Anyone else into Gravely Walk behinds?
 

I grew up with the old Model L walk behind Gravelys. I have 3 Model Ls and a 73 commercial 12 with many attachments.
Anyone have any good Gravely stories?

I lived on a small city lot for 7 years and my only mower was a Gravely 30" brush Hog. I was mowing the strip between the sidewalk and street and the blade caught the water shut off. It pulled about 14 inches of it out of the ground and chopped the cast iron up into bits, while spraying the bits about 30 feet away. The engine never stalled. Talk about an overbuilt torquey machine.

Had one when I was a kid that you had to start with the leather belt. Not that long ago our neighbor had 2 of them and they seemed to live up to their reputation as "man killers", as the thing would get away from him on a regular basis,,,,, he's lucky it never came around and ran him over. About every winter he would push the snow off his pond with it and more than once it broke through the ice. He would hire scuba divers in the spring to find it and winch it out, and I usually got it running in an hour or less. You can't hurt the things. :eek:

I have 2 Model Ls both have the brush deck that I use for that purpose. I also have various attachments. These machines are like the Mercedes diesels, they run forever.

Tom
'82 SD
'86SDL

You guys need to get involved with these guys:
http://www.edgeta.org/
There's lot's of Gravely collectors in this club.

Join my club also
 

I have a 1972 7.6 with electric start,new rings and about to install a swiftmatic axle on it , about the same year 12 hp Kohler commercial and two old parts machines... but one with electric start also...
Have three 30 inch bush hogs, one front old style cultivator, one front reel mower, one regular sulky, one steering sulky , and two rotary plows......

In 1972 I bought a brand new Harley Superglide to commute to college.. the Gravely I found for $35 cost the same as that Harley in the same year.. no wonder in the ads in Popular Mechanics they did not post the price... no one would have inquired about them at all... $2400 !!!!!!!!!!

That is funny you guys telling about them getting away from people... the first time I used one was when I borrowed a friends from down the road... for some crazy reason he had the controls set up backwards... so if you trip going backwards and just put out your hand to hit the front/rear lever ... like it is supposed to work... it will just run right over you... and you guys know I am not kidding...

Another thing which reminds me of the Harley... when I got it they had not set up the carb correctly... it was taking 75 kicks of that stiff engine to start it.. I had a four inch bruise across my right foot...and I was kicking it like I did my 250 Suzuki...I did not know the " body fall technique" a Harley needs... ( until I found a good tuner and it changed to two kicks )..
But the Gravely was the same sort of deal..... I had only used regular lawnmowers up till I borrowed that one..... and so I was trying to be in charge... 30 minutes later, soaked with sweat and totally worn out I went in the house... took a day to recuperate... then I decided to just ' guide ' it and let it do the work.....

OH... my prize possession ? I scored a hydraulic control unit used on the Gravely Backhoe... the only thing on a backhoe I can not make myself...and got it for $80 shipped to my door !!!! Those backhoes are the cutest things I have ever seen... and they are actually used to dig graves... but on my place I need one to dig around stumps so they can be burned to below ground level.

I have a yahoo group.... focused on Comm 12 OR repowering old gravelys with newer motors ( just can't find the originals all the time ).

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gravelycommercial12/

Greg,

Do you have one of these? How the heck does it work?
http://www.pivot.net/~jpierce/images/16HPChainSaw.jpg

Ah yes, one of the wonderfull Osha approved chain saws! They also have an 18" circular saw attchment. With the chain saw you block one wheel and bump the lever a little at a time to fell a tree. The attachment swivels to cut vertical or horizontal. They work very well vertical to cut up a tree that has already fallen. The oiler is a can with a hose that mounts on the handlebars.
I saw one demonstrated at a Gravely mow-in in Brillion Wisconsin several years ago. very cool.

I have a 1965 L-8 with a bushog, rotary plow and blade.

I don't have any real stories but they are unbelievable machines considering the low horsepower. I am always worried the thing will back over me if I trip. Hasn't happened yet. ;)

Anybody have any favorite parts suppliers? I use Richard's out of West Va. but there must be others.

Rick

Richard's is hard to beat... great to work with...

I don't have one of those chain saws... I have a Stihl 036 now after taking 20 years to wear out an 032 Av ....

I would not want to fell upright trees ( what other kind can you fell ? ) with my Gravely attached to something which might cause it to get CRUSHED...

I have seen enough surprises felling trees even when they are being helped by cable from a tractor... wood is not trustworthy.... no matter how well you aim a tree factors inside it like rot can really throw it another direction... when a tree starts to go down I want to be reasonably close to the trunk so I can move out of the way....Would be no chance of saving the Gravely if the trunk went the wrong way...

Anyone remember the scene in " Sometimes A Great Notion" with Henry Fonda and Paul Newman where the guy is pinned under the branches of a tree and finally drowns ?

OLD thread revival!
 

I thought there might be a connection out there with vintage Benz and vintage Gravely ... Found it!

I have a '66 Comm 10 and a '83 240D ... Classically reliable old iron!

I used to operate a Gravely mower on a college campus back in the late 60's. I thought the thing was a piece of crap. It spent more time in the shop than it did cutting grass. My recollection is that after cutting for a few hours, the valves would stick and it would quite running. Happened all the time.

A few years back I worked with a guy who bought a used Gravely. It had many attachments including a brush hog, rotary plow, and event he sulky seat.
The guy he bought it from just wanted it gone, and had many stories why: On one of it's first uses, he was mowing down a berry thicket, rode up on a little ridge, and the cutter head flipped over. Right before it flipped, it grabbed a couple strands of barbed wire that it proceeded to flog this guy with as he tried to get it shut down.
After recovering from that, he was using the rotary plow when it grabbed and threw a rock, breaking his arm at the shoulder.
After all this, he's just trying to use the machine, riding along on the sulky seat, making a turn, when the outside wheel climbed up onto a rock. This of course pushed the handlebar down tight into the seat, which wouldn't be a problem if certain parts of his anatomy hadn't been in the way. From what i understand, he sold the machine very cheap.

I can remember making a number of quick moves to avoid such an encounter when I was running a Gravely.
I remember now what the mechanics used to call that piece of junk--Dig Your Own Gravely.

My Dad used to say, watch the handles over hills and turns, or the machine will go to bangcock.

LOL!