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What is This!? Funny Lookin' Craftsman

R

RTR

Well-known Member
I have NEVER seen one of these. Went pickin and bought several items and saw this in the barn, so we loaded it while we had the bobcat becuase everything we left behind was going to be sold for scrap. Ended up getting a 1968 VW Bug with spare body parts and spare transaxle, a late 60s Astra VW Kit Car (sports car) that is loose and complete, a 1948 JD "B", a 1955 Farmall Cub Lo-Boy that runs good, Farmall Cub LoBoy implements, plus a bunch of other stuff!! Then we got this thing too!

What is it?
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we have a 1972 Sears SS15 and it is nothing like this. It looks like a midget mower. hahaha. Our '72 sears is the only mower we have cut grass with since it was bought new and we have never done nothing to it other than normal stuff like tune up, belts, pulleys and spindles.
 
Its what the tag says it is.
These were built in the late 1950s and early 1960s
They were priced about $150.00: more or less.
It wuz one step up from the push mower.
 
(quoted from post at 03:32:35 08/04/13) Its what the tag says it is..
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What it says it is?? It just lists the model/serial number. It doens't have a model name? I'm sure it had a name of some sort. I can't seem to find ANYTHING on the internet about these. How would I search it? I would like to find the date of manufacture, number of them made, and approximate value.
 
I can see a resemblance. Mine seems to have smaller wheels and it has a fiberglass hood that is all 1 peice. I cant tell what brand engine it has....the name must be under the hood where I can't see. I have been "googling" and have found NOTHING. but having something to type other than "vintage sears craftsman mower" might give different results.

Rare? Value? Collectability?
 
(quoted from post at 07:48:11 08/04/13) What is the reel on the JD steering rod for?
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We have no idea what that was installed for. If anyone has ideas, that would be nice to share, please do. It was an owner mod. for something. The original owner is 93 and has severe dementia, so we will probably never know.He was a pilot in the Air Force (flew in WW2), and was an engineer so there is no tellin'. You should have seen some of the cool stuff he built and bought over the years. Luckily, I ended up with some of it! I left the airplane he built though. It was in parts/peices in the loft of his garage. I'd never know what I was looking at/getting. haha
 
The 131 in mod# indicates mower built by roper,probably late 50's-mid 60's,the eng is a tecumseh,either h50 or h60,if you clean off flywheel cover/gas tank you may find mod#,spec# & possibly a sn stamped in same,if no sn found with mod/spec numbers the eng is probably a rebranded lauson(mid-late 50's)eng,most mod lauson eng only uses a mod/spec#(very early only used a mod#)when tecumseh bought lauson they added a sn,same is a mfg date code,due to way tecumseh setup sn it will only give you yr eng made but not decade mfg yr in.

This mod/style mower was sold to many large store chains under different names.This mower is very similar in design to units built by rupp & also sold to large/small chain stores under different names,I had one built by rupp & sold by grants,color was the same,only difference was mine had a lift arm on left side even with dash/hood assembly,a 3 sp peerless trans and a 7hp briggs eng.

If you do a google search for sears 131.96270 you can come up with some links for this mod mower
 
Its a Roper built mower but has to be a 1967 or later as Roper didn't start building mowers until 1966 when they bought out David Bradley and 1967 was about the first wider use of vertical shaft engines.

GB in MN
 
That is a very early Craftsman tractor style mower from some where, if I remember correctly, about the mid sixties. When Farmall introduced the Cub Cadet,they were so popular that everyone scrambled to produce one similar. Back then the riding lawnmowers were sold in Dept. 9 which was the tool department.
They had model numbers starting with 131. The Surburban garden tractors were sold in Dept. 32,which was the farm department, their model numbers began with 917. Although most of them were manufactured by the same company. Several models of riding mowers such as the one you have were rushed into production without being properly tested, and as a result we ended up doing many modifications on them. I still have a notebook somewhere with all the service bulletins that were released about those repairs.
The little mower seems to be in good enough shape that I would restore it as best I could and keep it either to show or a good conversation piece. Because I guarantee,there ain't many of those still in existence.
 
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