Hi Ken,


I'll have to say that I wouldn't have recommended the 20 inch in Series II guise that's for sure.

20 inch in Solid Deck, absolutely, but the twin railer was just far too unstable as the width allows for too much flex within the chassis, which in turn leads to poor blade alignment and premature wear of the reel and bed knife. They also had their reel bearing size reduced down to a RLS5 so as to streamline them to the other size machines being made side by side at the time.

Everyone around Australia is looking for the Solid Deck 20 inch machines and they are considered "ABSOLUTE GOLD". You can easily pay up to $1,000 for a good original Kirby powered example as there's not much work required to restore one back to an as new finish. It'll be basically all cosmetic work, but most of the later Series II twin railers will require the gusset repair method to be applied which if you don't have all the skills and facilities to do it yourself will become a rather costly exercise.

In saying the above though, if you get a twin railer and have it correctly repaired with much longer gussets inserted under the rails then this will stiffen up the chassis considerably and make it a much more feesable machine in the long term than it was when originally manufactured.

The 20 inch twin railers were discontinued due to falling sales in the late 1970's and also I'd say their design flaws which were quickly revealed by many mower shops as they would've been presented rather frequently for much the same issues, thus many have found their way to scrap years ago with totally failed rails.

Cheers,
BB.


I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.