In the 70's when I was a kid, I mowed a few lawns for spending money, rather than ruin the family riding mower, my Dad would take me to the local Lawnmower Shop where we could rent one of these Bob Cat push mowers. These mowers were practically indestructible, with a cast aluminum deck, steel wheels with bearings and B&S commercial motors. Everything was bomb proof on these units, even the grass catcher was simple and had a rugged steel frame. More... If you look closely you can see that the wheels had no height adjustment lever and had to be set with with a wrench. That last bit always struck me as unnecessarily and conspicuously milspec rugged, but whatever, it was simple. These mowers were very popular with the pro landscaping set for a long time and then they disappeared. Near as I can tell, this type/model of mower was originally put out by the Sensation company, and enjoyed considerable popularity and loyalty for many years. I am not sure if it came to Bob Cat by merger or license, but I guess Sensation changed hands a few times and was ultimately swallowed up by Lawn Boy (Started by Evinrude Outboards), which then got eaten by Toro (which had previously gobbled up Wheel Horse Tractors - a Division of AMC, yes, that AMC). So somewhere in this cluster#%$ of mergers, somebody killed this model. I wish they hadn't the world could use a simple durable mower. |
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those are great I worked at a golf course in the late seventies that had those
ReplyDeletethe one thing that goes on mowers is the deck, the motor may still run but the deck will rot away.
An aluminum deck would of course last forever same with the wheels swap motors every ten years
i think the mower people wanted a design that would fall apart quicker and need replacement
my grandfather bought me a sensation in 1966 for our lawn. I still use it to this day. It's on its third briggs, but it is an awesome machine
ReplyDeletemy dad took me to permalawn in evanston and i purchased a sensation 21inch 4 hp professional mower during the 70's greatest mower ever i cut city parks,residential,apt complexs all day long with that orange machine. as a kid i loved my shoe box full of cash. maid my dad sooo proud.
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