[rattosh51]

Anybody heard of these before...I've found some limited info on them....
used to mow the ditches along the hiways in Kansas. There's a guy selling one locally...looks interesting.
Has 4wd and a Continental Flathead 4 cylinder. Didn't know where to post this!
here's a pic

 

[LilysDad]

Pretty strange looking. Are those Interstater type 'wings'?

 

[rattosh51]

..here's some info..
An article in the February issue of Farm Collector on the Topeka Hi Way Mower jogged a memory for a Kansas man. Dean Fechter, Belleville, says his cousin, 'Shorty' Meinhardt, built 30 or 40 such mowers in the late 1930s.
"The first one they built, he took it out on the highway and mowed with it, and it tipped over and he broke his back," he recalls.
"That was the first mower blade that would stick straight up like that, for mowing banks," he says. "He also built oil well pumps, and a big break to bend heavy iron."
The builder died in 1998 at age 96, but his business lives on: Meinholt Machine and Welding is now run by Shorty's grandson in Topeka, Kan., and a great-grandson works at the shop.For information contact Dean Fechter,
(785) 456-7622.
this one has a 6ft-wide deck w/hydraulics, owner thinks it's from the '50s.Only one side for the deck.

 

[rattosh51]

Another view

 

[Jim_WV]

Quite an unusual looking machine

:thanku: for the pics !

 

[oldn_rusty]

I'm new to your group, here. Sounds like an active group of guys.
I am also the 'proud' owner of a Topeka Hiway Mower. I have a question - OK more than one....
Mine has a 3 digit serial number, indicating there are not a lot of them. Mine has a Ford Driveline, Flathead V8, 2 transmissions, and seems some type of a 'shiftable' rearend. I hadn't moved in over 20 years when I dragged it home, so who knows the adventures awaiting me! The previous owner thinks it dates to 1936.

Does anyone know about 2 speed rearends, or the books that have been written about these machines?

I'll include pictures when I figure out how....

Also have Windolphs, Perrin, LaTrac, and Kinkade equipment.


Ed........

 

[urednecku]

Very intresting! I bet that would be nice in an orange grove, or any place where you want to mow under trees without knocking the fruit off or being drug off with the limbs. I think I would like one of those myself!

 

[DrBailey]

Very interresting, one would make a awesome (small) parking lot snow pusher.
That would be a blast to operate.

 

[Byron R]

Looks real close to my buddys ..Toro...Too much fun..at the shows..

 

[DrBailey]

:ROF nice rear wheels!!!:ROF

 

[daddygeee]

Very intresting! I bet that would be nice in an orange grove, or any place where you want to mow under trees without knocking the fruit off or being drug off with the limbs. I think I would like one of those myself!

I have a 4wd Topeka Highway Mower (1960's vintage). Missing parts for the rear end but the rest is complete. It has a Continental flat-4 red seal engine with two hyd pumps and 4 sp. tran. Built like a small tank.

 

[willysnut1959]

I would like to correspond with anyone that owns (or knows someone who owns) a Topeka Hiway mower, or knows where one is located.
Marty Henson
St. Louis, MO
Email: [email protected]

 

[LENS12]

I have a 2wd Topeka Highway Mower . It is built from a Jeep. Engine, drive train, suspension, transmission, & transfer case are all Jeep. It has the Continental flat-4 red seal engine with a hydraulically driven & hydraulically lifted sickle bar mower. It has a 90mph speedometer. I suspect it is from the late 40's. Surplus WWII Jeep? I live on a state hiway & just barely remember the road being mowed with a horse. They did not mow with sickles very long after that because they went to rotary mowers. I did a search on the Topeka Highway Mower 10 years ago & had a couple responses . One was in Montana & one was in Tennessee. Both were like mine except 4wd.

 

[landrover200tdi]

byron r what is that ?????????? hope i can you