Well, I've been there done that. Had a big 50 x 70 garden down along the creek for about 12 years. Started off with a Gravely 12 hp, as the wife said we've spent too much money already on fixing up the house. Can't afford a $10-20k 4 wheel drive diesel tractor (like I've had 3 of now).
So, found a Gravely with a bunch of stuff for it but missing a rotary plow. Bought a rotary plow from an extinct Gravely dealer in Charlottesville (Va). Went down and broke up the massive growth of tough fescue grass. Just turned it completely over with the rotary plow. Then used the rotary plow to create about 12 raised bed rows and gardened no till for 4 years. Never needed the rotary plow again.
Oh, first thing I discovered before doing ANY of this was that I simply could not handle that 12 hp (5665) Gravely with its handle bars. Luckily, the extinct Gravely dealer had a set of "steering brakes" that some (guess big monster) man had REMOVED from his 12 hp Gravely. I snatched those right up! Only needed one hand to drive that Gravely then. It has a single bar that would apply the right or left brakes through some nifty linkage.
The Gravely's demise was that it just didn't have the traction to go up and down our back hill (100 foot drop over 5 or 600 feet) without spinning going up and slipping and sliding going down. I've heard tales of Gravely drivers sitting on their trolleys like mine had in back and just sliding merrily out of control down rain slick hills. Mine never really got THAT out of control, but close.
Bought a JD 4010 (or in today's nomenclature: a 2019E) back then. It was smaller (18.5 hp) and had dual brakes for quick turns at the ends of garden rows and was 4wd. No slipping and sliding and an EASY climb up the back hill.
A friend of mine gave me an old soil ripper from his very old JD that I had to convert to 3 point hitch. Used that to rip up my Gravely-worked rows and created 20 new raised rows by putting some monster discs on the soil ripper setup. Then never used the soil ripper again, with no till again.
Went through a miserable JD 1025R (with no turning brakes) and now back to a 2025R, which is just a bigger (JD doesn't make any smaller ones with turning brakes) 4010. (Got rid of the 4010 because its drive line decided to self destruct one day at 9 years and 660 hours.)
So, that's my tale. Think BCSs have steering brakes. Very much needed. Cannot handle bar them unless you're a middle line backer retiree.
Ralph
