fremont,ohio.

[donnie cain]

is this legal at fremont tbo.

[Brian Thomas]

No ,,, It must be a 2 cycle ...

[ted johnson]

Far out! A mid-to-late fifties or early sixties Snappin' Turtle with the handle removed and the seat and front wheels added. The Snappin' Turtle was invented in the early fifties by a guy called Smitty (can't remember Mr. Smith's first name). When I was a little kid, Pop and I used to go over to Sanford, Florida to Southern Saw Works to pick up mowers from Mr. Smith. The early ones were welded up of patterned steel plate with little raised squares all over it, kinda like diamond tread. Smitty was a hard working, rough-around-the-edges guy, but we liked him. We sold Snappin' Turtles and later the Snapper mower from the early fifties through the mid-sixties. Great quality. It looks like the guy here had to remove the cast metal snapping turtle head in order to put on that plate that's below the seat. You could buy a two-wheeled sulky with the same seat and spring mount on it to ride behind the mowers. Thanks for the memory, Donnie! Ted

[Jeff Campbell]

Ted, you got my curiosity up, so I had to see if I could find a photo of what the Snappin Turtle head looked like, geeezh, I'm not sure I would want that on the front of my mower if you know what I mean, LOL!!!

[ted johnson]

Jeff, that really brings back memories. These later Turtles made by McDonough Power Equipment had a little nicer cast heads than the early ones did. Somewhere in my old stuff, probably tucked away in a box in Charlie's shop, is one of the earlier heads that Pop gave me sometime around '59 or '60. I kept it for many years. I had painted it metallic copper with a red inside of the mouth. Now you have me wondering if Charlie's thrown it away after all this time!
The head had a stud cast into the neck end, and it fastened to the mower deck with a nut. The kid across the street once fastened it to a piece of wood and put it inside his pants sticking out thru the zipper..... His mom was not amused! Ted