OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum OutdoorKing Showcase Mobilco Rotary Hoe

This was at the scrap yard today.

Engine turns over Ok by hand. Kohler 6.5HP. Muffler is a bit rude and the air cleaner is missing.
Belt drives down to the rear of the gearbox. The mechanisim is missing for the Idler/tensioner. Id say theres meant to be a rod up to the handle.
They are both twin Vee pulleys of different diamters id say for different ratios.
Looks like the motor has been fitted at some stage as its up on spacers.
The belt was trash, starting to fall apart.

Tines go round when the motor turns.


Should i buy it????
The ask was $75. Bit rich i thought at the time, but after a bit more thought its probably pretty cheap.
m sure i could easy make my money back on it but ive got enough to do and would be too tempted to keep it. (and probably fit a G65 onto it as that would probably be more the right era)


Anyone thing i should grab it??
If anyone wants it, i could go back and grab it tomorrow. Would need the cash back within a week.

Cheers, Bob.

I haven't worked with rotary hoes Bob (boy, the things I could do with that straight line) but it looks as if it has virtually no weight on the tines, and an extremely narrow track. Compared with the other hoe you worked on recently, it does not look like a serious machine. It might be a fairly nice high powered 2 stroke engine, if it hasn't been dusted, but that is a high price to pay just for an engine - especially one with a horizontal crankshaft, so it would have to be changed around to use it on a slasher.

I pretty sure its a 4 stroke Grumpy.


It is a fairly large machine. id say the tines are 22" wide probably wider.

The inner and outer tines seem to be the opposite way around on the two sides. The last tenant may have made improvements.

With the narrow track between the wheels, and the lack of weight over the tines, I suspect you are supposed to pull upward on the handles to get it to dig deeply. Sounds uncomfortable for the operator, but at least while it was resting on the tines, it couldn't tip over sideways.

Do you have a use for a rotary hoe? Seems like a tool for a small-scale landscape or vegetable gardener, in the 100 square metres class.

Nah i would have no use for it. I have a fork. lol.


Dad could use it, but he is in sand country and hes got that tiller i fixed up a while back. He has no time for a vegi garden and theres an old landmaster Rotary hoe in his shed, that will do the same as the above with great ease as long as its sorted propperly.

Hello tiller lovers
This topic is now very old - almost a decade [now 2021].

For the record, this is a Jet rotary tiller.
Mobilco were the Australian importers and distributors
of Ariens products in the 1960s and 1970s.

I am still gathering information on Mobilco tillers.

---------------------------
Jack