OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Component Histories RANSOMES - Trailing Seat Brochure - c1950s

Hello ODK History Lovers

The trailing seat was the natural progression of the sulky seats
used on animal powered lawnmowers in the 19th Century.

Sulky seats enabled otherwise pedestrian controlled mowers to be
converted to a ride-on configuration to assist the comfort of
operators on relatively flat ground. A typical application would
be the farm sickle mowers of the day.

My best guess is that trailing seats first appeared on
lawnmowers in the inter-war years.

A sulky-seat was a 'ride-on' idea; a trailing-seat was a
'ride-behind' idea. In practice, both terms are interchangeable.

Trailing seats were offered by many manufacturers and
could be attached to reel and then rotary mowers.

Prior to the rotary revolution, trailing seats were frequently
used in combination with small gang mowers to radically
increase the cutting width of a single powered reel mower.

This rare brochure from the 1950s (below) shows the trailing
seats offered by Ransomes in the 1950s. Note the sophistication
of the seats – offered with rollers or tyred wheels, and brakes!

Today, though less common, trailing seats are still offered as
accessories on many lawnmowers.

TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART TWO - The Brochure

This brochure is from my collection and it is in great condition.
As always, available for viewing or as a download.