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MARKS' GRAVELY PAGE
The Gravely Story
Benjamin Franklin Gravely was born on November 29, 1876, near Martinsville, Virginia. His father owned a plug tobacco company. You can still find tins from the B. F. Gravely tobacco on Ebay . After graduating from a school for men, near Mt. Airy, North Carolina. He then worked as a Salesman for the Eastman Kodak Company, and learned the basic principals of photography. Then around 1900, he became acquainted with a photographer named Charles Thomas. They started the Gravely-Thomas Studio in Huntington. He married his wife , Elizabeth Susan Downie from Pomeroy Ohio, in 1902.
He then moved his Photography business to Charleston, hoping for better prospects. After a few years, he then moved to another location in Charleston, and opened up the Gravely and Moore Photographers, with his cousin in-law Margurerite Moore. The family kept this business going till 1963.
While working as a photographer, he tinkered with the idea of a power-driven push plow. He tested the plow on his property around his home, in the family garden. Where, like his parents, he raised fruits and vegetables, to help feed his family. After all he had five children.
In 1916, in South Charleston, Gravely started work on his fist prototype of the Gravely Tractor. It wasn’t until Ben was working in the family garden, that he thought that there had to be an easier way to cultivate the garden. Gravely may have stumbled on to the cultivator idea by accident. It is believed that Gravely was trying to invent a post hole digger, when it got away from him. It dug a furrow from one end of the garden, to the other, before he got it under control. (I think that this is how he invented the rotary plow.)
As early as 1911, Gravely was working on a rough design for his garden cultivator. It was a crude affair, powered by a 2.5 horse power engine, and one belt driven wheel. It was a simple affair, made from his hand push cultivator, and an old Indian motorcycle, that was given to him.
Ben had blue prints made, and he took them to the West Virginia Malleable Iron Company, to have castings made. Mohler Martin would design the patterns from wood, to be cast from iron. Martin would continue making patters for Ben, even after Gravely was retired from his company. Ben would ask him to make patterns for his new ideas.
Ben Gravely had little formal training as a draftsman, and even though he was a great designer, he couldn’t read a blue print. When he needed a part for his cultivator, he would make a drawing for it on the shop floor with chalk, or a nail. The engineers would then make blue prints, to have the part fabricated.
Ben Gravely spent upwards of five years perfecting his design for the motorized plow. Then on December 5, 1916, he patented the Gravely Motor Plow, the biggest invention in his life.
In 1922 he started, The Gravely Motor Plow and Cultivator Company. The plant was located on Gravely Lane, in Dunbar, West Virginia. The factory began manufacturing the first motor plows in 1922.
The first Model "D" Gravely Power plow like the prototype, was a single wheeled affair, with a 2 horse power, air cooled engine. It had two tanks, one for gas, one for oil, as it used a drip type oiling system, like many of the old hit and miss engines. It weighed 150 pounds, was the size, and height of a push plow, and was painted red.
The factory had 100 employees, and was tuning out up to 75 cultivators a day. It was a wonder they made as many as they did, as Ben was constantly making changes in the design, trying to make it more reliable and efficient, this would slow down production.
Within a few years Gravely had sales outlets as far away as Florida and California. Sales representatives were even in Switzerland, France, and Germany. The price of a Gravely at this time was around $150.
Gravely introduced the Model L in 1937. The Model L, is the one most people think of when you say Gravely. It is a two wheeled tractor with a 5 horse power engine, an upgrade from the 2 HP of the D. The early Ls used the same oiling system that the D used. The most valuable of all the Gravelys today, are the first Ls that had a Hex axle housing . There are only two know to exist today. No one is really sure how many of these were made, so if you find one buy it.
There was some overlap with the Ds and Ls between 1936 and 1937. So that there were some Ds made in 37 and some Ls made in 36.
One of the selling points of the Gravely L was that you could plant more on the same acreage, due to the fact that you could plant the rows closer together. You could also plant right up to the fence row.
Ben Gravely was always concerned with the quality of his product, and it was tested and retested over and over.
The Great Depression was a trying time for The Gravely Motor Plow Works. Ben sent out letters to Charleston business men, asking for them to invest in his company. The company barley made it through the depression intact. In 1937 Ben Gravely retired from the company.
The L continued to change over the years, but it also pretty much stayed the same. You could take almost any part from a 1937 model L, and put it on a 1960s model. Early Ls had wooden grips, that around 1950, they started using rubber. In the early 40s, Gravely went to a 15PSI pressurized oil system.
In 1955 the horse power was boosted to 6.6 HP, and the oil pressure was upped to 30 PSI. The Gravely L used a T head engine of Gravelys own make. This means that the intake was on one side of the cylinder, exhaust on the other, this gives you an oval shaped head, and a T shaped cylinder block. This isn’t the most efficient engine design, but it is simple to work on. The crank is a 5 piece affair, with a pto shaft, an input shaft ,and two fly wheels joined by a crank pin.
Also during the 1950s Gravely offered three different Ls. The L was the fastest with top speed of 4 MPH. The LI was the intermediate speed with top speed of 3 MPH. The LS was the slow speed model with a top speed of 2MPH. The early models had a Edison Splitdorf magneto. From the early 50s on they used a Wico Mag.
The clutch of the Gravely L was the predecessor of the Hydrostat trannies of today. As you could go from forward to reverse with the throw of a leaver, never needing to come to a complete stop.
Sometime in the 50s they offered an electric starter for the L. Another option offered was the governor. An oil pressure gauge was also offered as an option. These two items seem to be strange accessories you might think that they should be standard equipment, and I wish that they were.
In 1963 Gravely came out with the L8 Model. This tractor not only had the high low gears of the L but it also had a two speed axel. This gave it 4 forward speeds and 4 reverse speeds, thus the L8 designation.
In 1972 the horse power was again boosted to 7.6 HP, this was the last upgrade for the original Gravely engine. In 1975 the Gravely engine was discontinued and replaced with a Kohler 10 HP engine. The engines were continually went up in horse power till today, when you can get a Gravely Tractor with a 18 HP engine.
The attachments were mounted with 4 bolts and where fairly easy to change. But in the 70s they were changed to a new system, that used a splined shaft and a long point that made it really easy to change. You simply drive in, drop in a pin, and your hooked up.
There where many attachments made for the gravely L over the years nearly 70 at last count down. Everything from a cultivator to a small backhoe. Not all of the attachments were made by Gravely, many were made by many other companies. People know a good thing when they see it.
Some of the more common attachments were the snow/dozer blade, rotary mower that Ben thought of in the 1940s during WWII. The Gear reduction wheels, that slowed the tractor down so, many of the power attachments could be used. The rotary plow, that as far as I know, was only ever offered on a Gravely. There was one something like it used on full sized tractors. The plow makes a lot of sense on a small tractor since they don’t have the weight needed to pull a turn plow in most types of soil. Another popular attachment was the Rototiller . Of course what would a gravely be with out a sickle bar mower.
The Gravely is a very reliable tractor as they were made and sold for over 30 years with very little change over the years.
Ben Gravely died in 1953 at age 76, four months after his and his wife’s 50th anniversary.
In 1960 the Gravely Tractor Company was bought by Studebaker corporation for $12.5 million. With the buyout went the Union at Dunbar WV. In 1968 the last tractor rolls of the line in the Dunbar Factory. Operations are moved to Clemmons, North Carolina.
In 1982 the Gravely International operations are moved to Brillion, Wisconsin. Gravely still makes the walk behind tractor today, but it will set you back 4-6 thousand dollars with a 50 inch mower.
A lot of the information in this article was obtained from the Summer 1997 Goldenseal magazine. I have left a lot of the info out, so if you want to find out more. I don't know if it is still available. ADDRESS: Goldenseal, The Cultural Center, 1900 Kanawha Blvd. East, Charleston, WV 25305-0300
The technical info was stuff I have found out over the years.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GRAVELYS CLICK HERE.
MY "59" BEFORE REFURB
MY "59" GRAVELY L AFTER REFURB
MY GRAVELYS
When I was a kid my dad was given some property by my mother’s father to build a house. He bought a used Gravely L, with a sickle bar mower to mow the brush. It also had a large circular saw blade, that was stored under the work bench in the garage. I never actually seen him use the saw, so I don’t remember if it had a cross buck, or he just used it to mow small trees.
He had that Gravely parked in the driveway under a tarp. Then one day he hit it with his car and broke of of the handles. Since he wasn’t using it any more, he shortly after that sold it.
Another Gravely that I remember from my youth, is the one our neighbor George Reynolds had. He owned the house next door that he ran his insurance business from. Once a week in the cool of the evening he would fire up his Gravely with a sickle bar mower and sulky. Then for the next hour or two you could hear the clack, clack, clack of the mower as he cut the lawn.
I always liked the look of the Gravely and when I got older, I liked the engineering that went into them. I had bought a Montgomery Wards walk behind with a lot of attachments, but it was a piece of junk. That tractor left a bad taste in my mouth, so I really didn’t want any thing to do with another walk behind. Then on day Mike Visnanski at work, told me he had bought a Gravely tractor, but he decided it wasn’t exactly what he wanted. He said he was selling it, and wanted to know if I wanted it. After the experience with the Wards machine I really wasn’t to keen on another. So I told him no, that I didn’t want it.
After a few weeks of trying to sell it in the Green Sheet, the only people that called were soon uninterested, when they found out it was not a riding tractor. He asked me again if I was sure that I didn’t want it? I asked him what all there was with it? He said there was a rotary mower, sulky, cultivators, rotary plow, Rototiller, and dump cart. After thinking it over I decided that I would give it a try. After working it out we loaded it on the back of my pick-up, and I was now a Gravely owner. The 30" rotary mower worked great, and with the 3/8 thick brush blade it pretty much cut anything you could push over with it. But when I tried the rotary plow, the tractor just went too fast to use the plow. Then when I used the Rototiller, it again was just too fast. After reading the flyer that I got with it, I noticed that they made gear reduction wheels that slowed the tractor down. Using these you could operate these attachments . So my search went on for a set. After calling a local Gravely dealer, he said that he had a used set. He said he wanted $300 for them. I decided that that was a bit steep, so on I searched. Then at the July show at Ashtabula Ohio I found a Gravely for sale at the flea market. It had gear reduction wheels, and it was only $150. The tractor wasn’t much, but the wheels were all I wanted. So I bought it and took it home. I put the wheels on my other Gravely. They made a big difference, the rotary plow and tiller worked great.
After a while of looking at the new Gravely, I saw it had compression and was getting fuel. But there was no spark. I pulled the cap off the Mag and found the points had no gap. After gapping the points to 0.020 of an inch, and a few pulls of the rope, I had two running Gravely LIs.
So after a few years, I bought a Snow/dozer blade, and a sickle bar mower, both at the Ashtabula show flea market. I used the newer Gravely with the snow plow, since it was faster. The first Gravely I bought, I used for most everything else.
Then along came the Gravely Mow-in 2002. The Mow-in is what they call the Gravely national show. I have never seen so many Gravelys. There were Gravely Ds and Gravely Ls. I had never seen a Gravely D before except in books. I saw a lot of Gravelys, and took photos of them.
There I acquired a hood for my new Gravely, because it was missing one. I also bought a gas tank, because the old one had a leak. I tore down the new L, and did a valve Job, put on a new head gasket, and put a coat of paint on it. Now it looked almost new.
For years, I have known about a Gravely with cleated steel wheels. It was used by my neighbor by my property near Greenville. He owned the property that bordered mine on the North side. He said it quit and wouldn’t start. It sat for at least 6 years out in the woods. I really wanted to get my hands on that machine. I checked the Serial number, and found it was a 1949.
In the summer of 2003, I was again at the Flea Market at the Ashtabula show. When I came upon a Gravely with a $65 price. It was in bad shape and I wanted it just for parts. I talked with the owner, and he said that he would take $30 for it. I quickly forked over the cash. It turned out that it was a 1948. I now had my third Gravely L.
When I got home with my prize, I though more and more about that steel wheeled L setting in that woods. I made a call to my neighbor, and he said he was interested in selling it. After making a deal, I now had my fourth machine. After cleaning it up, and giving it the once over, I found that the Exhaust valve was sticking. I think this will be an easy fix.
Then at the BKATEA display, at the Big Knob Fair, a man left his phone number, he said he had a Gravely for sale. After contacting him, I went to see it. It turned out to be a L8 of 1964 vintage. He said that he had rebuilt the carb, but he wasn’t sure it was the right kit. He also said he had worked on the Mag. After making a deal, I now owned my fifth Gravely.
I turned over the crank, and did not hear that distinctive click from the Wico Mag. I removed the mag, and pulled it a part, and found it had been assembled wrong. After putting back together, it worked great. I reinstalled it, and a few pulls, and it was running. It still needed some work, but I had three running Gravelys.
Now this winter, I have my work cut out for me. I am going to refurbish the steel wheeled L. The other L, I am going to use for parts, and maybe put a bigger engine on it.
So that is my Gravely story.
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