OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Finding and Swapping For Sale Sunbeam Electric Twin

Cruising Gumtree and spotted this.

Vintage Sunbeam Electric Lawn Mower,
https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/lat...ttons&utm_content=android_VIP_sticky

Curious thing. Shame I don't really have the money or space at the moment. Mind you, for that money I think it'll be safe for a while.

Of course, Jack has a history record of this model:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/76641/SUNBEAM_Twin_Rotor_Electric_Mo.html

G'day Mystyler
Yes, a brilliant little mower was the twin-rotor sunbeam.
These first sunbeams sold well here!

The downside - with twin chutes - meant that the factory
never offered a grass catcher.

This did not stop one inventive Australian from making
a twin catcher system ...



I apologise, my History Record has not yet covered the
second model - the twin-rotor single discharge port job.
Here, Sunbeam did offer a factory catcher.
[These are the rarer machines]



Cheers
---------------------
Jack

Evening Jack,

Thanks for the photos - I had wondered how you could fit a catcher, and you didn't, you fit two! That's a great bit of engineering. The factory catcher does look a bit sleeker, in a way...?

I don't have an electric mower in my collection. (Did I just say I have a collection?) I'll keep an eye on it. Looks very, very original.

G'day Mystyler
Yes, a catcher only became relevant when rear-catcher rotaries
were popularised 1962. Victa popularised the rear catcher jobs.

Australia's first rear catcher mower was probably the Crowe: -
[note the year!]

https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...minor-major-rotary-lawnmowers-c1956.html

The twin-chute Sunbeam was introduced when rotary catchers
were not the accepted norm.

You have now come out of the closet and revealed
yourself as a ... 'collector'! Like an AA meeting, or
Covid-19, this is the first stage to a cure.

I will add this. For serious AUS collectors, the collection
should include a Tecnico - our first AUS-made rotary mower.

I feel many collectors remain in denial - that an electric
was our first rotary. They want it to be a Victa; in the same
way they want a large polluting ute to represent masculinity.

It isn't ... Yes, an inconvenient truth ... Myth busted.

[Sorry for the rant, but I welcome Mystyler's view that
a vintage electric lawnmower might form part of a collection.
We need to save the early electric mowers!]

Cheers
------------------------
Jack

No, no, no. You've got it mistaken Jack.

I don't have a collection. I have multiple options of solving the lawn trimming problem!

Thanks for the bit of history. I've done some more reading because of it. I have often wondered why the Victas were collected, but anything else of the same vintage seems to be passed over, including Rovers.

Brilliant Mystyler! But you are in denial.
You know you want it ...

Mystyler, you have answered the question yourself -
"I've done some more reading because of it,"

You are informed, intelligent, and thoughtful ...
because you ask the right questions.

I identified the Tecnico as our first rotary some time ago.
It was a surprise to me too! But credit were credit is due.

Most AUS collectors are in denial about this.
For them, Victa is the Holy Grail.

They speak through ignorance.

Victa is a deserved AUS icon, but the true collector looks
beyond the obvious and the popular.

Many folks - on these forums - understand this.

Many thanks for the interest in AUS lawnmower history.

Cheers
--------------------
Jack

Stop it Jack, you're too kind.

She's been saved to my favourite items on Gumtree, the sooner I finish my other projects, the sooner I may be able to fit in another. Being electric, there won't be too much to it I wouldn't have thought.

I passed up on an absolutely mint INGS Rota-Rola today. Looks like it was used a dozen times and then parked up for decades. Even had the metal catcher. Only asking $90. I just simply have no room, and this would have had to sit in the elements. With winter well and truly on the way, I just couldn't do it. I hope it went to a good home. I just love oddball machines.

Speaking of oddballs, I agree. It's the weird machines that I would have thought that collectors (uh, those with highly specialised and varied lawn mowing requirements) would be going for. Victa's reputation is well deserved, but the 18 was a mass produced machine. Kinda like SB45s. Both go for huge prices. Maybe it's simply parts availability or easy recognition of the model that has helped in this regard, but I don't really get it. Hey, I'd have a Rotomo in my...fleet...but to pay a couple of grand for one? Holy moly.

Mind, people may think I'm nuts trying to get a modified, ex-commercial use Pope 320 back into service, so I guess it's a case of each to their own.