Old Gravely

[Old Savage]

In the spirit of the old equipment - my brother recently sent me this picture. This is a Gravely garden tractor my dad sold from his lawn mower shop in 1958. It is still in use - single cylinder 6.6 HP.

[Old Ironsights]

It's a DR Trimmer's great great grandpappy!

[1894]

Looks like a brush hog type attachment on it ?
Amazing all the things they hooked up to a walk behind tractor
When I was doing commercial roofing we had a gravely tear-off machine and a power broom . Went to the dealer for parts and was surprised at the number and variety of attachments they had .

[Old Savage]

That is the lawn mower - there were a great number of attachments. They had a sulky like attachment to ride on. My first work was in the lawn mower shop. Overhauled one of these under the watchful eye and tutelage of "Doc" Malseed and Les Reamer in addition to my father. Easy to return in the mind to the sights, sounds and smells. Gunk was the cleaner before we got the steam cleaner.

[pwl44m]

Some old Yard ornaments that I have.
Perry

[JerryB]

I do remember those, my dad used a push plow in the garden.

[Griff]

It's a DR Trimmer's great great grandpappy!

+1!

[AJMD429]

I had mine out today, actually (only it's not a Gravely, it's a "BCS" - http://www.bcsshop.com/.



The 32" 'brush mower' is tough - one time I hit a half-buried 8" concrete block with it, and it just blew it to shreds and kept going; the blade is so heavy it coasts for over a minute on shut-down if you have the clutch in. It has an automotive-style clutch, and geared four-speed transmission, so you can run the engine at a good speed for the attachment, but bring down ground-speed as low as you want - fast for light mowing, or a crawl for heavy tilling. The nicest thing is a feature I'd think silly until I actually used one - the handlebars can be adjusted up or down or left or right - while using the machine; that helps so much when on rough terrain or tilling. You can also use the left and right brakes selectively to force a 'steering' maneuver without having to haul on the thing too hard; a 180 degree turn is easy, as long as you don't forget and have the differential locked. Fortunately the differential lock/unlock is on the handlbars, so can be unlocked in mid-turn. The big yellow thing in the back is my 60" King Cutter tiller, but I still use the BCS quite a bit IN the garden; the K.C. is more often for starting a garden or larger area.

I have a Chipper/Shredder also, and it is also very tough I saw a guy feed one like it a baseball-bat that had a crack in the handle, and it ate it right up.

BCS Shredder.jpg

Lots of attachments available - http://www.bcsamerica.com/attachments/#view-all

This is the descendent of the model I bought 20 years ago. . . http://www.bcsamerica.com/tractors/model-853/#, but dollars were worth about three times as much back then. Still it has held up and been well worth the investment. I'd like to take it back to Joel and have him do a 'check-up' of everything, but nothing has shown any real wear or tear...!

I bought mine from this guy years ago - http://www.earthtoolsbcs.com/html/about_us.html
One of the nicest and most honest guys you'll ever do business with.

[Stan in SC]

I used a "David Bradley" brand walking plow at my mountain cabin in the little garden I had. David Bradley was a brand name of Sears Roebuck Co. This was in 1985 and it was old then. A friend owned it and lent it to me to plow the garden. I remember it doing a great job but it was quite a physical workout to handle properly. Taking a turn at the end of a row required some footwork. That machine could do some deep furrows.
Good memories of my "wilderness period". Thank you for posting this.

Stan in SC

[Marlin32]

I have a BCS also, have a sickle mower for it, would LOVE to have the old Gravely dump rake attachment for it!!!!

[Sixgun]

I'm surprised that its still in operation. I hope the guy who bought it from yo papa took better care of that than he does with his shop. Looks like a pig pen. Ha!

I distinctly remember those Gravelys. The rich people in the area where I grew up had them. IIRC, there was a little seat that attached to it, so you could ride it or walk behind it.---------------------6

[Old Savage]

Few more pics and attachments

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Old ... tedIndex=1

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Old ... dIndex=243

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Old ... dIndex=456

[DadsMod12]

I've got my dad's 2nd gravely. He bought his first in the late 50's, it was a rebuilt early 40's model. He traded that one in for a 1967 L8. I've got a 30" bush hog, 40' finish mower, 4' blade, rotary plow/tiller, snow thrower and a 28' saw blade for it. Thanks to eBay and Richard's I think I can keep it running for at least another 25 years.

[Old Savage]

Pics! ?

[.45colt]

I have 2, a 71 L8 and a 1959 LI. the 71 I parked after the block cracked. the 59 I found for next to nothing with a stuck exhaust valve 12 years ago. pulled the jug, freed the valves, lapped them tuned it up. it has run like a champ ever since. the old Gravely Motor is the 30-30 of the tractor world. only 6.6 horsepower with the huge flywheels it has 23ft lbs of torque. use it every week.

[AJMD429]

I have a BCS also, have a sickle mower for it, would LOVE to have the old Gravely dump rake attachment for it!!!!

I probably use the sickle bar the most (sometimes to cut 'hay' where we have patches of timothy and alfalfa, and just hand-transport and pile it) followed by the tiller, but the brush mower makes good paths and rough terrain use; I flip the handlebars off to the side to edge under stuff. The shredder I mostly use to 'green-up' a cold compost pile or chew up multi flora rose bushes after sickle-barring the bases and toppling them over. Sure beats a machete.

I got it after seeing a guy down the road with a Gravely. I couldn't find the attachments for the Gravely as easily plus am not good at mechanical repair, so decided to get the same setup in a 1980's vintage. From what I can tell the BCS's will do much like the Gravely; I expect they'll last 50 years or more.

Plus they are a nice pretty blue color.

[Rusty]

I've been thinking about planting some multi flora roses to keep the neighbors where they belong. I hate the idea of a fence.

A friend of mine had a Gravely with the surry that he had overhauled. It had to be bored out to clean up the cylinder and boy was it a mule. It cut thru ( or mangled) a 3/4" pipe.

I looked at the BCS machines a looong time ago, but only as a tiller. I never thought about all the other attachments.

[AJMD429]

I looked at the BCS machines a looong time ago, but only as a tiller. I never thought about all the other attachments.

They are expensive for a single-use tool but only having to buy one engine and transmission and axle/wheels for four or five attachments saves ALOT of $ in the long run, plus you can afford a better power unit.

I know lots of guys with separate snow-blowers, sickle-mowers, tillers, chippers, and so on but it means lots of engines to buy and maintain. The guys with the Gravely machines (users not collectors) I've known usually had at least three attachments.

[Rusty]

I looked at the BCS machines a looong time ago, but only as a tiller. I never thought about all the other attachments.

They are expensive for a single-use tool but only having to buy one engine and transmission and axle/wheels for four or five attachments saves ALOT of $ in the long run, plus you can afford a better power unit.

I know lots of guys with separate snow-blowers, sickle-mowers, tillers, chippers, and so on but it means lots of engines to buy and maintain. The guys with the Gravely machines (users not collectors) I've known usually had at least three attachments.

A snow blower?? Be still my heart

I'd be the first guy on my block to have one.