John Regier's original design relied on belt-drives - truth be told, a welter of belts in multiple sizes spinning in multiple directions in a mass that did not admit of easy admission. And truth be told again, belts do demand adjustment in increments approaching near continuous attention. And they slip at the worst possible times, on slopes for example, when power is needed most. A conversion to hydrostatic drive seemed the answer - and indeed it was! - but, if all those original belts were an ongoing source of problems, Excel's first attempts at hydraulics were an even bigger headache.

Throughout its 40-year history, Excel has valued simplicity: simple design, ever more simple methods of manufacture, simple and straightahead warranties. Excel Hustler mowers have always embodied the benefits of simplicity: economy, strength, durability, ease of maintenance, accessibility. Excel learned all about the value of simplicity in that first experiment with hydrostatic drive. Its own engineering department deluged with work, Excel farmed its first design project to alleged experts in hydraulics at nearby Wichita's aircraft plants. The results of the borrowed expertise? In Roy Mullet's words, "a plumber’s worst nightmare." A mechanized jumble of valves, elbows, pipes, hoses, heat-transfer radiators, oil reservoirs, pumps, and motors. Over-engineering at its best: a machine with an 18-horsepower engine and a top speed of four miles an hour. Oh, and an inability to cut so much as a single blade of grass at that speed. "We stood around and looked at that monstrosity, and we were ready to abandon the project," Mr. Mullet recalls.

But then, as has happened so often in this company's four decades, a great idea emerged from an unexpected source. Ray Rilling was the head of maintenance in Excel's Hesston facility when he approached Roy Mullet with a promise - a workable hydrostatic mower in one year. Like John Regier, Mr. Rilling was fascinated with mechanical things, and he honestly thought that in 52 weeks he might deliver a drive system capable of cutting grass on the straightaway and then turning in a split second at the end of the row. In a tiny shop behind a restaurant in Walton, Kansas, Ray Rilling tinkered and thought, thought and tinkered and built his own components, and a year later - almost to the day - he was back in Roy Mullet's office with a hydrostatic mower that could actually cut grass at a reasonable rate of speed.

As Ray Rilling experimented in Walton, Excel sold 21 belt-driven zero-turn Hustlers to the State of Pennsylvania, a good sale for sure but still the company's only sale for the year. With the introduction of Mr. Rilling's hydrostatic drive in 1969, Excel began a direct-marketing campaign that took the new mowers directly to outdoor power equipment dealers. Suddenly, there were demo models bouncing along on trailers all over America. Yellow mowers, painted as such because supplies of yellow paint were already plentiful in Hesston, Kansas: Excel was building tractor cabs for a certain OEM with a most definite set of paint schemes

And so it started.

The small-town people of Excel Hustler set about the business of serving the needs of the commercial turf industry with one large question in mind: how might these mowers accomplish more work with fewer man hours day after day, year after year? Meanwhile, Excel Hustlers went to work every morning in the company of a rapidly growing number of landscape professionals who understood the immediate and the long-term value of a machine that could accelerate around obstacles, that almost never backtracked, that could trim as it mowed..

And all along the way, Excel Hustler managed to be first, to time and again bring to market the technological innovations that have shown an entire industry the way to go.

In 1966, those earliest Hustlers were the first commercial-duty tractors mounting mower decks with offset trim capacity.

Four years later, there came the first dual-path hydrostatic drive system.