In the Grass since 1964
Excel Industries, Inc. (manufacturer of Hustler Turf Equipment), in Hesston, Kansas stood at the beginning of zero-turning-radius mowing in America. The company still stands at its heart.
Arguably, the single most important event in the history of landscape maintenance occurred in 1963. Just before midnight on a spring evening in the year John F. Kennedy was assassinated, an odd-looking machine cut grass in a backyard in Moundridge, Kansas. The mower was not especially large nor particularly powerful, but it could turn - as they say - on a dime. In fact, it could reverse directions, 180 degrees, in an instant. A turn with a radius of, exactly, zero degrees; a turn completed within the length of the mower itself
The zero-turn mower was born in the agile mind of John Regier, a tinkerer of the first rank who found his inspiration in necessity. With his wife in open revolt over her grass-cutting responsibilities on the Regier homesite, he adapted a design for a steering system and transmission first used on haying equipment a decade earlier. He named his invention the "Workhorse," a reference perhaps both to the mower's and Mrs. Regier's propensity for hard labor. And perhaps because John Regier had no formal education in engineering or industrial design, his employer (the patent-holder on his hay-swather model) showed no interest whatsoever in the new-fangled mower. He promptly resigned his position and set to work putting a 36-inch zero-turn mower into production
Mr. Regier built 24 of his mowers, now rechristened the "Hustler," a name belonging to the B-58 fighter-bomber he encountered in the pages of Popular Science magazine. As he recalls, "I lost money on every sale," but his efforts at accelerating the business of mowing did not go unnoticed
In nearby Hesston, Kansas, Roy Mullet and his partners at Excel Industries, Inc. were busy building tractor cabs, but everyone at Excel understood the vagaries of a fickle agricultural marketplace. Excel was looking to diversify. "We were very impressed with John's design," Mr. Mullet remembers, "and we could see the potential of the zero-turn concept." Excel quickly threw its manufacturing capacities behind the new mower after deciding that, with all the price sensitivities of the homeowner landscape market, only a larger, commercial-grade machine seemed viable. And so the first Hustler rolled off the assembly line with 65 inches of cut behind a 12-horsepower engine, all aimed at the folks who cut grass for a living
Initial acceptance among turf professionals proved solid. The mower's first customers welcomed the Hustler's maneuverability. They applauded the mower's ease of handling. They appreciated its immediate contributions to productivity.
They did not enjoy the belts, however.
