The Gravely Walking Tractor - A Short History From The Redneck Garage
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- Опубліковано 14 бер 2018
- Well Im going to have some videos of me using my Gravely that I purchased and thought for all you folks that arent familiar with the best small tractor ever made I thought Id edjumakate you hahaha
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Thanks for some history of the Gravely walk behinds.. I knew a little of it.. I was about 13 when my father bought a Gravely model L2, the middle speed model. We had 9 acres and added another 6. It was in rural San Diego in the early 1960s. He bought the 30 inch mower and the rotary plow. I did most of the mowing, eventually we got the sulky... I could mow about 5 acres with the sulky... At that time Gravelys were popular for mowing avocado orchards..
In my early 20s, I bought a Gravely Convertible and had a small business mowing lots and small properties, primarily for fire prevention.. The county would go around and issue warnings and I had an ad in the local paper. It kept me busy.. Life happened, I eventually got my degree, became an engineer, a friend took over the small business.
In 2009, we bought a small place in the high desert. Lots of brush, some flat, mostly kind of rough and a lot of rocks. I found a 5660 with a 42 inch Mower on Craigslist for $100.. It hadn't run for a while but we had it running in less than an hour. It is still going strong, the 12 hp Kohler is still going strong. I am going to have to replace the forward-reverse clutch after this season. It's basically all original.
About 3 years ago, I found a Gravely 408 on Craiglist for $300. The seller had spent the time to fix it up so it was in running condition.. It's small with a 34 inch deck and an 8 hp Kohler but it's a runner.. I like it because it is quite maneuverable and it fits in between bushes nicely. It saves a lot of walking..
There are a lot of rocks, pretty big rocks, bigger than a grapefruit. I expect the 408 to break a mower gear box, it probably can't be repaired.. The 5660, it's tough. I also bought a 30 inch mower but those things are deadly in rocky areas. On one job, back when, I had nearly finished a rush Sunday job for a realtor. I was just catching small spots I had missed. I made the mistake of mowing with the opening towards the house.. It picked up a rock, split it in two and I watched each half as shot like a cannon ball at the house about 100 feet away. There was a double sliding glass door, and one piece shattered one piece of glass, the second one the other piece. I was not a good day.
I am 75 now.. Some guys have their 57 Chevy's, they feel like they are 16 again.. Mowing with my Gravely's makes me feel like I am 16 again.
My dad had a Gravely in the 50's. It was a beast. It was a hand-start. It either started or broke your arm. Dad had all manner of attachments, including a snow blower. This was in Buffalo. Snow up to your knees. The snow was no match for the gravely. As a teenager, I would go through neighborhood streets looking for driveways to blow out.
On the first pass, the men shoveling their driveways would ignore me. When I finished the first driveway in 20 minutes they were begging me to blow out their driveway. Sure. $20 upfront!
hahaha they were beasts !!!
I love these old gravelys as well. My grandpa, back in the 70s settled down and started his family. He bought some brand new Montgomery Wards mower for the house and it worked okay. It was really small and pathetic. During winter he put a plow on it to push some snow. His little mower got stuck and crapped out in the snow so my grandpa went across the street to the sears family. Mr.Sears had really bad medical problems and hasn’t used his mower in a few years at that time. He had frequent strokes and didn’t feel safe using it. Grandpa asked if he could borrow his tractor to get his unstuck. Mr.Sears let him use it and grandpa really liked it. The tractor was a Gravely 424, the first 4 wheel tractor made by Gravely. Grandpa hit it with a jumper pack and it fired right up. He put the snow blade on it and used the 424 to plow his driveway. The first thing grandpa said to mr.sears was “your front wheels are as big as my back wheels!” Mr.Sears let grandpa use the Gravely whenever as long as he put it back. One day the sears’s destructive nephew came over and totaled the mower and many other possessions and the 424 was unfortunately scrapped. My grandpa was so happy with Gravelys that he got a 816s. He kept it until a few years ago and got a 16G, his biggest regret. My dad says that he has a few distinct memories of the 424. The clearest was a vibrating sound the hitch made, he says he can still hear it today. My dad got a few gravelys over the years to go with all of our cub cadets. I tried to get my grandpa another 816 but I loved the one I bought to fix up that I still have it. My grandpa didn’t even want the tractor anyway.
I grew up in Dunbar, WV , home of Gravely Tractors and was friends with the plant manager. I had a family friend that owned a machine shop in Dunbar who redesigned the Gravely to include a reverse gear. He received his own patent and sold the rights to build his version in Argentina. Gravely tractors were fantastic tractors. Just like so many other companies in America, they were ruined by bad management. For so many years, they were the best! Thanks for creating this great video!
Thanks Bruce !
Back in the 1950's and 60's as I was growing up on an Iowa farm, Dad had a model L and it had many jobs. We had the rotary plow and cultivator for garden work, and had both the bar cycle and rotary mowers. It definitely handled it's jobs well.
I restored a 546 tractor back in 2010. Great unit that definitely would go through anything. Had a blade, rotary cutter, and the old “dog eater” snowblower. You could feed that snowblower a phone book and it would chew it up and spit it out. The amount of torque the planetary transmission generates is incredible.
That's awesome - I almost mentioned the dog eater but wanted to keep it short. Lol. For such a small motor they are insane.
It is the power of torque. Since the old T head engine in the L and C models has a 2600 rpm limit the HP figures are not impressive but the engines have a butt load of torque. Think of Gravely's as the Harley Davidson of lawn tractors. American made and tough as nails.
Great video !
Coming from a true Gravely addict !
Much like yourself,
I came to know, and love the Gravely L model as a two year old child holding on to my Grandfather's leg, as I toddled around, learning how to, and where to grease my Grandfather's L model Gravely, that pull started with a leather strap !
Thank you for the history lesson !
A great deal of, I wasn't aware of !
My dad bought a gravely in 1970 he used year round until he passed away in 2011. It is great machine. I bet with some TLC we could get it running again.
Where do you live ??? Would love to buy one from the original owner. Thanks
I'm with him !
Good morning !
You are much like myself,
I still have my Grandpa's all original Gravely L model !
It still runs just fine, but would like to be able to take the time to go through it too to bottom, and do a total refurbish on it back to brand new perfect !
Where do you live, and would you like to have us do any repairs on it to get it up and running again ?
If not, would you consider selling it ?
We are an outdoor power equipment dealership in Northwest Ohio.
Looking forward to hearing from you !
My name is Ray Parsons.
The mowers are absolutely wonderful! Thank you
I finally found one! Looking to get it running over the next few days!
I have a5260 8hp, think I'll have it rebuilt. Owned it for 22 years. It is a tank.
Love it! We bought one of the westchesters out of the block. What a piece of crap. Came with turf tires, fiberglass body, broke those fenders off right away, would hardly pull itself up a wet hill so they put duals on it, still not any good. Not enough power to pull the mower, problems with the "shifter cables" off the go. They didn't offer to buy OURS! Plus, I think we paid around $6000 WAY back in the day. It was cool learning to drive with rear wheel steering, though. That's how the fenders gradually got broken. I was mowing with a model L before I was 9. Better watch your jewels with a sulky going into a dip. Those handles would NAIL you! Steering wheel seemed to help, our neighbor had that model.
Yeah the family jewels can get in the way of the Sulky hahaha
I’ve got a gravely that was my grandfather’s that would be perfect for restoration if you know anyone who does that. I spent many hours on it in the late 60’s mowing. Probably an early 60’s model. It was running when my dad put it behind his shop.
There is a gravely group on Facebook check the.out !
Love the video! Thank you
Well....
I just bought a gravely 522 gravely tractor with a 3ft Bush cutter and a plow attachment.
As I knows very little about the 522.....I would welcome any pointers on its use.
Thanks all.
I just found a commercial 10A in the basement of a barn my grandpa own and he said I could have it. Came with a sulky, 60in mower, 3 gang reel mower, Rotary plow, cart, tiller, snowblower, and a snow blade
sweet !!!!
Wanna sell the reel mower
Great job on the video. Fellow Gravely enthusiast here too. I happen to own several........dozen!
My middle name is Gravely and Ben was my grandfather's great uncle. No royalties here😋
Awesome can't wait to see new videos on this
They are a comin - thanks Jeremy :)
Very cool, nice bio! I grew up on a farm too... never heard of this.. my father has every piece of farm equipment you can think of 😄, wonder why we never had one of these, I'll bet if I ask him he'll know what it is.
I bet he will Justin :)
Yup...not familiar with the Gravely. But they look very handy. It seems to be another great product/business built by a great man with vision, through hard work, that was driven into the ground after a large and far-removed corporation bought them out. Sounds like a UA-cam type story. ...looking forward to seeing what makes it tick and getting it up and running.
no doubt - One guy one idea - then destroyed by corporations like you said it took a while tho :)
I really enjoyed your story . Can't wait to see the restore videos and that puppy in action when it's done.
Thanks Bro !
I’ve owned a couple of gravely L models in the past.an LM and a super L.I’d like to get one like yours with the Kohler engine on it
I enjoyed that. The good stuff is getting harder to find.
Yeah for sure they last forever lol
We use a couple of Gravely's 2 wheel and 4 wheel they are great!!
The new ones ?
Nope old ones we dont buy any new stuff the older the better!
I love gravely tractors too. They are the best but when you need parts look out, there goes the paycheck. What more modern convertible is know for best power to weight ratio ????? Thank
Back on the farm tell us about the moonshine operation like your grandpa popcorn Sutton used to operate
Hahahaha damn that made me laugh ...
The closest thing to a Gravely made today is the BCS walk behind tractor.
There are quite a few walk behind tractors besides BCS. China alone is full of Gravely wanabees.
BCS, MTZ motobloc, Goldoni m-series, Tilmor Motor Ox, Grillo...
That's just the ones you can get in the US off the top of my head. There's many more.
I don’t care but I still watched and 👍🏻
LOL Thanks brother :)
Is there anything similar made like it today ?
I had a couple David Bradley's that were just ... O.k.
I found out quick that the David Bradley wouldn't stop by releasing the drive lever ...
A incline and it rolled out of controle ...
😂😅😂
A big ...
Oooopsie !!!
Hello, Gravely’s are timeless. Very cool video. However, at the 3:32 time mark, that picture you used is of my Gravely 546 the day I bought it...as a barn find. You’ll see my 1997 Dodge truck in the the background. How did you get the picture? Johnnylove15 is my UA-cam channel. Many videos of my 546 are on it.
Hey ! I cant remember where I got the photo actually - maybe searching for Gravely 546 :)
I think you forgot something, in 2016, gravely came up with a new style of convertible tractor
Id have to check my notes
What happened to the Milwaukee ice box?? Dad bought an Ariens garden tiller in 1980 Used that on a 1 acre garden. That thing did not know when to quit.
I had a voltage spike which killed the Milwaukee fridge when we did our remodel .... it was a bummer but I plan on doing the new (old) fridge :)
I have an old 3 wheel gravely mower. What model is it. With steering wheel
What happened to the red fridge?
Had a voltage spike doing the remodel and fried it - gonna do the new one :)
heck today if you tell a your kid to plow a garden they lock you up for child abuse.