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Below, a couple of visitors point out a plant, they've waited more than a year to see again, at a rarely held country estate garden's Open Day, they're keen gardeners though many in the lower peasantry don't like grass and want to replace it with car parks.  The Mowing Devil below, scoop.

Australian  VICTA The  Mower of Plainfield
Many live away from lawns, an aspect of elite life often copied in small scale by lesser beings, this page gives a brief look for anybody who is interested in VICTA models, p Australian OutdoorKing

Above Photo Credit:  Photo News.com au, Tony Cassar, Penrith.  VICTA 60th anniversary.

Above and below, The British Queen Elizabeth II's favorite lawn mower.

Left white VICTA Vulcan V40 push rotary mower with metal sparking plug cover and above the self-propelled alloy deck version with large fuel tank capacity, a small catcher.

 Above, right, and below a metal angled piece protecting the sparking plug is missing in many examples and present on the final 2-stroke Razor of 2007 below, the base made in China and assembled from spare engines in Australia.  The latest VICTA machines have 4-Stroke motors, much heavier to push leading many to seek after used 2-Stroke machines.  The hose nozzle on the Razor cutting deck allows easy cleaning but wasn't very good quality despite a price some four times that of the basic alloy cutting deck mower.  The Razor had two blower/cutter blades and a vacuum mulching blade pan.

Left 1984 year 2-Stroke VICTA Vortex, superb looking alloy cutting deck machine.  Slow rpm with small heat vents on top unlike later, faster running descendants below.  VICTA is owned by the US BRIGGS & STRATTON today, the last old ones sold around the year 2007.  Some wear on the tires suggests a lot of mowing but a nice original condition for any restoring these.  The Vortex cutting blade set replaced with a 4-blade swing-blade set and missing parts in the plastic cover allows grass ingress needing regular cleaning.  Vortex use early G4 carburetors, motor cooling fins for slow rpm may struggle with a grass box compared to 4-Stroke Tecumseh.
Right many of these were left out in all weathers rusting severely underneath but thanks to their faded plastic cover can be refurbished.  Given a brief checkup, this then cuts the grass.  One unusual thing is the slow/ fast throttle control.  In the usual Vortex, there's only one speed, warm-up, and run.  Sometimes when not properly adjusted there is such a speed control and this hasn't the original carburetor.

Left with 1987 came the Mustang GTS 'guaranteed to start'.  The early silver GTS module is troublesome most have been converted to the gold one.  The mower below looks like a Mustang but says Vortex at the front.  Mowers like the one above are often left in houses as of no commercial value and tinkers get them going to make a small profit as under demand as very lightweight and vibration-free compared to any 4-Stroke machines.
Right the red VICTA Vortex doesn't look its age, around 36 years.  Nine times the life expectancy of a Chinese mower but nine times the retail price.    Below replacement circular section manifold and carburetor gaskets, apparently supplied by the new VICTA company that traded from 2007 using spare parts and Chinese mowers.  The original manifold a sophisticated flat band of delicate inner detail contrasts the new circular section one, the old flat rubber type available occasionally as 'new old stock'.

  
Lugarno Lawn Keeper

 

 VICTA Razor below.  Above, a 1970s Rolls Royce Silver Shadow.

Right, prices of the LWB Silver Shadow have rocketed making recovery of scrap examples worthwhile and below, is seen the interior with its cassette radio of years past, made by Radiomobile, all within some country estate farm area.  The abandonment of such vehicles followed from low ...

...market prices.  Later Shadow II were more expensive to run, the subsequent Silver Spirit models least reliable.  Left, someone tinkering with a hose left it on the passenger seat and busied themselves removing the door panel.  An attempt to get lower society buyers of used Silver Shadow is helped along by England's road-worthiness and tax exemption scheme in cars over forty years of age.  It's not clear just how bad they're allowed to appear to qualify and US gas guzzler engine cars are extra pricey to run in England.  Modern overhead valve lawn mowers too are very inefficient with gas so it's worth saving the old side valve, push rod type like the Briggs & Stratton 450.

Right, a Qualcast 35s sucks grass into the cooling fan as a Bosch engineered mower with German made Tecumseh AQ148 engine from before 1996, a heavy weighted governor copes better with dirty engine oil.  Plastic cover Qualcast 14 and 35 below, has a buyout BRIGGS & STRATTON redesigned Tecumseh AQ148 made from new dies in Portugal, a Briggs 450 style plastic cam gear and lightweight governor is based on Honda engines and shows less positive governor control, the BRIGGS is higher-revving.  Below another typical yearly-serviced Qualcast Classic 35S lawn, sharp blades and quiet self-propelled engine.

Left, Qualcast Cylinder 14S (and 35S version) appeared before and after the Bosch 35S above from the years 2000-2, the 14S for operator owners of very short stature.  Highest handlebar height of the 14S is way below the lowest adjustable push bar of the 2000 year 35S due to efforts needed to push the mower without self-drive, that improves quality of cut with rye grass.  2006 year 14 and 35S get the plastic instead of metal propeller shaft cover, exposing both oil caps, faster running speed and different cooling fins, US Tecumseh carburetor is good and equals the worst European Dellorto, early Suffolk Punch with metal air filter covers are believed more reliable by enthusiasts.

 

Right, ATCO Balmoral 14S with an American Tecumseh carburetor, in England thought inferior to the European Dell'Orto brand famed in Lotus Cars and fitted to the German Bosch engine on the pre-1996 lawnmowers of this style.  The Dell'Orto still works with its throttle pole wobbling from side to side!  There are two main Tecumseh carbs for these, a white cover on the idle jet and a later black cover, both excellent after a service.   Below, the German engine bearing and heavy weights governor of the original Tecumseh AQ148 with its steel cam push rod gear, an awesome sounding engine, reminiscent of single-cylinder diesels, sewing machines and Detroit trucks.  Right below, a Turkish engine bearing from post 1996 BRIGGS & STRATTON redesigned Tecumseh AQ148 with plastic detail cam gear and these are superb engines, probably better than before.

Left, a fine lawn of modest size, a well-looked-after Qualcast Classic 35S, less expensive new than icon branded alloy-deck VICTA mowers that often have blades rusted solid, Qualcast 35s more easily refurbished.  Lawns of the superior owner are often the work of professionals, machines trickle down to secondhand buyers in the lower peasantry, showing what a big difference owners make.

Right, ATCO Royale in a much bigger plot that with the greenhouse is likely to be lower middle class if you're owners of smaller factories or larger sales businesses.  Everything including the mower seems to be well cared for and the cassette still with a red finish and clean silver edge.  Who has so much time to be in their garden we might think.

 

 The Chippendale Society

The Walled Garden at Luton Hoo Estate

 

Although the final years Tecumseh engine below was reckoned by US engineers as built to fall apart, this style of ALLETT/ ATCO, Qualcast, and Webb branded cylinder mower is by far the most popular in England today, an early green gasoline tank version is called the Suffolk Punch and fitted with the Dell'Orto carb and an older Zenith model similar to the Qualcast 30.  These are trickle down mowers of the upper peasantry,  a term peasant found appalling today by lower society lawn keepers.

Note that the heavyweight governor above with its pre-1996 year retainer, pushes out the central part on spinning and pulls back on slowing whilst the lightweight governor right, has weights that don't return easily and stay out, even getting stuck open and revving too high but both engines are so good when properly serviced that a winner couldn't be easily decided upon.  The idea that the older European Dell'Orto carburetor is superior to the later American Tecumseh is false.  Right, long Choke arm Chinese carburetor reckoned better than the Dell'Orto left.

 

Above the VICTA Swordsman Reel/ Cylinder mower for fine turf lawns.

Left, an Atco CLUB 20R of the middle-class.   The peasantry are a group of people of the opinion today that it's appalling they're not thought equals of the higher social classes, about which of course they know very little but these mowers become grander and grander, the higher up the market we go and become tools operated by hired groundsmen and estate workers.  The ten-blade cylinder cassette is available for the ATCO Balmoral, and seen in Qualcast Classic 35S that it fits, cutting only shorter grass, few amateurs have experience of the true lawn, talk of 8 blades as the minimum for Cricket with as many as eleven, so that peasant lawn keepers need to cut their lawn according to their mower and not come to expect too much from their humble Cylinder mowers, the VICTA Swordsman above was despised by Bowling Green keepers.

A British cyclecar is built on plans of Ward & Avey of Somerset in the years 1919-24, the engine above a Honda 6.5 hp GX200 fitted to the AV Monocar.  These would be seen around the roads of private estates back in the day when there wasn't much traffic and the police had bicycles.  Below later faster engine block 'kill wire' details.

Above a steel cutting deck VICTA Rapier, much more pushing effort than alloy cutting decks.  Right the mid-1970s red boot bypassed above is often replaced with black but shows a long-life motor of little usage.  The primer button and jet are removed right to show the older G4 carburetor fuel charge detail.  The new issue primer button cap is white rather than the cream color and has detailed differences.











Left, two grey squares indicate magnets of the spark ignition system.

Above, a Hayter Harrier 41 is very heavy to prevent rolling onto its side.  Left, click on image for full scale, a Briggs engine Hayter Harrier 48 and below the Briggs engine 56 are machines of the affluent British middle-class and retained so long as the blades can be sharpened or replaced.

Left, Tecumseh engine Hayter, nicest finished machines but older, more difficult to service engines than many care for even with the BVS153 ignition module seen. Exhaust has no guard like VICTA of old and nobody wants to even think about touching one by mistake, though back in the day, people got by without exhaust guards.  Tecumseh were an American company making engines for 1960s Victa but the company gradually lost favor through inferior design, getting steadily worse over the years with a gradual loss of resources to create the best products.  However in the USA, they have many friends willing to keep them alive and well.

YouTube VICTA videos are optimistic but it's best to read this guide and save time to get your mower done at the first attempt.  Right restoring Victa mowers firstly put 200ml of 50:1 2-stroke oil in 5 liters of fresh petrol adding a few squirts of Redex Lead (the metal) a petrol substitute. Left VICTA Vortex cylinder block cooling fins are few as low speed where right below the more recent, faster block has increased cooling.

 

Right, Baron John Bonde of Charleton House, Fife  Photo:  Expressen

Left the aluminum heat-sink takes heat from the low rpm Vortex block above left and gets very hot.  1980s removable gas tank version allows emptying after every mow.  Note the difference in the cylinder head cooling fins for high and low rpm. The sparking plug, in 2-strokes, is fouled with the 'petroil' mix and gets hotter than in 4-stroke so that NGK has special 2-Stroke plugs with a 'long nose' insulator, a 'projected plug' designed to avoid oil-fouling.  The 'short nose' is used in '2-Strokes' with longer electrodes than 4-Stroke.

Right, clear hose on a VICTA TURBODISC and old-style serviceable vacuum unit, with spring-clips keeping the sides together.  Note the rusty steel housing of the genuine sparking plug with fakes having a rust-free aluminum housing.  However fake sparking plugs have a very short, troublesome life.  In refitting the hosed insert to the vacuum unit after removing the plastic insert, it's best to wrap insulation tape around the circular plug as a gasket to prevent any vacuum leak.  Clean the cooling fins with petrol on a narrow half-inch paintbrush.  Ensure the head gasket is working with the mown grass being mulched like powder.  A blown head gasket will be low power and show cut grass with no mulching.

Left a 'melted piston' in lawnmowers is caused by a hot-sparking plug like NGK BPM4RA being used in place of BM-6A.  The BPM4 has a different, sharper less deep engine sound than the BM-6A.  Nobody it seems on the internet explains how such similar-looking spark plugs sound so different.  The BM-6A 'short-nose' has a smaller metal housing below the insulator.

Right, a video about the scored cylinder and piston condition of worn-out small engines, largely caused by running overheated with a light fuel/oil mixture and possibly a spark plug too hot in its running behavior.  With modern ethanol fuel, a colder running sparking plug is needed to avoid overheating.  Resistor types like BMR6A do improve running over the Victa powertorque engine's NGK BM6A.

 Right, an old NGK 'projected plug' in a VICTA 460 showing the rusty steel housing long nose 2-stroke sparking plug, fakes have an aluminum housing that doesn't rust.  Seen Center the magneto rusted in the soft iron core and needs to be replaced, many old mowers with blade pan rusted in place have their owners dreading a bad magneto coil, usually from outdoor storage.  Most work after a few pulls of the starter.  The kill wires boot is seen disconnected as often replaced by a switch.

Left the Bosch WR11 has electrical current leakage barriers to prevent misfiring and nickel-plated housing and threads to protect against corrosion and seizure in aluminum cylinder heads.  But it is not suitable for the VICTA 160cc 2-Stroke as it melts the piston head.  Right, a Bosch Research & Design engineer.  Tiny Rowland was German too.  Getting a genuine sparking plug will be difficult but a look at specifications shows the WR11 to match NGK 2-4 heat range NGK BMR2A and NGK BR4LM, the VICTA 2-Stroke needs the NGK 6 heat range as a colder sparking plug but as links show there's a lot of different sparking plugs.  Swedish Husqvarna.

Left fake BM6A 4-Stroke with branding to carry the day.

Left a 4-Stroke plug called NGK BM6AII very similar to the fake but the washer is much better.

  Below the Silver Streak.

 The video covers some issues with spark plugs, there are so many fakes on the market, and getting an original is impossible.  In effect the fake spark plug of today doesn't last long, we'll be lucky if it makes a full season.  But sparking plugs supplied with new 2-Stroke equipment are as good as original and never need to be replaced.

Left these are old mowers and in videos like these they look it.  Just some junk left over from an estate sale or house move and tinkers make a few dollars on a resale.  A vacuum unit lifts up a rubber plug on a shaft to help in starting and if not working won't start.  An older type has metal spring clips hold it together, the later unit, not being serviceable is sealed.  Below a VICTA Tornado steel cutting deck.

Right original Victa G4 carburetor with brass insert in cap serving as an engine revolution limiter, dropping by 150 rpm.  Sounds more powerful and like a motor-cycle at higher revolution speed but gets far too hot, blowback, and dies out if allowed to run. Original kill wire boot is now available in fake quality.  'Kill switches' were unreliable and stripping the mower to fix them is laborious for many, the fuel turned off at the tap in an old 1960s VICTA owner's way, the motor allowed to die out.

Left fake Victa G4 grey color cap tells us there's no expensive brass speed limiter for low speed but the fake plastic body has the older fuel mix ratio and not the later LM carburetor high speed that some techs think meant to 'wear cylinders out quicker'.  The early body carburetors are for slower speed, it's a fuel charge ratio difference.  The kill wires boot is missing.  A sticking float can be overcome by rocking the mower as it warms up.

Whether the LM carburetor wears the cylinder quicker also depends on tensioning springs in the cap.  The Victa Vortex uses the lightest, shortest style of four that gives a very moderate speed that the engine cooling suits.  But the later engines must have differences to give higher rpm cooling efficiency.  Four G4 carburetor bodies have four different fuel charge ratios, ostensibly compatible by changing poppet position and cap springs.

Note the difference in the tensioning spring holder black and grey lifters sits higher in the black and lower in the grey, differences affect idle speed the brass washer affects speed and with the white nylon poppet valves, it won't be possible to it, the suggestion that these are in wore out carburetors is hard to fathom.  People persist with old Victa as lacking experience of later machines. 

The grey lifter sits lowest in the carburetor body and has the least spring compression.  The two lifters depend on the type of poppet valve used, long or short, black or white.  Chinese machines are good and reliable but heavy.  The cheaper plastic decks are lightest but wobble under the weight of the 4-Stroke motor.  Back in the day, a G4/LM carburetor service manual was written, indicating different colored carburetor rpm springs but although available on the internet today most OEM machines have no colors.  So we might ask if the colored ones do what they ought to.

Right, an early Vortex G4 carburetor with no port on the Emulsion Tube.  The port added later in these is for increased rpm and through airflow.  The surface of the poppet valve had a number of marks besides an 'A' for low rpm and 'C' for high rpm.  If we put the wrong position it doesn't run well as the fuel mix is wrong and VICTA found it guzzles fuel.  But the idea that by using different cap springs we might get by is fanciful.  The G4 carburetor may look like later versions but are specialized to a particular VICTA product making other garden equipment, leaf blowers, scarifiers, etc.


 Left nylon nozzle port in a fast running Panther type G4 carburetor.  Whether the poppet valve face of these should have 'A' or 'C' just next to that port depends on the machine.  On internet auction sites it is possible to get the brass jet that screws in behind the Emulsion Tube going to this port but there are three types.  One has three rings in the screwface whilst the other two are plain.  One has a narrow bore in the jet and is needed for slow machines like the Vortex, the other has a wider bore jet and allows a higher rpm.
 
Right the Vortex G4 carburetor also found on the TurboDisc is seen below.  It has a stronger, nicer body than the early issue with decreased fuel bowl, air/ petroil fuel charge detail but increased choke air space to the rear.  However, the vacuum hose pipe is as fragile as the earlier unit.  The brass jet seen has a narrow bore and won't start with the wider bore, higher speed jet.

Left air to fuel charge depressions in the G4 carburetors affecting higher rpm with more air by volume.













 Right vacuum hose pipes snapped off during impatient tinkering, usually, after several frustrating attempts to get the mower to run.

Right the rubber boot on the sparking plug causes a lot of angst in trying to start these mowers during servicing.  It contacts via the hidden steel nail that gives only a few sparks instead of many.  People find a way to bypass the boot but it's aimed at the long wet grass that shocks operators.  During servicing it's best to contact the ignition wire with sparking plug by a better method.

 Left G4 carburetor rpm cap springs, slowest Vortex is the shortest one nearest, and 'chug-chug' sound 1973 VICTA Mustang below is the long one and lacks the GTS 'easy start' module.  A speed reduction cap is seen with brass insert, normally covered by a black pipe that has broken off. The cylinder head cooling for the powerful 'chug-chug' sound differs from the Vortex whine one.VC160.



Right the early 'chug-chug' VICTA 160 Series 80 motor had a black-painted iron cylinder body and better head cooling fins, using the strongest fuel charge carburetor spring.  The 160cc power torque engine blocks (barrels) shouldn't be painted.  The VC160 has an olden days' points type motor best replaced with the gold 'easy start' module.  The silver one on eBay isn't recommended as replaced under warranty by the gold.

Left the burble at idle of a full crank VICTA VC160 seems to please its operator.  Using the same carburetor fuel charge setting, it is possible to get a power torque 160cc to sound similar but it heats up quickly and dies out.  People may ask if the VC160 is more powerful but the efficiency and power of these aren't reported anywhere.

.  Right early alloy deck 2-Stroke Series 80 160cc motor.  Larger exhaust.  A sample lawn of a rotary mower owner.  Below the idle control on the G4 carburetor associated with the VICTA VC160 Series 80 motor.  Fitters puzzle over why it was removed.  Later machines use only the fuel charge metering spring because the heat-sink is much more critical in a lightweight build. 

 

Left, Mountfield HP470 had been popular in working-class use.  Compact and lightweight, very easily turned, easily started 450 series Briggs & Stratton but best suited for short stature operators.  17" cut mulching blade and large capacity grass box of robust all-plastic construction.  Buyer interest has declined but the side-valve is more economical than modern OHV mowers.

The VC160 motor makes a heavier machine but with superior wheel bearings endearing it to many owners.  Left alloy deck VICTA Vulcan with dead man's handle and thicker flexible air hose to carry the cable.  The machine makes it easy to remove the fuel tank to empty after mowing.  The exhaust was exposed and later machines protected it with wire to prevent knocking off.  The Vortex heat-sink is gone due to more cooling fins being cast in the...







...newer galvanized cast iron cylinder block.  The cordless Ryobi above impresses its new owner with easy to push good results.   Right the VICTA 160...


  ... Series 80 shows an NGK sparking plug holder, rather than the rubber boot for the Champion BM-6A in the Vortex.  Click on the image for full view.  The Series 80 was long considered the best and most powerful VICTA by owners but there's no evidence to support the view.  How is the manifold, right center, fixed to the block?  There's no information on the internet.  Once the points in this motor are replaced by the GTS module it may be worth trying.  The fan belt is positioned to suggest self-propelled use.

Left the above 160cc Tecumseh in a go-kart with the variable speed idle G4 carburetor.  These engines started out with a G3 metal carburetor.  They're followed by some enthusiasts just like the Land-Rover early Series below.

Right, Australia converts a light Land-Rover to electric motor using a water-cooled marine 30KW design.  There had always been powerful engine conversions of 4 x 4 in Australia and the electric motor is more efficient in recent years than in the machine below. 

Left 1970s electric flex powered lawnmowers were styled as the Fairlight Rotary 400 but the name lives on in the 1980s, a mower suited for lady operators.  The Flymo Hovervac 280 today is a lightweight 1300 watt to the heavy 1000 watt, 1400 rpm mains motor in yesterday's VICTA; a Best Seller and first choice of the ignorant, indolent, working-class owner.  The main appeal of the cordless gasoline is wet grass safety, the electric mains cord less safe than most hope, the push bar left...


  ...insulated at the top, just in case.  G4 units saw long service with no washing out and worked full of dirt.  But very high mileage VICTA lawnmowers are more carefully serviced in a bid to keep them running another season.  Not everywhere has affordable new Chinese lawnmowers a stone's throw away and they're very heavy and difficult to maneuver.

Below, a VICTA Vortex style 'barrel' or finned cylinder block of the Vortex fin style but from the steel deck VICTA Vantage often replaced by a Briggs & Stratton Classic 375 from the very similar LAWNMASTER as the American 4-Stroke is actually much lighter than the cast iron block VICTA Power Torque 2-stroke.  Like Royal Navy ships these names were confusingly used on other machines.  Below, a curious feature of the Vantage starter are two flattened parts instead of the usual one above and the metal surround of the starter with no usual location screws, nor brown color foam on the underside.

The late G4 carburetor body is much stronger than the early type as Australian VICTA service techs were Lazy Bums that used a screwdriver to remove the rpm cap.  The correct way is to boil a kettle and pour boiling water over the plastic rpm carburetor cap, it then removes very easily.  This is also the correct way to remove fuel and airlines.  But tinkering can lead to some expensive to repair shortcuts.

Veecta Tween two-cylinder mower.

Left replacing the Kill wires (Keel Woyehs) on a VICTA lawnmower.  Below the old VICTA 160cc 2-Stroke has a variable idle control on the carburetor cap.  Techs on internet forums have a style of hinting and ask why would such engineers use rpm springs instead of idle speed control.  Well, the air to petroil charge ratio isn't mentioned, presumably not to put enthusiasts off.

Left the 19-gallon grass catcher on 1964 VICTA with what looks like the 4-Stroke before the Tecumseh 125cc.  The flexible air hose has been added later with these vintage machines fitted with petrol washed foam filter that below has a paper filter instead.  The original US Champion sparking plug still in situ.

Above the dangerous edge cutter that doubled as a side-catcher with a 'canoe grass catcher' continued on professional models.   The late 1960s machines acquired the larger diameter rubber-tired wheels that were heavier than the later plastic shell type.  Right rusted 19-gallon catcher with large silencing exhaust still used around Hospitals until recent times.

Above the mower would make short work of the long grass seen.  Left 1966 2-stroke alloy deck takes the 19-gallon catcher.  The cutting-deck often got a hole in the position near the back wheel from flying stones.  If a 2-Stroke overheats with a smaller spark plug gap, vacuum sorted and correct fuel/oil ratio, add a little more oil in high mileage examples.  Always add Redex lead substitute even though there's no valve gear.

Right, Victa mower, lawn edger and the s/trimmer resembles a Tanaka TCG22EAB but was claimed in Australia to be Chinese cheap profit making use of the icon brand, without even a cutting head shield. Buyers can identify features of the Victa branded s/trimmer in internet auctions and determine the build quality. 

Left the second VICTA 160cc from the 1967 year shares styling of the rarest, the 1965 Corvette IV, the engine sought by Kart racers, known as 'wind up' mowers from the top mount spring starter.  The 125cc 4-Stroke Tecumseh has incredible torque rarely realized unless cutting moss lawns.  Below it's seen in a self-propelled mower version as inferior to the 2-Stroke in vibration and weight.

 

 

 Left, the square form exhaust guard AL-KO 420BW fits well below the plastic top that some early versions didn't have, the Tecumseh blower casing being painted red instead.  The Prisma 37 Dellorto carburetor is seen and works but one drawback of these old Briggs and Tecumseh side-valve engines, was their gas guzzling vintage.

 

Right, the front wheel drive Al-Ko Sunline of German origins, its exhaust guard above often missing or damaged, These machines have a more powerful blade system than usual giving this lawn an impressive finish.  An owner with a picket fence and garden shed.  The engine is able to turn at very low revs on account of its SPECTRA engine and these are very nice machines if lightweight and unstable with no real striping effect at all.  However the cut is as impressive as the Qualcast 35S cylinder mower with the added ability to cut nearer walls or fences.  The cutting deck gets lower than most BRIGGS decks, and the engine is quieter.
 

Above the AL-KO Sunline 420BW is a plastic cutting deck mower like the 16" B&Q right that in the United Kingdom suits tiny peasant lawns.  The Chinese B&Q engine is the best version with the slotted overhead valve cover but the machine cuts very low and has no easy height adjustment.  Below, B&Q TRY3.5SPLMA Self Drive uses the engine right, in a later version with easy height adjustment but owners...

... dislike it because at times, the wheels run stiff, always a problem for lawn skid marks.  To free the wheels, briefly engage the self-drive.  On rough grass, carefully tip the mower back whilst running and lower it slowly down, at 99cc, it can't take it in its stride and only cuts best when fully warmed up, it will scalp rough grass if running too cold. Underneath a low part of the deck can be problematic at lower cutting heights.

Right, the B&Q motor above is shared with the Hyundai HYM40P and these are impressive motors but already many years old.  A top ring bearing leak develops from neglect of oil levels causing sump gasket failure with no spares available.  Back in the day, a fully fitted inner engine was offered to change over external parts.  No timing marks on the gearwheels unlike BRIGGS & STRATTON but some will want to save the engines from scrap.  Sump bolts are brittle.  Below, older B&Q Briggs mower with American...

...side-valve 450, a very lightweight motor that features the garden implement handle of the later polypropylene plastic deck.  The downside of a 450 is very intrusive noise, but side-valve push rod engines are much more fuel efficient than the modern, overhead valve machines that can't be as easily serviced by domestic users.  The 450 is a low tech Briggs engine whereas the higher market has more complex carburetors, very similar in engine blocks, the need for extra complexity is unclear, possibly buyer status and prestige.  B&Q is a British retailer serving the lower peasantry and found nearby areas with small plots of land but the mowers are able to cut much larger areas of grass and have been engineered to run in extreme environments with low maintenance.

Left, AL-KO 46B and above, a truly superb lawn finish is offered by the Classic 460B from year 2008, ULTRAMOW 3 in 1 cutting deck combines mowing, catching and mulching in one, a cheap version of the 1984 year VICTA Vortex.  (Veekter Voa-ah-teaks in Australian).  (460BR Classic.)  Briggs 450 engine, old side-valve of 148cc, today's more efficient Overhead Valve B&Q mower above needs only 99cc but gives similar power, 125cc OHV in modern Briggs models.  The Mountfield RS-100 is most popular in the UK and closest to electric with easy on/off engine operation;  it's best for small domestic gardens.  Old swing-blade VICTA might still have semi-professional capability but heavy mulching blade pans make for dramatic starting and stopping.

Right, in Europe the Al-Ko Sunline 420 engineered in Germany and made in Austria.  A Tecumseh Spectra 40 engine with only 100 hours service sports the original Dellorto carburetor and new, rounded exhaust guard.  The petrol-blowing carburetor is the Prisma 37, 'cut to the bone' with a black priming button and smaller cast body.  Styling is remarkable, here with the plastic top removed.

 








Left a surprisingly new looking pressed steel cutting deck VICTA Tiger from an estate sale.  Chrome hubcaps in the wheels don't look like they ever mowed a lawn and may have been kept to cover for an older alloy deck like the one above.  Below a chrome hubcap VICTA Power Plus self-drive.

Below steel deck VICTA RAPIER with chrome hubcaps, alloy deck above.

Left and above, John Deere mowers are most known from a very high retail price.  The actual performance of the mowers isn't highly regarded but they're seen in moneyed places.  The engine above is the rare cast-iron liner Tecumseh and the engine on the RK54RKB left has a different control side, both OHV types.  The purpose of the measuring scale on the cutting deck is baffling.

Left an American Toro lawnmower gets refurbished.  VICTA used these very lightweight American Tecumseh motors in the 1960s and are found in the United States but aren't so common.  Masport of New Zealand always used the much heavier American Briggs & Stratton motors.  One is as reliable as the other except recent Tecumseh that gets some criticism. 

Right, a Kentucky lawnmower with an American Briggs engine is shot full of holes.  The 4-Stroke Briggs is so powerful that it chops things into pieces, such a feat that no other mower engine could perform is also its weakness in the dreaded lower engine oil gasket and crankshaft seal oil leaks.  An unfortunate root in your lawn an they're beyond repair, a new seal or gasket won't work.
Below in places like Stony Point, Rockland County, New York, it's usual to find a 'Free Pile' when an elderly mansion owner moves on.  This mower has the cutting bar of cheaper machines.  Swing blades are used with tree roots in the grass but can cause damage to the mowing machine's crank or piston rings that inevitably lead to unforeseen difficulties.

Left, British manor house stables and car garages with a prewar Rolls Royce.
Balcarres House (nobility)  Balcaskie (gentry)

Below a 4-Stroke sparking plug only gets half as hot as a 2-Stroke plug and has no oil fouling as the video left shows, oil is separate and changed every 11 hours of running or when it's black.  Long ago we used Flushing Oil run for four minutes then emptied out, allowed to drain to the last drop.  It ruined a nice hot day and 2-Strokes are easier.  Today we only add new mineral oil, synthetic is shorter life.

Above Australian camouflage paint is treated rust on a steel deck using the cheapest spray paint, usually grey or black to save expenses.  Right, the plastic camshaft and valve gear Briggs & Stratton 500 Series have metal washer crankshaft bearings in place of heavier metal gears in the Classic 37 above. They're surprising on such cheap mowers, usually fitted with Chinese cover Honda known as 'Chonda'.

 

Left, Qualcast HQ-PM-48S was the top flight model with the engine above that compared to VICTA has a much lighter weight bar cutter blade seen on lower market 2007 year 2-stroke VICTA.  Good owners are immensely pleased with so much mower for the money.  Self-drive pulls the operator around large lawns as shown and the machine is very nice albeit compared with Powerplus, a toy.

Right, the lawn of a more modern Qualcast rotary and very rough grass cover.  The brand finds favor with the peasant and middle class owners, appearing to give very good value for money but Husqvarna is preferred by the business owner, Qualcast viewed more today as somewhat lack luster and you know, sold in poor parts of town.  Perhaps these are machines of the new money upstart or less extrovert of buyers.  The thick foam-padded Comfort Grip is an old feature of these mowers and not seen on many modern competitors, they may be more difficult to move around compared to slightly pricier machines lacking the feature.

 

Left, a remarkably well-cut Coastal lawn from the Qualcast brand suggesting an owner with hedges to trim.  The collector bag would need emptied a good few times on such a lawn, the self-drive lever improves the cut over part moss affected areas.  Seaside winds and air quality often kill flowering plants although some do survive in small, well-lit walled enclosures.  Powerful O.H.V. BRIGGS engines like these need to be serviced yearly at a Dealer but the older Side Valve 450 and XC35 are still more easily serviced by owners and recommended if the blades are sharpened. 

Right, a Qualcast 35S based on an older Suffolk Punch model very popular as a cylinder mower, combining mower, scarfier, raker, and air hole maker.  ALLETT is an upmarket brand that made the 35S and by repute, still has parts to fit.  Below, an air hole maker doesn't use the mower's reel drive but is pushed along instead by the self-propelled heavy roller.

 Cylinder mowers have a prestige presence but they're not as easy to use as rotary mowers;  a very heavy roller travels in a straight line, taking skill in turning and operating speed, besides the air temperature choke with 4-position fuel richness and double butterfly valve version of the AL-KO 420's single valve Dellorto carburetor.

Right, preserving a wrecked Qualcast HQ-PM-48S from the photo below. There was a time when this brand made quality machines and restoration was possible but more recent brand owners may be inferior.  Bar-cutter blades like these are today much lighter and if neglected may not be rescued from their rust.  Change engine oil after up to 50 hours running time, from the filler tube by turning the machine on its side and use Flushing Oil as unlike cars, mowers have no oil filter and used oil fouls the engine.  Honda recommend after only 5 hours, VICTA Tecumseh after 11 hours, when it's like treacle.

Right, the 4 in 1 (self-drive, single sprung lever adjust [from 1960s VICTA], large wheels and 60 liter grass bag), German Fuxtec has the Briggs & Stratton 500E plastic carburetor fashioned after the VICTA G4 and LM but from the year 2016, near 45 years after the VICTA, the patent acquired in the Briggs buyout.  Owners overwinter with pump gasoline in the tank varnishing small holes in the carburetor and never change the engine oil, so these are acting up already.  Expensive ethanol and Benzene-free gasoline is available for overwintering, flushing out any pump fuel residues before dry storage. 

 Left, Briggs & Stratton are the present brand owners of VICTA and interestingly fit their more powerful 190cc 625 series to the small TORNADO model styled after the German VW Beetle with the Briggs metal carburetor and separate gas tank.  625 and 725 rotary lawnmower engines aren't seen much and benefits conferred aren't clear but in the US, bigger cubic capacity sells better.  The VICTA 160cc 2-stroke drives a very heavy blade pan and sound of the low speed Vortex suggests it has a higher torque.  Briggs EX boast the highest torque to power but bar-cutter blades are lighter in weight than they used to be as trimmers use nylon cord to good effect.

Right, a poor peasant bought a go-kart from eBay.  We see his car has lost a wheel cover and his lawn is overgrown.  But he just sits there playing with this BRIGGS motor and dreaming of riding it one day on legal roads.  This address generally has a mains corded mower as the distance from the house is moderate.  Lawnmower small gas engines develop starting problems but some are easy to service.

Left a working-class housing estate denizen is reseeding his lawn and rudely interrupts a press conference being held with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Old Victa lawnmowers are widely bought by poor people in throwaway condition and tinkered with, buying new and used parts from the internet.  The 2-Stroke mowers are lighter than most and do a good job, cylinder mowers are better for fine lawns.

 Right, rebuilding a stylish American lawnmower fitted with a BRIGGS & STRATTON motor.  In the Soviet Union, there were no lawnmowers because the house owners were only allowed in villages.  In Britain, the villager is also considered higher status than the council estate denizen. Although VICTA was very expensive, the cylinder mower and roller rotary like Suffolk Punch have better lives.

Video about mowing lawns in Boulder Colorado.  Every place has its particular mowing regime depending on experience and the grass growing.  The idea of leaving it to grow to three inches before cutting based on root depth is seen with general-purpose lawns.  In fine lawns with higher labor input, the grass is kept very short and never reaches three inches.

Right VICTA 160cc powered kart in the Australian suburbs.  Poorly kept lawn, owner proud of his rose bush.  Upmarket suburban areas with no police, it disturbs the neighbors more than the occasional lawnmower.  Drummoyne in New South Wales, Australia is an upmarket community with small, easy to keep yards, and a sailing club.  It's named after a Scottish working-class area of Glasgow and

was begun in 1853.  Below Electrolux is headquartered in Sweden and made an Australian BRIGGS 380 engine lawnmower.  Always a vacuum cleaner company, it makes today's best selling Vac 280 with motor life inferior to the BRIGGS gas motor's 4 years.  The initial cost is lower and within a year of purchase, used 1 day a week in summer, it's history but it is good value for money.

Left, 1976 year Australian Scott-Bonnar 520 (Golden Harvest) based on the Viking with well known red colored BRIGGS & STRATTON engine, carries on the styling of the awesome 1960s VICTA then with American Tecumseh engines second to none.  Scott-Bonar owned Flymo below in the late 1960s in 1970 bought over by Electrolux that some felt reduced quality but that wasn't so, at least with the L47 Pilot, a professional quality mower like the rarer Professional V4 albeit lacking in its seductive styling and duck-egg blue mowing deck.
Flymo Vac 280 suits small yards near the house, not wet grass or low cutting.  Vac 280 is quiet in operation and sounds just like a vacuum cleaner.  It lifts the clippings and has a small capacity not suited where mulching is preferred but is good for small, rough, washing greens.  The mower right is over its own work and has a domestic Briggs & Stratton 380 motor.  Although the lower peasantry has a preference for old side-valve BRIGGS engines like the 380 and 450, the middle-class prefer the less fuel efficient but modern OHV type.

Left, the lawn of a Flymo Quicksilver using the early version BRIGGS & STRATTON 450 that is thought more powerful than later versions and sounds different.  Click on image for full size.  It's likely that people of the lower peasantry, those that do possess souls, might be marveling at such a lifestyle and the size of lawn that a 450 engine was capable of cutting.  Left, not understood by all from the lower peasantry including the working class, tiles in the lawn mean the grass isn't walked upon. 

 

Right, a Flymo Quicksilver with the older XC35 motor has placed in another upmarket setting, these Briggs motors often appear in mowers of the lower peasantry and Council Estates, or working-class areas where the motor oil has never been changed in seventeen years of use.  The Quicksilver is well cared for by better owners but if neglected rusts through the deck and may not have had the oil changed or blades renewed regularly.  

 

Right below, a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow as conceived by design, had to make do with altogether less impressive places as below and as with some upmarket garden...

 ...machinery, found to be just too big upon getting it home.  Below, is seen a Flymo 'bank' type lawn in London and suits the 1969 year Flymo V4 Professional, very pricey and made in Sweden.  Some such machinery has to weather well left outside as when having no outhouse, fades on top.

Below, a 4-Stroke Honda engine Hayter Allen hover trim 446 of the middle-class.  Right, 2-Stroke motor 1980 year Flymo Pilot L47 (made in Sweden by Husqvarna) right, served with Dundee Council in Scotland and still cuts like new with its heavy duty Tecumseh MV100S motor. 

 

 

Left, for followers of the Flymo Pilot L47, the Dundee Council used a fuel tank support modification consisting of Bakelite blocks made from recycled electrical switches scrapped after renewal in the city's Council housing stock,  These prevented the 'petroil' fuel mixture from sitting on one side of the tank allowing the operator to stop working and return to the van to refuel.  These white blocks seen had a groove cut in them to slide down on the blower cutout.

Wheeled take on Hover mowers, AL-KO Bio mulching models had BRIGGS & STRATTON 500 Series (158cc) engines at launch, now using AL-KO 145 PRO QSS instead, a very fragile 'Chonda' engine.  Rarely seen for resale left is a push and below a self-propelled model heavy to operate but very nice at the price.  Hover owners often prefer wheeled mowers for ease of use.

Right, Italian Oleo-Mac (EFCO) Serie G from the year 2004 boasts a rare BRIGGS & STRATTON Q45, quieter early 500, 158cc, deck finished in Old Kubota Orange, an expensive, deep orange but '151' brand will match.  'Old School' steel cutting decks like this are heavy but sought after for moss lawns, small looking deck for a 48cm/19 inch, a superior low height of cut compared to many Briggs 450 mowers not cutting low or well, the Q45 has a different speed of governor single spring throttle from the 500 both by gearbox Centrifugal Governor and speed control, not by the 450 two-spring throttle and flywheel driven Air Vane Governor.  Just how different they are would need a Q45, 500 and 450 stripped down.

Left, a 4WD McCulloch of the middle-class found on a lawn of more splendid proportions.  Most self-propelled walk behind mowers like the Oleo-Mac above drive rear wheels only, others front wheels only.  4WD is used on sloping lawns but level ones can present severe resistance and scalping from low cutting-deck height that self-drive helps albeit vastly increasing weight.  Below, Wolf Tools Mower lawn finish with BRIGGS & STRATTON QUANTUM 35, rear grass door has a habit...
 

 .... of cracking from being lifted too high when fitting the catcher.  Quantum engine construction resembles the 450 but has a metal crankshaft gear.  Lawn finish of this Wolf Tools Consul mower is remarkable, click on image for full scale.  Below the professional wing of Oleo-Mac is Kubota, here with Honda wheels and engine, note separate front wheel height levers.

Left, British house and lawn for the roller rotary mower allows operators to turn the front around over the paths, whilst mowing right up to the hedges, very heavy mowers with a clutch to stop the blades whilst the turn is being made, not for the smaller lawn keeper.  Below a Honda KAAZ Danarm resembles KUBOTA above.

Left, winter scene of pricey 19" Kaaz Sarp 484KX/R domestic, Kawasaki plastic-wheeled version of the above, some suffering roller and shaft drive issues with chrome handlebar corrosion.  OHV valve cover suggests recent manufacture but are up to seventeen years old, and advantages hard to fathom, so heavy and cumbersome compared to the rotary mowers not making stripes, and the lawn left appearing very rough grass suited to rotary mowers, fine lawns more typical of cylinder machinery. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left, another machine bad for chrome handlebar corrosion is the US market Mantis tiller and lawn de-thatcher (no relative of Margaret, the former British PM).  Very often appearing as a heap of scrap parts discarded by unknowing gardeners from the peasantry, or suffering from hurried service techs of working-class origin who discard rusted chrome ignorant of its ability to be cleaned up, crummy looking tools neglected from years left in outhouses, forgotten by deceased or unwell estate-sale owners, are easily restored to full working order, thereby obtaining a very nice and reliable item for just a few dollars.