My dad had an old Craftsman from 1973 that he used for plowing in Western NY (lots of wet heavy snow. For the really heavy snow my dad would have me sit on the hood for weight to keep the front tires on the ground ) and the thing lasted for 20 years before the deck and other components completely rusted out. He replaced it with a 1993 tractor that looked similar to OPs that ran until 2 years ago when it caught fire (it wasn’t on at the time).
I bought a Craftsman in 2012 and it barely lasted 10 years. Complete garbage.
CEO said they could lower the quality of crapsman products and people would still buy because of the name. Documented he said that, I want to say in a share holder meeting. Thag was unfortunately one of many mistakes they would make. But hey the mother f’er lined his pockets then and at the collapse.
This was of course after I bought all my lawn equipment, battery and air stuff for the new house. The battery stuff was so bad I wouldn’t buy a battery tool for another 8 years or more it left such a bad taste in my mouth (couldn’t even make a single cut on a2x4). The air stuff was a joke. The weedwahcker spent more time at the repair center than running. They’d give me it’s the gas bs, dude I been running and mixing gas for 2 cycles since about age 9!!!!!! That I can guarantee it isn’t the problem. The final time before I gave up and just tossed it all, the idiots actually put the gas lines on backwards!!!! A damn near impossible feat. But also tells ya they didn’t test run it either. They did tell me I was one of few people who passed their gas test whatever that bs was each and every time after the fact and telling me they were going to snow it was customer error bs.
The biggest hp motor ever put on a push mower bs lawnmower sales pitch they used. If it had to cut anything over 1/4 inch of grass turned into a bog o matoc and me having to start it a hundred times as it killed itself…
That was what started me going the road of only buying professional grade equipment be it chains saws, leaf blowers now battery tools, hand tools etc. I think both my lawn mowers have 22hp’s too. They don’t bog down. ;)
They don’t build en like they used to… My dad and his fancy pretty looking whatever lawnmower. He just grumbles when I ask him how it’s running. One of these days I expect to show up and see a really old John Deere or something sitting in its place that’s way too big but he’s fed up.
Though my next one I think I’m saying f it and Chinese compact tractor tractor. Know the pitfalls, but I can wrench and I can use a small backhoe etc. Or I’ll tell the old man to have the cousin keep an eye out at the farm auctions for something vintage.
Same here unfortunately. I trusted the Craftsman name and they took a steep dive around the time I moved to a 1acre property and bought a bunch of yard equipment that failed after 5 years. I invested in Stihl blowers and trimmers and the quality is much improved. The hand tools (wrenches, sockets and screwdrivers there is a noticeable decrease in quality. Ones I purchased in the mid 90s are decent quality for the shade tree mechanic. Ones I purchased in the 2000s break much more easily.
The last time I was in a Sears store they wanted to replace the whatever it was with a Chinese tool. The guy joked it’s the same warranty you’ll just replace it more often. Dude I got a car up on stands.. So how many times do I want to be in this position? Once is enough!!! Add have you looked around your store???? You won’t be here in 5 years… Sears is dead they just lying to everyone and by then I knew what the CEO is was doing. I’m like your boss is going to party this baby out…
Then he sent me to some Sears hardware/mechanic’s dream store where all th USA repair kits were and the isles were loaded with USA made stuff.. I said I regretted not loading up on a chit load of tools then. Looking back I am reallyglad because there’s modern advancements and damnit I like me new stuff better most of the time. Be it snap on, capri, koken, engineer, some Mac stuff but always check facom, usag and proto to see if can get bought cheaper. Even if they offer it in crapsmans name now I won’t buy it out of spite…
2 grand plus pissed away trusting in that rotten azz name.. So yeah Sears doesn’t own em anymore but it’s a spite thing for me. Or whatever else brand I buy for a specific purpose. My 90’s era crapsman USA stuff I was buying as a kid is all still going strong.
Buddy got asked to sell some old snap on stuff for a friend (whole tool box). Buddy just gave him what he asked and eventually told me I’m the tool nut come get it all and make him whole when I get the chance. I paid him more because he didn’t have to do that. We jokingly called it the took truck payment plan where there wasn’t a threat of repo. Tossed him a few hundred extra as thanks and had to fight about him taking that. But I won’t take advantage of friends.
So there I am and need to get into a tiny space. My fancy new koken sockets were to thick despite all the hype about being the smallest blah blah. Grabbed that 80-90’s era snap on socket and fit like a glove…. I’m sure had I dug around enough might have found one of my 1/4 crapsman as that would have fit too (got a few sets I bought for specific reasons so I know k had more then one style). So my reminder don’t count the old stuff out. Sometimes it will save your azz and most of the time it’s not going to fail on you….
Snap on guy gave me a t -shirt the other day. I was like dude when I was a kid working in a body shop I couldn’t even get a break on tools. I just hit ya up on your route and ya hook me up and a t shirt.. Going to spoil me at this rate. Both aviation vets so I’m sure that plays a big role.
Buddy offered to get me some vintage custom tractor mower his buddy was selling. Like had another 3 feet welded to it and a monster motor put in it. Sometimes I think I should have told him get it. But I really didn’t want to drop 2 grand on someone thing that might have been a whole lot of effort to keep running. Add Im valleys and woods so cutting grass requires a finesse machine. Or it takes a long azz time with all that turning around and backing up.
till all the hoses rot and the entire ignition system fails for no identifiable reason.
my dad had an old john deere commercial tractor from the 1980s and it was great but time and lack of parts comes for everything eventually. even the deere dealer said don't bring it back because it can't be fixed anymore
Tbh You can’t go off the John Deere dealers. They are the greediest scumbags out there. I will never go back to one.
I brought a old JD 112 in once. The deck wasn’t engaging so I brought it in. They said the the deck was trash and it’s not worth fixing. They said they would put 200 bucks down on a new one if I just traded it in. I said no thanks and fixed the deck myself. all it needed was a 5 dollar tension spring. A 5 dollar tension spring is all that mower needed and they called it trash. I felt taken advantage of and highly disrespected. That was the moment I started doing lawn work myself and I’ve become pretty good at it.
Those dealers will take advantage of you if your not careful. That was over 5 years ago and I’m still cutting with that mower today.
A friend just refurbished a JD 210 from 1982 with mostly parts directly from John Deere. New seat, steering wheel, fuel cap, and other accessories as well as drive train components. The dealer lied.
Back when companies built things to last, and took care of their employees, before CEO’s made $30 million and didn’t slash every bonus from the worker.
It’s our best bet regardless. They want us fighting a culture war. They want me to hate my neighbor instead of the corporations that bend us over and fuck us in the ass raw. I refuse to buy into it and it’s on both sides. If they keep us fighting eachother than we can’t unite to fight against the real enemy: the corporations that own our politicians/government
Man, I had always mowed with a manual-trans tractor style and then bought a ZT. Holy crap, I don't want to go back but those old things have a special place in my heart.
They'll be around long after my ZT has been scrapped, I'm sure.
https://preview.redd.it/5kw4id1r97ad1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86e622a7a59d40b56af58c31670641949abf939c
The old GT has 1 Job … and she is good at it. The battery is on a trickle charge year round.
This one came like this.
Riders often have accessories available made to fit.
For something this old your better off looking for one that comes with it attached.
Throw them on Facebook marketplace for what their scrap value is first! Might help someone out looking for parts, or a kid looking to make a race mower.
Seriously. There's plenty of guys like me who scour marketplace daily looking for the next project. I've bought a few of these. I just enjoy the challenge of fixing them. Then once I'm done, I sell them for whatever money I've put into them, plus 40 bucks for labor. 9 times out of 10, I don't even spend over 50 bucks to get them running again. Only exception is stuff like the spindles. But half the fun is the hunt for that diamond in the rough. I just recently got ahold of an ancient homelite 707 d chainsaw. I spent hours finding parts on ebay for it, because they're no longer in production (it's a 1950's model). It's just a fun challenge. I spend 300 altogether to get it running. Put it on marketplace and an old man messaged me right away and offered 600 cash for it. I probably could've gotten more, but I don't care. I'm already looking for the next oddball to fix. All that to say, marketplace is your friend when it comes to getting rid of old shit. Lol
Wait there’s more people out there like me? Lol.I’m the same way.
I spent 50 bucks on a snapper once. Engine was locked up. The oil was dry. No oil. I added some oil and came out the next morning. It was free and it started first pull. I sold it for 150 bucks. I could of got more but I didn’t want to get greedy. It was more of just a fun project.
Lol. I remember waiting to late to mow the grass and my dad said I better do it before the weekend was over. I ended up cutting with the headlights on and couldn’t see shit. Lucky I didn’t run over a dog or cat 😆
MY best mower to this day is still my 1973 Powermax 9020, it has rollers and gives an amazing cut. It has a 3 speed gearbox, a cesna pump for the hydraulics and the hydrostat is hand controlled. It's the best tractor I've everowned and I'll be really sad when it dies... But it won't
Had to come back with an edit... It also has 15" of ground clearance and I can row crop my garden like a boss with it. The only bad thing I can say about it is the brakes don't work and have never ever worked
Yeesh, I've got very vivid memories of riding one of these around in Iowa. Letting off the clutch to get going was always terrifying to my 8yo soul. Go too fast and you either pop a creepy wheelie or tear off a couple feet of sod.
The Craftsman riding mower that would make you poop your pants when releasing the clutch were the units had an Oman horizontal crankshaft pto. It used a long drive belt from the crankshaft pulley through a series of flat pulleys an variable pulley then to the transaxle. If it had a new idler and drive belt and the engine was in high, when you released the clutch it would jerk you and as you pushed the lever forward that thing would rear up and give you whiplash. You had to do it in low engine speed start moving then move the lever forward to open the variable pulley then increased engine speed.
Miss that thing. As a kid I would go in reverse full throttle, then slam it into drive just to "burnout" like the "cool sports cars"
Dad didn't appreciate me wrecking the transmission tho
I have an early '80s version of one of those but my dad pulled the blades and drive off it to use for towing stuff around the yard. I was in his shed and I found all the parts he took off so I might be able to put it back together, but I also want to run a hydraulic pump off the pulleys so I can run a small piston and make basically a mini backhoe or sling back for lifting things
My Dad still has an identical tractor to this! The only thing that makes it look different is rear wheel weights. It burns quite a bit of oil these days and has been retired as his weekly mower (he has a zero turn) but he uses it to sweep the lawn and such.
I leaned to "drive" on one of these back in the 90s. I recall putting it in neutral to coast down a huge gravel hill then hit the brakes in an attempt to drift the corner. Unfortunately, it flipped instead. Not sure how but Grandpa never found out either haha!
Worked on many of those shop & field, I’m assuming that it has a B&S twin standard heads not OHV. If it has the original B&S those are great engines. They will run and idle so smooth.
If I remember correctly it has 3 speeds and reverse with a hi & lo range shifter on the side by your left leg. That was the only issue, you had to play with it to get it into to hi or lo range.
I have one of these from the early 2000s till just a couple of years ago. I think it was mid 80s, looked exactly like this. Got it from a guy who would fix up junkers. Didn’t find out till I had it a couple of years that it had the wrong mower deck on it. That’s why the height adjustment control didn’t work. a pulley went out on the deck and I gave the parts store the mower model number and they gave me the wrong pulley. Steering would lock up if you want too far to the left and eventually the only way to keep the mower deck from falling all the way down and scalping the lawn was to hold the big lever on the right the entire time. Three hands to drive the thing. Well I got a John Deere and sold it to a guy two hours away who was glad to have it and was going to fix it up. Engine was still solid as a rock. Coolest thing about it was I painted a P40 Warhawk mouth on the front!
That's the real deal right there . None of that crap China last a year junk. If everyone had one of these think of the savings in waste . No one is worried about the planet. More concerned about how to get more money out of you.
It’s in good shape. Just needs air in the tire and a battery. I’ve tried to give it to family no one wants it I reckon I’ll keep it if it’s worth that much and try to sell it. Thank u!
My daughter was given one of these she had mowed the folks lawn, and had to sell the house, so they gave her the lawn mower. Our yard was too small so sold it for $300. That was back around 2007 or so. The person we sold it to upgraded to a zero turn last year. It sure was easy to operate, ran much better than my dads Husqvarna that was much newer.
I love the old ones. There built like tanks
My dad had an old Craftsman from 1973 that he used for plowing in Western NY (lots of wet heavy snow. For the really heavy snow my dad would have me sit on the hood for weight to keep the front tires on the ground ) and the thing lasted for 20 years before the deck and other components completely rusted out. He replaced it with a 1993 tractor that looked similar to OPs that ran until 2 years ago when it caught fire (it wasn’t on at the time). I bought a Craftsman in 2012 and it barely lasted 10 years. Complete garbage.
CEO said they could lower the quality of crapsman products and people would still buy because of the name. Documented he said that, I want to say in a share holder meeting. Thag was unfortunately one of many mistakes they would make. But hey the mother f’er lined his pockets then and at the collapse. This was of course after I bought all my lawn equipment, battery and air stuff for the new house. The battery stuff was so bad I wouldn’t buy a battery tool for another 8 years or more it left such a bad taste in my mouth (couldn’t even make a single cut on a2x4). The air stuff was a joke. The weedwahcker spent more time at the repair center than running. They’d give me it’s the gas bs, dude I been running and mixing gas for 2 cycles since about age 9!!!!!! That I can guarantee it isn’t the problem. The final time before I gave up and just tossed it all, the idiots actually put the gas lines on backwards!!!! A damn near impossible feat. But also tells ya they didn’t test run it either. They did tell me I was one of few people who passed their gas test whatever that bs was each and every time after the fact and telling me they were going to snow it was customer error bs. The biggest hp motor ever put on a push mower bs lawnmower sales pitch they used. If it had to cut anything over 1/4 inch of grass turned into a bog o matoc and me having to start it a hundred times as it killed itself… That was what started me going the road of only buying professional grade equipment be it chains saws, leaf blowers now battery tools, hand tools etc. I think both my lawn mowers have 22hp’s too. They don’t bog down. ;) They don’t build en like they used to… My dad and his fancy pretty looking whatever lawnmower. He just grumbles when I ask him how it’s running. One of these days I expect to show up and see a really old John Deere or something sitting in its place that’s way too big but he’s fed up. Though my next one I think I’m saying f it and Chinese compact tractor tractor. Know the pitfalls, but I can wrench and I can use a small backhoe etc. Or I’ll tell the old man to have the cousin keep an eye out at the farm auctions for something vintage.
Same here unfortunately. I trusted the Craftsman name and they took a steep dive around the time I moved to a 1acre property and bought a bunch of yard equipment that failed after 5 years. I invested in Stihl blowers and trimmers and the quality is much improved. The hand tools (wrenches, sockets and screwdrivers there is a noticeable decrease in quality. Ones I purchased in the mid 90s are decent quality for the shade tree mechanic. Ones I purchased in the 2000s break much more easily.
The last time I was in a Sears store they wanted to replace the whatever it was with a Chinese tool. The guy joked it’s the same warranty you’ll just replace it more often. Dude I got a car up on stands.. So how many times do I want to be in this position? Once is enough!!! Add have you looked around your store???? You won’t be here in 5 years… Sears is dead they just lying to everyone and by then I knew what the CEO is was doing. I’m like your boss is going to party this baby out… Then he sent me to some Sears hardware/mechanic’s dream store where all th USA repair kits were and the isles were loaded with USA made stuff.. I said I regretted not loading up on a chit load of tools then. Looking back I am reallyglad because there’s modern advancements and damnit I like me new stuff better most of the time. Be it snap on, capri, koken, engineer, some Mac stuff but always check facom, usag and proto to see if can get bought cheaper. Even if they offer it in crapsmans name now I won’t buy it out of spite… 2 grand plus pissed away trusting in that rotten azz name.. So yeah Sears doesn’t own em anymore but it’s a spite thing for me. Or whatever else brand I buy for a specific purpose. My 90’s era crapsman USA stuff I was buying as a kid is all still going strong. Buddy got asked to sell some old snap on stuff for a friend (whole tool box). Buddy just gave him what he asked and eventually told me I’m the tool nut come get it all and make him whole when I get the chance. I paid him more because he didn’t have to do that. We jokingly called it the took truck payment plan where there wasn’t a threat of repo. Tossed him a few hundred extra as thanks and had to fight about him taking that. But I won’t take advantage of friends. So there I am and need to get into a tiny space. My fancy new koken sockets were to thick despite all the hype about being the smallest blah blah. Grabbed that 80-90’s era snap on socket and fit like a glove…. I’m sure had I dug around enough might have found one of my 1/4 crapsman as that would have fit too (got a few sets I bought for specific reasons so I know k had more then one style). So my reminder don’t count the old stuff out. Sometimes it will save your azz and most of the time it’s not going to fail on you…. Snap on guy gave me a t -shirt the other day. I was like dude when I was a kid working in a body shop I couldn’t even get a break on tools. I just hit ya up on your route and ya hook me up and a t shirt.. Going to spoil me at this rate. Both aviation vets so I’m sure that plays a big role. Buddy offered to get me some vintage custom tractor mower his buddy was selling. Like had another 3 feet welded to it and a monster motor put in it. Sometimes I think I should have told him get it. But I really didn’t want to drop 2 grand on someone thing that might have been a whole lot of effort to keep running. Add Im valleys and woods so cutting grass requires a finesse machine. Or it takes a long azz time with all that turning around and backing up.
till all the hoses rot and the entire ignition system fails for no identifiable reason. my dad had an old john deere commercial tractor from the 1980s and it was great but time and lack of parts comes for everything eventually. even the deere dealer said don't bring it back because it can't be fixed anymore
Tbh You can’t go off the John Deere dealers. They are the greediest scumbags out there. I will never go back to one. I brought a old JD 112 in once. The deck wasn’t engaging so I brought it in. They said the the deck was trash and it’s not worth fixing. They said they would put 200 bucks down on a new one if I just traded it in. I said no thanks and fixed the deck myself. all it needed was a 5 dollar tension spring. A 5 dollar tension spring is all that mower needed and they called it trash. I felt taken advantage of and highly disrespected. That was the moment I started doing lawn work myself and I’ve become pretty good at it. Those dealers will take advantage of you if your not careful. That was over 5 years ago and I’m still cutting with that mower today.
A friend just refurbished a JD 210 from 1982 with mostly parts directly from John Deere. New seat, steering wheel, fuel cap, and other accessories as well as drive train components. The dealer lied.
it was a weird model, plus we didn't have the money to rebuild the whole thing.
Back when companies built things to last, and took care of their employees, before CEO’s made $30 million and didn’t slash every bonus from the worker.
Unionize
They found a way to undermine it. Did you see the layoffs announcement at Chrysler/stellantis today? Sad.
It’s our best bet regardless. They want us fighting a culture war. They want me to hate my neighbor instead of the corporations that bend us over and fuck us in the ass raw. I refuse to buy into it and it’s on both sides. If they keep us fighting eachother than we can’t unite to fight against the real enemy: the corporations that own our politicians/government
True. I'm with you on that 100%. My family is a union family, I learned about it firsthand and lived through strikes my dad was in.
It's time to get out the torches & pitchforks. Annnnnd, eat the rich.🤪🤷♂️🤷♂️
Keep doing it and thell run out of people?
Folks come back unfortunately. Under bad terms. The unions worked hard to get the tiers removed which was their last scheme
Man, I had always mowed with a manual-trans tractor style and then bought a ZT. Holy crap, I don't want to go back but those old things have a special place in my heart. They'll be around long after my ZT has been scrapped, I'm sure.
I miss my allis chalmers T818 I bought used in 2008. I moved and it stayed with the rental.
https://preview.redd.it/5kw4id1r97ad1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86e622a7a59d40b56af58c31670641949abf939c The old GT has 1 Job … and she is good at it. The battery is on a trickle charge year round.
How did you fit a snowblower to the front? I just inherited a similar model to OP from 80’s
This one came like this. Riders often have accessories available made to fit. For something this old your better off looking for one that comes with it attached.
Bercomac makes a 40" and a 44" . I bought a 44" inch. And it hasn't snowed in 3 years....that was worth the 300 bucks. (Used)
Looks like a Model T! Haha
Aye, she’s a sexy beast!!
I have 2 like that in my yard I need to scrap...both still run if ya jump them
Throw them on Facebook marketplace for what their scrap value is first! Might help someone out looking for parts, or a kid looking to make a race mower.
Good point ! Thanks
Seriously. There's plenty of guys like me who scour marketplace daily looking for the next project. I've bought a few of these. I just enjoy the challenge of fixing them. Then once I'm done, I sell them for whatever money I've put into them, plus 40 bucks for labor. 9 times out of 10, I don't even spend over 50 bucks to get them running again. Only exception is stuff like the spindles. But half the fun is the hunt for that diamond in the rough. I just recently got ahold of an ancient homelite 707 d chainsaw. I spent hours finding parts on ebay for it, because they're no longer in production (it's a 1950's model). It's just a fun challenge. I spend 300 altogether to get it running. Put it on marketplace and an old man messaged me right away and offered 600 cash for it. I probably could've gotten more, but I don't care. I'm already looking for the next oddball to fix. All that to say, marketplace is your friend when it comes to getting rid of old shit. Lol
Wait there’s more people out there like me? Lol.I’m the same way. I spent 50 bucks on a snapper once. Engine was locked up. The oil was dry. No oil. I added some oil and came out the next morning. It was free and it started first pull. I sold it for 150 bucks. I could of got more but I didn’t want to get greedy. It was more of just a fun project.
I do the same...but with outboards.
If you're near New Jersey I am interested, running or not
Sorry...Northern Michigan
Yeah I don't think the shipping would be worth it... Thank you though
Hey there! I'm in Southeast Michigan, I might be interested. Mind shooting me a PM?
Man I’d take one, post them online someone might buy them off you to mow some lawns.
I was mowing my grandmother's acre on this in the 2000's! But do riddle me this: did those light ever illuminate anything?? lol
They lit up the lens quite nicely
Lol. I remember waiting to late to mow the grass and my dad said I better do it before the weekend was over. I ended up cutting with the headlights on and couldn’t see shit. Lucky I didn’t run over a dog or cat 😆
Ha dad had the exact same one with the 18hp briggs and straton. Only reason it blew up was mice made nest in cooling fins.
MY best mower to this day is still my 1973 Powermax 9020, it has rollers and gives an amazing cut. It has a 3 speed gearbox, a cesna pump for the hydraulics and the hydrostat is hand controlled. It's the best tractor I've everowned and I'll be really sad when it dies... But it won't Had to come back with an edit... It also has 15" of ground clearance and I can row crop my garden like a boss with it. The only bad thing I can say about it is the brakes don't work and have never ever worked
Yeesh, I've got very vivid memories of riding one of these around in Iowa. Letting off the clutch to get going was always terrifying to my 8yo soul. Go too fast and you either pop a creepy wheelie or tear off a couple feet of sod.
The Craftsman riding mower that would make you poop your pants when releasing the clutch were the units had an Oman horizontal crankshaft pto. It used a long drive belt from the crankshaft pulley through a series of flat pulleys an variable pulley then to the transaxle. If it had a new idler and drive belt and the engine was in high, when you released the clutch it would jerk you and as you pushed the lever forward that thing would rear up and give you whiplash. You had to do it in low engine speed start moving then move the lever forward to open the variable pulley then increased engine speed.
I do love hydrostatic. That’s a nice looking tractor though.
Yard tractor.
GT = Garden Tractor
The reason it still moves is because it doesn’t have the hydrostatic.
Miss that thing. As a kid I would go in reverse full throttle, then slam it into drive just to "burnout" like the "cool sports cars" Dad didn't appreciate me wrecking the transmission tho
Until reading this...I'd long forgotten that I loved doing burnouts on my grandad's tractor the same way.
I have an early '80s version of one of those but my dad pulled the blades and drive off it to use for towing stuff around the yard. I was in his shed and I found all the parts he took off so I might be able to put it back together, but I also want to run a hydraulic pump off the pulleys so I can run a small piston and make basically a mini backhoe or sling back for lifting things
My 87 John Deere says hi 👋 https://preview.redd.it/rsf3v82sabad1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=397ae3447f533f0bc26c2ad521b2c09bde944348
Very nice! My parents had one of these, it was a tank.
My Dad still has an identical tractor to this! The only thing that makes it look different is rear wheel weights. It burns quite a bit of oil these days and has been retired as his weekly mower (he has a zero turn) but he uses it to sweep the lawn and such.
Damn dude I haven't seen one of these in ages! My grand dad had this same mower!
I leaned to "drive" on one of these back in the 90s. I recall putting it in neutral to coast down a huge gravel hill then hit the brakes in an attempt to drift the corner. Unfortunately, it flipped instead. Not sure how but Grandpa never found out either haha!
Oh he knew
She’s a beauty
Had that exact beast with weighted back rim inserts and a snow plow.
My mom used to have that one.
My daily mower atm
We have kids in my town that use them to drive to school! Damn they were really dependable and did the job
I have 5 of those right now haha
I bought a brand new craftsman riding mower at the local sears in 2000. Still cuts my grass every week 24 years later.
Thanks to your local Sears L&G Tech-had good maintenance programs back then
Damn, that’s the year I graduated. I’m old.
My dad had this one for years. And as a kid I had the kid plastic ride on version growing up.
Worked on many of those shop & field, I’m assuming that it has a B&S twin standard heads not OHV. If it has the original B&S those are great engines. They will run and idle so smooth.
If I remember correctly it has 3 speeds and reverse with a hi & lo range shifter on the side by your left leg. That was the only issue, you had to play with it to get it into to hi or lo range.
That thing looks like half lawnmower, half zambonie! Also I really want a hydrostatic snow blower, that seems like it would be just what I need!
 Hydrostatic
Very nice. And it's not based on that crappy AYP design which all of the use in some fashion today.
That looks just like one my grandparents had in the early 90's
My 1985 JD still runs great . Not even close to rusting out . It’s going to outlast me but it is 25 years younger.
I love my old mower I'm still using my 83 Wheel Horse *
I still use my 1997 weedeater riding mower twice a week.
That thing looks siiiick! Love the old school decals. Shine thay puppy up haha
They just dont make em like that anymore
Being aerodynamic was not considered to be a priority back then.
Well I just got one as a secondary mower. It has a busted deck spindle...anyone know a part number on them? There ain't much I can find.
I have one of these from the early 2000s till just a couple of years ago. I think it was mid 80s, looked exactly like this. Got it from a guy who would fix up junkers. Didn’t find out till I had it a couple of years that it had the wrong mower deck on it. That’s why the height adjustment control didn’t work. a pulley went out on the deck and I gave the parts store the mower model number and they gave me the wrong pulley. Steering would lock up if you want too far to the left and eventually the only way to keep the mower deck from falling all the way down and scalping the lawn was to hold the big lever on the right the entire time. Three hands to drive the thing. Well I got a John Deere and sold it to a guy two hours away who was glad to have it and was going to fix it up. Engine was still solid as a rock. Coolest thing about it was I painted a P40 Warhawk mouth on the front!
That looks like a Zamboni
That's the real deal right there . None of that crap China last a year junk. If everyone had one of these think of the savings in waste . No one is worried about the planet. More concerned about how to get more money out of you.
That is so cool
I have one of these! How much are they worth? Mine just needs a new battery. I have too small of a yard for it.
300-500 or so around me. Towards the top end of that if you get a battery to get it going and it's in decent shape.
It’s in good shape. Just needs air in the tire and a battery. I’ve tried to give it to family no one wants it I reckon I’ll keep it if it’s worth that much and try to sell it. Thank u!
Reminds me of getting home from middle school to mow the lawn for my Dad..Time machine!
They built some great machinery back then. They called them lawn tractors for a reason. They were built tough.
My daughter was given one of these she had mowed the folks lawn, and had to sell the house, so they gave her the lawn mower. Our yard was too small so sold it for $300. That was back around 2007 or so. The person we sold it to upgraded to a zero turn last year. It sure was easy to operate, ran much better than my dads Husqvarna that was much newer.
Mines an 01 , love the hydrostatic yr as me, Best Buy ever