Bisons?????

[djtaylor]

Thank you

Rick, thank you for clearing up the belt or beltless issue. A friend in Indiana once told me that he was using Kirby belts on his Bison and I was trying to figure out how he was doing it. I am sorry to say that I was given a load of BS on how Bisons worked and what wore out early on some of them.
Thanks
Justin

 

[tolivac]

The Bison nozzle drive connector sounds like what is used on a blender.Interesting design.Yes the Bison looks clunky and kludgy--thats why I like it.Its homely in a nice way.Now If I could find some Bisons.A possible problem with the speed control-I would think customers would have to be cautioned NOT to try to run the Bison in the carpet mode at real low speed-this could overheat the motor by putting too much of a load on it a low speed-the low speed would be good in the hose mode.This was a problem with the Kirby Diamond G and why the Low speed control was dropped-there were reports of customers burning out the motor when they tried to use that Kirby at low speed with the Shampoo attachment-put too much of a load on the motor at low speed-thus overheating it.

 

[ohio_tuec]

I never actually used my Centurion for cleaning, I was afraid of snapping the plastic drive shaft in the front nozzle. Some parts of the machine (like the plastic motor housing) were made unnecessary flimsy. My question is, were the Mark III and Centurion the only models Bison made? Were there any other colors besides the brown and "Dual Sanitronic green?" Also, when did the Bison first come out? I know around 1983 was the swansong....

 

[joe22]

SANTA

i really, really, really want one ;^)

 

[powertank]

I heard that the designer of the Bison used to work for Kirby, and left because he felt that he had been wronged. Could be total BS, but who knows.

 

[tolivac]

Wasn't it Kirby that was sort of reponsible for the Bison co to shut down-thought Kirby filed lawsuits against Bison becuse of the similarities in designs.Yet the Bison machine is somewhat diffrent then the Kirby design.Guess Kirby wasn't flattered by the Bison competition?

 

[opelgtkarl]

Now the real question is....

Is anyone willing to part with them?

 

[twocvbloke]

You know, I look at the pictures of the Bisons, and I see hints of the Generation series Kirbys, the angular nozzle, the wide motor body, the large headlight hood, the bag with the plastic rim around the base, obviously the Bison was a design long before it's time...

Am I right in thinking that there may have been some self-propelled Bison models, or was that something else?

 

[ohio_tuec]

Someone had posted awhile back that there WAS a prototype Bison that was self-propelled. Didn't Clay Floyd used to sell Bison machines?

- Karl

 

[scvacuumguy]

Here's a neat little bit of info on someone who worked for Bison...this guy also claims to have sold over 1000 Kirbys a month, so consider the source folks.

http://www.kirbybagsneveragain.com/story.htm

 

[twocvbloke]

"Kirby bags never again"

Except that it uses cheap pleated filters which you only have to buy when they clog up.....

 

[scvacuumguy]

It looks to me like a Eureka tank- the one that uses the DCF 10/14 filter. I'd give him an A for creativity, but the whole idea really chokes off the airflow on the Kirby. The airflow is what makes a Kirby a decent machine- so I'd imagine with the addition of that tank, the Kirby will have a hard time performing. It probably also packs that filter very quickly, considering those filters are used to the crap Eureka Optima and its sorry little amount of suction.

 

[twocvbloke]

Yep, I would rather use an F&G setup on a Kirby than his "invention", heck, even a Baird "cloth handkerchief" dirt meter would work better...

I tried making my own actually, out of our former DC-04's bin, but I discovered that a bagless bin is meant for Negative pressure, not the Positive pressure that a Dirty Fan vac produces, cos every seal blew dust out...

That's a thought, I wonder if the Bison bag setup is interchangeable with a Kirby's?

 

[scvacuumguy]

That would be interesting to find out. Unfortunately, I don't have a Bison. I'd love one though, hint hint...all I've got is money to spend on one as well.

 

[bisonian]

No ...

The bag assemblies for Bisons and Kirbys are not interchangeable. The fittings that hold the emptors on the machines are different.

 

[tolivac]

Not wanting to use disposable bags in the Kirby--Why doesn't Mr Keeler try to develop a Dump bag system for the Kirby--Like WHAT THEY USED TO USE.Would rather have a dump bag than Mr Keelers unit.

 

[twocvbloke]

Which is why I have shakeout AND disposable bag setups for my Kirbys Tradition and Heritage84, so I have the best of both worlds...

I'm guessing that the Bison bag setup works very much like the Kirby shake-out setup? Drop the nozzle down, give the motor a blast, shake the crap out of the bag (literally), dump it out onto newspaper, scrape the bag out, dump out and roll the news paper up and chuck it in the compost/rubbish...