TBT…

A couple of  ‘torture’ implements for those old farts out there…

Bonus points if you remember the shift pattern… LOL

And something ‘some’ of us grew up with…

And yes, it still works! Son-in-law uses it in the very small front yard.

Comments

TBT… — 22 Comments

  1. Love the push mower … My Dad had an ancient, red, Craftsman that I never mastered. I was pretty sure that the ballbearings floating the wheels on their axel, were in fact, cubes. As a little kid, it was “taller than I was,” and when I pushed the handle it jumped up above my head. Not the best working angle.

  2. We bought a Sear reel mower back in 1996 when we were first married. Quickly learned that it really worked when grass was a specific height. Otherwise, it would just get pushed over. Yes, built muscles, the old 60’s versions with grass cuttings trey could have been pulled with a team of horses, lol.

  3. Hey Old NFO;

    I remembered seeing a grass cutter like that when I was a kid, I was fascinated by the mechanical operation of the mower. I never recall seeing something that complicated as far as manual shifters, but I bow to your age and experience on seeing things before they were “less complicated 😀

  4. My first job for 1.25 was cutting the grass for the lady next door to my grandparents using that implement of torture. At 8 years old, I was just to small to cut that jungle she had. She also wanted me to avoid her mint she was letting grow randomly in that grass, near impossible to see. For an 8 year old, it was all grass to me. That job lasted about 2 times.

  5. Heard a rumor that today is your birthday and that you are almost as old as dirt if he is to be believed. So Happy Birthday and many, many more.

  6. Frank/McC/jrg- Yep, you HAD to be the right ‘height’ to actually use it. The first money I made with one was used to buy a better gas powered mower!

    Ed/Bob/WSF- This is from a 42 Willis with the PTO installed, that’s what is hanging off the bottom.

    Randy- See above… LOL

    Margi- Fraid so… sigh…

  7. You make my eyes bleed. My mom used to make us kids push one of those mowers around a very large yard. I know it was to keep us busy. I HATED IT.

  8. Jeep T90 transmission with a 2-stick transfer case along with a rear PTO attached. Extra lever in front is the engage the PTO. The rear levers I have to guess, but would be direction and speed.

    I know because we had one when I was just married.

    Reel mower. Great but ever try to use one in tall grass??? Does not matter how sharp it is….pushes with great difficulty.

  9. Grandpa used a push mower rather like that until he couldn’t get around much. A fellow I knew in the 1980’s had a strange motorized version of such a thing.

  10. Happy birthday, and here’s to many more healthy ones!

    Drove a ‘stick’ for years, but nothing like that. We had a motorized reel mower as a kid. You had to be careful when you ran over the dog’s ‘love offerings’ or it would spit them out all over your shoes and pant legs.

  11. That transmission didn’t come from anything us mere mortals would drive. As to the shift pattern, that would be PRNDL, right? (I’M KIDDING! I’M KIDDING!)

    The last stick I owned, the pattern was Lower left – 1st, UL – 2nd, LR – 3rd, UR – 4th. The center was neutral and reverse was a far Lower right. Of course, not every pattern was the same from one vehicle to the next, and the one I described was on the floor. We won’t even go into the “three on the tree”.

    I had one of those mowers when I was eleven years old. As others have described, it did the job but was a bitch in high grass and anything over 1/4 acre. I used to make some spending money pushing that thing around a few neighbors yards, but boy was I ever glad to finally get one powered by Briggs & Stratton.

  12. All- Thanks for the comments. Glenda, you are correct! T-90!!! And I think it’s safe to say that NONE of us enjoyed that reel mower.

    Posted from my iPhone.

  13. I still have a reel mower from hell at the bunkhouse in Cali and have the biceps to prove it.

  14. Probably a 4 spd with overdrive (second lever) then a 4wd transfer case and then maybe a PTO?

  15. Have been away and just saw this one.

    I was required to use the reel type for a month during fast-growth season in New Orleans after I polished a wee bit off a 1″ galvanized pipe with the Sears 2-cycle mower. Repair was more than total value according to Dad and he took a long time to decide on a replacement. Lots of time consuming research. No Google then, doncha know.

  16. One small twig would bring a manual reel mower to a halt.