what can the gravely rotary plow do?

[twrighthere]

I am maintaining and building several miles of single track trail for mountain biking... I am intrigued with the idea of a gravely walk behind and several of it's attachments.. if anyone could give me your thoughts on the following , I'd appreciate it.

trail construction is full bench cut, that is working on a shallow side slope, and removing from 4 to 8 inches of soil on up hill side. do you think I could use the rotary plow for this..

how problematic would small roots and small rocks be?

is there a clutch or other saftey system if the rotary plow hits a large root?

how effective is the snow/dirt plow. I am not thinking of trying to move huge piles of dirt, but can it help direct and spread gravel and dirt?

thanks for your thoughts

 

[PossumHound]

:welcome:

Howdy! I don't have experience with the Gravely unit, but the job you describe might be tough even for a tractor/turning plow if you're going to encounter substantial roots or rocks plus the plow will only cut the hill in one direction- are you always going to run from left to right across the hill face?. Beyond that, your logic sounds good. What are the terrain conditions going to be?

PH

 

[RichardTX]

Several miles of trail? That will take a while to do. The Gravely can do a fantastic job of plowing a garden making a near perfect seedbed, but for what you want to do, you may need something bigger.

With regard to roots and rocks, the rotary plow can deal with them but there is a limit. A lot depends on soil type and conditions. I have some soil around my house that not even the Gravel plow can break up. A backhoe or jackhammer is about the only thing that can cut through these hard areas.

Yes there is a safety clutch on the Gravely rotary plow.

The snowplow works great in snow. It is much less effective in dirt because it just can't get the traction needed.

If I were you I would get a local Gravely owner to survey the situation and if possible, give you a demonstration. It may be that the Gravely rotary plow is perfect for what you need.

 

[RichardTX]

To give you an idea how the rotary plow handles rocks, here is one pile of rocks I took out of new garden this past spring. The largest ones (football sized) the rotary plow had an issue with. The rest were no issue at all. I had two more piles of similar size.

 

[twrighthere]

Thanks for all the info....

I was planning on using the rotary plow to help dig out the high side of the full bench cut... the soil is not overly rocky, more organic for a few inches and then down to clay about 4-8 inches below... the tree roots would be something else, but I could plan ahead for them.. was also thinking of using the cultivator tool holder,, and running it with those 5 points (don't know what you call them) to help scratch up the organic matter.. it is likely that I will be following up that work with the standard hand tools of trail building, but my hope is the Gravely will help out with the intensive part... there are times and areas that creating a ditch to help direct run off is necessary...

thanks for the pics of the rocks and the clearing of them.. I have a possible deal on two gravely's, super convertible with electric start and commercial 12 with some accessories,, (both run) two 30 inch mowers, snowblower, cultivator tool holder,, rotary plow with extra bit. some extra set of dual wheels. and a plow.... was even thinking of cutting down the plow a bit more narrow since the single track wouldn't be 4 foot wide,, but might just try to make something... all that for $700... what do you all think?

again, thanks so much for all the info, pics and ideas...planning on using brush hog to keep some of the areas free of the thorn bushes.

can they pull a log, say about 12 inch diameter, and about 10 to 12 feet long..??

 

[Zork]

If your choice is a shovel or this contraption powered by two wheels I'd say take your time and go in small bites. Good luck. Rotary plow on Gravely 8163-T - YouTube

 

[twrighthere]

anyone out there pull logs around with their gravely?

also, where is the best place to get info on taking care of the thing,, do they still sell manuals...

what do folks use for oil, and for the pto?

 

[RichardTX]

I have pulled all manner of stuff with the Gravely including logs, cars, other tractors, big rocks, etc.

All the manuals are archived at oldgravelys.net

I use 20w50 in my engines and transmissions but I live in Texas. 10w40 is likely a good choice for the engine end transmission. Gravely has changed their recommendations over the years. The latest recommendation from Gravely for the transmission is 10w30.

The rotary plow is a implement like no other. It takes some fiddling to get it to plow correctly. You will know when you have things set right when it just cuts a straight furrow without any help from the operator as shown below.

 

[twrighthere]

trying to find info on mounting up the dually wheels... like how??

 

[whistlepig]

trying to find info on mounting up the dually wheels... like how??

Try looking here.Jacks Small Engine Parts Help Page