Yard-man Lawnbird 3250-2 (1960s) Lawn Mowing Tractor

Here is the latest acquisition from my neighbor a couple houses down. It is a 1960s era Yard-man Lawnbird 3250-2. The plan is to use this as my lawn mowing tractor to replace the Honda HT3813. I could not bring myself to convert the Honda to electric since it has an inline 2-cylinder liquid cooled engine, plus the deck needs a lot of repairs, it has had a hard life. So that is where this one fits in. It will probably be ran as gas for the summer and a vintage electric conversion (minimal cutting & modifications to the original chassis) will be coming late 2019.









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That's a sweet little tractor! Has the good ol' Peerless 600 in 'er too! Should be a real cool unit for lawn duty.

The pull start cord in the dash is neat, haha.

That is an interesting little unit.  Looks to be in great shape.

nice ride ! looks like theres a lot more deck than blades LOL !

isnt that cute! never saw one quite like that before. looks like a cool project.

Love the pull start in the dash! Looks like someone painted the engine? Wheel horse owned them back then maybe, or were they independent?

And what are you going to do about seat "butt killer?"

AllisKidD21 wrote:

That's a sweet little tractor! Has the good ol' Peerless 600 in 'er too! Should be a real cool unit for lawn duty.

The pull start cord in the dash is neat, haha.

I was wondering if that transmission was a Peerless that everybody loves. Ironically, that is the only thing broken on the tractor, so I have to get it off and open it up. The input is just spinning freely.

MightyRaze wrote:

That is an interesting little unit.  Looks to be in great shape.

It is in great shape. It was garage stored in the house my neighbor bought a few years ago, when he moved in he put it on a pallet and put it in his machine shop, which happens to be across the street from where I work!

diddie wrote:

nice ride ! looks like theres a lot more deck than blades LOL !

Yeah, the deck is kind of strange, but the front hanger and wheels let you use the front hanger as a handle and roll it around. Plus, the hanger & wheels are just bolted on to the deck, so I am thinking about try to adapt my Craftsman 38" deck I have sitting around.

Cool old tractor. Careful of the dash located pull cord. I did that as an upgrade on my MTD when I first got it. Pulled the pull start while sitting in the seat and gave myself a right hook right in the chin, LOL. Best bet would be standing beside it to fire it up.

@murraymountain If you look closely someone added some low profile uni-strut to the bottom of the seat and a piece of electrical enclosure to the bottom, not sure why. My plan is to undo that junk and make a bottom cushion with a piece of plywood, seat foam (I still have some 2" hanging around), and some vinyl. I will be casually searching for some 60's looking vinyl, hopefully I will come across that shiny turquoise color or some other period correct color!

@prancstaman I have not started it while on the seat yet, but I will let you know if I inflict harm on myself!

Here are few pictures of it back in September 2018, when I first saw it in the shop and was deciding if I needed another project. It took my neighbor moving to a new shop to convince me to grab it. There is also a better picture of the shifter, 3rd is "transport". I don't know what happened to that poor rear left wheel! We will see how much persuasion it needs to come off when the trans-axle comes out...I should have it soaking already   .