Gravely Commercial 12 w/dually turf tires, need tubes & suggestions

[flgudmusic]

Hulloooooo.... I have a Gravely Commercial 12 with dually turf tires that are in excellent shape. The previous owner bought the machine in 1970 and had everything done by the shop/ store of original purchase. The receipts attest to the fact that he would have 2 of the tires removed in the fall and chains installed, reversing the process in the spring. The chains are gone and I'm searching to re-tube the present 5.7-/ 5.00 - 8 tires. To be honest, the turf tires were probably fine for him, but I'm gonna be using the machine to 'brush-hog' quite a bit of weed/ brush choked ground and dragging old, used, scrap tires out of the weeds for disposal.
Which would be the better course for me.... just use the duals as is(re-tubed) or yank two and put chains on? Personally, I'd think 4 or even 2 AG deep tread/ barred tires (and seeing that my sizes are obsolete, what size AG tires would fit my wheels) would prob be best, but I'm kinda strapped for pesos, moola, cash.
Sooooooo I'm wunnerin what available inner tubes I could use for my turfs, 5.7/ 5.00 - 8, and whether to opt for chains on 2 OR 4 chainless turfs.
Any help or affordable suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx, PAT aka flgudmusic

 

[Tonyinohio]

Add the chains and run it on the turf tires. Are you adding tubes since the tires aren't holding air or ?

 

[flgudmusic]

Hi Tony,
Thanx for the quick reply. We got the ol' girl running last nite and 2 of the 4 turf tires wouldn't hold air, so my buddy suggested tubing them. He then said , "Hey, if yer gonna put chains on it, you can only use 2 wheels anyway, because the chains will rub against the other 2 tires and ruin 'em." So now I'm thinking if 2 turfs w/ chains or 4 turfs w/ out chains would give me the more traction in the weeder environment I'm gonna be using it in OR if it would behoove me to buy some radical tread, deep bar AG tires, and if so, what size would fit that machine, in that I'm hearing that 5.70/ 5.00 - 8 are an obsolete size. Hmmmmm....hehehe
Thanx again, Pat aka flgudmusic

 

[Industrial Toys]

Are you talking a walk behind. I had a Gravely Pro 12 walk behind with duals. I put singles on in the winter for use with a snow blower.

If it is a walk behind, I'm not sure how much traction you will want. Those things are a man killer. If it hits something out front on one side, those handle and control bars will wack you, just about breaking your arm or ribs! It happens so fast, you can't even respond appropriately.

I cut the front out of my bush mower with a plasma cutter. It worked great for about ten minutes until I hit a stone and shattered the drive rod between the ninty gearbox and attachment flange. That was the end of that excercise.

 

[JRobyn]

I have run 4 agricultural "R1" bar tires on my Commercial 10. As heavy as it is, there is adequate traction even without the duals. Wife doesn't like having the duals on because as Industrial says, when you run over something solid, it will really jerk violently sideways. The duals being that much farther out to the sides just makes the reaction even more violent. I recommend just singles on each side. Singles with R1 tread and the massive weight will be sufficient for almost all uses.

I bought all new tires and tubes a few years ago, but I forgot where. Either Richard's Lawn and Garden in VA, or some e-bay seller. The right sizes are out there if you google around a little.

 

[mark02tj]

I bought all new tires and tubes a few years ago, but I forgot where. Either Richard's Lawn and Garden in W. VA, or some e-bay seller. The right sizes are out there if you google around a little.

I bought tires and wheels from Richards a year or two ago for my 5465. The old tires were basically stuck to the old wheels so bad I couldn't get them off. I weighed the cost of the new wheels against the time that I thought it would take me to clean up the old wheels and figured it was cheaper (and easier) to buy the new wheels.

Can't beat Richard's! The are THE Gravely guru's! A quick phone call to them solved a problem that two other self-proclaimed "Gravely Experts" around here couldn't figure out. When I described the problem to Richard's, they knew exactly what the cause of the problem was. A $10 problem solved a nagging 8 year problem. :thumbsup: