solo machine
Member
I bought the Gravely to put a front end loader on it, as did two other fellows on here but soon found a Mini mac and bought that.
I couldn't sell the Gravely without a deck. The guy I bought it from looked for 1 1/2 yrs with no luck but he did have a bunch of new old stock Mahindra decks for sell. After looking both over, I decided i could convert it so I bought a 72" and got busy.
The transition mounts were mounts for the mid mount on a Mahindra tractor. A little slicing and dicing to make them work. Next i had to reverse the direction of the gearbox. I opened the box, removed the shaft, Then I cut off the shaft, drilled and bored for a press fit for a new shaft on the opposite side, red loctite and a tapered pin to help keep it in place.
I had to source a drive shaft from a John Deere. It needed to be shortened. Chucked it in the lathe, turn, find the joint, then slowly part.
Measure, cut, and weld back up. With the gearbox now in the rear of the deck, I had to limit the deck lift.
I had some UHMW, so that's what I used for spacer blocks. The deck didn't come with boggie wheels. So more head scratching. I sourced wheels from a simplicity zero turn. The 30 degree angle was a bit much,So more cutting. Reduced it to 15 degree, then extended the front mounts with parts of the mounts I removed from the rear of the deck.
The last pic isn't mine. It's just to show how the Gravely deck would mount.
I couldn't sell the Gravely without a deck. The guy I bought it from looked for 1 1/2 yrs with no luck but he did have a bunch of new old stock Mahindra decks for sell. After looking both over, I decided i could convert it so I bought a 72" and got busy.
The transition mounts were mounts for the mid mount on a Mahindra tractor. A little slicing and dicing to make them work. Next i had to reverse the direction of the gearbox. I opened the box, removed the shaft, Then I cut off the shaft, drilled and bored for a press fit for a new shaft on the opposite side, red loctite and a tapered pin to help keep it in place.
I had to source a drive shaft from a John Deere. It needed to be shortened. Chucked it in the lathe, turn, find the joint, then slowly part.
Measure, cut, and weld back up. With the gearbox now in the rear of the deck, I had to limit the deck lift.
I had some UHMW, so that's what I used for spacer blocks. The deck didn't come with boggie wheels. So more head scratching. I sourced wheels from a simplicity zero turn. The 30 degree angle was a bit much,So more cutting. Reduced it to 15 degree, then extended the front mounts with parts of the mounts I removed from the rear of the deck.
The last pic isn't mine. It's just to show how the Gravely deck would mount.
