I have two manuals for these Rover Heavy Duty walk behind slasher mowers, and will try to post them up soon. Or will I have to send them to a moderator to post up? I am not sure how to post PDF files.
It seems there were about 4 or maybe 5 models of these built over two and a bit decades. I have been unable to locate a manual for the earliest model. I wonder if anybody can help out in this regard?
They changed a bit over time. Early models were yellow with a red engine. By around 1972 Rover were forced by legislation to put enclosures around the belts for safety, and the paint changed from CAT yellow to hammertone royal blue. The royal blue colour persisted until 1979.They added a height adjustment lever which was a great benefit for operators. On the early models, operators had to go through the tedious process of manually raising or lowering the front wheels. The odd thing is that despite addressing safety issues, they still continued to make the optional "sulky", which you could hitch behind and sit on! I know someone who has one of these sulkies, and it is said to be an original Rover-made one. I will try to get some photos of it. They are extremely rare today.
I think Rover stopped making these walk behind slashers into the 80s at some point, my guess would be around 1983. There was a red model made, suggesting they did certainly make it into the 1980s. These and the earlier blue models often came with a "We Make it Great in the Sunshine State" sticker from 1979 on. This slogan was popularized in 1979 and the stickers persisted through much of the 1980s. They help to place these machines in a time and place.
The Rover in the attached photo is currently for sale in Tamworth and must be a 1979 model, given that it has the Sunshine State sticker on top. A parts manual published in 2003 suggests that Rover were still stocking parts for these slashers. But of course that all ended in 2010 when Rover merged with American-based MTD. This move meant that decades of history would be lost forever. I have contacted MTD about these historical mowers and received a three word reply from them: "Sorry too old".
Another page on this forum showing the optional "sulky". This early model was marketed as the "Rover Rider", before being called the "Rover Heavy Duty Slasher Mower".
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=59808Some more links to pages from Outdoorking forum.
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...eavy-duty-mower-images-from-vietnam.htmlhttps://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=55004https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=48386https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/110234/looking-for-a01398-link-belt.htmlhttps://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...type-of-walk-behind-slasher-is-this.htmlhttps://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/116031/my-old-rover-rider-slasher.html
