Hi All, I picked this beauty (in the eye) up today. It looks to be an early Rover Rider with the yellow paint and the manual height adjustment on the front wheels. However, after reading everything I could on here about them, I'm a little perplexed by the ID plate on it that says Model 1100. Sadly, there is precious little info on the Rover Riders to start with but a model 1100 is a zero search. Does anyone on here have any ideas?? I'm certain the Honda GX140 motor is not original spec. Thank you
Yes the motor doesn't look original ,I don't think other people on here have shown the model number on the sticker before, if you don't have the original Rover dealers paperwork it's a little difficult to decipher.
Yes I love these old slashers being brought back to life they will go on forever with a bit of maintenance, couple of belts , maybe a couple of bearings, couple of tubes in the tyres and away you go, cut grass for as long as you want to. Hopefully the Honda will fire up with a carby clean or a new carb and happy days
I am restoring one of these as I write. Exactly the same model of Rider. I am guessing yours would also be same vintage as mine, 1975, possibly earlier, as it doesn't have the additional extensions on the side flaps.
Yours is missing the front of the frame. I have one here in poorly repaired condition, which looked a bit too ugly to put back on, so I ended up getting a new one made at a local engineering works.
Motor is not original. If you need a replacement the only one that will fit the bolt holes today is the B&S Vanguard 10HP. Honda will fit but you have to drill new holes in the base. I found the Chinese Honda clones a poor fit as everything like the throttle and choke mechanisms are reversed, making it impossible to install remote manual hand controls. I gave up on them and went with the B&S, which fit like a glove and everything is set up the same as the old ones.
By the way, I could be wrong, in which case my machine has always been wrong, but hasn't somebody put the engine pulley on backwards??? I've never seen the pulley that way around before. Maybe they had to do it because the shaft was out using that engine. I came across the same problems with the Chinese Honda clones which is why I was forced to ditch them for the more compatible B&S.
I have a jockey seat "tow behind" for mine. Although a dangerous thing in reality, I thought I would do it up for sake of completing the project. I can send you specs for the jockey seat if you like. I have done a lot of searching for an original spec sheet for the jockey seat, but so far have not found one. If you are good at welding you could easily make your own. Mine was badly bent up after someone apparently ran it into a gully and abandoned it to rust away in a paddock. A bloke who was slashing years later spotted it and narrowly avoided running over it. It took a lot of bashing and a trip to a local smash repairer to get it back in its original shape.
Tyres and tubes in 2.50-6 are still readily available. Wheel hubs are not, so be careful not to break the hubs when replacing old bearings. I broke one recently and took the second one to an engineer who (would you believe it) managed to break that one as well. The bearings can sometimes be very difficult to dislodge even with heat and proper technique, especially if some knob before you has decided to glue them in place. Goes without saying, never use epoxy glue on a wheel bearing!
Replacement wheels? Basically secondhand only. There are no modern wheels to my knowledge that are available that will fit the slasher, as they had an extremely short axle, so you need a wheel with a hub width of only about 50 mm. Shortest I can find on the market today has a hub width of 55 mm and stands about 2 cm too high to suit the dog drive. However the tow behind jockey seat was made with slightly longer axles and you can get a few different wheels that will fit, including one with 2.50-6 puncture-free gel tyres. I guess if you ever want to build your own "chariot" you could make the axles longer to suit any wheel you like. Bearing diameter on these (and the slasher axles) are 5/8".
Paint? I sourced a closely matching paint in WA, or you can get it colour matched in many paint stores.
Decals? I got some printed for mine and still have the design templates. They are not perfectly original but are a very close match. I use Stickeroo for all my sticker printing these days.
Blades? You can still get the blades for these! Readily available but watch the price.
Hi Vint_mow, Thank you for the amazing insight, you probably saved me half a head of white hairs.
I agree that the pulley is on back to front BUT the motor may be to blame because the wheel drive currently lines up in this configuration (or perhaps the previous owner just liked it wild).
The most I have done so far is empty a can of WD-40 at it ,so I look forward to some evaluation on the weekend.
One of the things I love about these machines is the basic engineering that makes up most of the parts. You CAN wander into a local engineer and have them fabricate a part.
That is what I like about them. The rough and ready 1970s Queensland fabrication. Just whatever metal that was available at the time got welded together.
These walk behind slashers were often used to mow school grounds. Mine mowed a primary school grounds for about 30 years and went through two engines before the school closed. Then it sat under a tarpaulin in my uncle's yard for another 15-20 years before I purchased it. I used it several times before deciding to renovate it, which has been a lot more time-consuming than I first thought. I found lots of parts had worn out or been replaced with dodgy things - like washers packed together to replace the proper bushings. It took me months to get all the parts together, but I'm finally at a stage where it is nearly ready to paint.
I see you are in Toowoomba. I am only about 20 minutes drive from there.
I meant to add that you can still get the wheel bearings. I guess I'm stuck on wheels at present because that is where I am currently at with my rebuild.
I can't really understand the model 1100, but Rover tended to use inconsistent numbering. For instance my machine did not have a sticker but was stamped into the metal frame with a very long number. I guess it only made sense to them. I have three manuals. One is dated 7/75 and it states the Model number was 4135 (for the 7HP, 275CC model with engine No. 170402) and Model 4148, (a 8 HP, 319CC model with engine No. 190402). The sulky type riding attachment was Model 43. A dual wheel model was also available but carried the same model numbers. A later manual is dated 3/91 and it gives Model number 4148 (for 8 HP, engine No. 195432) and model 4190 (for engine no. G300 QZDF). It does not mention the sulky attachment. The third manual is dated 12/2003 but is only an updated spare parts plan and does not mention any model numbers.
So Model 1100 is a bit of a mystery to me, but judging by the haphazard numbering systems I've seen on other early Rovers, this does not surprise me. Rover sometimes did odd things, like mine was a 1975 model, but for some reason they put a late 1960s / early 1970s era badge on the front of it (the one with the smaller letters). I guess they just used up whatever they still had in stock, and that included the yellow paint, up until they finally switched over to blue hammertone.
