I guess I'll start off with my 1971 Bolens 1256-02, AKA Cloud Burst III.
Not long after the "Bolens Bug" bit me, I decided that I would like to have a hydro driven one. At that time I had an 800 and a G10, which were both gear driven.
I had rented a trailer for taking the 800 and G10 to the show and rented it for a week as that was the most cost effective.
Now after the show, I was cruising around CraigsList and found a 1256 listed not too far from me. It was listed at a pretty decent price, the pics looked good, and I decided that since I still had the trailer that it was worth looking at.
I called the seller, and made arrangements to take a look at it. While talking to him, he said that he had 'some other stuff' for it that he would sell for $150.00 if I was interested.
When I arrived, we got it running, poorly, but still running, and with out any smoke. I figured that it just needed come carb work and a deal was made.
Then I asked about the 'other stuff'. He took me around the corner, and there sat an EZ-Vac. Not only the EZ-Vac, but in the trailer was an Ohio Steel made sleeve hitch for the tube frames. I immediately said "I'll take it.", and after money changed hands we got everything loaded onto the trailer.
Once I got it home and started playing with it, I found that the gas tank was horribly rusted, and that it was rust getting to the carb that was causing all the problems.
After getting all the rust out, and a bit of carb cleaning, it starts and runs just fine. It does have one 'wart' which is the 'turn to lock' throttle cable. It doesn't lock well, and I will eventually replace it.
EVERYTHING on it is original. As is everything with the EZ-Vac system.
Here are pics of it after I got it home, and also pics of it with the EZ-Vac system.
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Here is a vid of it in action