[Dan Wyatt]

Greetings from the Ozarks,

My name is Dan Wyatt and my bride of almost 42 years and I live in Carthage, MO. I'm 64 years old, taught Industrial Tech. back when the rocks were soft .....from 1970-1985 (part of my teaching curriculum was teaching a small gas engines class), have co-owned a couple of small mfg. companies, etc.

I was told about MyTractorForum by my cousin Leonard who collects vintage IH/Farmall stuff, but my main interests on MyTractorForum was the "Walk Behind Mowers" forum and more specifically the discussion of vintage Lawn Boy mowers, related history of the company, working on the vintage LBs, etc. By design, I have more or less silently set back and reviewed this forum for quite some time and not been active because I have not had the time to devote to another hobby of collecting, working, and using using old Lawn Boys. I have been working on Lawn Boys on and off for over 55 years (mostly off for the last several decades).........Pop taught me how to work on em when I was as kid.

A bit about Pop..... My father Everette Wyatt worked at the Rotary Power Mower (RPM) company in Lamar, MO starting in about 1950-51 or so and was there when Outboard Marine and Manufacturing Company (OMMC back then) came to Lamar and purchased the Rotary Power Mower (RPM) company in 1952 and Pop went to work for Lawn Boy them. He worked there until the plant was moved from Lamar, MO to Galesburg, IL in 1963. Early on part of where Pop worked was at the old Lawn Boy Research and Development which back in the early 1950s was located at the old Lamar, MO airport. I can still remember a few prototypes, etc. hanging on the walls and from the ceiling of the old LB-R&D. I was in the actual Lawn Boy Manufacturing Plant several times when I was a kid and not to bore anyone, but more about Pop later if anyone is interested.

I have a few old LBs, parts, old literature, etc., and am interested in relating / discussing more about the history of Lawn Boy from 1952-1963 than is currently on the web. I have compiled research on the subject, and still keep in touch with a few of the remaining/original employees of the Lawn Boy Plant when it was located in Lamar, MO.

I am including a picture of me taken on an old LB Loafer when I was a kid pulling another of my cousins in a wagon and I will relate more about this particular Loafer when the time comes.

More later......

Thanks ~ Dan Wyatt

My current LBs......I need to work on the final accuracy of this list as I just threw it together:
8FH11LB - 1952? (not home yet)
8F 20K ---- 1955
8210 ------ 21" self propelled mower
9211 ------ 1962 Loafer
4300 ------ 24" mower for Loafer
5230 ------ 1962
5231 ------ 1963
5001 ------ 1967 --- I believe this is the 5001 Special / Limited Distribution
7260A ---- 1972
8250 X --- 1973 --- Bi-Centennial or Liberty (need more research on this one)
5801 ------ 1974
5084 ------ mower
5247 ------ mower
8255 ------ 1977
SB or S8076 -- year?
Lawn Boy Edger with brick motor ---- year?
2 - Lawn Boy Gardners ---------------- years?
Lawn Boy Hobby Gardner ------------- year?
Lawn Boy/Johnson/Evinrude ? (not name-housing rusty) ---- Aquanaut (year? - has brick motor - AH101E) --- interesting machine / not much on the history on the web/ if anyone has input please sent me an email to oldtriumphs<at>hotmail<dot>com.......thanks again

 

[Walt 2002]

Quit an insteresting collection. I don't see a 10515 there nor a DuoForce.

Walt Conner

 

[Gravely Frank McM]

Welcome aboard, Dan ! :howdy:

Looking forward to your sharing your history with Lawn-Boys !

I'm partial to the pre-1965 models, myself, and just picked-up a decent 8F13 LB with an A-12 motor. c. 1953.

There doesn't seem to be much info on the RPM / Lawn-Boys out on the inter-webs...

:Welcome1:

 

[Indy452]

Welcome to the forum....quite a nice little collection you have there.

 

[ReedZ]

Welcome to the site. Lots of great folks here on the site. Looking forward to sharing information with you.

Geoff

 

[maximaguy97]

Awesome! Welcome!

 

[Yard Nazi]

Hi and welcome to the forum! Is the Aquanaut you referenced a piece of diving equipment? If so I just sold a screw type vented gas cap to a guy last year for one. He said the screw type vented cap was so you could close the vent most of the way to keep out water from the waves. Bill

 

[Dan Wyatt]

Thanks for the welcomes and compliments. I will be along later to add more materials and pictures.

Walt said:
Quit an interesting collection. I don't see a 10515 there nor a DuoForce.

Walt ...... they are just too new for my interest

On the subject of the Aquanaut or what ever it is .........I know very little about the one I have other than it has a LB brick engine on it and I see no apparent numbers on it other than AH101E on the engine. The engine housing is too rusty to read a name......it may be an Evinrude Aquanaut or the Johnson Air Bouy. I don't know for absolute, but to me they were an air pump for divers and the unit floated on the water. Whoever made it had what I believe were product liability issues and discontinued production of the machine, but I may be wrong.

Dan ~ headed back to the shed to have some more fun workin on old stuff.

 

[mikey99]

Welcome aboard !

I would like to see pictures of that Model 5001 you have in your collection.
Have been trying to identify which LB mower my father had and I think that's the model.

 

[Dan Wyatt]

Mikey said:
Welcome aboard !
I would like to see pictures of that Model 5001 you have in your collection.

Mikey.......thanks for the welcome. Here is a very poor picture taken with my cheap phone camera. I haven't done anything with the mower and the prior owner off-set the engine as shown. I will include a pic of the mower and one of the model number plate.

Also ..... here is a link to the original manual picture it you will scroll down to the year 1967 you will find the Model 5001. I was able to capture a picture of it and enlarge it, but I can not get it attached to this message ......my graphics skills are almost non-existent ......and our 33 year old son has a degree in Graphics and another degree in Photography .......go figure.


Link on the forum to pictures in the old LB manuals:
http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=251168&page=2

 

[old lawnboy]

Welcome,
I went to Lamar in the early 1960's to factory service school. We stayed in old hotel in downtown lamar. (Foster Sisters comes to mind - anyway it was owned by some sisters. Had rope fastened to wall near one of the windows which was the fire escape. Don't remember exactly what building we had classes in but on last day we toured factory. I remember them stamping out the halves to the fuel tanks and seeing them solder halves, cap fitting and threaded plate for fuel shut off. Also stretching tire onto 6 inch and 8 inch wheels. I remember working on the fingertip recoil start brick top engines and loafer and tillers. I hope to hear more from you. Bill

 

[Mike72]

Welcome Dan, glad to see you posting here.

 

[Dan Wyatt]

Welcome,
I went to Lamar in the early 1960's to factory service school. We stayed in old hotel in downtown lamar. (Foster Sisters comes to mind - anyway it was owned by some sisters. Had rope fastened to wall near one of the windows which was the fire escape. Don't remember exactly what building we had classes in but on last day we toured factory. I remember them stamping out the halves to the fuel tanks and seeing them solder halves, cap fitting and threaded plate for fuel shut off. Also stretching tire onto 6 inch and 8 inch wheels. I remember working on the fingertip recoil start brick top engines and loafer and tillers. I hope to hear more from you. Bill

Hi Bill,

Thanks for posting your message.

Your classes could have been held in several locations, but by chance do your remember the Lawn Boy Experimental and Research building located on part of the Lamar Airport land which was located about 2 miles west of the main Lawn Boy Mfg. Plant in Lamar? I have included 2 pics of the Lawn Boy Experimental and Research building that I cut and pasted from an old Lawn Boy promotional film (#1 in the list of 3 films links at the end of this message) made in 1957-1958 (the film refers to 1958, but some of the pics are of the 1957 Lawn Boy mowers).

Also it is going to be difficult to possibly remember as your trip to Lamar for classes was over 50 years ago and there were probably several instructors, but your instructor may have been a gentleman by the name of Don Leaming and I have provided a couple of pics of Don ..... again taken from the old LB promotional film which was made in 1957-58. Pictures 1-2 are of the front of the Lawn Boy Experimental and Research building, the next 2 are of Don, the next is the loading dock area of Lawn Boy, and the last is the picture of the engine shrouds on the production line. Don and my father Everette Wyatt car pooled to work together for about 8 years.

Also included is the area of the huge assembly line that shows pairs of Lawn Boy shrouds hanging from and traveling on a conveyance system.

You mentioned being in the area of production where "stretching tire onto 6 inch and 8 inch wheels" occurred ....... another one of Pop's friends that worked at Lawn Boy did that very job, but there were several hundred people that worked there over the years and I only can remember perhaps a few dozen as I was only a kid, but I am interviewing several of the former employees as we speak in an effort to record more of the history of the Rotary Power Mower company (RPM) before Outboard Marine Manufacturing Company (OMMC) purchased that company in 1952, and during the years of Lawn Boy manufacturing in Lamar from 1952-1963 as mentioned before.

Please feel free to send me an email to oldtriumphs<at>hotmail<dot>com (obviously please remove arrow points) and I can send you more pics much easier if you like.

Titles of the 3 Lawn Boy promotional films below:
1. Titled "2 Horse Town" (circa 1957-1958)
2. Titled "Golden Oppurtunity Part 1" (circa 1958)
3. Titled "Golden Oppurtunity Part 2" (circa 1958)

#1.

#2. https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=382783273596

#3. https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=382792703596

 

[Mike72]

For Lawn Boy fans: Dan has a wealth of information about the early years from RPM through the move to Galesburg. I've know Dan for 7 years and he has many interesting stories about the Lawn Boy mower and the people who desinged and built it. He has answered many questions I had about the time peroid when RPM was bought by Outboard Marine and Manufacturig and became the Lawn Boy Division. It's good to have access to someone who was actually there. Keep it coming Dan!

 

[LawnBoy2ndToNone]

Welcome to MTF Dan! We also have another Lawn-Boy guy who worked at the Galesburg plant for, I think, 19 years. His name is Ron and he goes by the screen name Bald-Guy. I know for sure that he stamped the model number tags. He's also done some very nice restorations. Most of which are not the typical Lawn-Boy green that everyone relates them to. It's great to actually have people here who have a lot of knowledge of Lawn-Boy, especially the period of the RPM to OMC transition. You'll be quite the popular guy around here!

 

[Lawnboy77]

Yes Dan! Welcome to the forum! It's great to have you aboard! We have a great bunch of guys here and we all love to tinker, so you will be right at home. LOL

 

[PeoriaMurph]

You know, it would be pretty cool to get these people together for some sort of historical presentation/seminar/training session

 

[Dan Wyatt]

Thanks again for all of the welcomes and compliments.......I appreciate them.

Andy,
Thanks for the name of someone else on the forum that may have interest in my research.

You know, it would be pretty cool to get these people together for some sort of historical presentation/seminar/training session

PeoriaMurph ...... if you are in reference to former RPM & Lawn Boy employees that worked at the several locations in Lamar, MO ...... I am already ahead of you. I have been planning a get-together for those employees to be held at my home shop for quite some time now and am currently working on setting a date.......probably early fall.

Thanks ~ Dan

 

[LawnBoy2ndToNone]

Thanks again for all of the welcomes and compliments.......I appreciate them.

Andy,
Thanks for the name of someone else on the forum that may have interest in my research.


PeoriaMurph ...... if you are in reference to former RPM & Lawn Boy employees that worked at the several locations in Lamar, MO ...... I am already ahead of you. I have been planning a get-together for those employees to be held at my home shop for quite some time now and am currently working on setting a date.......probably early fall.

Thanks ~ Dan

Man I wish I lived in MO for that! If I had the time off of work, and the money I would drive down there and pick up Baldguy on the way.