Gravely Tractor

Gravely, of Brillion, Wisconsin, is a manufacturer of powered lawn and garden implements which it describes as "walk-behind, zero turn and outfront mowers".

Benjamin Franklin Gravely (29 November 1876 – January 1953) of Dunbar, West Virginia, manufactured in 1916 a hand-pushed plow fitted with an auxiliary Indian motorcycle engine and driven by belts.

His third generation grandson, Shawn Ryder, has his grandfather's Gravely tractor collection in Warrington, Pennsylvania.

He and several backers raised enough capital to purchase an old factory in the Dunbar, West Virginia, area that had previously been used for the manufacture of tires.

In the company's earliest years, Gravely would load several tractors into his Studebaker tourer car and sell them to farms as far away as Florida at $175 each.

Studebaker presumed moving the plant to North Carolina would allow them to hire farm workers at a lower wage.

To head off further problems and attempt to save money, they opted to purchase outsourced engines to retrofit on the Gravely tractor.

Not much unlike Gravely's first power driven plow, Gravely today offers two kinds of all-gear "tractors" − walk-behind self-propelled units and zero-turn-radius riding mowers, which evolved out of the durable riding tractors that defined the company for much of its later years.

The all-gear walk-behind units were powered by a single-cylinder four-stroke engine, available in a one-wheel model D (1916−195?)

In 1965, Kelly G. Cunningham used the Gravely 7.6 tractor to create the Terramite Model 1 compact backhoe, now known as the T1.

[4] In 1967, Gravely introduced its 400 series riding tractors, with the all-gear drivetrain that would come to define the company in future years.

The rear-engine mounting and simple construction allowed Gravely owners to service and even upgrade their engines on their own.

Gravely also released an economy version of tractor in 1970, featuring a belt-driven 4-speed transmission and eight-horsepower (Kohler) engine, known as the 408.

This did not sell nearly as well as the popular all-gear units and was discontinued in 1977, when it was replaced with a heavy-duty professional grade of tractor known as the 900 series.

Today the Gravely brand operates as the commercial lawn division of AriensCo and its products continue to be sold exclusively through its dealer network.