With no numbers, VIN, or data plate shown in the photos or listed in the description, I’m not 100% positive this is a 1980 tractor, but that’s my best guess, given the info out there on them. This late-1970s/early-1980s Bolens G154 Diesel Tractor can be found listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Champlin, Minnesota, and the seller is asking $3,150. Here is the original listing.
Founded an incredible 176 years ago, in 1850, in Port Washington, Wisconsin, Bolens was originally a partnership between H.W. Bolens Manufacturing Company and J.E. Gilson, another famous name in garden equipment and tractors. The company was bought by FMC Corporation right after World War II, and again by Garden Way in 1988. It was acquired by MTD in 2001, which in turn is owned by Stanley Black & Decker. Whew, I need a drink. Oddly enough, MTD didn’t make its first garden tractor until 1959, four decades after Bolens’ first garden tractor. This model with a 2-cylinder diesel was made from 1978 through 1981.
To top it off, this particular tractor is a rebadged Iseki. Iseki is a Japanese company founded in 1936, although they didn’t make their first tractor until 1961. The early models were produced with a “technology transfer” with Porsche-Diesel, but this tractor has a Mitsubishi diesel. While Bolens started off making garden tools, the company made its first garden tractor in 1919 and has many firsts to its credit, including the first mulching mower that’s still patented to this day, along with the first four-wheel self-contained garden tractor, and one of the first hydrostatic transmissions on a garden tractor. This tractor is 6.5 feet long, just over 3 feet wide, and weighs 1,124 pounds.
This Bolens G154 is similar to the Iseki TX1300F, and this example appears to be in very nice condition. The seller provides a little video showing it starting and moving back and forth, which is where the opening image came from. I took a screenshot of that video. This tractor could use any number of mowers or other implements, but the seller doesn’t mention anything other than the tractor itself, so I’m assuming nothing else is included, other than the toolbox on the front. This one has 3 PTO speeds for running a variety of implements, from mowers to snowblowers, plow blades, posthole diggers, log splitters, and many more. You can see the turn signals, and it also has a horn and electric start, of course.
The engine is a Mitsubishi KE70-11GF, a 40.8-cu.in. 2-cylinder diesel with 15 horsepower. Power is sent through a geared transmission with 6 forward speeds and 2 reverse speeds, and all four wheels are powered. The seller says it starts and runs well, everything works, and it has new front tires. Would any of you have a use for a little diesel garden tractor like this Bolens G154?
I’d love to own this. The real hook 🪝 for me is, it’s a Diesel!!! I did not know these even existed. This just looks like a well built and very well taken care of garden tractor. I’m guessing that’s the original owner sitting on it. Great history lesson Scotty. Thank you for all the background.
I have a 72?? Satoh Beaver 2-cylinder Mitsubishi diesel. Hi-Lo trans. 4WD, PTO. 6ft. mower, plow, little trailer, I love it. Same size as this.It will go anywhere.
That 4wd really makes it. What a cool tractor. Yours sounds a treat Drew.
Having a lot of issues with the comments, I suspect this one will be no different, but it’s somehow worth the frustration when things like this are posted. Be pretty silly not to say something, heck, it’s what us gearheads, who bleed hydraulic oil, want to see. At 71, I feel smarter whenever I read this guys posts.
Being a “city slicker”, I learned after hanging around farms, it’s not “4WD” or “AWD”,, it’s “front-assist” in the tractor world (Jim?). And boy howdy, does it make a difference. Front assist tractors go places a 2wd can’t, it’s well worth it. I read, this tractor has hydraulic lift, but to run things like a bucket, plow or wood splitter, you have to add a hyd. junction block, and controls, no biggie, and adds to the versatility of the machine. I never heard of Iseki, big corporations once loyal to the US, couldn’t compete with the Asian makes, and sold out, but luckily kept the name. Sorry, Bolens, to me, had a lot more zing that Iseki. It’s a great find, tractors like this today cost 10 times this amount, and do the same thing. ( and nervously hitting submit) YAY,,,it worked,,,thanks SG for the post and the support)
Howard,
I never heard of “front assist”. Not sitting on tractors at the County fair starting over 70 years ago to now looking the Kubota service manual for the b7200hst that I’ve owned for 40 years.
4WD IS THEIR NOMENCLATURE. Oops caps
Shouldn’t this Bolens be called a subcompact tractor rather than garden tractor?
Another thought Howard…
Front assist is when I drive into too soft-too deep down to the front axle, I use the loader bucket to help back out.
Hi Rallye, I never knew that either, but apparently it’s an industry standard term, “FWA” or front-wheel assist, or “MFWD”, mechanical front wheel drive, for tractors. Seems “4WD” was for automobiles.
Tell me about comment troubles, Howard. Just got through making a decent comment and it told me that I was using the proper format. I’m a little curious if this one will go through.
If it does, this is an ISEKI tractor, made in Japan from ’61 to the 80s. Used to have tractors like this come into the shop for service. For such a little diesel, they could be a challenge…
I have a Cub Cadet 7274 (96-97) that is really a Mitsubishi tractor. It’s getting split in two this summer so I can figure out if it was the disc that disintegrated or the pressure plate that blew-up last November.
The 4wd and the FEL help me do a lot of work.
All it needs is a cigar lighter !
No tobacco needed.
No matter what it is, it would get a lot of attention at the Pickett Garden Tractor Show on August 21 & 22.
Sold, sold, sold!