A 1980 Flymo hovering lawnmower Cold start and mowing
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
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This is my bosses, its been in his shed for years, not in the old shed, but in the real old shed that was falling apart. I ground down the rust on the handle and engine cover and gave them a little paint, but otherwise its as found. The carb hard maple syrup looking crap in it that used to be gas, and the pull cord was broken. It had no spark at first but I cleaned the points and the spark-plug and it works like a champ. It cuts pretty low but it is missing most of the skirt that goes around the bottom. Its a good working old mower. - Авто та транспорт
That thing is so worn out looking! and sounds a bit gnarly too. needs some tender loving care on the engine and the plastic shroud part too.
Thanks for the comment. It has not been treated very well. 20 years of hard commercial use followed by being tossed in the back of the salt dome for a further ten years. There is not one screw or bolt that will undo. I am afraid to even attempt any repairs. We have bought a newer style one called a Bannerman Hovermower. Here is a link to a video, it is in much better condition; ua-cam.com/video/CFtMJ-7UsEs/v-deo.html
A lawnmower hovercraft? Someone needs to invent the riding mower version immediately
GabeN The Great su©!< m¥ [\l[_]T$
just connect like 8 of these together and jump on! 💊💉🍻
no kidding 😂
"did the neighbour get a dirtbike?"
"nah he jus mowing the lawn again"
I wonder why this never really took off. I would think they would be flying off the shelves.
i see what you did there ;)
James LaChance We're all hovering around you; waiting to see what your next line will be. You're a real cut up.
This guy 😂
I had a Flymo back in the 80’s. Best lawnmower ever. Why did they disappear?!
@@lilsnow6611you can still buy a modern one
At least you have socks on to protect your feet while mowing in sandals....
Damn, he used that old mower until the wheels fell off and then kept on mowing with it.
LOL
For people wondering about the purposes and practicality of this - look no further! I was a greenskeeper on a golf course throughout highschool and college, and these were used regularly. They specialize in hills, as you can stand on top of the hills, and get an even cut, without risk of flipping a mower, or having tires slip and rip the grass.
In our case, we specifically used them for cutting around the bunkers, as we had rather steep inclines around all the bunkers. With a team of six, it would take us about 8 hours to cut the hills around all 109 bunkers on our course.
Two problems that made this an imperfect solution (though it's the best available). Due to it hovering, you get an uneven cut. This means for a good cut, you should really pass over the same area a half dozen times. Secondly, they were incredibly unstable, especially on inclines - they flip VERY easily, as the corner, if it hits the ground, can dig in instantly and flip the entire mower over the handle. This is problematic, as all the oil rushes to the engine, and causes an explosion - only had to witness this a couple times, but they were expensive to replace!
That is why the two stroke engine was better. Lighter and no crankcase oil.
Matt Spam Mr.Know it all!Actually if you do your research you'll see these were made before weedeaters were perfected.Simple.If this ran right it would hover better.It's not meant to be pushed both ways.
I cringed at the thought of losing a foot....then I saw the protective footwear you were sporting.
Michael Rowland you should mow the lawn as tho you’re bare foot. You think a shoe will save your little piggies. Lol
Jetski Jay think about what you just said. That’s like riding a motorcycle naked
Michael Rowland huge difference in wearing leather that allows you to slide and a bigass blade spinning at a high speed hitting something...
Mike Hills How do you figure? Wait....don’t answer that. Then I will have to respond again wondering what is in you peoples water...
LoL I wear steel toe rubber boots 😂👍
when I'm watching these videos I know its bedtime
Haha its quarter past midnight and you just wrote what I was thinking
The design concept has one major flaw that can't be overcome. It blow air down instead of sucking the grass upward to trim it evenly. So you end up with very uneven cuts and grass that was lying down would just be missed altogether but raise back up with time and sun. Neat though.
Wow, I never even thought of this. I guess that's why it is quite impractical these days.
A lot of mulcher blades have the same problem unless you cut your grass a lot.
It's designed for hills. When it's turned on, it will feel like it's slightly hovering. it does take a little bit of muscle but it "floats".Also really really good if you have a Lot of trees and don't want to damage the trunk.
The older hovermowers, Before the EPA regulations, were the best and most powerful.
My father bought one. It would flip on hills.
Then he was using it wrong.
While we're all stuck In 2017 this mower is operating in 3017.
" oh shit the grass is 2 mm high! let's cut this shit back to an half mm!"
Can you imagine copping one of these in the 80s, mowing your grass only to look over your white picket fence and see your neighboring mirin' your new machine straight outta the future.
Those things were great. I used one when I was a kid working on a golf course. They were for mowing slopes. Actually works best side to side motion. Raising and lowering handle bar while while moving the mower side to side helps. Almost like flying a plane.
Used these in Germany to mow the tops of bunkers. I am so glad this video exist because no one believed me about a lawnmower with no wheels that hovered.
I use to own one back in the 80's, The only problem is you can only use Flymo Oil in them when mixing the gas, NOT Lawnboy oil! It will gum up and not hover right.
In Ohiopyle, PA where I worked, we used to use one of these on the steep embankments where wheeled lawnmowers were hard to operate. It hovered well and could be pushed/pulled side to side. The problem with the mower became clear when gravity and momentum took over. After a few scary accidents we affectionately changed it's name to the "Toe mo."
I saw this on a roosterteeth lets play when one of the guys was talking about hovering lawn mowers. I thought he was full of shit, but apparently not.
On a side note, this seems like something you would have TODAY, and wheel'd lawn mowers in the 1980s, not the other way around.
Fang
These things are much older than that. I can remember when I was about 6-7 years old (I'm 63) seeing these in a Hardware store in Corpus Christi Tx with my Grandfather.
I remember these damn things. I once asked my neighbor if his Flymo would actually go over water and he said he wasn't sure so he started it up and pushed it out onto the water thinking it would hover and that shit went right to the bottom.
LOL I guess it's not the best hovercraft out there. Would have loved to see his face. :-)
Yeah he seemed rather shocked because he really thought it was just gonna glide right over the water but the moment he pivoted it out over the water it made a big gulping noise and went right under. Then we spent the next 5 minutes pulling it out.
Just when you think you've seen everything, you get a suggestion for a 2013 video in 2018. Mind blown 🌫
@@streetheat3366 GET BACK WICKED ONE!
I’m
In 2021
I’m in the future 🤖
@@YourMom-hp5ee HI MOM, I love you! (In the future)
@@leeluv96 love you too son
I remember those always wanted to try one when I was a kid. I'm pretty sure that's why they made them like that so kids would want to mow the lawn. Cool to see it
Those are cool! I used one back in the 80's and I still got one. I like how you could swing 'em side to side too. The only problem with 'em.....if you have any slope AT ALL in your yard and you let go of it to move something real quick, when you turn back around, its floating off on its own merry way...lol
Holy cow. It's the flowbee OF Lawn mowers. That thing should be in b a Museum. Really cool though.
In 1974 I was in Junior High and I heard of the flymo, I never saw one but I thought it would be so cool. Now at 59 years old I U-Tubed "FlyMo", This video and several others came up but after 46 years I see one for the first time. I think it looks pretty cool.
Thanks for the comment. I had seen one as a kid in 1969 and I was shocked to see one in the salt storage at my son's work. So I talked his boss into letting me have it. It will be repaired.
Saw one of these used by a commercial guy in Texas when I was a kid, blew my mind!
Showing off his 1980 hover mower with those 1980 vehicles in the back ground classic
The Bergin's garage celebrates all thing 80's along with the 70's, 60's, and 50's. We like to find them and make them work.
I had one. they don't work for crap as the airflow pushes the grass down.
There's mowers have claimed so many toes over the years but this guy's a straight-up Savage flip-flops
I had one of these Flymo machines that I bought at a flea market. It did OK on flat areas, not so good on humps, bumps or steep slopes and definitely not anywhere that the grass was overgrown. Still a cool idea, though. These machines worked best on level lawns that were mowed at least once a week. I gave mine away to a neighbor who had a much better yard than mine and it did the job quite well for him.
Nice steal toe flip flops. The ER must just love seeing you There all the time.
Sorry all of my toes are still there. By the way the steel toe cap in a set of boot is useless against a blade that spins sideways. Steel toes are designed to protect you from something heavy being dropped on your toe, not from a sharp chunk of steel spinning sideways.
KLH1966 ooooooooooooooooo daaaayyyyyyuuuuum bitch ... you got told
KLH1966 You strap on steel toed boots to mow your lawn?
ShellShock794 hes just mad california doesnt have any grass
lmao steel toes??? why tf would your toes be that close to the actual mower anyways
It looks like it’s ahead of its time 👍🏽
Really really useful on Hills. just swing it back and forth. you can even tie a Rope around it and left gravity pulll the mower down, then just pull it back. It's why the handles are shaped the way they are, also the engine won't get ruined when on an incline, like many non commercial push mowers do.
Seems like a dangerous thing to do in slippers, but don't let me tell you how to hovermow
Very popular in Europe for mowing hillsides. Walk to the top of the hill with the mower. Tie a rope on the handle, walk back and forth, lowering the mower a little each pass. Much better than a wheeled mower in that application.
Need to make a riding mower this way lol!
You will need a much bigger engine. Nothing wrong with that though. 😊
Who Needs Wheels, its looks like a Trash Can Lid with an engine on Top.
So you mean to tell me we had hovering push mowers by 1980 but not hoverboards in 1985?
How do u increase the weight of the craft by like 500% to 1,000%, but STILL get it to hover 20 times higher?
Socks, in sandals, lawn mowing...!?!! Nice...
We use em on the golf course to mow around bunkers and pond banks. Pretty neat machine
Be careful with that. On downhill it likes to go airborne. That's how I lost 3 toes.
Are you serious?
@@black_squall yup. 7 toes left.
Shutup Charlie you nitwit.
@Charlie Rothwill brave computer troll.
😨
We had several of these but in an earlier model. They were erratic, but great little mowers. Not good on wet very thick/long grass, and horrible in dry thin grass due to the dust storm. Anything between the two they were fine.
The earlier models had a snorkel air cleaner high on the handlebars which helped. They also didn't have that extended deck to help protect your feet.
I like the bit where it just massages the grass
I had just cut the lawn with another mower. We were showing the hovering. 🤷♂️
@@MatthewBerginGarage ua-cam.com/video/r5YuBpD09uY/v-deo.html
My neighbor in the 1980s had a blue colored one. They only used it for a steep small side hill and they would swing it back n forth. It was dangerous from what I was told. They sold it. I wish I would have bought it but I was too young to know better. What a collectors piece..
Some fallout shit right here.
you mean the garbage online money grab it will be?
Actually I was unaware that there was a new fallout coming out. I was referring to FO3/4
FO3/NV > FO4 and anything after
I used to use these on a golf course, and I cannot tell you how much I despise these damn things.
haha same did yall use them on bunkers?
Yep, sand bunkers and lake/pond/bluff edges. I couldn't stand these things. I would have rather weed eated.
Steven Miller I feel you on that. I hated mowing the bunkers and steep hills with the Husqavarna version. they felt heavy as shit and really hard to maneuver while on them hills.
Tony Vargas huskvarna just sucks all around lol especially lawn equipment. not surprising since sweden is nothing but snow ice and isis
This makes me feel old. I remember when I was in kindergarten the guy across the street from us would Moe's lawn with one of these and I just thought it was crazy cool and never seen one again so I figured it was junk. When I try to tell people about them they thought I was nuts and have been smoking something it turns out here it is
Remember these were great in Florida with standing water and ditches
yeah really? trailer parks to.
@@railrider4745 🤣🤣 (too)
My dad had one. I hated it because it didn't catch the grass clippings and I had to follow him around raking them up. Way more work.
I remember when these came out, I tried one out at a trade show once. These were designed to mow steep banks where a regular mower couldn't go. And also along the waters edge where the grass goes right down to the water.
that mower is frickin awesome ! I will have to find one now . the cool factor is sky high for me thanks for the video.
Hi, I'm looking at buying my first ever lawn mower and my joints aren't too strong. I came across your video. I found it very helpful, as I've not seen a flymo used up close. Thank you for your help. :)
No wheel marks in the grass to follow when mowing! Maybe thats why they stopped making them.
They still make these. Flymo.com
I like wheel marks in my lawn, like when I vacuum my carpet, it makes it look neat and tidy, and I know where I e already gone.
If your grass is long enough you don't need wheel marks
LOL. I never considered the starting issue. It starts to float away lol. Awesome to see. I remember those commercials.
looks like a rock chucker if ive ever seen one
Those mowers are awesome. Cant say ive ever seen one up close personally and i was born in 1980. I always wondered how they achieved the design. Id so love to get ahold of one myself. No wheels to get stuck.
Congrats on your find.
u dont want one
R.C. Trail Runners I think he does.
no they suck
I wish I still had mine. Best mower I've ever owned.
We like our new Bannerman Hovermower as well. It is almost the same as the Flymo just 40 years younger and "Green" 😊👍
YEESSS ...a proper lawnmower, from my childhood! No silly poncy strings, BLADES and hover! Who needs toes anyway?
I want one :-)
Anyone else get this in their recommended videos?
Andrew Glinski yup
I ain't never seen nuthin like that, my guy
Yep.
I used one of those several times in 1970. I loved that thing. It came with the house I rented in Oceanside Ca.
So why didn't you get another one?
All the people talking about "it's not cutting anything" or "this thing doesn't work with long grass" I still like seeing this thing start up and work properly. And yes it is cutting after the first pass you can see the cut along the inside of the grass it's very hard to miss.
i doubt you could cut anything over 2 inches unless you push it like a snail
@@jacobadam4556 like you should do with any push mower. Take it slower so it doesn't bug down. Also this thing is older than probably half this comment section. So it is probably weaker than the mowers we have today.
This guy went through a lot of trouble for this video. Finding all those cars from the 80s and dressing with clothes he hasn’t worn since the 80s. Good job.
We call 80's cars new cars because they are the newest ones we own. The Fairmont and Zephyr are my son's daily drivers.🤷♂️😀😀
Ha my dad had one of these "futuristic mowers" in the 80's. Great for cutting
around garden beds, driveway/path edges, angled/sloped areas, and they
were very easy to maneuver. Cons: they really only worked well on short
grass, terrible in med-tall grass - then you'd have to pull out the trusty 4 wheel. TORO now manufactures these.
They fitted in a niche and did some jobs other mowers couldn't do. I moved over to antique Gravely's, anything built as light as this hovering mower, by its nature, won't last long. I use a Gravely made in 1960 for my own property. Still works as well as it did when new.
These are great; mostly used on golf courses to mow bunkers without messing up the sand.
Hovering death blade, no dead man's switch on handle, wearing sandals. What could possibly go wrong?
But funnily nothing happened 🤷♂️
I love it. Unsafe as all get out, but seeing this has stretched my imagination a bit and for that I am thankful! Cool mower, great idea.
Thanks it is really not as unsafe as it first appears. I have a newer one That is called a Bannerman Hover mower. We bought it recently, and it is in good shape and works very well. Posted a vid about it a month or so ago.
This is the exact kind of mower for flip flops and Sox.
Clap...clap...clap...
Be hard to drive over your feet when it is touching the ground....
Dang! I've been doing it wrong. I've been sitting on the engine and propelling it with my leg, like riding a scooter. Thanks for the heads up!
If I was going to ride it the engine would need to be a "LOT" larger. I'm not a small man.👍😁
Why did the youtube algorithm choose to make this 4 year old video popular again?
I mowed the yard yesterday... they are watching
Used this mower on hilly areas at TPC Sawgrass mid 90’s worked great.
I've had two of these; they cut great on steep inclines!
The air generated under the deck keeps the trimmer line raised up and makes a nice cut.
The problem is with the Tecumseh Engine! Hard to start and not nearly powerful enough!
This would be a great idea if it had a different engine!
I could just see this on Tim Allen's old Home Improvement show!
Thanks, looking now!
FloridaCoastalGuy: Yes....I remember the one we had back in the late 70's. Could swing 'em back n forth side to side and they were really good on the slopes. Nice n light. Just dont let go of it to pick up a stick or take a piss cause if you do, when you turn around, she's mowin on her own goin across the yard!...lol
"hey randy look im cutting the air!" -jim layhey trailer park boys 😂🍻
the zero turn looks good on it
they use these alot on golf courses to cut the edges of the sand pits, cool machines
*im going to bed early tonight*
here we are.. 2 am.
Killian Maddix me too
Seems super fuel efficient way to mow lol That thing should go to a museum!
I don't advise wearing sandals next time you mow the lawn... and definitely sandals and socks don't work either! ;)
we were given these to go mow around sand traps on the golf course in the late 1980s. boy did we hate them. we'd take turns doing the "flymo toss" off the highest point on the rough we could find and never could break one straight away. the decks, which i'm sure have aged some are more brittle by now, were too flexible to break.
i found that these were neat technically and kind of miserable to operate for long periods of time. vaporlock might have been the 2nd best thing they did
It already sounds good, if you were to get the block machined and completely restored the engine, you could possibly straight pipe it without loosing too much power.
How about a big fat tuned pipe with an open stinger. :-)
Go ahead, but don't you think a Mazda Dorito would be cool on it. Only thing is you would have to add oil in it every time you now and replace the apex seals more time the number of people staring at it.
I already add oil as it is a two stroke but a single rotor would be interesting. It would have amazing RPM potential.
With the rpm you could have a plastic bag for a blade.
lol I haven't seen one of these since 1985. my dad's nieghbor had 1 when I was a little kid. I thought it was the coolest invention ever!
This was probley ahead of its time back in the day
I had one in the mid-eighties. Loved it.
It had some limitations with respect to uneven terrain, but nothing that I didn't eventually resolve. Not sure why they didn't become more popular.
I think it is because the Flymo leaves no lines. Your entire lawn would be line free. Personally I like the smooth look. 🤷♂️🙋♂️
That thing is super cool...just another reason why the 80s was the best😜
But why aren’t those the norm almost 40yrs later?
There’s no bag for the debris. Would make a mess of the lawn
I don’t use one on my lawn and I have an acre. The grass shave shavings, actually keep the grass from burning. Every now and then, I’ll take some up to put over a place where I’m grow big new grass, but the one time I used a catcher- the entire grass got burned.
Could be the types of grass tho- there IS about 4-5 different ones😂
I was a flymo agent back when they first came out, went to the British science museum, they had one in a case, i had one on my bench day before i went, how old did i feel..... have a electric hover, from 1972, there were loads in the UK, one i remember had 2 blades, 2 motors, 2 fans....
That Lincoln mark 8 in the background is so nice
So fresh an so clean clean
Yes it is the last decent Lincoln with the best engine Ford has ever made.
ford NEVER made a good engine
You might wan't to ask John Mihovetz about that. He has set a few records with one using a stock block and heads. Check the vid. LS got nothin for a four valve 4.6 L Mod motor.
The REAL Worlds Fastest Mod Motor John Mihovetz 5.88 at 250 MPH
ua-cam.com/video/PSb1nRKIJTA/v-deo.html
Ford never made a Good car!
Great video, mower cuts really nice!
I used to cut a neighbours garden when I was a kid for pocket money back the in 80s. They too had a petrol Flymo similar to your one in this video. I remember it having a hose like a hoover hose that ran from the engine up the handle, never did know what that was for / about?
You would of thought it would of been hard work pushing around a mower with a dirty big engine strapped to it but once the engine was running, the cushion of air made it really light and easy to move, you could push it along with one finger. Really safe as well to the point you could happily start and mow in just your socks and slides like you did without risk of cutting your foot off!
Only thing I did not like was having to rake all the grass up afterwards as it did not collect the grass, I used to cheat and lift the side of the mower and let the fan blow the grass away!
Great video, brought back some great memories!
I saw my first one in the late 60's. I was amazed at the time.
I think you are pushing it backward?
We used something similar to that in Germany when we did lawn maintenance on post. It was a biatch. That’s how we cut the berms around the motor pool. The grass was thick, you had to tilt it and swing it back and forth while you had a rope tied to you so you didn’t fall. Did I mention the berms were steep and tall?
I think the Flymo was outlawed after June 30, 1982 here due to it not having any form of immediate blade stopping when you let go of the handle.
ClassicTVMan1981X they don't have a play that use weed wacker string
am I watching back to the future? run for it marty!!
anybody here after watching Michael and Gavin play I am Bread?
yes are you as confused as i am and surprised its real? how do you adjust the height? what if the grass is taller?
yup. its one of those things you don't think about, then when you hear about it it sounds made up. but then when you realize the blade is just acting like a fan pushing the mower off the ground it suddenly makes all kind of sense.
I thought Gavin was just making an April fools joke, who honestly believed him when he said flying lawnmower? I guess we have not heard of them because they are not made anymore and because it seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Pretty cool mower though.
jake tyler how did you know?!
Yup lol
this flymo makes a lovely job in cutting grass nice one
Great mowers for sloped lawns, lots of people use them for that reason. Although most large companies wont use them as the health and safety risk if a numpty slips and drives over his legs
Holy snickey!!! That is cool. I can't believe I never heard of it before. I wonder why it never caught on? Maybe function, or safety, or even poor marketing. Fascinating! I just looked up a slew of Flymo videos....time to check this beast out!
thanks Gavin! Also, side note, doesn't look very efficient
here from the Rooster Teeth Podcast........in 33yrs, never ever seen these before.
Darren G. I believe these were invented as early as the late 1960's, as I remember my parents trying one out when I was a young child.
Nice machine! I generally dislike rotary mowers but I would like to find one of these and resurrect it! Many thanks for sharing and enjoy using your little Flymo !!
That is the most 80s thing that I've ever seen
I use these at work for lake banks, ours is much newer. Love this machine
Comes with magical cutting height adjustment. LMFAO.