Semi-gloat

[HeyBub]

I've had it with gasoline engines, their myriad parts, and (at least some) maintenance. So when I saw an electric mower advertised on my local Craigslist for twenty bucks (!), I jumped on it.

The machine was made by SUNBEAM, sometime in the 50s or 60s! No ground wire. No polarized plug. Sounds like the hinges on the gates of hell. Icky yellow color and one of the wheels is held in place by a nail instead of a cotter-ping.

But it works swell!

I don't think the person from whom I bought it had all his marbles lined up. In addition to selling a functional mower for cheap, he's moving from Houston to Santa Barbara.

I just have to be careful where I'm mowing - I don't think running over the extension cord would be a good idea.

[George W Frost]

I have an idea they were made in OZ during the 50's, they also made a twin bladed model

Hey, you are not supposed to mow backward, if you do, then you run over the cord,

[Lobby Dosser]

Doesn't seem to matter. Took out a no ground wire cord with hedge trimmers once. Took 15 minutes to discover the cord was cut and it wasn't some other fault. The bushes were dense and the cord sorta blended in ...

[George W Frost]

Are you the man who broke your leg in your back yard when you tripped over the blended in power cord ?

[Lew Hodgett]

----------------------------- If you have grass in Santa Barbara, you also have a gardener to take care of it.

BTW, I sold Sunbeam electric mowers in the early '50s.

Have a little respect for your mower elders .

Lew

Lew

[HeyBub]

Oooh! Good idea.

Beats my first thought of some overhead drop-down extension cord (think clothesline with a pully or a cable-type dog run).

[HeyBub]

Oops! You are correct.

Still, the seller was not totally off the rails. He told me residential housing rents for as much as $3/sq ft in Santa Barbara. He and his wife found some "commercial" property (a former art studio) that he got for $1/sq ft for 2600 sq ft. "How are you going to handle the requirements that, you know, you actually HAVE an art studio?" I asked. "Easy," said he. "We'll hang some of our kids crayon drawings on the wall with somewhat reasonable prices, say $10/sq inch."

Now that kind of subterfuge would work in Houston, but I'll bet the California bureacracy will ruin his life and the life of everybody he ever knew.

I do! As I said, the mower works swell.

[Larry W]

When my family first moved to suburbia and the old manual push mower just wouldn't cut it anymore (well. actually, it _would_ cut it but it was just too much work) my Dad bought an electric Sunbeam mower. As I recall it was blue and silver in color. This was around 1967. I mowed the lawn many many times with that thing. It lasted quite a while too, maybe

15 years, well after I had moved out of the house. The deck finally corroded through and there was nothing left to support the motor.

I remember that thing sounded like a jet engine, except that unlike a jet, it came up to full RPM in a fraction of a second. It was a really tough machine. My father looked for one just like it but there was nothing comparable being produced. He did buy another Sunbeam, but it was a cheaply made, lightweight POS compared to the old one.

[news]

I used an electric mower (from Sears, I think) when I was in high school becuase it was my Dad's choice. If you need more than 50 feet of extension cord, it becomes an art to lay out long sections of cord to get the most area cut with the least cord movement.

I think some of the Sunbeam mowers had a "flip-over" handle so you could cut in the "other" direction by flipping the handle to the other side and walking around to it instead of turning the mower around and needing to flip the cord out of the way.

John

[RicodJour]

Solar power retrofit with several deep-cycle golf cart batteries. You might be able to get an energy conservation tax break. An added advantage is that the mower will be self-propelled as long as you remember to mow downhill.

If your property is dead flat and square - you live in Texas, right? - rig a drive wheel off of the shaft so it is self-propelled, stick a stake in the middle of the lawn and tie a cord to the mower and let the mower cut an ever decreasing spiral until the lawn is fully mowed.

R

[HeyBub]

My mower didn't come with a cord either.

In fact, I had to scrounge around to find an extension cord that would fit in the mower's power recess. This mower was manufactured before ground wires were invented, so an ordinary extension cord simply could not be pressed into the cavity containing the male plug.

Truely, it's an adventure to be operating an electrical device devoid of a ground wire or polarized plug - and not even double insulated!

A thrill-a-minute, I tell you!

[willshak]

Back around 1984-85, I used to travel down into Westwood, NJ to mow my aunt's small lawn (she was a widow with no kids) . She had an electric mower which was a PITA to operate. It had a long (maybe 25') orange electrical cord, so it didn't blend in with the green grass. .I hated it. After I used it a couple of times, I started bringing my own gas powered mower to do the job.

[HeyBub]

On the other hand, I'll no longer have to go get gas; the power company delivers electricty right to my home!

[Charlie Groh]

...yeah, Santa Barbara is a definite downturn compared to Houston. Gotta be crazy to move *there*...

cg

[Robatoy]

You mean.. like the flight of the WhiffleSnipe?

[Robatoy]

You rode your mower from Hamptonburgh to Westwood???? I call bullshit.

[Robatoy]

They don't here.

[FrozenNorth]

He did it at 100 MPH in traffic too :-)

[Robatoy]

..and NO accident!

[J. Clarke]

My mower went 100 MPH in traffic once. It was in the back of a Corvette (it's amazing what you can fit in an '84 Corvette) but it went 100 MPH in traffic.

Not sure why you think that someone would have to ride their mower from one location to another. A walk behind will fit in the trunk of any decent sized car, and a rider will fit in the bed to even a small pickup truck or can be towed on a cheap trailer.

What I can't figure out is why anyone would want the cord to "blend with the grass".