Loafer

[Gregor 4,846]

Once again, here is a pic of my Lawn Boy Loafer, circa 1962.  If you look closely at the pic, you will see the deck has brackets for attaching a handle, so you can push it, just like a conventional mower.

 

Here is a pic of just the deck. No motor, no blade, no wheels or hardware, no handle, just the bare deck. This deck is aluminum. It measures ~ 30 X 30 X  6 high, and normally has a 24" blade. and weighs 28 lbs. bare. Many of my Lawn Boys don't weigh that much complete. How would you like to push this around your 1960ish suburbia 1/2 acre lot.

[peter lena 8,620]

@Gregor  thats a neat unit, terrifying today obvious safety issues , back in the day is used to cut  brush / clear land with a jari brush cutter , could not tell how many times I  got dragged thru  thorn bushes and wet land  behind that jari , thorn king , pete

[Gregor 4,846]

[ri702bill 8,316]

Are those 2 stroke engines?? If so, having 2 engines - is it a poor man's 4 stroke or dueling 2 strokes ??   

[Gregor 4,846]

18 minutes ago, ri702bill said:

Are those 2 stroke engines?? If so, having 2 engines - is it a poor man's 4 stroke or dueling 2 strokes ??   

See top pic. 1 for the loafer, 1 for the mower. Yes they are 2 stroke.

[WHX?? 48,815]

Sure would get some looks as a ride around at shows. 

[Gregor 4,846]

Probably no real, or good answer to this, but that's never stopped me from asking dumb questions in the past, so I'll ask. In the first pic, you can see the decal appears to have been cut, after it was applied to show the words,  HEAVY  NORMAL

In this pic you can see the words in the motor shroud.  Although they may appear to be raised, they are stamped in.

I do have reproduction decals, but of course the decal is solid. Is there any way to replicate this, or am I just outta luck? Thanks  Greg

[ri702bill 8,316]

Is there room above that text to reposition the decal and leave that text visable???

[Gregor 4,846]

Nope, don't think so.

[Handy Don 12,216]

It looks like the metal was stamped after the original decal was applied, since the indented letters seem to have parts of the decal embedded.

Since the edges of the stamped letters are rounded, I don't see an easy way to get nice crisp edges without doing a number on the paint behind the decal.

I might consider cutting a rounded-corner rectangle in the new decal shaped to outline the entire stamped-in text before applying the decal. 

Edited December 16, 2021 by Handy Don

[Gregor 4,846]

26 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

 

I might consider cutting a rounded-corner rectangle in the new decal shaped to outline the entire stamped-in text before applying the decal. 

Thought about that. I actually have 2 sets of decals. I didn't like the color on the first set, and reordered. I can experiment some.

 

3 hours ago, WHX?? said:

Sure would get some looks as a ride around at shows. 

I have ridden it at shows. Even mowed a little grass.

[Gregor 4,846]

OK, so where do I mount the actuator?

 

 

[Gregor 4,846]

Going together a little slow, but that's OK. when I am done with this, I won't have anything to do again.

[Gregor 4,846]

It's really nice when you reach the point that you can get things up to your level and not have to crawl around on the floor. Actually, crawling around on the floor isn't too bad. It's getting down to the floor, and getting back up that's the killer. I may be shrinking as I get older, but I swear that floor is getting farther away all the time. This is only a 21" blade. The mower didn't have a blade when I got it, and I don't have a 24"

[Moparfanforever 844]

Nice looking resto!! I have several LBS that I use to mow with, best push mower there is .

May have to get myself a Loafer one of these days. 

[Gregor 4,846]

19 minutes ago, Moparfanforever said:

Nice looking resto!! I have several LBS that I use to mow with, best push mower there is .

May have to get myself a Loafer one of these days. 

As luck would have it, I have a line on one in Kansas City, Mo. No mower, just the loafer.  A lot of guys have retrofitted mower decks to attach a loafer. Too far for me. It is a '62 I believe, same color as mine.I can find out more details if you like.

[Handy Don 12,216]

7 hours ago, Gregor said:

Going together a little slow, but that's OK. when I am done with this, I won't have anything to do again.

Was impressed to discover that the motor with the drive disk shifts from side to side across the driven rubber wheel on the differential to change speed/direction. Can do that with a lightweight 2-cycle engine!

[Gregor 4,846]

11 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

Can do that with a lightweight 2-cycle engine!

There is an adjustment that allows you to increase, or decrease, the amount of pressure between the disc, and the driven rubber wheel. The weight of the engine alone, probably would not be enough.

[Gregor 4,846]

Not a good pic, and a little hard to see, but there is a springy wire clip on each side of the loafer Chassis. Release them, and you can remove the entire motor and disc unit. No bolts, no nuts, no nuttin'. I just thought this was a bit of right clever engineering.  In this pic you can also see the disc, mounted on the motor where a blade would normally be, and the rubber roller which is the drive for the trans. Teh entire motor unit slides left to right with a lever.The farther out on the disc, the faster you go. Once you go over center, you are in reverse.

 

[Gregor 4,846]

As always, the last thing I do on any build, is re-attach the model / serial # plates. The plates are on the mower unit, so it must be done.

 

After some studying and some research, I don't believe this mower came with hardware for a push handle. It seems to me it was done a little haphazardly by a PO at some point.  If I had known that, I would have plugged the holes and painted over them. Once again, I learned something. This thing tops out at 62.5 lbs. I aint pushing that around.

 

If you look close you will see a red starter pull. These are pretty rare. They get old, brittle, and break. They came in lots of colors, but red seems to be the scarcest. There was one for sale on ebay a while back for $100. I don't know if it ever sold or not.  With the advent of 3-D printers you would think someone could pump these out pretty easily, but I have not seen any.

 

 As usual, it's not perfect, but it's better I think. I had some paint to touch up on the loafer. Depending on how it dries, it may get finished today, or it may not.

[Gregor 4,846]

OK so I cheated. I put the tags on, even though it's not quite done.

I forgot about the new seat cover. All these weeks I sat waiting on the blaster, I could have had a dozen covers made. Out of sight, out of mind I guess.

I left the decal as it was, and went right over the indented lettering. Trimming it would have meant cutting way up into where it says Lawn, I didn't want to do that. That silver square on the back is the muffler cover. It is suppose to be blue also, but I know from experience, it would not stay blue. I used high temp silver.

 

This is the loafer with the dolly wheels on. You can tow a cart, push snow, or simply go to the bar.

 

Here is the complete loafer and mower. I am satisfied with it. I'm not going to be like Johnny Bench and tell you there are "No runs, No drips, No errors", that would be a lie. The paint isn't too bad, but touching up with the Preval sprayer is not ideal. It just doesn't seem to atomize the paint as well, and you have much less control.

[Moparfanforever 844]

Got yourself a nice ride !! There was someone on ebay selling 3d printed pull handles in different colors. 

 

 

[wh500special 2,172]

I went to an auction in Hamlet, IN back in ~2005 where they sold an NOS loafer that was still in its box.  I would have sworn I remember looking in there and seeing it as painted gold, but maybe not.  The blue is certainly interesting. 
 

I don’t remember what it sold for but it didn’t seem like very much.  I’m sure the buyer that got it was tickled pink. 
 

This auction also had a handful of late 1960’s Wheel Horses that were still in their shipping crates.  My truck had a breakdown on the way there so I was too late to bid on any of them, but I did come home with a lot of odds and ends.  They had an absolute ton of stuff.  
 

I had a Lawn Boy for cutting my yard up until a couple of years ago.   Sometimes I miss the sound and the smell.   Neat machines. 
 

nice work!!!
 

Steve 

[Gregor 4,846]

3 minutes ago, wh500special said:

I remember looking in there and seeing it as painted gold,

In 1962 they changed to blue. 1963 was the last year for the loafer. From '58 ( the first loafer I think) through '61 they were gold.

[Snoopy11 5,714]

How did I miss this thread? 

 

@Gregor... dude, that thing is AWESOME! 

 

Don