My Tractor Forum banner

Gravely Rear Hitch Ball/Stud

6K views 21 replies 8 participants last post by  Gerrard 
#1 ·
Hi - Does anybody here possibly have a spare original Gravely Ball/Stud and nuts (sounds bad no matter how I tried to write it...) that they would be willing to part with and ship, for a reasonable price? Preferably one that is not all beat to **** with bad threads or welded repair? And just wanted to verify that the ball is actually installed facing down with the threads up? It shows it that way on the parts list. For me, it will work better installed that way anyway since my rear hitch assembly is too close to the 20 HP Kohler engine's leaf scraper. I have the rear hitch assembly with the short side bars that was intended for the older series of riders. Thanks in advance.

Bill
 
#2 ·
See attached.
 

Attachments

#3 ·
It is to mounted down.

This keeps it from binding if the angle between the tractor and the wagon becomes too extreme while going through a deep ditch, or over an extremely steep and short rise.
 

Attachments

#5 · (Edited)
Mine is a 50 yr. old L and it faces down to, and its (the ball) has a allen-looking hole in the top of it.
Heres a pic of the ugly thing but wait till I post a pic of it tomorrow. Funny thing is I just got home from work and took a bunch of dremel ftgs. outside under the car port where the tractor is and I was gonna polish it but I was afraid the neighbors would complain because it was litterally 15 mins ago @ 12:30. I hate living in the middle of town but its a have to thing for now.
P.S. I ordered and recieved one of the nuts that were missing from it @ G.T.'s. Its in my box of new stuff to bolt on when I get other things done.
But if you dont find an original one the aftermarket ones are OK to, but Im more than sure you can get one from someone on here. Ive seen pics of Gravely's on here lined-up as far as the eye can see!
 

Attachments

#8 ·
I own one of the ones that gravely_tractor_museum sells and it is of very good quality.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk
 
#10 ·
I cleaned it up today and it looks a little better, cant stand the rust it had on it when its easy to get rid of it.
So I have a few questions on this ball myself, #1-why is it flat on the top (or bottom I guess when its facing down)? #2- Whats with the allen wrench hole in it? And #3- does that top/bottom nut, the one that is closest to the ball come off, because mine didnt want to. Thanks.
Like I said I have a new bottom nut for it and its shiney so it would have stuck out like a sore...uuhh..uumm..thumb, thats it Thumb had I not shined it up. Between this and the carb I sometimes think Im in the jewelry binnus lol.
Heck Im not certain that this is an original one really, it could have come from the dollar store for all I know.
 

Attachments

#13 ·
Yes Sheldon's Gravely is likely the best kept of that vintage - anywhere - period. Check out the badge displayed in his signature. "Voted" machine of the Month in October 2012.
He's also invented many upgrades that have been adopted by other Gravely owners, myself included. His is a one of a kind G series rider.[/QUOTE]
Thats really something, inventing things for them, so he got bit to the bone a long time ago huh? lol.
See I dont know anything about riders and dont know if Im looking at the biggest bucket of bolts they ever made or the best one they ever made but I can tell when somethings been taken care of.
I dont want to bother you for an education on them but what yr. did Gravely stop making riders?
 
#14 · (Edited)
Thank you for the kind words. A little background to answer some of your questions. I bought my tractor new in 1996, it has never been stored outdoors, it now has about 780 hours mowing my lawn, and plowing snow. Yes she works hard, but I try to take good care of her. When we bought it, I told my wife "yes I know it is expensive, but it is the only one we will ever have to buy".

Yes I have developed a number of modifications and upgrades, many explained elsewhere on this forum in my improvement thread. My father had GRAVELY'S when I was a child/teen, I never needed a tractor until 1996. While I did do some upgrades to the tractor early in its life, my real activities in that area began in 2010/2011 when I desired to improve its snow plowing abilities.

Not sure the exact date production stopped, but it is my understanding that 2002 was pretty much the end for the riders.

Sheldon
 
#15 ·
Wow, Im surprised to hear they went on for that long. I live in "The Land of Gravely's" and everywhere you looked when I was growing up you saw one but I never even looked for a rider, I may have seen 100 of them but didnt know it because the only ones I ever saw or used had the handle bars on them.
Where I work at in July we are moving our shop/warehouse to Cross Lanes W.Va. and our place is litterally going to be about one mile from the old Gravely plant in Dunbar, wich is now a Polaris dealer.
 
#16 ·
The last time I needed a hitch ball, I called Richard's and they sent me a new one.
 
#17 ·
Richard-tx, I looked at Richard's and it shows that the ball is no longer available on their website when looking the actual part number up. I emailed them this morning to verify. I'll give them a call later if I don't hear back. Thanks for the idea.
 
#21 ·
Richard's has a fairly good unadvertised used part inventory. The last time I talked to Jamie, they had a couple of 50ft semi trailers full of parts they got from various dealers that were closing out their old inventory. There just hasn't been enough time to sort, inventory, and tag it all.
 
#22 ·
That is really something! Im gonna have to take a vacation day and go up there, I must get a rear skirt for my 30" deck and they have them for $35 according to their website and they might even have a decent used one.
Seems like the S&H would kill me on such a heavy bulky item. Mine is dented silly and its made out of such heavy steel I cant begin to beat it to form, the hammer just bounces off and heads for my face!
Funny thing is its in Spencer and I am in Ravenswood W.Va. and Ripley W.Va. every evening and its my understanding its within 30 miles of both of them but Im there at 8:30 at night, to late.
I gotta get one of them no matter what.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top