Gravely Blade On BCS

[Ford850]

I had an old Gravely blade I saved when all my dad's old Gravely pieces and parts were sold off. Last summer we finally had a chance to get a blank male coupling from Joel (Earth Tools), and make up a conversion plate to bolt on the Gravely mounting hardware. It worked out better than I expected with no alteration to the Gravely parts. By removing 4 bolts, the blade is back to original Gravely format. The weight balance is about perfect on my 853 BCS. My son has been using the blade rather than the snow blower so far this winter. He plows in 3rd gear and it clears the drive quite well.

 

[Blaszer]

Love those BCS units. Looks like an OEM attachment, Good work on the setup!

 

[plumberroy]

Cool . I would like to get a snow blower attachment for my Grillo I have a blade for my Gravely

 

[Ford850]

The BCS snow blower is definitely the choice for deeper snow. This heavy blade is nice for the medium to light cleanups, and its quiet to run compared to the blower.
Those old Gravely blades are very heavy compared to most of the new brands. BCS and Grillo blades are $500 - $600 range, so I set this Gravely aside years ago in hopes to try it on my old BCS 605. I never got around to it until last summer when I got the 853. That blank male coupling made it easy, and it has an oblong hole that allows the blade some side to side float.

 

[Gravely1961]

I had an old Gravely blade I saved when all my dad's old Gravely pieces and parts were sold off. Last summer we finally had a chance to get a blank male coupling from Joel (Earth Tools), and make up a conversion plate to bolt on the Gravely mounting hardware. It worked out better than I expected with no alteration to the Gravely parts. By removing 4 bolts, the blade is back to original Gravely format. The weight balance is about perfect on my 853 BCS. My son has been using the blade rather than the snow blower so far this winter. He plows in 3rd gear and it clears the drive quite well.

Do you mind posting or pm me photos showing the modification required on the blank coupling? I would love to do a similar job with my gravely 48 inch plow. Thanks!

 

[Ford850]

Do you mind posting or pm me photos showing the modification required on the blank coupling? I would love to do a similar job with my gravely 48 inch plow. Thanks!

I had this photo that might be enough for you. I zoomed in and added some lines to explain.
Short version:
Red lines show the square plate that gets bolted to the Gravely mount through 4 corner holes. Blue lines show the edge of the mounting plate that comes on the male blank coupling. That mounting plate (blue) is welded to the square (red) plate. The yellow lines are a short pipe welded on to receive a 'leg' for a stand when not on the tractor. Then just bolt that new assembly to the Gravely mount, and it can be coupled to your BCS or Grillo tractor with the quick coupling in a few seconds.

Long version:
I had some scrap flat steel maybe 3/16". It happened to be the same as the depth of that round centering hump on the Gravely mount, which normally goes into the snout of the Gravely tractor transmission. I had that steel, but wanted thicker, so I cut 2 square pieces and later welded them together. That flat steel (red lines) is sized large enough to allow 4 bolt holes in the corners to line up with the Gravely mount. I used a 4 1/4" Milwaukee Hole Dozer hole saw in a drill press and cut a hole centered on one of those squares. Then I welded them together, one on top of the other. Actually my son did the welding, and welded the entire seam closed. Not needed but he wanted the practice. The 4 1/4" hole fits over that round centering hump on the Gravely mount. Then drill the 4 corner holes for bolting the new assembly to the Gravely mount. Weld the new coupling base plate (blue) centered on the square (red) plate. Those Gravely mounts have a pin or finger cast into them, that protrudes from the center of the hump that goes into the transmission. Without looking, I don't remember if I drilled a center hole through the second plate and the base plate of the new coupling to accept that finger, or if I just cut the finger off and ground it smooth.
It's sort of cobbled together because I wasn't confident this would work, be the right height, or balance properly. In the end it turned out better than I hoped and I get to use the old Gravely blade I used at home 50 years ago. If I get a chance this weekend I'll try to get a better picture if you need it.

 

[Gravely1961]

This is perfect. Thanks! It tells me exactly what I needed that a little bit of fabrication is required. Looks great. Much appreciated.