Thursday, March 2, 2006
08:14 p.m.
"The" Mower of All Mowers
    Living in Kansas means you need to be a world class greenskeeper. It's not just a matter of having a nice yard, because a well-kempt lawn means you are keeping grasshoppers under control and ultimately out of your garden.
    It also means your lawn doesn't get too high, and ultimately become a fire hazard. And if you really want to get your neighbors upset, just let your lawn become a fire hazard. You'll never hear the end of it, ever.
    So my friend and neighbor, from time to time, has let me borrow his beloved Heckendorn mower. And I love this mower. So after years of begging, Don is moving to town, and for a great price, he finally sold it to me.

    As you can see, this machine is made by Kansans, for Kansans. With it's three wheel design, its kick-up mower deck design, its Model "A" transmission, and its hefty 10hp to 18hp motor, the Heckendorn is a mowing experience. You might get the lawn mowed, or you might die.
    The mower could tip, or while practically standing on the mower deck you could slip forward and mow over yourself. You never know what could happen, and that makes it more than a riding lawn mower.

    I will probably search for the rest of my life for the larger versions, the 62" and 88" Heckendorns.

    But unless I come across one in the back of a golf course greenskeeper's shop or a high school somewhere in Kansas, I'm probably never going to come across another larger Heckendorn.
    Now, the one I own is featured in the owner's manual that Don passed down to me. In a way, Don was the only owner. Don worked at the Tonganoxie schools, and was the only one who really used the mower. And when he retired from the school, they sold it to him, probably in part because the mower was dangerous and nobody else wanted to use it.

    The handlebars are basically the same as you would find on a fat tire bike (or an old fashioned one-speed bicycle you probably would only find cruising the beach nowadays).

    Some of the options available for the model were disc brakes (which I think I have), a starter, a dozer blade, rear tire chains, a dump trailer, a sprayer, leaf pulverizer (?), and a 2kw generator.

    The company seems to have been a trend-setter with the self-propelled walk behind mowers, available in the 24-28 inches.

    And while I have spotted one other Heckendorn in the paper, I think it was a residential one, like this one.
    It's not that I wouldn't want one of these, but I know it's just not as well built as the commercial Heckendorn.

    The commercial grade versions of the Heckendorns have disappeared over the years mostly because of the transmissions. The 3-speed transmission is the same that was used in the Ford "Model A" and so over the years, the Heckendorns have been stripped of their hefty transmissions, with the rest of the shell left to rust and rot in junkyards.
    I heard rumor that Heckendorn was bought out by Grasshopper. And if that's the case, it's not a surprise that the best riding lawnmower company would be bought out by the current best riding lawnmower company.
    Grasshopper mowers are just completely wicked awesome. They're everything mowers should be, with cooler-burning, longer-lasting diesel engines, seat belts, proper muffler systems and electric starting and comfortable seats and handlebars. Of course, Grasshoppers cost something along the lines of about 15-Thousand Dollars, so nobody can really afford them. That's a few thousand more than I spent on my pickup, and I just paid that thing off!