Good ol' lawnmower

44 years ago my dad bought this 21" International Harvestor push mower. It's mechanically original. Wheels, blade and plug have been replaced. I added a little bit of fresh gas today and it fired up on the second pull.

Nice!

Is that deck aluminum?  Seems it has a wee bit of a hole in it?

Pretty sure my Dad still has one or two that I knew growing up.  That was even more than 44 years ago.  Some basic maintenance and that old stuff would pretty much run forever. 

Hopefully the oil has also been replaced...

That's a lot of hours for a small engine. Pretty incredible. 

Oil gets changed once per season. 

I cut a lot of grass on a very similar Jacobsen back in the day.  I really miss the simplicity and durability of the old lawn mowers.  No safety mechanisms, no plastic.   They will last 100 years if properly maintained.  

I realized the other day that my Black&Decker electric hedge trimmer is about 48 years old and still works great.

TIL that International made (or at least branded) push mowers.

There's a lot of Yinzers here in Pittsburgh still running 40 year old 2-stroke Lawnboy push-mowers.  There's nothing quite like a 2-stroke push mower.

Tangent.  I went in Home Depot the other day to buy a 40v Ryobi trimmer, which was in the same aisle as the push mowers.  There was 20 or so electric push mowers and three gas mowers. I was a little surprised how fast we've switched to electric.  I'm not complaining, just thought it was interesting.  

I miss my old 2 stroke lawn boy.  Take off the governor, wire it to wide open and let it rip.  But 2 strokes are a thing of the past.  My electric EGO is a POS, falling apart at 6 years and on its 3rd battery.  Bought an old snapper rider as it was cheaper than a new battery.  

I would love to have all my lawn tools battery but would like them to last a little longer.

93gsxturbo said:

I cut a lot of grass on a very similar Jacobsen back in the day.  I really miss the simplicity and durability of the old lawn mowers.  No safety mechanisms, no plastic.   They will last 100 years if properly maintained.  

I still have a Jacobsen, it does look very much like that IH model - it's possible they came out of the same factory.

I switched to a lawn care service a few years ago so mine hasn't been used for a while, but it would probably still start up and run.

Funny.  

The other day I went to mow my back yard and my John Deere lawn tractor had dropped a cylinder.  Again.  A coil had dropped out. Same thing happened last year.  Also PTO clutch last year and then PTO switch. 

Add to that, I got the mower for a bit of nothing when the hydrostatic trans input pulley sheared its teeth and a neighbor thought it needed a new trans. 

Its deck is also a bit bent. 

Gearing up to drop some money on a new zero turn as I am growing tired of farting with it. Also because it only has a 38" deck and I have over an acre. Looking to go 54". Its not that I cant keep it going. I just want to put my time and effort to working on fun things. 

Mine is a barebones Wally World model that I picked up off the curb a few doors down shortly after buying my house. I've had it about 3 years. Needed a new carb to run right, ~$20 easy button, and I pulled the blade to take out some of the abuse with a file. I keep meaning to buy a new blade but it keeps cutting grass and mulching leaves so I keep pushing it off. 

Oh, I did have to put a new air filter in it yesteryear. Good gas, new carb, new filter and it will fire up after 3 of the laziest pulls imaginable. I should maybe change the oil, now that y'all mention it. 

As for electrics, I think they're neat for people who are into that sort of thing. Some of my neighbors have them. Some of my neighbors have a service. Some of my neighbors don't have any grass worth mowing. What I know is that I didn't pick up a broken electric mower and run it for 3 years for $30. 

I haven't seen a good ol' push mower like that in a long time. I remember growing up, my dad had one that wouldn't quit. Our yard was pretty big and out in the backyard it had lots of roots and debris, and he didn't want to mess up the "new" fancy self-propelled mower, so he had something like this for back there. The aluminum deck made is super light and maneuverable. Never maintained as far as I knew, and it always fired up and ran. At one point, he just stopped using it, and I think we scrapped it a few years back while cleaning up the yard. You just don't see them like this anymore. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Want one? I have a Honda-powered non-propelled push mower in my shed and no lawn at the new house. Ran when parked, probably only has about 5 hours on it because I hate mowing lawns and we went to a lawn service for a while there. The fact that my parents made me mow with a kid-powered reel mower is likely a major contributor.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Nah, I'm good! I have a Toro Super Recycler hand-me-down that we use for this purpose. It's due for a carb replacement, but I'm not participating in mowing season this year if I can help it (extensive house renovations happening and we're moving out for a year). If that dies for good, it's probably time to hop on the electric bandwagon. 

For the average jerks I am a huge fan of electric leaf blowers and string trimmers because they need no maintenance and just run.  If you are already in a Milwaukee or Ryobi or Makita ecosystem and have your standard 1/5 acre ranch, its an easy button.    Fire it up, run for 10 minutes, put it away.

The decent battery mowers (M18, for example) are pretty crack-pipe priced - a guy can buy 3 gas mowers new or 50 used ones for the $1k they cost.  I would really have to love battery power to do that.  

Me?  I like tinkering, so I hope to keep my swap meet found leaf blower, string trimmer, and mower as long as I can.