Dixie Chopper, Maker of the World’s Fastest Lawn Mower, Is Going Out of Business

I remember when Dixie Chopper lawn mowers were the best around—or, at the very least, they were believably marketed as such. The sign at my local tire shop, which doubled as a Dixie Chopper dealer, touted them as the “World’s Fastest Lawn Mower.” Between that and the old men around me backing up the claim, I reckoned that it must be true. And now, Dixie Chopper is winding down.

Alamo Group Incorporated owns Dixie Chopper, and it broke the news to the brand’s dealer network in a letter recently. The plan, as Powersports Business and other outlets report, is to cease operations by April 1, 2027. That means the brand’s story will conclude some 47 years after it started in Fillmore, Indiana.

Dixie Chopper has been known for lightning-fast zero-turns throughout its history. In 1993, the company’s founder Art Evans equipped one with a 150-horsepower Chinook helicopter engine. That machine drew plenty of eyeballs to the brand as Tim Allen and Bob Vila tooled around in it during an episode of Home Improvement. Dixie Chopper followed that up with such sporty equipment as the world’s first twin-engined mower; a 50-horsepower turbodiesel model; and the Xtreme Mow-chine, with an actual cutting speed of 15 miles per hour. Now that’s scootin’.

Lawn Mower Race | Home Improvement

You can find videos of these mowers doing wheelies all over YouTube, too. Most of them are grainy, like they were filmed on a Kyocera cell phone. That makes them even better if you ask me.

The Xcaliber 4×4 was perhaps Dixie Chopper’s last great innovation before being sold to the Jacobsen/Textron family in 2014. The company was sold a second time in August 2019 to Alamo Group. As production comes to a halt for the brand, its lineup includes residential, commercial, and industrial options with up to 40 hp. Or, if a remote-controlled mower is more your thing, Dixie Chopper sells a 28-hp Talon R/C with a 44-inch deck.

I’m hopeful for both the dealers’ and owners’ sakes that they’ll be able to service these for years to come. They’re still solid mowers, and with proper maintenance, they should go on for a long time. We’ll just have to see about parts availability.

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