OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics TV Ads - Various Videos

G'day everyone,

In the last video Mowerfreak, he got rid of that lovely green solid base for that rusty steel deck? I'm sure that's rust and paint flaking near the adjustment bar and spring on the deck. I have never actually used one of those thumb latch catchers so I can't say how good they are.

The only thing I like is it looks like it has bigger capacity than the smaller catchers. But also that could be a problem if you have alot of heavy grass and dirt etc as sometimes even my smaller catcher can get quite heavy with grass and stuff, it actually flexes or bows at the top of the catcher when lifting it off the mower to empty it. This ended up cracking the catcher near the top opening where the metal flap sits from the mower.

Now I have reinforced the top part of the catcher with an aluminium angle bracket screwed to the inside top of the catcher near the handle. Now no matter how much grass, dirt, branches, rocks whatever is in the catcher. It can handle all the extra weight no problems and the top will never bow or bend at all...lol. Match that with the recently installed front metal catcher patcher and you could use that old saying for my catcher, it's built like a brick **** house! Or something along those lines...LOL!

Cheers!

I will say the unladen weight of the thumb latch catcher is noticeably heavier compared to the smaller flap held catchers and may not be for everybody, but the steel decks are flimsy cheap feeling junk compared to the rock solid feel of the alloy deck. They are very sleek looking with the way the top of the engine lines up with the catcher height -something I have always admired about this design.
The steel deck with the side pull full crank is made from stronger steel and I have grown to really like them almost as much as my beloved thumb latch catcher alloy deck models. Victa also made an alloy deck based on the steel deck design, after they ceased production of the domestic thumb latch series in 1992.
They are a nice compromise as they take the same catcher as the steel decks.
The full crank side pull steel decks don't suffer from rust holes anywhere near as badly as the much later powertorque steel deck mowers. You have a keeper Converse.

G'day here's a video with some handy tips to make lawnmowing easier.

Cheers!

Poor K car. Nice looking cheap classic trashed for a corny sketch with canned laughter. No laughing matter.

Here's a ripper with a then new popular selling Victa super start Mustang with the users living up to their name. The catcher detached a couple of times, showing that the thumb latch mechanism was not for everybody.

I went to school with good ol' Greg Clarke from Radio 5KA &5AD and onto Channel 7 hosting the long running "Music Express" on Saturday afternoons which this came from.

Greg still runs a business called "Greg Clarke Productions" in Adelaide and was basically the North Adelaide Football Clubs No.1 ticket Holder for quite some years.

Cheers,
BB.

Great clip there Mowefreak! Looks like a brand new Mustang used back then for that video!

I still don't know how these thumb latch catchers connect to the back, I have a VC160 that has that latch on the top of the mower that connects to the rear flap that flips inside the catcher when you install it. That's a bit different to the standard black plastic catchers that came out later.

Do you have any photo's of the back of the mower and the inside front of the catcher of one of these thumb latch catcher mowers?

Cheers!

Very similar to the VC -160, except the lever to lift the flap is on the far right hand edge and it locks onto the latch like a gate instead of relying on spring tension as your VC does.

B_B, I noticed the host certainly had a recognisably velvety smooth radio voice about him!

Here we have some hilarity in the form of outtakes from the Joe The gadget Man in 1972, including an uncooperative Victa Pace mower!

G'day, I reckon Victa would have loved watching that back in the day! lol

Here's a classic Masport commercial.

What's bothered me about Masport is how they try to pass the brand off as Australian when they are an import from New Zealand. I'm sure that ambiguity gave them a marketing advantage. Who can blame them.
Australians are indoctrinated to think Aussie made means better, which is completely false, especially when compared to products across the ditch. A truth many don't want to face. Masport is superior to Victa. There I made it official.
Why don't they have catchers like that anymore?

The mower I use to do all my hard working scalping work each year is in fact a .........................................................................Masport.

Their catchers were the best, nice and large and also a good durability of build quality.

Cheers,
BB.

Well at least I got rid of a number of Masport catchers and a few others today, every bit helps and less I have to cut up.

The "hot" steam iron in the Gadget Man clip looks like a General Electric F101. I finished fixing a G.E. FS17 yesterday, which is basically similar. They don't make them easy to take apart! There's a bit of soft aluminium trim around the filler hole that bends and breaks when you remove it, and you're forced to remove it because it holds the front of the handle to the water tank. I suspect "tamper-evident" design at work here.

Hi suebutcher,
do you have any idea why he got a shock and was it a common occurrence with that iron? Doesn't reflect well on appliances from that era.

All the exposed metal with the exception of the centre trim plate is earthed on the Australian version of that iron, and that part is separated from the rest of the metal by the Bakelite of the handle. He shouldn't have got a belt unless there was a fault in the extension lead, or there was enough condensation or spilt water inside the iron to conduct current from the live terminal inside the handle to the trim plate. Maybe it was filled sloppily. I've not heard that these irons were dangerous. My Mum used an FS17 for years without trouble. The type was still in production as the Black & Decker Classic well into the 21st Century.

Funny to see it happen that way on film then. Not funny for him!

No mowers here, but a great excerpt of a time gone by with Andy's Nock & Kirby handyman show from 1978, demonstrating a new welder of theirs when people still made their own stuff.

Good stuff there Mowerfreak, sort of takes me back to other shows that were on when I was younger, I think there was a science type show in the 80's called "The Curiosity Show". There is probably a few others also.

Here's a video of the same mower dealer that was showing the Victa 2 stroke's you posted a while ago. What I noticed is because now I am looking at the last ever Victa 2 stroke lawnmowers that are on sale. I think I found a little weird thing that Victa (Briggs And Stratton) have missed on this last model (Or don't care, forgot, who knows?). The actual model this guy is talking about is the "CMS 462", take notice of the top cowl, wheels, handles etc on this mower. This is also the exact same mower pictured on Victa's website showing this mower is available now at dealers.

Now here's the thing I noticed. The one that the Victa Gold Dealers are selling now as the last model is the exact same model number as the one featured in this video "CMS 462". But if you look at the top cowl, wheels, handles etc on the one available now at Victa dealers, it's a different looking mower, but has the exact same model number?



Here's a picture of the current last available Victa Commando 2 stroke lawnmower model number "CMS 462" that's available from my local Victa dealer which I have seen in person and also from another dealer on ebay.

A few more Vids.

Great ads there Maxwestern, I could probably use that mower in first ad to pick up the grass clippings sometimes left behind from the Victa..lol

Now here's a clip of Briggs And Stratton (Victa) celebrating their 8 millionth mower assembled here in Australia, it was added back in 2011 to youtube so I suppose that's when they were celebrating this milestone? Yeah thanks Briggs And Stratton Australia, where's the Victa 2 stroke mower???

You captured the 8 millionth mower on video with a B&S 4 stroker, but nothing can be captured at all from the factory featuring the legendary aussie Victa 2 stroke engine, not during all those years of production and not even the last one ever made was captured on video. What a great company, yes they really care about it's Australian background and heritage!

Now I am not sure but I think I read in the paper about mid 2017 in an article about the end of the line where they were saying that production of the 2 stroke was ceasing and that there was only 3 people still employed in the warehouse, I could be wrong but that is stuck in the back of my mind. I think I threw the cutting out of the paper out

Yeah it's obvious Briggs only care about promoting Briggs and using the local Victa brand awareness to further that.
It's an American company after all and they are not interested in anything outside of the U.S unless there is a nickel to be generated.
That video makes me want to unbolt their widget and take to it with a sledgehammer or perhaps pour aluminIum oxide in the oil and run it full blast until polishes itself to death internally.