It's interesting the time some people must spend making up catchers Speedy,I have a plastic Victa catcher and the lower half is made from fibreglass but looks perfectly formed and it's black . Looking at the catcher up close is how can you tell it's not plastic but only from the inside.
Catchers are always a problem to me unless they are Victa or the odd Rover. I don't think of selling a rear chute mower without a catcher so in a few cases if I have a reasonable mower without a catcher I will have a look at fitting a Victa catcher to it, if too difficult I just scrap the mower and keep the motor for something I can put together with a catcher
G'day NormK maxwestern and speedy, I'm surprised if that doesn't tip back with a full load of clips. That puts any thumblatch catcher to shame. Pity Victa didn't offer an extra large catcher as an option.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
I purchased a Victa Mayfair some years ago and it also had a homemade catcher on it. The whole thing is solid galvanized iron and aluminium. Very well made but also heavy. Someone had even worked some air vents in the side. I never use catchers. On my Rover mowers I do like most people around town here. We just throw caution to the wind and tie up the rear flap a bit, and let stuff fly out the back with wild abandon. This past season has seen the grass grow so high and so fast that you would be emptying a catcher every few steps. I wear heavy duty welder's pads around my legs in case something flies. In over 25 years of mowing, nothing ever has. My pads have copped a few hits from stones from time to time but with the pads around my legs I barely even feel them. I do use a rear throw chute on my Victa Mayfair, which works well. A lot of my old girls do not have catchers. To tell the truth I am not a fan of catchers, mainly because they take up far too much room in the shed. Basically they are just bulky ornaments as far as I am concerned. I will try to get a photo of my homemade catcher soon to post up. As with my other catchers, they just tend to take up room in the shed and usually end up covered in piles of other stuff, so it might take me a while to dig out.
Hmm not sure when the fibreglass catcher was made Norm and Mf ,it could have been made in the eighties or early nineties, I didn't see these Victa catchers for free back then.
I think I still have a couple new never used Victa catchers ,I've had lots of new catchers given to me and 3 new alloy bases but I just gave them away with $80 to $100 mowers.
I've never bothered picking up grass with catchers just leave the grass where it falls.
I'm a no catcher person....... I used them for 7 years mowing lawns........ My mate offered me a rare Pope catcher for my Pope 320-03..... I refused......... Worst hit from mower was from a 7 HP Deckson stashler to my shin...... quarter inch cut deep, hit bone, no blood.... Finished job...... Took a while to heal. Now I drill a hole in the back flap and attack a wire to the hanldes , have back flap at about 45 degrees. Blows grass out.... no blood... cheers speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
One thing I have noticed since getting interested in early Victa stuff is that the further south you go the more common the parts become. Nearly every part I have ever bought has come from Sydney or Melbourne area. The mowers only turn up rarely. To see an old Victa as a giveaway on the footpath up here would be about as rare as spotting a chook with teeth. As for a catcher, forget it.
Funny, because on occasion, I have seen rare desirable Powertorque era models like the pro series rear catcher models, both SP and push, in good working condition. No Vortex or GTS Mustang though. Victoria is best for those hard to get elsewhere models. When they do come up in Sydney, sellers want more for them. Wollongong seems to be a good one for rarer models at reasonable asking prices.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
