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Jari Mowers

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2020 1:25 am
by MapleCub
Finally finished one of my long term projects (7+ years taken apart in the shop): my 1950's Jari Jr. walk-behind sickle mower. Actually, I rebuilt the engine as a high school shop class project, so I've been working on it for closer to 13 years now. My uncle bought this machine in the 70's, then I inherited it (along with my '47 Farmall Cub) from my grandparents. I also have an interchangeable tiller attachment that can be used in place of the sickle. I've seen snowblowers, sprayers, and reel mower attachments for these as well. I can tell that the sickle bar and engine were replaced sometime in the 80's, but otherwise it appears to be all original. I repainted the frame and sickle bar but left the tiller and hood alone, as they were still in decent shape. The closest color I could match was PPG Omni "Mineral", but even that is a little more grey than the original blue. Oh well, still looks nice and shiny.
Jari Mower
Jari Mower
IMG_0302.JPG (253.15 KiB) Viewed 2697 times
Jari Mower
Jari Mower
IMG_0305.JPG (268.57 KiB) Viewed 2697 times
Here is the tiller:
Jari Tiller
Jari Tiller
IMG_0299.JPG (203.73 KiB) Viewed 2697 times
Original decal left intact:
Jari Jr. Decal
Jari Jr. Decal
IMG_0308.JPG (122.56 KiB) Viewed 2697 times
A little more history: Jari mowers were manufactured in Minneapolis beginning in the 1940's. I have acquired three of these 1940's models with non-running Lauson engines, which look pretty neat. Over the years, other models were added, with the Monarch and Chief being the most popular and longest lasting models. At some point, the Jari brand was made by Year-A-Round Cab Company in Mankato, MN, then was spun off as an independent company for a while, before finally closing down just a couple of years ago! It appears that the brand has been bought by a company from California, so it may be resurrected again in the future.

Does anybody else have one of these things? If so, I would love to see them! I've been trying to cross reference a list of serial numbers & models to years produced using engine data, so if you have these numbers, feel free to send them my way as well.

Re: Jari Mowers

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2020 9:20 am
by Tom Scott
Ben - Very cool, thanks for sharing! The hood is reminiscent of an orchard tractor, to deflect the branches, gives it a very unique look.
:beer:

Re: Jari Mowers

Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2020 7:46 pm
by dag1450
Great job Ben! Definitely a unique looking machine. Dont feel bad...i think alot of us have some long term projects :oops: