Buying a Gravely and need help

[Kyle333]

Hello,

I'm new to the forum as indicated by my introductory post made a little while ago. I was going to play it cool and post tomorrow, but I could not wait. I hope I'm posting in the correct thread as I didn't see a Gravely section.

My wife and I have purchased 100 acres 20% cleared and 80% bush. My plan is to purchase a Gravely two wheel tractor, because from what I've read they are great machines, with lots of attachments and very economical. We plan on using it to turn the soil, cut grass and perhaps buy some useful attachments for the bush in the distant future.

I've seen some nice looking Gravely's on ebay, however, I am located in Canada and I'm sure the cost of shipping and boarder fees would be horrendous. Thus I am looking "locally" and found a couple great deals but they were bought on my way up in the truck to see them.

After loosing out on the last two deals I'm trying to move quickly on these posts, but I have some questions as I have never own a Gravely before.

The first is a Gravely 526 shown in the attached pictures. The asking price is $650 for the tractor with a 30" mower for $75. I'm a little concerned about this tractor as it seems rather rusty and I know it was part of a fleet of four that was used for snow removal last year. I'm wondering if I'm asking for trouble with this tractor because of all the salt it faced over the winter. I work for a contractor doing home renos, but I've never really played with engines before.

The second is supposedly a Gravely Professional 12 from 90's with a Kohler Magnum engine. The asking price with the 50" mower is $1600 (see attached pics). The seller informed me this was his brother's machine from a landscaping business and the last of three he had. He said it hasn't been used for 10 years or so. The price tag is obviously a lot higher, but will I run into less problems with the new machine and is the increase in power worth the money? I have found it difficult to find any literature on the Pro 12 other than a manual. Are Gravely users not as impressed with the "newer" models? Also it seems not to have the factory hood, what are other things I should look for to ensure it is not a Frankenstein reproduction. I'm taking a look at the Pro 12 this afternoon and plan on looking at the 526 on Monday.

Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated as I'm out of my element here.

Cheers,

Kyle

 

[JohnfromPA]

I'm a Gravely guy... Own a Professional 16 2-wheel myself and a 5660 that's a project.

Between the two I'd go for the Professional 12.

 

[Kyle333]

I appreciate you sharing your opinion. Are you suggesting the Pro 12 because of power or newness?

 

[JohnfromPA]

I appreciate you sharing your opinion. Are you suggesting the Pro 12 because of power or newness?

Both. Gravely 2-wheels are discontinuted, period. I'm inclined to think there will be access to parts further into the future for newer models than the older models. Granted, the older 2-wheels and the newer 2-wheels share alot of the same parts, but not everything.

100 acres seems like an awful lot to take care of with a Gravely walkbehind...
Gravely's 30" "brush" mower is nothing like a brush hog on the back of a big tractor. Yeah, you can do alot with it. But, it's not the same thing.

Gravely hoods appear on eBay from time to time, so the issue with the hood on the Pro12 shouldn't be a big deal if you wanted to get the real thing.

You probably want to check out the Gravely club on Yahoo groups. It's the best source of information about Gravelys on the 'net, IMHO. There are alot of people there.

gravelyclub : Gravely Club - This club is set up to discuss gravely tractors

 

[2manyrocks]

Gravelys are discussed in the 2 wheel tractor portion of this site. http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/2-wheeled-tractors/

IMO, a Gravely is not suited to 100 acres. It's more suited to a larger suburban yard or small acreage.

My concern with these particular machines is that they may be well used given their past use. So you'd want to check them over carefully--the clutch and the engine.

 

[whistlepig]

I have owned these two wheeled Gravely's. A real workhouse and one tough machine. They are a handful mowing a side hill. The tractor fights the operator because the deck always wants to head downhill.

 

[Wis Bang]

The gravely was an awesome machine for mowing grass. I worked one for a summer cutting city parks. We followed a tractor that cut the large open spaces and ballfields, doing the areas where the tractor could not fit followed by two guys w/ power mowers & hand clippers who policed around the benches & trees to finish the job. Two gravelys and two power mowers w/ a small stake body/liftgate truck.

It is not a brush hog. It will cut grass, wet grass and is deadly to aluminum cans, but it is not designed to cut brush & tall weeds.

We had dual wheels and sulkys and could handle small banks by dropping the sulky and walking but they started sliding on any substantial slope.

 

[RalphVa]

I had a Gravely that was similar to the Pro12. It had the 12 hp engine. I bought mine plus gobs of attachments for about $3500. It served me well for 3 years until we quit spending so much money on the house that I could finally get a 4wd tractor (bought the lowest hp full cat. 1 machine that I could find in 2004, a 4010 JD).

My Gravely came without steering brakes. I could not use it until I got some steering brakes and installed them. Stopping on hills was, of course, impossible without killing the engine without brakes. The steering brakes have a "park" position.

I also installed dual wheels on it, as it didn't have enough traction with only 2 wheels to climb my hill out back.

The Gravely will be a lot cheaper than a 4wd tractor, but it can eat you and your lunch. It might even kill you. Life is A LOT easier with my JD.

BCS makes a 2 wheeler, as does DR. A friend of mine bought a DR with the intent of using it to get into tighter areas than he could with his 4wd tractor. He ended up selling it. They can all be man eaters, kinda like trying to handle a stubborn mule.

The only machine among the Gravely attachments that I had that would have been nice to have this winter would have been the square chute snow blower. That thing is awesome. Only used it once on 7" of sleet.

The fuel economy on the 12 hp Gravely is virtually the same as on my 18.5 hp diesel. Diesels are 50% more fuel efficient than carbureted engines. So, a 50% bigger engine will use the same fuel.

Ralph

 

[Wis Bang]

The Gravely will be a lot cheaper than a 4wd tractor, but it can eat you and your lunch. It might even kill you. Life is A LOT easier with my JD.

BCS makes a 2 wheeler, as does DR. A friend of mine bought a DR with the intent of using it to get into tighter areas than he could with his 4wd tractor. He ended up selling it. They can all be man eaters, kinda like trying to handle a stubborn mule.

When I was on the mower gang, at break/lunch times, we would pull up to the truck and slip the trans lever to neutral and hit the engine kill button. That one huge 30" blade would sit there winding down for a min or so...it is a big thick blade, kinda' like those on a brush hog. That's why we could mow soaking wet 6" tall grass first thing in the morning...

Working w/ another unit we would always go to opposing sections of the park(s) so any drink cans would not strike the other operator. Our trimmers always stayed behind us for the same reason, It took us 5 workdays, without any rain, to cover all the park properties so the grass was often deep enough to hide those alumimum cans.

They were always reduced to a golfball sized chunk of jagged scraphnel...you heard a 'chunk' and saw it going for the bleachers...anyone within 50 yards would be in mortal danger...RalphVa is right they can be dangerous...

 

[rds1555]

even 20 acres is too much for that thing . i have never used one .but have got one that some one left in a storage . you would be better if you got some goats if bears are not a problem. especially if your clearing land . i mow 6 acres with a riding mower and that's takes alone time .