There are many subcultures of the collecting hobby that don’t involve the current hot-button: 1970s muscle cars. One that a lot of people may not think of is vintage garden tractors and lawnmowers, as crazy as that sounds. This vintage (1950s/60s) Root Range Rider 26″ Power Mower is listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and they’re asking $1,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Gary for the tip!
“Vintage garden tractors and lawnmowers?! Is there something wrong with you, boy?” Well, yes, there is, but you already knew that. I don’t have it in me to restore a car or truck, it’s just too much: too much work, too much time, too much money. As much as I like to tell myself that I do, I just don’t. Something smaller like a vintage garden tractor or riding mower, or even a vintage push mower, I think, is just a fun project. You can still do most of the same things, even upholstery on a rider, but on a much smaller, cheaper, quicker scale.
The flowing lines of this 360-pound vintage Root Range Rider Power Mower (we don’t know the year, and neither does the seller) seem to bring it back to the 1940s, but it may be as new as 1961. Here’s an old ad I found from 1961, and there isn’t a lot of information on these things on the internet, sadly. There is information on the great old TV western, The Range Rider. I have to wonder how trademark and copyright laws worked back then, that they could both be called Range Rider.
A huge industrial company called Fairbanks-Morse & Company was founded back even before I was born: 1823. They made a variety of things, and bought a Kansas company called Root Manufacturing for its lawn care equipment business. We saw a somewhat similar mower here on Barn Finds back in 2017, and it was badged as a Fairbanks-Morse. This brown example has decidedly car-looking features, such as the front and rear bumpers, but the loop steering… thing is a bit unusual. That doesn’t look too ergonomic to me.
The engine should be a 5.5 hp four-stroke single with either electric start (you can see the full-sized battery) or pull-start. With four speeds forward, reverse, and neutral, the seller says it runs, drives, and will mow as intended, but has been mostly on static display in their shop, so it should be gone over. Are any of you into restoring or collecting vintage tractors or lawnmowers?
Wheeeeee, well, whatever is wrong with you, is wrong with us, and we don’t want to be right. It’s amazing to see the transition, like the Champ pickup and the F350, this was the felines tush in ’55. It looks corny, but people were migrating to “Pressboard Estates”, and every one had a neatly trimmed lawn, and this was considered high class, when most were still using push mowers. I read, these cost about $350 new, when a rotary push mower was maybe $25? It clearly wasn’t for everyone. Not much on these, so ol’ SG did his homework, I read the smaller ones used Clinton motors, this appears to have the Tecumseh Chief on the housing. There were so many kinds, we had a corny looking rider, very similar to this for our lake cottage. Every weekend, we’d go, and it was my job to get the mower going and cut the grass. It was a big lot, and took me a couple hours.( in low gear) It also got me out of all the old mans piddly jobs my brother got stuck doing.
In case you can’t get FB, the Marketplace is inundated with oddball stuff, just waiting to be shown here. Thanks, SG!
Knew right away this was Scotty’s ride!!
I’ll bet Hank Hill would be proud to own this one!
Heck we were still using wooden handle rotary mowers
This is really great Scotty!! Love it. I got kicked off mid comment so if I show up twice thats why. I’d love to restore something but don’t have the time for a car. But something like this would be right up my alley. And it would be relatively inexpensive compared to a restoring a car or truck. All I can say is….. Keep them coming!!! Great tip too Gary, thank you!!!
Great subject choice Gary, and great write-up, Scotty. You are hitting them out of the park.
What a stylish tractor, heck, this has more style than 90% of the new cars these days.
I’d fly in and drive it home….
I agree. The sheetmetal design definitely has that ’50’s Vibe to it. I am really liking the rootbeer brown too.
You guys are way too kind, thanks much! I don’t even know if I have it in me anymore to restore a toothbrush, let alone anything with an engine. I’m clearing house (house = storage unit) pretty soon, as I know I’ll never get to that stuff, and life is flying by. I don’t want to leave my wife with a bunch of stuff she has to deal with.
Aw, you’ll bury us all, but in case not, dibs on the D-50, the 750 Yam, the Twin 100, the Rokon, and the chrome bicycle, just kidding, whatever you do, don’t pull a “Howard” and get rid of everything when I thought my life was through. Who’d have thought I’d live another 3 decades, and actually miss that stuff today.
Really good writeup. Never saw or heard of one of these before so the information was helpful. It could be Forrest Gumps Dads mower?
I couldn’t agree more with the getting rid of stuff so the wife isn’t burdened with it sentiment. I got it down to the last 10% or so and having a terrible time with the remainder. I mean who wants a SCEPTER S-61 helicopter flight simulator that works works? But with a $50,000.00 price tag when new I can’t just trash it.
Thanks for the great writeup on this stylin’ nostalgia machine. Perhaps you can put your hand to the magic photo app and recreate this ol’ machine with shiny chrome bumper and some hot graphics. You youngsters talking about being old scares me. Did I miss something about being dead? I hope to have another 5 to 10 years at least. Life is just a rodeo minus the belt buckle so ya can’t be looking ’round for the pickup rider and the eight seconds goes by so fast you sure can’t watch the clock. Otherwise you just might find yourself in the mud. Just sayin’.
I just returned from “Spring Cleaning” yard work (leaf raking the flower beds and power washing the building) from my father in law’s childhood home in Upstate NY 250 miles north. Funny this talk of age. I bought the building from him in 1996 almost 30 years ago after his two sisters passed who lived there since the 1920’s. I was 48 then, he just half a year older than me now at 78. He died 5 years ago at 103! I don’t think I have another 25 years in me though. Joe was a prisoner of war in WWII in Europe, joined the army way before the war early in 1941, was an “old man” of 26 when captured. Many of his buddies were killed. Joe joined because work was hard to find and the family was in danger of losing the home. Joe always thought life was a gift after being released in 1945.
Looks like it was high-end, the most expensive item in your 1961 advert. Based on inflation data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, $419.95 in 1961 is equivalent in purchasing power to approximately $4,635–$4,640 in 2026.
Cool find SG. I didn’t realize until a few years ago that restored riding mowers were “a thing.” This was probably quite the machine in its day.
Very nice Scotty, a fine looking machine. At $4600 still about half of what I paid to replace my zero style Gravely zero turn last year.
All equipment welcome at BF 👍
I’m not a lawn equipment fanatic or anything, but my garden tractor/mower is a restored ’92 Deere 332, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I guess that I’m not as old as I thought. I still play with stuff that has 4 cylinders or more. I do appreciate the sentiment about leaving the wife with uncompleted projects. So I’m in hyperdrive to complete as many as possible. I just enjoy building them, and then on to the next one. I have been known however to build “go karts” out of riding mowers. Back when the kids were in the 7-10 year old age. I happened to get twin riders for free with the engine in the back. So they got treated to drive pulley swaps (make go faster, lol) and homemade “bucket seats” down low in front of the engine. And then angled and shortened the steering shaft. They could shift gears and go fast enough through the neighborhood. (1 mile around the block) to have fun, but not so fast as to have the neighbors complain. One time my son came ripping through the garage and crashed into my tool chest. Claiming that the brake pedal wouldn’t depress. Sure enough somehow a rock got jammed behind the brake pedal. The Kids had great fun and they cost me less than $50 to build. (2 universal joints for the steering shafts and 2 new drive belts.) After that they graduated to the Yanaha Big Wheel.
I guess that I’m not as old as I thought. I still play with stuff that has 4 cylinders or more. I do appreciate the sentiment about leaving the wife with uncompleted projects. So I’m in hyperdrive to complete as many as possible. I just enjoy building them, and then on to the next one. I have been known however to build “go karts” out of riding mowers. Back when the kids were in the 7-10 year old age. I happened to get twin riders with the engine in the back fir free. So they got treated to drive pulley swaps (make go faster, lol) and homemade “bucket seats” down low in front of the engine. And then angled and shortened the steering shaft. They could shift gears and go fast enough through the neighborhood. (1 mile around the block) to have fun, but not so fast as to have the neighbors complain. One time my son came ripping through the garage and crashed into my tool chest. Claiming that the brake pedal wouldn’t depress. Sure enough somehow a rock got jammed behind the brake pedal. The Kids had great fun and they cost me less than $50 to build. (2 universal joints for the steering shafts) and 2 new drive belts. After that they graduated to the Yamaha Big Wheel.
In all seriousness (and no disrespect intended). This would make the ultimate Rascal conversion. Put a proper (safe) seat on it. If needed convert to electric for indoor use. Preserve the patina. It would be the envy of gearhead Rascal drivers. A few might disagree with me, but real gearheads will know where I am coming from on this. Keep having fun.
I have no idea what a Rascal is, but it would a shame to change anything about this classic.
A Rascal is one of the brands of scooters for the handicapped.
Wow! Who knew this would carry this much interest, but since it does, and many of you are into garden tractors, check the link below. I’m providing a shortcut to the garden tractor page, but if you’re not familiar, this is one of the best series on TV, but only available on RFDTV, check your carrier, usually the satellite providers carry it.
https://classictractorstv.com/video_categories/garden-tractors/
We had a mower just like this at camp back in the 70s fun ride , long gone!
Maybe polish up the chrome APE hangers and respray the rims silver. She be good to go. This thing if kept inside and oiled up she will be here when we dead and gone . Better than the cheap plastic junk sold at box stores !
Wow! George Jone’s old lawn tractor! Used to hear stories about him riding it down to the
see-loon when Tammy hid the car
keys. That story is, entirely true as George and Tammy had a ranch outside of Lakeland Florida
in the late ’60s. Some of the older musicians I played with said that they would see him stagger into the bar jonesing for a drink–which he got and he got a
lot of ’em too. Along with my musician friends, a young lady I was seeing a few years back told
me that the story was indeed true. Her father was their personal mechanic 🧰 back then
and he was there the night The
Possom drove a tractor like this one down to the bar for a drink. It’s a wonder that guy made it to be 80 years old! And I thought I
drank too much? He must’ve been really effed up to do something dumb like that.
Ha Ha! I knew someone was going to refer to George Jones bar chariot. They even got Vince Gill making references in his video. Aside from that, this has got to be the oldest riding mower I’ve ever seen. Good shape too. If it was sitting next door to me I might take it over to my place and see what I can do with it. Maybe use it as a bar chariot too… https://youtu.be/aGfgIQfpbWI?si=caeteR_RE5veC0TL
…Least ways, I don’t THINK I did
stuff like that. Falling off stages
was my thing so my guys would
sit me down on a stool to keep that from happening. After the show, I’d go back to the motel and sleep it off til morning. Now that’s what a 32 ounce bourbon and Coke will do to you.
Some A-hole is going to say it, So i’ll be the A-hole “drop an LS in it”…LOL I buy and repair old classic tractors I have a1971 Bohlens G14, 72 Cub Cadet, 69,74,and 1987 Wheel Horses, 1994 Ford LS25 and a 1998 Craftsman 18hp twin(POS) all original engines and all metal!!!! NOT THE PLASTIC CRAP THE SELL NOW
I did a restoration on a 72 John Deere 110 back in the late 90s. Friend of mine with a body shop painted the hood and fender deck with JD green automotive paint after a good coat of primer was applied. I painted the frame and 10 Hp Tecumseh motor with a spray can as well as the rims and mower deck with JD yellow. All new decals…too pretty to mow with when it was finished! Although I did, for several years. But age and a sore back prompted me to trade it off for a newer JD with hydrostatic and a bigger deck eventually. Shoulda kept it for no more than I got out of it but the garden shed was only so big and with the new Harley in the garage…priorities!