IN A MOVE to cut excess manufacturing capacity, the Toro Co. has announced tentative plans to close on July 6 its Lawn-Boy manufacturing plant in Plymouth, Wis., the former home base of Gilson Bros., which Lawn-Boy absorbed in 1986.
Gilson had evolved into a major private-label producer for marketers such as the Ford Tractor Division and Montgomery Wards. Lawn-Boy, a division of Outboard Marine Corp., put its green paint on the Gilson products and instantly became a full-line power equipment manufacturer in the consumer realms, with strong ties to the commercial/golf course product lines of Cushman, another OMC division.
If you need parts look for Ford/Gilson, hopefully it's a ford model and you can find them that way, otherwise it could be a museum piece
I have a '82 Montgomery Ward tractor type mower I bought new that was made by Gilson. Its a 18 hp brigs and a cast iron 4 speed trans with a three blade 42" mower deck. It mowed 2 1/2 acres till I bought a 50" 1862 GT Cub Cadet in '95. The grandkids use the tractor to pull a big lawn trailer all over my 40 acres. I still use it on pulling jobs around the place, just about weekly, where the 50 hp blue tractor won't fit.
