stevenchalmers.com
Gravely
Literature
Popular Science 1971
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stevenchalmers.com
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Page Text: Speed, and Safety with the old iron pipe-rack image. The channel or box-section reach frames have been cleaned up and fanned out with foot plates and fenders. For example, you couldn’t ask for a better-looking riding mower than the Huffy 26 with its big eight-horse engine just ahead of the rear wheels. Or than the new Massey-Ferguson fiveand six-hp models. The combination of steel frame and fiberglass upper structure is trim and weather-resistant, with nary a stray Bowden wire or control rod to detract. Drive trains. They’re what make a mower go. Only economy jobs confine the drive to a single forward gear and reverse. Two speeds forward is common with the gearboxes, but many-Atlas, Gilson, Hahn, Huffman, LawnBoy, Massey-Ferguson, Pennsylvania, Toro-offer three. This is great when you need a low-low for slogging through heavy spring growth; even greater when you want to give a big area a fast once-over-lightly. Mower engineers say that safety limitations on blade-tip speeds, and other factors, limit first-class cutting to about four mph. Just the same, there will probably be times when you’ll be happy to sacrifice cutting perfection for speed. The friction-disk drive-one disk running edgewise on the face of the other-offers infinite speed ratios, zero to maximum. Most mowers have a stepped lever allowing six, five, or maybe four positions. Others use a foot pedal to increase or decrease speed. Allis-Chalmers changes ratios with a cone friction drive. Friction drives are smooth, they don’t block out, and they’re also extremely simple mechanically. Examples: Allis-Chalmers, AMF Mow-Trac, Jacobsen, Ariens, and the upper bracket LawnBoys. Safety-big news. Most of the mowers you’ll see have the OPEI stamp of approval. Chute design, cutter-housing configuration, blade-tip speed, housing resistance to penetration, and scads of thoughtful details not readily visible to the eye are part of the new designs to an extent not dreamed of a few years back. If a mower you’re looking at lacks this stamp, and shows belts, chains, and pulleys without shame, look further. Shop for blade brakes, parking brakes, neutral interlocks, quality. steering linkage and hardware. The more mowers you’ve owned, the more you’ll recognize the merits of the new higher-horsepower rigs. Usually, mowers are junked or traded because of engine problems. Most four-horse mowers and some fives have to run full bore against a wide-open governor most of the time. It simply takes all they’ve got to hog through heavy grass at a practical pace. Larger engines. They mean better performance. And the bigger engine can run at less than full load, so valves, heads, and pistons take far less beating. A four- or five-horse engine on a riding mower will normally run 80 to 100 hours-slightly over 20 four-hour cutting sessions-before it needs a valve and-carbon job. This means about a year of operation in northern areas. After three years, repairs can become excessive. But the larger engines should extend practical working life well into the five- and six-year bracket with normal maintenance, far longer if you give your mower really good care. Continued |
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