OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames Old Greenfield Ride-on: First Model?

PART 3: Details.

Axle pivot: Gadge and others have mentioned before that the 'Reds' have the early style centre pivot front axle (as opposed to the axle nesting in a channel on later HD8's and beyond) and that the earlier ones were just a piece of flat plate and later ones were slightly formed. I noticed from the beginning that my G40 machine had something different altogether - welded RHS. Wasn't sure if this was original or a repair. gml's machine above is the evidence I needed. It's original and the earliest type (my unproved assumption).

As I mentioned earlier, the rusty straight rail with the G badge that I assume was G65 has the flat plate type. This and the G badge itself help place it in the timeline but of course we need written material here too. Similarly, the little G50 of mine has the formed one and helps (or hinders ?) in dating this machine.




Steering Lever Arm:

I've not mentioned this before. Photos below. All the Reds and HD8s I've ever seen have a cast aluminium arm. When I got my old girl home I noticed the steel arm. Again, was it original? gml's machine has helped again. Original and once again appears to predate the alloy ones seen normally.




Transmission Cover: Again, all Reds and HD8s have the one piece cover that's tapered in plan towards the bonnet. These earlier machines have a two piece cover that leaves the drive chain exposed (how very un-OH&S!) and allows access to the drive belt tensioner. Again, we can assume an earlier design. Also, it can well be imagined that when the design was first created the need for easy access to the tensioner was envisaged with hindsight demonstrating this wasn't necessary and was removed from later variants.




Chain width: this is an interesting one. My G40 machine has a massive 3/4 inch width drive chain and sprockets. Every other greenfield Ive ever known has 5/8" width. Again I'm putting this down to an initial design that was modified quite quickly with hindsight.




Piano hinge bonnet: appears it didn't last long and I'm guessing (guessing) it was never used with the G65 machines. Again has to be a first that was quickly changed as everything else has the pivot on or near the upper forward height arm bolt (depending on whether straight rail or dropped.

There are other differences but I'm guessing most people are starting to yawn so I'll quit while I'm ahead.

Short summary to follow