SUPERMOWER
If the peer pressure of competitive grass-cutting neighbors has you down, try building this mowing machine by hooking three lawnmowers together.
March/April 1982
By the Mother Earth News editors
Has the peer pressure of compulsive grass-cutting neighbors got you down? Here's . . .
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Budd Hoeks
Like most dedicated procrastinators, I devote an inordinate amount of time to figuring out just how much work I can avoid. And when it comes to mowing the lawn, I'm probably the leading time/motion/labor expert in North America.
For instance, let's consider my neighbor Charlie. He owns a half-acre yard, which he grooms every ten days (three times a month) with a 20-inch, hand pushed power mower. Now each and every time he performs this chore, Charlie—in effect—completes an arduous fourmile trek that requires a grand total of six hours. Thus, over the course of an entire seven- to eight-month mowing season, he puts in almost a full week cutting grass. And, if we take this example to its logical extreme, we'll see that Charlie will invest something like an entire year, over the course of his life, in tending that lawn!
Well, my computations staggered me (and Charlie). Therefore, armed with statistical justification and fueled by my inherent dislike of the warm-weather chore, I considered the alternatives to wearisome hours of Saturdayafternoon grass mowing. I rejected riding mowers (too expensive) . . . "automatic" mowers such as goats (they're not likely to produce a nicely manicured yard) . . . and placing my house on stilts so I could see over the grass (my spouse thought that proposal was a bit much). Then, in a flash of insight, I recognized that the more blades of grass I have, the more blades my mower should have . . . and that the solution to my problem was a simple matter of matching taskmaker to taskmaster. Therefore, I focused my attention on designing a "gang mower", a machine that could do the work of a pack of power cutters and still fit into my budget.
A SUBURBANITE'S PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED
The first step in bringing "Supermower" (as I dubbed my brainchild) to life was to scout out repair shops in search of a set of matching lawnmower bodies. I looked for sturdy metal decks with perpendicular wheel wells that—with some of the wheels removed—could be bolted together in a staggered series. One dealer, who took used machines in trade, donated three junked 20" Craftsman mowers that were all made from a ribbed magnesiumaluminum alloy . . . a material that yields lightweight, crack-resistant supercarriages. And as a bonus, their side chutes lacked bottom-fitted braces (for snap-on grass catchers) which tend to trap clippings and clog the openings when a mower is used in tall grass.
Back at home, I detached a total of four wheels from the decks (one from the rear of the leading mower . . . a diagonal pair, front and rear, from the middle one ... and the corresponding front wheel from the last in line) before bolting the bodies together. I then mounted a length of galvanized pipe—grooved to mesh with the ribs—in such a way that the conduit straddled all three decks. The strut served to add some rigidity to the assembly and also protected the bolted wheel wells from undue stress.
With that done, I removed the handles from the end mowers, and hacksawed braces (from the castoffs) to support the middle unit's handle. At this point I'd engineered a sturdy deck that measured a whopping 58 inches across . . . and the materials for my invention hadn't cost me a dime!
However, Phase 2 of my project—the engine—threatened to run into some bucks. I reasoned that one 8-HP powerplant would drive a threedeck rig, but I also figured I could mount three 3-HP engines—connected by belts and pulleys—for about the same cost. So that's what I did . . . and I lucked out in finding an inventory-liquidating company that offered a line of brand-new, but discontinued, 3-1/2-HP Craftsman engines for $55 apiece. Therefore, I was able to power Supermower at super—savings.
The final components necessary to make my mighty machine work-ready were cutting blades. For each engine I bought a blade, a 2-1/2" SAE bolt and lock washer, two cast-iron flanges, and two knurls for a snug fit. That hardware completed the monster mower. (After getting some cutting experience, I decided to use a pair of blades for each mower, mounted at cross angles. The added weights functioned as flywheels, to increase the lugging power of the engines, allowing them to cut efficiently at slower speeds.)
