most powered reel mowers.It had the older motor that you wound the starting cord around a pulley on one side of the motor and gave it a good pull.Usually started right up-ready to GO!As for chopping your feet-it discharged at the back-I didn't want to try it but bet if you stuck your foot back there it would just get pushed away from the blades.Reel mowers cut by shearing--like scissors-the grass gets cut when it is caught between the rotating blades and the stationary "bed Knife"that old mower was powerful enough to shear pine cones in half--when we took turns using GrandPas mower-the other would "plant" pine cones for it to run over.lots of chopped in half pine cones in those days!Fast forward today---now I just got two new john Deere mowers-A model 145 tractor and a JS45 walk mower.No old starting ropes for these!Would like to get another 2 cycle Lawn Boy though-just missed one in the want ad magazine here-called too late.they wanted $45 for it.

 

[rickr]

Reel mowers

Thanks for the comments on my LB Automower. I do love it! <:

Here is a couple prints of the reel mower that my grandfather used when I was a kid. I took over the lawn cutting job in 1980, and was still using gramps old Reo Royale here until about 1985. I then bought my 76 Lawn Boy used, and stopped mowing with the Reo. I gave the Reo to the same friend that has my 76 LB, and he still has the Reo also. It is stored in his garage, but has not been used for years.

One thing that I hated about the reel mower, was if the lawn got just a bit too long, the grass would tend to bend over, and not get cut evenly. I would then have to rake the grass "up" and remow. because the mower only had two wheels, it would also jerk back and forth contantly, and was a job to hold on a steady course. It was also very noisy. Still, the Reo did the job well, and for many many years. When I bought the 1976 Lawn Boy used for $100.00 in 1985, I never used the Reo again.

 

[rickr]

Keeping it "reel" <:

The Reo reel mower was cool to use, because it was so old. Nobody else had a power reel in service by the 1980's so it was fun to use. Still, my parents had a non-self propelled Lawn Boy that I used when I lived at home, and I knew the rotary mower was easier to use, and made the lawn look nicer.
That was the reason I decided to purchase the used Lawn Boy for $100.00, when I could have purchased a brand new "other brand" rotary for about $69.00 in 1985.

 

[frigilux]

Snappy dresser, good-looking, spends time on his hair, obviously hits the gym; I wonder if there might be another reason why our ad lad isn't interested in the ladies.

;-)

Great one, Rick!

 

[gyrafoam]

Hey Girl's---Talk to the Hand!!!!!!--------

Mr. Handsome is enjoying mowing with that Reo so much he sure doesn't want anything to do with the ladies! Tan, buff and 'stylin', you know whomever designed that ad had an eye for the boys!

Too funny!