Can anyone tell me anything about this?

I would love to know the history of this cool playground spring ride!

 

Full images are easier; you can edit your post: select "edit" and click "full image" for both photos.

 

Ok done

 

Great. There's a spring-ride resource at http://www.vintagespringriders.com/abc
Yours looks like one they list as by "Mexico Forge," a brand and trademark of Kilgore, Reedsport PA...see http://www.vintagespringriders.com/springrider/mexico forge/tiger

Mexico Forge was acquired by Landscape Structures Inc. in 1984.

 

Some old brochure pages at http://www.vintagespringriders.com/manufacturer/mexico forge/detail but don't show your item. The company was originally based in Mexico, PA.
Vintage spring riders seem to be listed on ebay in the $200-$300 range, I haven't checked completed listings.

 

Thanks so much all_fakes! That has help a lot!

 

Looks like a cast iron casting (could also be cast aluminum) from wooden patterns - maybe the pattern shop that produced the patterns were from PA - hence the Roovers embossing tags that were nailed to the pattern and then were molded into the sand molds that show on the actual casting. I'de research Reedsville Pa for a pattern shop or foundry.


When I was a pattern maker from the 80's to the mid 2000's we always used the metals embossed tags to identify castings instead of using the lead letters that were expensive.

 

Cast aluminum, per the links I found, made by Mexico Forge, originally of Mexico PA, later bought out by Kilgore (based in Ohio and later in Toone, Tennessee). They manufactured a full line of spring riders and other playground equipment.
Kilgore bought the name and trademark in 1974 and sold it in 1984, so that may help date it. A search of the springrider website might reveal whether there are castings with a Kilgore mark....but I haven't gone that far.
A playground lawsuit found online involved a Mexico Forge product installed in 1966, and I'm not sure when Mexico Forge moved operations from Mexico PA to Reedsville.
Mexico Forge is apparently still in business in Reedsville, making other types of castings. (Reedsport in my earlier post was an error, sorry)

 

OK, probably a smaller manufacturing operation as aluminum is so much more inexpensive to pour than cast iron. Aluminum melts at 1200 degrees compared to cast iron at 2200 - needing less expensive equipment.
They probably gave up the "spring rider" rides as I could imagine nowadays how many lawsuits could be filed from the "little precious ones" falling off and injuring themselves not to mention all the (Gmental) regulations they had to spend money on to be compliant!

 

Maybe...I remember some of the old spring rides could buck a kid off pretty easily.
There's a video showing the casting process at http://www.vintagespringriders.com/home
probably pretty familiar to you, but others might find it interesting. Apparently most spring-riders were aluminum rather than cast-iron; could be they needed to be lighter in order to bounce right, besides the lower melting point.

 

It's cast aluminum I checked it with a magnet. Thanks for all the info guys really appreciate it