Old Tractors. Anybody? (really Non-guzzi content)

[twowings]

When high-speed handling is mission-critical:

[Denis]

I have an '82 vintage Gravely 8122 with the Kohler K301 as my main mowing tractor.

A few years ago, I bought a 5665 with "blown" motor that I rebuilt. The K301 had already been bored several times and there was no larger piston available, so I had it bored just a bit more (.125" over stock) and used a K321 piston. The shop that bored the block told me there was "lots of wall thickness still" and it would be "fine unless I planned to run nitrous".  Turned out to be a great running machine and I sold it to a gentleman down in Lexington, VA - delivered it during the VA Rally that year in fact.

This one got a couple of hours of use last week:

'64 Gravely L "Custom", that I've owned nearly 35 years. Still amazes me what it can do.

Studebaker owned Gravely from 1960 until sometime after 1966 when the Studebaker-Worthington concern sold it off.

[Denis]

I was always fond of Olivers and orchard tractors.

[brider]

You can adjust the lever so that it won't lock in reverse and Gravely made a modification to later 7.6 tractors that does the same thing. "Hilly" isn't a problem for a Gravely, but "rocky" means you should be using a sickle bar or flail mower instead of the bushhog.

My problem was I needed the leverage of the bars to maneuver it while walking backward  (the topography demanded I go in forward, move it around a bit, and back it out), and it was very difficult to hold partial reverse (I assume I was slipping the cone clutch ) with my right hand while also trying to lever the bars. I had lots of more open area where this wasn't a problem, but here in CT you can't go 3 inches in natural soil anywhere without a flat, big, sharp tip of a rock pointing out of the ground to trip you. I was always stumbling backing up, afraid I was going to trip and that thing would chop my legs off.

But I loved it! Had the dual-wheels that were great for floating in the marshy areas in the spring to knock down the brush before waiting for August for it to dry out. I am just really impressed with the level of home-grown USA engineering that went into it and allowed it's design to remain un-changed for decades. May own one again some day, have fun with yours!