Bison questions

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I brought the green Bison from a crazy person in Chicago. (Fred Nelson and Tania Voigt can attest to this---the crazy part that is!)

It was brand new in the box and this was about 3 years ago. It was complete with all the attachments and paperwork. Sort of like a time capsule.

We took it back to Milwaukee where Fred Stachnik and I assembled it and gave it a test drive along with some other folks. It was "so-so" in our thinking in terms of performance. You literally have to yell to talk to anyone in the same room. It only has two brush stips on the brush roll like the early big head Kirbys. The variable speed control is interesting but I not sure how useful. I'm almost positive there was only a shake out cloth bag and never a paper bag.

The belt is slightly different than a Kirby. It has sort of a lip or edge on one side making it unique to Bison. I'm not sure if you can use another type with them. Removing and reattaching the rug nozze is a very clumsy affair at best. It took us a while to figure it all out. Even using the height adjuster was...........well, let's just say it is not like using a Kirby!

I shipped it to my house and played with it here for a while. It was so loud that my poor cats were sick with nervous anxiety for days after I would use it. Although very kitschy and probably collectable as time passes, I decided to sell it to VCCC member Steve Keisler in Chicago. So it went back home to Chicago where it started out!

I think Clay will do a marvelous job explaining the machine, the company and it's history. This will be one of the first conventions where an "orphan" vacuum will be featured.

I'm glad Fred Nelson put the owner's manual on here as it shows and explains many things about the Bison that would be hard to describe.
 
Back in the early spring of 1974...

...I had noticed these beasts in the window of their dealership here in Memphis. It was next to the Levitz Furniture Store where some friends of mine had decided to purchase some furniture and asked me to take a look at it with them. I had not been to that part of town yet, having just arrived in Memphis in the fall of 1973.

When we pulled up to the furniture store I looked over at this vacuum shop and my eyes did a doubletake. What in the world???? Was this a Kirby...gone awry? I noticed the name Bison on the sign above this little shop. Never heard of it! Since I was with this couple and their kids I couldn't go wandering off to the vacuum shop, it would have been too rude. And when we came out of the Levitz, the Bison dealership was closed. So I drove back there in a few days by myself.

It wasn't the nicest part of town and I wasn't that comfortable there all by myself..being new to Memphis and all. But I parked there for a while and finally got out and looked in the window. They had this machine all decked out in its various configurations and it certainly looked like a wierd version of a Kirby to me. I wanted to go in, but didn't. What would I say? I was certainly not in any position to buy the thing and from the looks of the place...I suspected that I would have been talked into it or else. I had just finished my stint selling for Electrolux [did it all through college] I suspected some of the moves that would have been hoisted my way by these guys..and I wasn't up to it. So...I got in my car and drove away.

A little over a YEAR later.... I discovered that a neighbor had one. She was cleaning her car with the Bison on the carport. I told her I had sold Electrolux during 4 years of college and I asked her about the Bison...and yes it was a sale through DTD and a big sales pitch and she sort of liked it,"but it wasn't all they made it out to be," she said.

I didn't ask to use it or anything..even though I wanted to but it just seemed too awkward in every way. So I smiled and told her to take it easy...and not work too hard. That was the last time I saw a Bison till I saw one pictured on the various vac collectors web sites.

From my memory I can tell you that it was indeed VERY loud just as Charlie Watrous said [which was what got my attention in the first place that day and drug me outside to see what was going on]; but that's about all I remember about it other that it's general appearance and the fact that the attachment case also seemed to replicate a Kirby dead on. I always wondered what the relationship was between this machine and Kirby. Whatever it was, I knew there had to be some sort of relationship.
 
Sounds like the Bison outfit died from lawsuits from Kirby-unfreindly operation-difficult to remove or install attachments-and lastly-NOISEY!Guess the thing was as loud as a B-52 idling for takeoff?They sure were interesting looking machines!
 
I wouldn't have thought an outfit like the illustrious Scott and Fetzer company would like some young upstart challenging one of their more profitable divisions :P

I know I wouldn't..
 
Bison

I have the Bison Centurion the brown one brand new in the box with everything, I really like mine but don't use it too often as Parts are no longer available and I want to keep mine in tact too, I would love to add the Mark II to my collection down the road which is the green and silver one. I'm not to sure but I think the Guy in Milwaukee might still have one brown onew left in the box brand new. Tania could answer that

Skip...
 
fun fun

I live about 2 hours from Ocala (grew up there)... I should drive to the old headquarters address and take a picture of whatever's there now! What a fun machine... almost mean looking though!
 
Bison / Kirby DS-80

vacuumkid3, You always ask the best questions or make such good observations! Are you sure you're not a 40 year old midget? Anywho, when I was around your age we had the Bison people in our home for "THE BIG SELL". Ohhh, I did want one so bad!! Dad would'nt pay the $200.00 we got the salesman down to, smart man. We bought one two years later at a vac. shop for five dollars "the green-one" w/all the tools & buffer head. I put about three of the drive post things in it and then gave it to another cousin for a "wedding gift." Loved the Bison. Loved the cousin. Both were louder than hades!!! I'm sure you must be right about the Kirby questions too many similarities! Happy 2007, Russ P.S. Thanks for all the info. on your posts charles-richard!! Have a good New Year, Russ
 
Thanks Russ!! Well, although I look like a midget, I am only 14! HAHA! That was a good deal for the Bison, too! I really want to hear what one of them actually sounds like! Maybe compare it to a Kirby, too...

~~K~~
 
Hey bubbicain/John

So what is the verdict? I an anxiously awaiting what you did if you got it or not. Also in Arlington do you know Davidson's Realtor?
Email when you [email protected]

David
 
Sukething/David:

I don't know yet. I just finished dinner and I'm contemplating a scotch & water after driving all day through ice storms. Us South Texans don't do well with this weather because we rarely ever see it. I read AirwayCharlie's post about the belt having a lip on one side and it makes me wonder what I'm getting in to. I don't like to pursue an old machine unless I can keep it running for posterity. This belt sounds tricky. If something happened and a flat belt wouldn't work properly on this machine, I would just die! I want to spend some time with the machine. My only exposure to the Bison was doing repair at a vac shop and I hit that white button on top of the motor and the brush head assembly fell off. I couldn't get it back on and the customer was waiting up front for the machine. It was traumatic. (LOL)
 
Bison Belts

Belts are probably the easiest things to bojack. Just take the belt into the nearest good vacuum shop and replace it with the nearest thing. When Charlie Watrous picked up the Airway Chief from Tania (about 75 years old) we took the belt in to the local vac shop, he matched one up and it works like a charm. Isn't that right Charlie? As long as you get the right width, the circumference only needs to be close due to the fact that the belt stretches.
 
Yes, you can "bojack" belts to make them work on vacuums. Case in point, on a Eureka VG III power nozzle, I am using a Kirby, "inside track", belt as it is slightly tighter, does not stretch as quickly as Eureka belts and there is less slippage.

I think if you use a belt of the same diameter and width on the Bison, it will work. That is what I have been told. I would think, somewhere out here, someone has a supply of NOS Bison belts that were never used up. In the meantime Bigbubba, don't let something as minor as a belt stop you if you want the vacuum.

If it was missing a motor, missing wheels, cord, bag, etc., that is another story. Plus, if you contact Clay Floyd, as a former Bison dealer he can probably tell you what would be the best belt to use.

I ended up using a Kenmore/Panasonic belt on the Air-Way Chief. It works fine and is still on the vacuum. I bought it in a 2-pack so I have a back up as well.
 
I'm looking forward to doing the Bison presentation in Omaha later this year (I just typed "next year" and realized how time flies!) Fred and Charlie keep telling everyone how I'm going to do a demonstration of the machine. I may get a little stage fright here. It's been over 30 years, and frankly, my association with Bison was not one of my most pleasant memories, though now that has faded. I don't know that I'd remember how to do the demo, especially without the demo flip chart. (Anyone have one of those???) But I'll be more than delighted to share my Bison reminiscences.

The Bison was more successful than several other knock-off companies, Bison being a knock off of Kirby, made by a former Kirby distributor who thought he could build a better machine, but more importantly build a profitable organization. They primarily attracted former Kirby people who blamed the Kirby Co for their failure to move upward in that organization. I was with them only from 1973 until 1975. The people they attracted were generally of very low caliber - they had a Divisional Supervisor who could not read or write - he had another goon to accompany him to do his reading and writing. The machine was so unreliable it would frequently break down during the sales demonstration in the customers' homes. I do not believe there were any lawsuits from Kirby - Kirby never needed to consider Bison any serious competition. They sold few machines compared to Kirby, and never built a large organization. They also never solved the reliablility problems revolving around the carpet cleaning head. They simply went out of business in the early 1980's
 
I am also very excited to hear about Bison. And as the newsletter said, as only Clay could present it.
 

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