Quote:
Originally Posted by ITSv40
My first job at 15 was in the local parks department. - junior assistant groundsman. I still lust after a Ransomes Auto Certes with the BSA sloper engine. I have walked many miles behind one of those - with three bowling greens to mow three times a week. Happy days.
|
Ah - the Auto Certes - with a sloper (or Villiers F12 to give it the correct name) - I've never seen one of those engines actually worn or burning oil - a superb piece of manufacturing. Most of them have been scrapped because the coil packs were hand wound with wax and paper and they deteriorate and fail. There is now a company re-manufacturing them on an exchange basis but they're something like £100. And with the lovely simple, tickler start Amal carburetor. I loved those mowers but with that sodding great flywheel if you hit a bolt or piece of metal it would often all but destroy the cutting cylinder....
And the Suffolk Punch - my favorite - and I think one of the best mowers ever made (the early cast iron sided ones, not the later pressed steel). I love the old Suffolk engines as well, runs on an egg cup of oil, ultra reliable.
In my storage I have to restore one day a 17" Suffolk Punch Groundsman edition (12 bladed cutting cylinder rather than 6) complete with original 98cc engine (identifiable over the 75cc versions as they have 8 cylinder head studs).
Takes me back - yes Ransomes kit was great but the parts extortionately expensive, little wonder most councils and parks departments are now using Toro.
A must for Suffolk Punch fans :
https://eafa.org.uk/work/?id=792214