Thanks Max, the 2 strokes and the Ariens are certainly of interest.If I can get an answer from the bloke I will let you know Ironbark. Another issue is it was listed 3 weeks ago so anything could be possible. Bit hard to make make an offer as the deal includes 2 rideons of which there is no picture.
I haven't inquired about any of the mowers here as I'm still downsizing the collection of mowers I have.
The first mower and trimmer will be gone by now.
With Facebook marketplace you can find some things advertised there that you can't find anywhere else.
I've bought 5 old mowers from Marketplace but probably 50 percent of the time people don't respond to messages and won't even let you know if the item is sold even though the item is still listed for sale.
Haven't had any trouble dealing with sellers that responded on Marketplace but have had trouble buying from eBay ,I've arranged a time on eBay for pickup and get there and the seller isn't home then have to ring and wait for them to get home and a few that have messaged me on eBay with incorrect phone numbers.
Hopefully the Ariens will be a good mower Norm but looks a little strange with a catcher and side throw on at the same time ,would be good if they have the block off cover to go with the mower.
I’ve learned recently that many people just send old mowers to the scrap metal merchant. There are also people who make a decent amount of money driving around with a truck or ute towing a tandem trailer and gathering up all the mowers out in kerbside recycling and taking bulk lots in for scrap.
It’s a real shame as there are many machines that can be revived with a simple fix or, if not, donate parts to allow others to live on. Some of these older mowers can give two lifetimes use if well maintained and the scrap value is negligible. It seems barbaric and short sighted to me but I like old mowers and I’m pretty sure that isn’t a common trait in the population.
I have a mate who lives at Erica which is quite hilly and I got an Ariens sorted for him a couple of months ago and last week when I was talking to him he said he couldn't believe what he was saying and that mowing his lawns these days is an absolute pleasure. I guess if you have been pushing a mower on hilly ground then anything self propelled would be a pleasure
Ironbark, fortunately a lot of scrappies are cunning enough to know they can often get more for a mower or genset or similar by reselling it rather than scrapping it. I know there is a scrap guy over here (lost his number but I know generally where he is) has a pile and anything of value machinery wise gets put in this pile and either he and the yard guys take them home, or they sell them off cheaply.
Another scrap place I asked when I went to drop some electric motors and they said they have an arrangement with a guy that will up to $15 for anything half decent and $2 per trimmer or stuffed mower.
There is still a lot probably going into waste, but not as many complete mowers as one may think.
Alloy decks may be a different story - but we have more steel over here
I’d agree Norm. I have a very hilly place and end up mowing a decent proportion of the area with my Deutcher because the ride-on can get a bit lairy. Self propelled mowers certainly make the job a lot easier and I don’t think the job could be done in any efficient time period without them.
For cleaning up around trees and other obstacles I find there’s a fine line between adequate manoeuvrability and the convenience of self propulsion. The alloy body full crank Victa Special 160 is light, doesn’t churn dust and it’s very easy to change direction with so those machines get votes from me in that regard. I’m making up a couple in different configurations to see which is better.
If there were a durable, commercial grade, light weight, easily manoeuvred, 2-stroke, self-propelled I’d own one but it seems you can’t have all of that in one package. I’ve seen the Victa 505\550 and they are great but getting one of those at a reasonable price, that hasn’t been worked to death, is very challenging.
Hi Ironbark, I was discussing this with another mate who mows lawns and he has a full mix of mowers from a 24,Ariens,Hondas a Deutscher self propelled and a couple of 18 inch Victas and that is for the reason you said, no one mower covers all jobs. He tries to plan his days so he takes the right mowers/slashers for the jobs he is doing that day. Believe it or not he is in McKinnon in inner Melb, he only works very local and he has 7 customers where he uses his 24
Tyler, I’m pleased not everything gets scrapped that goes to the scrap merchant. Although, as some of the things I’ve been looking for are from alloy base machines, I’m probably going to find it harder going than it should be.
I’ve not been able to find a steel flip up guard for an alloy base Special 160 for example. Something that I would really like to finish off one project.
Another, probably unrelated, annoyance is that despite hunting, there are no flywheel nuts for attaching starter cups to be had for love nor money. I can make these but you’d think with hundreds of junk Victa mowers there’s likely to be three floating around.
Norm, I gather there’s plenty of people in town, who cut their back lawn only a couple of times a season. It’s probably why he finds himself using the 24. They’re great for high growth on rough surfaces if the overall topography is relatively flat.
I can see I’m going to end up with a user selection of seven mowers, I could probably reduce it by swapping blades but that would take a fair bit of extra time so it’s going to be much more efficient to grab another mower than swap a set of blades. It’s a bit of a work in progress. I should probably start a thread to see how others manage it.
I've asked at a few places what happens with their scrap mowers, one tip said they all go to scrap metal and don't allow anyone to buy their mowers another scrap yard I had to convince to sell me a couple of Victa 18's but they said they won't sell mowers and all will go to scrap metal.
The 50 alloy bases that I took to scrap were so I could build up other mowers that needed parts as most of the 50 I had were incomplete mowers and were only bought for parts to finish off better mowers ,I only scrap the bases ,axles and handle bars.
I generally don't buy a lot of new parts to repair an old mower if I can buy a mower with good blades then I don't buy new blades.
The 50 that were dismantled have already helped to complete 10 good mowers ,3 are already sold .
As it's a cost neutral hobby it would be impossible to fix them all and all engine parts etc are used .
Yes a lot of people go around filling a trailer or truck and all the complete mowers go straight to scrap also have seen a lot of people that have collected say a 100 mowers and they just sit out in the rain rusting.
I can understand irreparably broken mowers, cheap junk mowers, and those not designed to be rebuildable going to scrap. However, it doesn’t make sense to me when old full cranks get lumped in with them.
However, I’m just one person and I guess there’s not too many others around who are interested in this stuff. I can remember when old drivable hq holdens with registration were being sold for $100 not so many years back and plenty with minor damage were not considered worth repairing and went straight to the crusher. Now those same cars are fetching big money.
