I put this one together from left over parts (rubbish) ,just had to pay for the new KN low pressure regulator ,that was about $60.
It's half Rover Utility from the seventies and half a full crank 2 stroke Victa Utility base ,I guess that makes a RoVic mower.
Running straight LPG now but the fuel tank is there so could easily be made to run duel fuel.
The last LPG mower I had, didn't have the engine governor working and had no gas cut out if the motor stalled in long grass so this one is a lot better ,also has 4 blades compared with the last LPG mower that used a bar blade.
Not finished yet but has been tested and works well.
Hi Max, that is good and I know petrol prices have risen and I guess it has the environmental advantage of low emissions but I can't see there being a market for them. I hope you have a fitting so you can fill the bottle at a servo because if you had to pay the bottle exchange price it could be expensive
I only run this mower on car LPG and fill the BBQ bottle myself from discarded car LPG tanks so doesn't cost anything for fuel.
Online there are a few places that are happy for you to take away old car LPG tanks and they usually have 10 to 20 litres still in them .Scrap yards and tips also have a few bottles ,but I haven't needed to collect any bottles for years as I still have a few with gas . If I had to buy LPG I would fill a fork lift tank at the servo and fill the small bottle from that as you would still save at least 50 percent in running costs and LPG does't go off so it will keep for decades.
In summer with a petrol mower the 1/4 of a tank of petrol left after mowing usually evaporates away by the next time you use the mower but with LPG you have no loss of fuel from evaporation.
I haven't seen LPG mowers for sale in Aus but in the UK and US they are available .
Didn't think anyone else would want one but I will get to use up some old LPG and haven't noticed any difference in power with this LPG mower.
Took me years to empty all the car LPG tanks we had here using them for the BBQ. So did you buy the carby kit or just direct the gas straight into the existing carby
I Imagine an LPG mower is much better for the environment as mowers are devoid of pollution gear that cars have and you won't have the problems you get with petrol carbies fouling up.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Yes it's impossible for the carby to foul up Mf , you could leave the mower in a shed for 10 years and it would still start first go.
I've looked at all the different LPG mower setups Norm and a lot are expensive and some LPG carbies are made to fit one size motor only.
I went with this KN low pressure regulator because it will run LPG up to 40 hp and will run Natural gas ,the carby on my mower just uses a 1/4 inch copper pipe that fits into where the main jet was.
What about a steam powered mower. I could burn all my off cuts......... cheers speedy
Once you add a boiler to a mower Speedy it will look like a steam tractor. I think it would be easier to make a steam generator and run an electric mower.
Originally Posted by NormK
Ok so you got the fitting Max, did that include the converter for the $60?
The carby gas fitting above that looks professionally made costs more than the gas converter Norm ,the most economic way is to buy the converter and make the rest ,all my gas fittings were from discarded Barbeques and I already had a lot of workshop / Vehicle air line fittings. I just used a 1/4 outside diameter copper car gas pipe that fits into the drilled out main jet position in the carby.
Originally Posted by Mowerfreak
How do you transfer the LPG from the car tank to the mower tank? Is the pressure greater than the mower tank?
To fill one gas bottle from another you just need to plum them together.
The outlet of a Barbeque bottle is the filler port but you must open the bleeder screw on the bottle so liquid gas will expel from the bottle when it's 80 percent full ,when that happens you stop filling and close the bleeder screw.
The pressure in the car tank is greater than the mower tank but I have filled larger tanks with smaller bottles as long as you can open a bleeder valve on the large tank that is being filled you won't have a problem.
The problem with filling a larger tank with a smaller tank is the car tanks don't have bleeder valves but I have installed bleeder vales in large car tanks so I can transfer gas from smaller bottles.
The Victa 2 stroke is ok if the grass isn't too long Mf but I'm getting tired of the noisy 2 stroke when I turn the revs up to cut long grass, also the 2 stroke uses twice the fuel as the Honda. Costs for motors are the same ,plenty of people throw Honda and Victa out here.
I have never found a Honda, only Chondas. They must be treated like gold up this way.
Max must have hit a magical fountain of Honda somewhere, because all the really good ones, even decades old, seem to fetch big prices. Plenty of the fake ones available to be picked up, along with the lower end versions. I seem to cop a sea of Briggs (though these seem to have picked up lately in price, and more people seem to be rejuvenating them rather than chucking them out), PT's, fake Honda and assorted Gardenline/Talon/Etc.
In any case, I love that mod Max. Pure genius. If only LPG was still going for 10 cents a litre.
With the Honda mowers I just keep the engines and throw the rest out , I've sold good running Honda motors for $25. and bought Honda motors at swap meets for $10. ,I see Honda mowers advertised really cheap ,a lot of people are going electric ,the council is already using an electric zero turn ride on mower and using an electric robotic mower.
LPG is 0 cents a litre for the mower , there is always someone throwing out old car tanks and BBQ bottles with gas in them, I probably have 50 litres in old tanks to use up already.
