Value of 1962 Gravely "L"

[dancer]

A family member asked me the value of her inherited 1962 Gravely Model "L" walk-behind lawn/garden tractor. It runs. I've used it briefly with its tiller attachment and its rotary plow. It's noisy because it has a broken exhaust manifold but replacing that would be a manageable project. I'm clueless as to its value. Can anyone help with a knowledgeable opinion? What price should she ask for the powerhead alone? The tires are original and show their age. She has all of the owner/operating manuals and parts manual. I mentioned the tiller and rotary plow. Other attachments are the 30" finish mower, a chisel plow, a turning/breaking plow, a (5-pt?) cultivator, and maybe some other stuff.

 

[geneP]

I thought someone would jump in here, maybe this should be on the garden tractors section. My observation is that they don't bring a lot of money. Electric start adds to the value, but from what I've seen, maybe the tractor and mower would have asking prices of $300-$500. The tiller would be the more expensive implement, especially if it has it's own gearbox, IE not sharing the rotary plow gearbox. I suspect that if sold together $1000 would be at the top end.

That being said, the popularity of the tractor in your area will determine a lot of the price. While they do a lot of things reasonably well, they don't do any one thing outstanding, and changing the attachments is sometimes a pain. They are heavy and require a lot of stamina to operate on an ongoing basis. There is definitly an art to using some of the cultivator attachments.

I hope it finds a good home

 

[dancer]

Thanks, geneP. Info like that is surprisingly hard to find!

 

[slowrev]

Yahoo has a couple of Gravely groups that I used to visit. You might want to go to yahoo groups and search for Gravely. Lots of good gravely knowledge on there.
Ben

 

[Boomcreekfarm]

I was suprised to see a post here about a Gravely. I believe that GeneP was very accurate on his estimation of the value. I have owned my 65 Walk behind for many years which I bought for around a $1000.00 about 20 years ago and it still performs its garden and snowblowing duties faithfully. I have the original price lists and they didn't cost much more than a 1000 when they were new. They are an iron workhorse and anyone not familiar with them is amazed at how they perform. Personally mine will never be sold but will be inherited and hopefully kept in running condition for another 40 or 50 years. Parts are still easy to find and they are easy to work on. I would own a few of them if my wife would let me. Ugly but solid as a rock....
Bob in Canada