Yazoo S-26 High Wheel Mower awakens!

[ultrarunner]

I was looking around my brother's new place while we were waiting for his new L3800 Kubota to arrive and found an old High Wheel Yazoo Mower under a piece of tin out behind the barn just like this.

The wheels were sunken in the dirt a few inches with vines wrapped around them.

Dragged it over the the Shop Building (Only shed with concrete floor) and started to tinker with it.

Oil was good, Deck looked good as did the belts.

Retrieved the sunken in the rim tire tube stems and added a little slime to each and filled to 35 psi.

Added a little fuel and found the rubber line leaked as fast as I put fuel in.

Replaced the line and fixed the throttle cable and added a little gas.

Pulled of the air cleaner element and gave it a shot of starting fluid and it started on the second pull.

That old Cast Iron Industrial 8hp Briggs engine sounded darn good and ran clean.

Did a few laps around the yard and cut sweet...

Not familiar with YAZOO mowers... looks like it was made to last and built like a tank!

 

[JakeBrake]

Back in the day Yazoo Mowers were manufactured in Jackson, Mississippi. At the time they were the best mower you could buy.

Johnson Big Wheel Mowers was a cross-town rival built in Ridgeland, Mississippi by former Yazoo employees.
I have a Johnson Big Wheel mower 26" cut with 8 HP B&S. There was tremendous rivalry between Johnson and Yazoo.

Both Johnson and Yazoo are out of business now, although I thing their names are used by other companies.

Most of the parts are generic or can be built by a good welding or machine shop.

When my folks moved into a new house in 1950, the weeds were knee-deep. My dad hired a guy with a Yazoo to mow the grass. He also killed several snakes with the Yazoo.

 

[ultrarunner]

Thanks for sharing some of the company history...

It is the most solid mower I've ever seen...

Over the years I've ruined two decent Honda Powered Mowers... both hit something in tall grass... once I was helping a friend and another time I let someone from work use my mower... both times the crank was bent and the vibration was terrible.

At least with a mower like the Yazoo... the motor is isolated from the blade by belts...

Yesterday... my sister in law was asking me how to get rid of it... I probably should have offered to haul it away.

My nature is take a little closer look plus it was very rewarding to fire it up and hear how well it runs...

 

[JakeBrake]

I took a closer look at your picture. That mower is in great shape! It is relatively new. My guess is was built around 1990. My Johnson was built in 1989.

The mower that cut our grass in 1950 did not have that sissy skirt around the blade. It had a top deck, but no side skirts. Most of the older mowers had Clinton engines.

As I recall Mr. Johnson worked for (or was a partner) in the Yazoo Company. Mr. Johnson held the patent for the drive unit and he split off into a separate company.

 

[ultrarunner]

I figured it was a later model with the composite yellow wheels...

 

[ultrarunner]

10 year report and still on the job since resurrection.

Would be nice to replace the well worn metal drives called Driver Friction Spline 405-004 and or 405-006 (Maybe right and left) that engage the high wheel rubber tires but very usable as is…



Just for kicks I was looking to see what Billy Goat and DR offer and nothing internal combustion available in California… :-(

Lots of fire suppression work this time of year but the tools to get it done mostly banned…

 

[2manyrocks]

CPSC banned the Bachtold Bros. hiwheel brush mower that had the more open cutting blade. Very efficient at brush cutting, but easy to forget the blade is spinning. I saw one pop up on FB marketplace locally this week. The DR versions have the enclosed decks these days like yours.

 

[ultrarunner]

No blade stop or covers for belts or pinch points…

For a short time labeling for Commercial Use got Yazoo a pass as it was not sold as a consumer product… but consumers were buying…

I have looked to buy another but no luck so far.

 

[2manyrocks]

I had a Troy Bilt version that was very similar. Yours likely had a belt cover over the deck pulley, but not a blade stop.

I haven’t seen but a couple of these for sale in the past few years. Not sure if they were big sellers because of the price new. Seem to recall the price put them in riding mower territory.

 

[ultrarunner]

It’s like a portable bush hog cleaning up around the tree farm…

The deck is very heavy duty.

I think you are right on the belt cover…

Newer models also covered the wheel drive splines