OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Victa Lawn Mower Frames Victa alloy chassis quality drop.

Hello all,

Today I got a firsthand look at how much the alloy chassis of the Victa range has fallen over the years.

At the salvage yard there were various chassis in fairly wrecked and cracked disrepair (though I managed to get a decent early/mid 90s mustang chassis with good wheels, stuffed bushes though and rusty handles. Just need a PT engine that will fit and a blade carrier).

They ranged from the late 70s/early 80s (think the FC Corvette/Original PT Mustang here), late 80s, early/mid 90s and a writeoff late 2000s chassis. The quality dip was so noticeable even among wrecks. The early decks were so much more sturdier, thicker and well built, and everything progressively got thinner, with more plastic everywhere you looked. Even what was left of the axles were thicker on the old decks.

It was a real eye opener how much cheaper everything got as time went on.

Hi Sapper,
That is what happens when you start these free trade agreements, everybody has to chase their way to the bottom and the only way to achieve that is to cheapen the quality of their products. The later PT alloy bases seem to be of good quality and thick enough to handle the job but they were obviously far more expensive to buy new. They were a premium product.

Dunno about the alloy chassis, but the steel ones sure dropped. I'm appalled at how rotten I've seen modern looking Victa steel chassis get.
I never see Masport or even Chinese cheapies get that way.
The alloy models after the last thumb latch models don't catch the grass as well.

Norm,

The free exploitation agreements? Couldn't agree more. Works well for shareholders and CEOs though. Pity the chickens are starting to come home to roost now. As for the later alloy bases, there is a marked drop off that I could see (and feel). I think old BB even had a point with the top bolted handles. The double bolted side mounted handles of the old chassis, again, give it a more solid feel with less flex.

MF,

I have noticed since I bought the Tornado that the ancient Corvette sucks up the grass much, much better than the tornado. Even with the poor condition thumblatch catcher it has. So long as you have decent blades on them, they are unbeatable. You can actually fill the catcher as opposed to the newer job not completely getting filled before it decides to start dumping on the lawn. I noticed on the newer alloy bases that the arch was not as high as the old green machines too. Perhaps that is also a consideration. Plenty of money saved on less alluminium though.

Hey Sapper,

you jogged my memory of the performance of the lift flap catcher alloy compared to the thumb latch.
I did the same yard with both bases and wasn't impressed with the later type at all.
The mower in the link below was flawless in catching the longest thickest growth and I do recall problems with tufts of grass appearing as though the catcher was full but wasn't in the later model. It also left lines of grass clippings on the right side it had failed to collect properly.
Victa replaced the thumb latch domestic grade mower with an inferior product!
Funny that they retained it for their professional series for many years beyond the 1992 cut off for the domestic range.
Victa's only focus for improvement was for their own bottom line, not the products they were offering. It seems they knew their customers -mostly ignorant and brand name focused.
They should never have stopped making the thumb latch series. They perfected the push mower and threw it away. Not enough people were prepared to pay the premium it looks like.

I have been through a lot with this one below.
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...e-victa-alloy-powertorque.html#Post95825

MF,

That is a lovely looking mower. I would love to find one like that. Does it still have the Vortex blade on it? Or did you put a normal plate underneath?

Thank you Sapper. It's always had a four blade mulching disc since I put this bitsa together in the early 2000s. I remember this same looking model brand new in the shops alongside the Vortex models -which are essentially the same -bar the engine cover.
It currently has two blades as I discarded the worst two and kept the others on lol. It works superb non the less.

Liked that? Cop a gander at this beautiful gal.
https://collection.maas.museum/object/158742

You know, I am going to do a heist on that place one day. They have it all there. Can you imagine the headlines with all the mowers stolen? ahaha

Why can't there still be lawnmower porn for sale like that these days?

I wonder how many of those can fit in a Delorean?

If I ever get one of those, or a really good condition Vortex, they will become my daily driver.

The late 1980s was a magical era to go window shopping and day dreaming at Victas. I never would have expected they would still be so wanted more than 30 years later.

There were other models with this body engine combination. Here's one I found recently that I recall a neighbour buying new in the late 1980s. I was extremely envious then and eventually landed my own lol.

https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...wertorque-alloy-base-find.html#Post92740


You want to experience time travel? How about this NOS 1972 VC-160?!!

https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/37617/model-vc-160-n-o-s-1972-v111.html

Sapper,
If you are looking for a Vortex, don't let your head run away over them. I have one in extremely good condition, had not done a lot of work and I struggled to get rid of it and eventually a mate bought it because he wanted a red Vortex for his Vortex collection. If I had just taken the bodywork off it and sold it as just an alloy body Powertorque mower I would have got more money for it. We concluded here that the fact people can't actually see the motor it spooks them

jesus, look at the VC160...Damn they knew how to make mowers back then. I would be too tempted to start it up. Never had a top of the line, new out of box mower before. It makes the plastic stuff these days look like a joke.

I remember an olive green with orange top commando from the late 80s, early 90s that I used to like the look of. Since realising it is a steel base however, I have given up on that one. Looks similar to the top on that red job of yours.

That is strange Norm. Of course there is a motor under there. People can be funny sometimes.

That would make it even funnier actually; all of the average joes wondering how my Vortex can cut grass. Look ma, no motor!

I myself won't get a collection of them. A collection of parts? yes. A few good ones that will be drivers? yes. Others I will fix and move them on, as a hobby. I don't have the space nor time to start an actual collection of them, mores the pity. Just have to make sure I don't get attached to them. it really makes a difference when you tear the things apart and go to all that trouble getting them back to life.

Sapper ,
I don't have a collection, just a lot of mowers and if I get one fixed I quickly sell it to fund my, as I keep telling my missus, cost neutral hobby. Not many hobbies can claim that and this keeps her off my back about all the stuff here and the constant online purchases.

Well I can only speak to the limited one I've seen but the 550 Pro's that I've recently gotten several of have amazingly thick aluminium decks, it must be nearly 2cm thick in certain spots where they've done this to reinforce them e.g around the very bottom on the outsides.

On top of this they've got these reinforcing ribs all over the place - it's really incredibly impressive and they must be streets ahead of anything else out there today.

It seems that they were built to a standard - then what they cost was figured out later, whereas today they build to a price point - deciding that the mower needs to have a manufacturing cost of $xxx and then figuring out how to cut corners and manage to make for this. Completely different approaches and suffice to say it shows.

N1KKO I have heard from one seller that the professional series base is overkill for domestic duties hence why he was selling it!
I imagine them to be quite hefty to push around without being self propelled.
This is why Victa should have continued with the excellent domestic thumb latch base and only sold the lift flap models as steel lower priced mowers.
The thumb thatch bases could have been easily updated with new colour combinations, wheels and engine covers to this day!

MF, I imagine the thumb latch catchers would cost too much and kill the profit margins. When you look at what goes into them next to a modern catcher (from any company), I see bean counters having fits at the very thought.

Is the professional series the 20 inch cut with big fuel tank?

MF,
As Sapper said it comes down to cost, can you imagine how long and how much it costs to produce an alloy base compared to a press just going stamp and the base spits out and another sheet slides in to be pressed. I know they go through several presses, the sheet is hole punched, then shape pressed, then trim pressed, but all of this takes only a few second for each pressing. And then at the end of the day the last thing any manufacturer wants is for the product to last a long time, that thinking went out the window once we moved from the 50/60's where we paid big money for products but they were expected to last a long time. From the 70's we started making things cheaper and therefore quality goes down and people don't expect things to last because they are cheaper. Then from the 80's the "free" trade started kicking in and we all know where that has put Australia now

I think you have nailed it Sapper and explains why they kept them for pro models only, which cost twice the domestic range.
Yep, that's the one.

All the points NormK made about keeping cost of production low for low expectations has lead to the throwaway mowers of today, to remain viable in today's world.

MF,
mowers are only one small item in this disposable world now, think of the amounts of money spent on electronic equipment (think phones) that my grandparents just would never be able to comprehend. When they bought something it was for life not just for a few years

Just regarding the Thumb Latch catchers, I can imagine you could make a really good one these days, so long as they were not made to a piddly budget. It has to be said that todays plastic (again, not the budget shite) is far superior to what they had in the 80s. You could effectively make an extremely tough, slightly flexible yet strong thumblatch catcher, with the steel inserts.

Ok, pipedream over.