Gravely Brush Hog converted to saw blade

[frogpond]

Perhaps it's not necessary to use a tractor at all (heresy!). Although if you do, a brush hog will be sufficient. And the guy in the video using the Gravely with the big blade, aside from courting serious injury, looks like he's working pretty hard. I would get out my Stihl FS 130 brushcutter for a job like this. It would be much faster than the Gravely, and easier to use on uneven or hilly terrain. The shoulder harness and "bike handles" dramatically reduce the effort required. And...I would use ear and eye protection!

 

[podieroe]

no they don't, i use the saw blade all the time for cutting fire wood, run great, but over time the torque, tends to imbalance the pto shaft. we're talking twenty ya
ers here.

 

[leveled]

that video scares the crap out of me i would never run that thing.

 

[mx842]

I agree with that, I have a 1962 model L still going strong. Anyone that has used one though, probably has had it try to get away from them, mine has done it a couple of times. There is a saying I remember someone quoting, the general theme was when using a gravely and it gets away from you in the bramble briers, you had better be getting out of the way because sooner or later it's going to make it's way back out and you don't want to be there when that happens.

Amen brother...........Going forward is not too bad unless you get one of those nasty briers with 1" long thorns wrapped around your shoulder and your hand gets ripped off the control lever where you cant stop the dang thing and it drags you through the briers and relieves you of a 1/2 pound of flesh and a pint or so of blood before you can get loose from either the brier or the machine. What scares me the most is when backing up. I try to never drop it all the way in reverse.....I try to just feather the control enough to get it to go backwards. There are times though that it does pop all the way in reverse and you better be in the clear. If you lose your footing or trip up on a stick or get one of those big ol briers wrapped around your leg and happen to fall you are in deep do do cause that thing don't care if it's a leg, a root or a 2" round piece of wood, it's going to chop it up.

I've been pinned in-between a big ol pine tree and the handle bars of mine a time or two and it will make you think and also say thank you Lord for helping me get my hand back on that control before it ran me over.LOL

 

[rjmack]

Perhaps it's not necessary to use a tractor at all (heresy!). Although if you do, a brush hog will be sufficient. And the guy in the video using the Gravely with the big blade, aside from courting serious injury, looks like he's working pretty hard. I would get out my Stihl FS 130 brushcutter for a job like this. It would be much faster than the Gravely, and easier to use on uneven or hilly terrain. The shoulder harness and "bike handles" dramatically reduce the effort required. And...I would use ear and eye protection!

I agree, you could get through that stuff quicker with a decent brush saw, stihl or husqvarna.

 

[franklin2]

Amen brother...........Going forward is not too bad unless you get one of those nasty briers with 1" long thorns wrapped around your shoulder and your hand gets ripped off the control lever where you cant stop the dang thing and it drags you through the briers and relieves you of a 1/2 pound of flesh and a pint or so of blood before you can get loose from either the brier or the machine. What scares me the most is when backing up. I try to never drop it all the way in reverse.....I try to just feather the control enough to get it to go backwards. There are times though that it does pop all the way in reverse and you better be in the clear. If you lose your footing or trip up on a stick or get one of those big ol briers wrapped around your leg and happen to fall you are in deep do do cause that thing don't care if it's a leg, a root or a 2" round piece of wood, it's going to chop it up.

I've been pinned in-between a big ol pine tree and the handle bars of mine a time or two and it will make you think and also say thank you Lord for helping me get my hand back on that control before it ran me over.LOL

You can adjust the lever so it won't lock in in reverse. That's the way I have mine. But as you probably already know, you always have to set yourself to start walking backwards when hitting the reverse lever. If you are not, it will back over you, since if you don't move yourself the lever goes into reverse more and more as the tractor moves.

 

[mx842]

You can adjust the lever so it won't lock in in reverse. That's the way I have mine. But as you probably already know, you always have to set yourself to start walking backwards when hitting the reverse lever. If you are not, it will back over you, since if you don't move yourself the lever goes into reverse more and more as the tractor moves.

You got that right.......sort of like those chinese hand cuffs the more you struggle to get free the tighter they get. I keep my controls set light to the reverse position and when I am in real nasty stuff I try to go forward about 8 or 10 feet then back up. Move over a little and repeat. It's slow but you can keep better control of what is around you that way and backing up over what you cut going forward really mulches the stuff up well. It's those hidden old rotted out stump holes that will get you as one of the wheels drops in and about jerks your arm off then your forward motion pushes the lever to the reverse position and before you know it the machine is trying to back over you.

I really would like to get the wheel spacers and add a second set of tires. That really helps the way the machine acts. I know it was like day and night when I took those regular tires off and put tractor type tires on it. I hardly ever get stuck now in those low places and spend more time chopping brush rather than trying to lift that heavy thing out of a stump hole and fighting to keep it going.

Mine is out of action right now. one of my gas tank straps broke and before I realized it, it rubbed a hole in my tank so while I had it off I decided to fix my muffler that has been loose since I bought it. I know now why the other guy didn't mess with it cause as soon as I put a little pressure on the nut to tighten it up the stud broke off. Someone had fixed it before and put small studs in the manifold rather than bolts and now I have to drill them both out and retap the holes. Right when I was in the middle of my yearly cleanup but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to keep up with these woods. If I miss a year I have to start all over again and it takes three time longer.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Just my two cents worth. I had a pro 12, which I believe was actually a machine that had evolved to a size that made it very awkward for many of the front attachments except the finishing mower that had it's own wheels.

Anyway, I had the brush mower. It doesn't take much brains to figure out that although the device might cut 2" material, it can't possibly do so it you can't get it under the deck! So I cut out the front of the deck with a plasma cutter. I know, the safety nuts must be beside themselves! Worked just great for maybe half an hour til I hit a stone, shattering the horizontal shaft in the brush mower, and that was the end of that project. I mean, it could have hit, one of the billion stones around here anyway.

I got rid of my whole Gravely inventory and went to a Steiner, but if I had to do it again, I might try to make some kind of "stump jumper" arrangement you see on bush hogs. A large plate with two blades attached to the circumference, so they can swing out of the way, if they hit something.

 

[Ghive]

I used to work for Gravely, lot of years ago, only lived 10 miles from factory. They did make a saw blade attachment, still have mine, probably a 16-18 inch blade with a guard. Could cut flat or rotate the housing & lock in position to block wood with. Still have 3, 2 8horse & 10 horse commercial. FINE equipment.

 

[wadeschields]

Besides adding the saw blade to my gravely brush hog, I also added a stump grinder-Shawn Kohlbus, 717-246-5015, 2125 Craley rd, Windsor, PA 17366-- $450-500- includes blade-1/2" thick with 4 carbide replaceable bits and safety cover- worked great in grinding up maybe 15-20 oak stumps.

With all this work for the brush hog attachment, I had to first replace the seals in the brush hog, My neighbor, Rich Agostinucci, besides owning 4 gravelys is the senior mechanic at large New England crane company ( nice neighbor to have) The seal can be removed by drilling two small holes 180 degrees apart into the steel. insert a wood screw and gently pull the seal out-evenly. I used Timken seal # 6241S. This is not an exact match. The seal I removed had rubber portion slanting in both directions. Timken 6241S only has it going in one direction. ( but it works great). To seat the seal, you need a tool with a ID of around 1.3" and OD of not more than 2.56" I used a PVC hose fitting maybe 1" but had to grind off parts of the wrench surface. Get two seals so you can learn on one- the seal has to go in straight and you will see when it goes in at angle.

Windsor you say.... Thats not far from me. This guy makes Stump grinders for 450 bucks? Would it work on my Ford 9N?