OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Power Equipment...Mishaps and Funny Stuff When good mowers go BANG (mishaps and funny stuff)

Just sitting here flicking through the forum and I am reminded of a few (Now) funny tales when Ive combined mowing and machinery.

Feel free to add your own.

My old man now in his late 70's had a block of land in the Dandenong ranges and once a year the CFA sends him a clean up notice in time for fire season.

The block is a tad over 3/4's of an acre and its all up hill, tussocky grass and bull ant nests with a bit of onion weed to make things interesting and as my Dad is getting on for the past 15 years this job has fallen to myself or my little brother (Or both) and as Im usually the one with the heavy duty mowers I grab a selection and head into Melbourne for the task.

All good except for the spectacular way this job seems to kill mowers probably due to the sad state of the mowers my Dad has had over the years.

My earliest recollection involves a mower called Little Bob, a cheap and nasty pressed metal thing with a small B&S motor and a side chute.

Dads had 3 or 4 of these and im buggered if I know why he keeps buying them but I recall the death of 2 of these things with a smile.

Death # 1 involved Lil bob #2 which was a bugger to start due to low comp from too many floggings, this ment that she had to be refuelled on the fly without killing the engine or it would take up to an hour to re start.

turned out to be a short mowing day that day coz she went whoomp covered in spilt fuel when my bro refilled her, he yells out what do I do and throws the fuel can away starting 3 or so spot fires, Dad yells MOW FASTER the wind will put the flames out and im laughng my arse off looking for the hose.

Result? Cremated mower, Singed Bro, Annoyed Dad, burnt 1/4 block and hysterically laughing Boffa Senior.

Event # 2, Demonic Bob.

Dad used to have a bad habit (Well he had many but this in still sticks in my mind) he collected old mower blades and bolts and used to sharpen them with a grinder (I know i KNOW!).

So we are doing the Block pilgrimage with another little Bob and my Orange Victa Utility and a Flymo my Dad scrounged somewhere along with my Lawn hornet as a sacrifice to the gods of long grass.

Bro is using Bob the Demon 4 stroke and im plowing along with the Victa and I hear the Bob go off song a tad and start vibrating away madly so I shut down and wander over to see my Bro peering under the mower while its still going (Another low comp crapped out mower you dare not turn off when hot)trying to see where the bad harmonics are coming from, I suspect its spat a blade but he reckons its just the mower dying and pushes on so I go mow up the back of the block...... and wait.

After about 5 mins of rattling itself to pieces the mower shuts down and we congregate for a sanga and some water and after lunch I wander down to point out that it was a spat blade.

I was wrong, it was 2 spat blades.......

One we never found and one lodged neatly in the rear door of my new company car.........

THAT'S ok Sez Dad, I've got spares! and produces a motley collection of razor sharp mower blades and some coachbolts and wingnuts he bought for the occasion.

We banned him to lunch duty for the duration.

I think that was the last time we took Dad with us and every year we still sneak up without telling the old man and clear the block, This year im taking up 20 lt of roundup so the job should be a heap smaller next year.

Dad still has the Flymo BTW but these days he only has 30 sq feet of lawn.

Silly bugger me.


Mowing the house paddock last year with the big Victa was a job and a half and I picked a 40 degree day to do it coz one of the kids saw a snake and the missus said I had to clear up the play areas.

That included the house paddock which is roughly an acre in size and usually cropped short by a horse or 3 but last year we hadnt got the neddies to mow the grass so it was a few feet high and bloody thick.

No real obstacles to speak of except for a bit of 2 inch pipe with a screw cap on it that leads to an old underground farm fuel tank.

A few years ago I painted it fluro orange so I didnt mow the thing but this year it seems some funny bugger had painted it sherwood green...................

Now youd have thought id have spotted it being extra carefull after running over a few snakes while mowing but I didnt see the bugger and tried to mow it.

End result?

1 x buggered cutting disc

1 x missing blade, parted company from the cutting disk (Tore clean out, took the bolt with it) and stuck fast 2 inches in the nearest tree.

1 x oldest son with a sore bum for painting the fuel plug green.

Andrews racing mower........

I wasnt listening to him when he proudly described what he had done to his Dads 4 stroke mower but the results were spectacular.

Andy was an apprentice Motor Mech and suped up everything that ran on fossil fuels including his Dads now LPG powered rideon complete with throttlebody replacing the carby but the best one was his Dads 4 stroke push mower which briefly reached the height of power running on BP Methanol race fuel complete with cooler race plugs and sports intake system.

Problem was it wouldnt idle and would rev its bum off and die, then rev again and die and so on so Andy played some more and removed something fairly vital to its continued life and started the mower again..........

THIS time she revved like a Manic 2 stroke and when Andy went to throttle her back she refused and went BANG WHOOMP! and then revved some more making crunchy sounds till she abruptly died.

Bout then We both noticed she was ablaze but the hassle with race fuel is you cant see it burning, no visible flame lol

So she became a charred pile of bits in his driveway with the Body corporate bloke giving us both the evil eye.

Probably just as well coz I reckon a turbo was next.

Hey Boffa, great stories mate, Keep 'em coming...
That's a

A guy I know (who fixes lawnmowers also, he is a member on here just hasnt posted yet) Was repairing a ride on for a bloke. All was going great, had the prooblems with the machien sorted out.

He decides he would test the machine (as we do with all the others) out in the paddock. Not long after he started a loud CLUNK CLUNK BANG could be heard but alas you could still hear an engine running, along with "F*** S*** C*** F***!!!!", he comes back into the yard turns the mower off.

He turns to me and asks "how are you with puzzles?" to which I reply "Why?", he points to the engine. Somehow the whole ass end of the 12hp briggs crankcase had blown out, but the condrod andcrank were intact, he demonstrated it still ran ok by throwing the key over and alas it fired right up.

Explaining to the owner they were up for a new engine was another thing, while the main parts had not let go some part of the syncro balancing had.

Geez, Joe, I've never seen anything like that!!

I had a hell of a time typing the last few out last night coz I was still laughing my arse off remembering the last story.

Anyway as you might have guessed my old man is a terminal tight arse and I remember an incident in the 70's when I was still in short pants.




The Scott bonnar saga.


Dad had somewhere along the line aquired 2 of these green monsters, reel mowers must have been trendy for him to buy 2 of em but he did and was forever telling everyone how great they were so one day he got roped into doing a demo a few houses down.

All is well in this near show garden until the owner takes control, gets the hang of the self propulsion and the lil lever that starts and stops the reel and is merrily turning his grass into a lawn when he runs over a length of braided steel washing line laying deceptively in the grass.

I was playing with a mate and heard the metallic noise and turned to see the mower winching itself towards some prize gardenias, up and over dislodging the grass catcher and neatly mangling half a garden beds worth of flowery stuff until the mower stalled..........

Dad to this day still talks about what it did to the blades and the drive on the reel and I remember with glee My dad copping shock after shock running beside the thing trying to short the plug to ground with the metal tab to kill the mower lol

Id nearly forgotten about this one...........

About 20 years ago I had a house mate called Boner, he wasnt the brightest guy in the world but had a heart of gold and one day he decides to mow the backyard where we were living, he got maybe 1/4 of the way through the job and my Toecutter ground to a halt so off he buggers and grabs his Mums Victa corvette.

After another 15 mins of bad language he realises that his Mums Vette aint up to the job so he goes off and grabs some of the sheet steel I had and tries to make a side chute for the mower so he can get rid of the catcher (The grass is 3 foot high BTW) and on his triumphant completion of the chute he roars off into the scrub for another shot only to realise that the chute keeps popping off the back of the Mower.

Being a resourcefull bloke he abandons the chute and just okky straps up the flap on the back of the mower and plunges back in to the scrub again with the mower roaring its nuts off and crap flying out the back of the mower so I wander back inside and grab a few beers.

3 mins later I hear a blood curdling scream and race back otu to find he has mowed a beer bottle and the neck of the thing is now firmly embedded in his shin...................

So after 10 mins of will I or wont I I yank the bottle neck out of his shin, he removes his dacks and bandages up the very bloody lower leg n toddles off for a beer or 5 and thats the end of that or so I thought.

Out of beer I call a cab and off to the local bottle shop I go in search of more refreshment coz watching him mow has made me thirsty and it on,y seemed right that I keep the boy well lubricated with amber nectar and when i get back and hop out of the cab with the cold slab I hear the mower going hard yet again in the back yard.

Did I mention that Boner wasnt too bright?

Anyway I wander around the back of the house with the slab, crack 2 stubbies and sit at the recently unearthed picnic table holding up a frosty one for Boner as he rounds the corner and comes into view but valiantly he soldiers on for another trip around the yard signalling to me he wont be a sec.

A few moments later he hits something else we later found to be a busted terracotta planter and cops the full force of a decent chunk in the nads.............

Did I mention that he was mowing in thongs and undies?

Another scream this time in a higher pitch and I just wandered over and shut the mower off, waited a few moments till he got his breath back, handed him the beer and suggested we call it quits for the day before something else in the grass took off his foot, leg or head.

Weirdly enough he was very agreeable.


As a footnote the next weekend he went to return his Mums mower and as we were giving it a tidy he noticed a blade missing lol and after that we got a Mowing bloke in to cut the grass, we figured it was safer by far.

killing grass

Old Pommy bloke next door was a bit of a worry and he was forever on the scrounge for gardening stuff and this one fine day he decides to kill a strip of grass along the side fence and make a nice mowing strip so he doesnt have to whipper snit the fence which he reckons is wrecking the bottom of the fence.

Im out the back working on my car and I smell petrol so i pop my head over to see what the hell is going on just in time to see the bloke wandering beside his house with a knapsack sprayer busy spraying this mowing strip along the bottom of the fence.

Seems the old bloke lit upon the idea of using petrol to kill the grass and this was the smell of fuel I had noticed so I wander back to my car and go back to work.

10 mins later I hear him fire up his mower so I belt to the fence to suggest he wait a while before mowing........

Nah, its ok, I know what im fooking doing lad so i shake my head n go back to the car just intime to hear a loud WHOOMP lol

BTW the new fence?

Colourbond, cant burn it ya see.

The victa Mayfair
I had an old wind up victa Mayfair with a 125cc engine on it. I used it for a few years , it use to start first wind � that ended up being its sad end!
As usual I pulled it out from under a load of other bits and pieces and fueled her up. I wound it up and let her go only to hear allot of grinding and eventually a hell of a bang. I was amassed to find that the bottom bearing housing had ended up about � inch lower than it had originally been, and was totally detached from the bearings and crankshaft. Upon further inspection it became evident that the starter cup had shattered and jammed in the flywheel somehow causing the whole bearing assemble to crack and dislodge. To this day I still can�t believe that it actually caused that much damage and allot of people don�t believe when I tell them until I show them a photo of it.
So from this experience I have learnt that sometimes it�s better not to have a mower that goes first time.
Anyway good story�s boffansr! I have a few more I will try to post in the next few nights.
Regards Jay

Mate that'd be great!

Ive always enjoyed a bit of mischief and some of the absolute pearler things Ive seen are worth putting down somewhere.

Im pretty sure a few can relate and especially the "so tight he wouldnt shout if a shark bit him" mower owners and the creative and sometimes spectacular way they destroy mowers.

Personally Ive only ever bought one new mower and I spent the premium for better wheels engine etc so that 13 years later she still fires up and runs fine despite my Ex's efforts to kill it.

That reminds me!

The whipper snipper from hell............................


Earlier I mentioned a bush block cleanup which was a regular pilgrimage, well before it became a bare block of land it had a very old home on it and we STILL had to go and clean it up yearly or more to keep the neighbours happy as well as putting the CFA (Country fire authority) at ease.

For one of these events my Dad had borrowed a petrol line trimmer from somewhere but found it lacking in the choppy choppy department when it came to bracken and ferns which we had a lot of on the block and as I was the tallest child I had the dubious honour of driving the brushcutter which is exactly what it became.

Dear old Dad "Modified" this thing by unscrewing the line feed and bolting on a circular saw blade............

Yep, he packed out the fairly thin shaft with "Stuff" and dropped a blade from a 9 inch saw onto the packed out boss and then held it in place with about 15 washers before screwing a nut on the end.

So the big day arrives and we make the trip, unload and are handed our various implements of doom.

So I wander up the back of the block and start the brushcutter which roars to life and away I go.

The thing was laying waste to everything and anything I swept it across doing a great job until the vibration started.

I ignored it being 13 or 14 and kept going arcing the thing in wide sweeps to chop down the bracken and blackberries.

Then the vibrations got worse.... and worse and then went away as the saw blade whizzed away into the undergrowth.

Ya know it wasnt until id retrieved the blade from under the bungalow that I noticed the nice neat way my inside pants leg had been chopped thru just above the ankle and as the boss on the end of the machine had sheared off I was excused from further duty.


Oh and we got Macca's on the way home, a rare treatfor us in the late 70's lol

I wonder why?

Sorry Chris, did I chuck it in the wrong place?

Ok BTW, when we went back a few weeks later someone had sprung for a proper plastic blade fitted to a new boss, diiiiiiiiidnt work as well but sure as hell wasnt going to take a foot off lol

So now im a trend setter!

Thanks for the heads up Bruce.


Tony

Hi Chris, good suggestion Chris, I have spoken to Bruce and he agrees, just working out the details an you will find it up when he returns from overseas.

Not as good as the the other stories on here but this happened yesterday.

The weeds and grass inthe back yard were out of control, its too hot to mow it anymore, alls I do now is go outside here and there for some parts, etc to put on ebay and bring them in.

So i am staggering around the back yard and spot my bolens ride on, I had had this running only the weekend before, poorly but alas it ran.

So I plodded inside for another beer, and thought I would try mowing a medium size back yard with it. I wound the rope around and around the pulley and one decent pull and itwent.

All was well until The rope I use to tie stuff on the trailor fell offf the mower and under the blades, taking down the starter rope with it.

However not to be deterred I pulled all the parts of mangled rope out and took the starter rope from one of the toecutters and finished the place.

I dont mind using the rideon out the back now, the drive to the wheels doesnt disengage but I can hold a stubbie and steer at the same time!

lol, the mower police was inside, making sure more machines dont "turn up from nowhere"

Hey Joe, Ha Ha!!
She's got you pegged!!

First ever ride on a ride-on

Back in the 70's we moved onto a 1/2 acre block and decided I needed a rideon to mow it - a friend owned a Mower Shop and sold me a second hand Deutscher Ride-on cheap. Decided the small front lawn would be first area to mow and jumped on and away I went - Gee this is good I thinks and wizzed around like rideing a Go-cart. Now the front and return up the driveways (circular drive - entrance both sides of the block) had a 2 metre drop down a rockery garden. I wizzed up to the edge at the front corner of the drive and went to stop looking for the foot brake as in any car - but there wasn't one ! (The Deuschner has a hand brake on the back wheels) I sail right off the top of the embankment - as the mower hit nose first I projected myselef in a beautifully executed swan dive with half tuck finished in a judo roll (where did that come from?) and onto my feet and ran to get get away from the screaming monster. When I finally stopped and looked back the mower was upside down and still running but was producing a smoke cloud screen to the envy of any naval vessal in a war time sea battle.

I raced back (up hill) to reach the mower at the same time my concerned wife arrived having heard my scream ( did I do that?) and saw the smoke. Shut it off and righted it - not a mark on it ( them is tough machines) started it up and took things a bit more sedately after that - that mower lasted another 12 years and mowed our later 17 acre property for years - ended up selling it with the property.