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Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Mid-Century Moto Mecca Makeover

Workspaces between 485 and 705 squarefeet.

Modern Jess

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Joined
Jan 2, 2011
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Location
Bay Area, California
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This produced an actual lump in my throat. Holy cow, glad it (mostly) missed.
 
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fartymarty

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Nov 9, 2012
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Fort Worth
OK, understandably Gregor has many admirers here, and IMO it is deserved admiration. <---my disclaimer

I guess I'll be the one (the thread ******) to ask.

Why was (1) a motorcycle sitting outside (2) without a cover on it in rainy Oregon?

.....regardless..I hope your good luck continues through out this unlucky year and well into the next.
 

Choirboy

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 18, 2013
Messages
178
Location
SE Iowa
Yeah, 2020 weather is crazy. Iowa got hit by a derecho a few weeks ago that is estimated to have caused over $3B in damage, mostly via destroyed cropland/ruined harvests; basically an inland hurricane swept from Nebraska to Illinois and flattened everything in its path. Wasn't covered in the national media, but it is bad. Schools ripped in half by 140mph winds, etc.
About done with this whole 2020 thing.
Glad the tree didn't hit the house, Gregor! I have a big silver maple that I'm pretty sure is hollow and I keep estimating its height vs the distance from the house... thankfully the derecho went north of us so we just lost some small branches.
 

jimkinney

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Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
300
Location
Florida's Space Coast
Wow, you indeed got lucky.

In order to speed up the dining room table project, you might find someone that harvest trees into lumber and offer to trade the tree for some already dried maple.

I bought some fresh quarter sawn white oak from tornado damaged trees and by the time it was dry enough to use, I had moved twice, from AL to AZ then FL. I never did get to use that oak. I ended up trading it for some tools, so I didn't lose anything.
 
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sakurama

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Oct 10, 2010
Messages
1,458
Location
Portland - the cool one.
Wow, you indeed got lucky.

In order to speed up the dining room table project, you might find someone that harvest trees into lumber and offer to trade the tree for some already dried maple.

For me the whole thing would be that it was our tree - I'm sort of sentimental like that. Stories are more important than the thing.

OK, understandably Gregor has many admirers here, and IMO it is deserved admiration. <---my disclaimer

I guess I'll be the one (the thread ******) to ask.

Why was (1) a motorcycle sitting outside (2) without a cover on it in rainy Oregon?

Well, I filled the cottage with motorcycles and the garage was too full to move in so this one had just moved up to be put into the trailer for storage over the winter. It hasn't rained here in two months and we have a few more weeks of dry before I need to worry about the rain.

But I do feel bad about it being out. Really. But I'm playing motorcycle tetris here. That one was up next.

G
 

TahitianGreen

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 20, 2010
Messages
65
Location
WI
Yeah, 2020 weather is crazy. Iowa got hit by a derecho a few weeks ago that is estimated to have caused over $3B in damage, mostly via destroyed cropland/ruined harvests; basically an inland hurricane swept from Nebraska to Illinois and flattened everything in its path. Wasn't covered in the national media, but it is bad. Schools ripped in half by 140mph winds, etc.

This is the new normal.

As OP said, climate change/global warming caused this. It'll only get worse from here.

Glad the Duc is okay.
 

dhubbard422

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 16, 2011
Messages
472
Location
Texas Hill Country
Very lucky or nice bullet dodged. A maple table will be beautiful! I look forward to seeing your posts on that project. We took down some big Douglas Fir when building a house on Bainbridge Island decades ago. The 140' trees were felled and sold for surprising money. I had a neighbor with a mill slice up some of the larger leftovers and they made some nice benches and floating bookshelves. I expect you'll have a fun adventure down a new rabbit hole while making the table!

BTW, I am so tired of squirrel. Unfortunately, I think it says something unflattering about our society and the standards we hold - or don't...
 

jake28

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Joined
Aug 28, 2018
Messages
488
Location
SF, CA
For me the whole thing would be that it was our tree - I'm sort of sentimental like that. Stories are more important than the thing.
G


Amateur arborist here, going off the photos.

Re: falling over,
It looks like there was a bark inclusion between the spar that fell and that main trunk. That is often a place that collects water, and then rots. Add in high winds on a tree that is structurally out of balance, and, it makes a noise when it falls. The good news is that in the event the rest of tree is healthy, if you can clean up the splintered part, and then paint it to help it resist water intrusion, you might be able to prolong the life of the rest of the tree. But, consult your local tree specialist.

Re: milling,
If you want to take it on yourself, 2-3’ diameter is totally doable by yourself with an Alaskan mill. They are fairly inexpensive, and knowing you, you’ll probably build one out of 80/20 or titanium anyway. Add in a decent chainsaw, and ripping chain and you’re off to the races. Ripping chain (someone’s called a skip-tooth) are key.

https://www.chainsawsdirect.com/Gra...MIyNe099Td6wIVchatBh05sQkMEAQYAiABEgLw5PD_BwE

Re: seasoning the lumber,
Air drying is best if you’re not in a hurry.
Stickering is essential to promote air flow.
Tarp helps prevent direct sunlight baking your top boards.
Budget 1 year / 1 inch of slab thickness to acclimate to remotely usable.
For dining room table, I’d encourage 2.75” a 3” milled slab, not knowing how much the boards will warp.

You likely know of him but Matt Cremona has great videos on all of this.
 

Zippercat

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
828
Location
TN
Wow... that was a close one! One thing worth mentioning - it'd be take the time to give your roof a good once-over and make sure you don't have any damage from a limb sliding down the roof or missing shingles. When these types of events roll through, its easy to focus on the tree in the yard and forget about the roof on the house.

To amplify what bdbecker said, be sure to file an insurance claim now and have their adjuster out to inspect. We had 90+ mph straight line wind burst during thunderstorms in May in Nashville. Lost several big trees and had some roof damage. State Farm inspector found a bunch more damage that we hadn’t realized, down to little things like door mats blown away.
 

fartymarty

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Joined
Nov 9, 2012
Messages
1,348
Location
Fort Worth
But I do feel bad about it being out. Really. But I'm playing motorcycle tetris here. That one was up next.

G

Well OK then, you are forgiven.:) I occasionally forget that some are fortunate enough to get to play Tetris with motorcycles. I guess I thought with all your :bowdown: other skills available to you, that you'd be a bit better at it. :lol: But I guess without your sister there to help, you are playing the game with a bit of a handicap. Maybe she can give you some pointers?
 

LeeG

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Joined
Nov 29, 2012
Messages
1,531
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Gregor,

I have been following this thread off and on for a long time. Great stuff. That Gravely tractor brings back a lot of childhood memories for me as well. My Dad came home from a farm sale with a similar tractor and about a dozen attachments. One of the most useful was the sickle blade. Worked great for tall brush and even small trees. If you don't have one, it might be worth keeping an eye out for one.

I think I started being "allowed" to use it to mow when I was 11 or 12.

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sakurama

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Oct 10, 2010
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Location
Portland - the cool one.
It looks like there was a bark inclusion between the spar that fell and that main trunk. That is often a place that collects water, and then rots.

Re: milling,
If you want to take it on yourself, 2-3’ diameter is totally doable by yourself with an Alaskan mill. They are fairly inexpensive, and knowing you...

Yes to the inclusion - I want to have the second trunk checked out to be sure we don't need to take that down.

To amplify what bdbecker said, be sure to file an insurance claim now and have their adjuster out to inspect. We had 90+ mph straight line wind burst during thunderstorms in May in Nashville. Lost several big trees and had some roof damage. State Farm inspector found a bunch more damage that we hadn’t realized, down to little things like door mats blown away.

I talked to them yesterday - Lara and I are going to start cleaning and limbing it this weekend and see what actually happened.

That Gravely tractor brings back a lot of childhood memories for me as well. My Dad came home from a farm sale with a similar tractor and about a dozen attachments. One of the most useful was the sickle blade. Worked great for tall brush and even small trees. If you don't have one, it might be worth keeping an eye out for one.

More than a few people have told me that about the sickle attachment. I think we had one but my memory is hazy on that. I still have a "Gravely" search running so if one shows up I'll snag it.

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Last week before work started I put a couple of hours into the tractor. Gravely's have always had white grips and I'd ordered some replacements from a Gravely specialist. They're the wrong interior size so they send them with small sections of tubing to take up the space. I used full length tube because I didn't like their method.

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A mix of heat and M80 adhesive and the vise got the tube on...

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Then the grip went over the tube with more M80 adhesive...

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I made a few fish mouthed caps for the newly painted arms. I should have made new standoffs but I'm trying to limit the amount of stuff I do to this tractor. It's a tractor - it's supposed to be primitive.

I just keep repeating that to myself.

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My tolerances are good and these now have no real slop in them which is nice. It's very hard to look at those horrible welds. I just look away.

The inner control is a bit tight...

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Oh, of course. The exhaust manifold is upside down and so the rod that was bent and that I straightened out of habit... well, it was bent to make up for the mistake of the exhaust routing.

Sigh.

I've ordered a new exhaust and manifold so finishing the controls will wait. I'm sure that the head will strip and then I'll end up with the entire tractor torn apart on the bench...

Gregor
 

gearhead1960

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Mar 21, 2019
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1,862
Location
Manassas, VA, a small blot in history
I just keep repeating that to myself.

My tolerances are good and these now have no real slop in them which is nice. It's very hard to look at those horrible welds. I just look away.

The inner control is a bit tight...

Oh, of course. The exhaust manifold is upside down and so the rod that was bent and that I straightened out of habit... well, it was bent to make up for the mistake of the exhaust routing.

Sigh. Gregor

:lol: My wife calls that being "****" or since I'm of German heritage, "German". But I have learned to be tolerant when it really doesn't matter to anyone but me. If it's functional, it doesn't always have to be pretty....:bowdown:
 

jdp993

Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
21
Imagine if the tree hit the Ducati. A Gravely V Twin with a pie cut titanium exhaust. Easily 30 pages of fabrication magic right there.
 

Neohio

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Messages
183
Location
Painesville, Ohio
I may be a bit late to the tubing bender game. But look up on ebay swagelok benders. There is nothing better. They are the Festool of the tube bending world.
 

Vertigo Cycles

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
193
Location
Portland, OR
I may be a bit late to the tubing bender game. But look up on ebay swagelok benders. There is nothing better. They are the Festool of the tube bending world.

They're so nice. I have a bunch of bike builder buddies who use them for building racks. It's always a pleasure to get to borrow one. It's been a while since I've used it, but their site used to have a very useful "gain" calculator. It worked perfectly and let me tell you, the satisfaction to be had by bending a length of tubing into a rectangle and have the ends meet each other perfectly with no further tweaking is hard to beat.
 
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sakurama

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Oct 10, 2010
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1,458
Location
Portland - the cool one.
They're so nice. I have a bunch of bike builder buddies who use them for building racks. It's always a pleasure to get to borrow one. It's been a while since I've used it, but their site used to have a very useful "gain" calculator. It worked perfectly and let me tell you, the satisfaction to be had by bending a length of tubing into a rectangle and have the ends meet each other perfectly with no further tweaking is hard to beat.

I ended up getting the Rigid after Mikes recommendation. I watched both videos and they look to be functionally identical if not actually identical. I need to get some tubing to play with so I can start bending perfect rectangles. I need some satisfaction right now.

While many of you have been hearing about Portland and the protests - a thing that doesn't effect many of us - you might now be hearing about the fires that are consuming our state at an unprecedented rate.

Those are real. Thousands have been displaced or left homeless. Our air is thick with smoke. It's very real.

the most shocking thing I've read all day

You don't read much.

Gregor
 

56vette461

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
494
Location
Northern California
I Have to agree with Sakurama,

the real story for us on the west coast, is the fires. Sacramento Valley is surrounded by fires, the smoke and ash is a real health hazard and has turned the Sacramento area in to an dashpot. Thousands are now homeless, some for the second time in 3 years.

I have family in the Central Valley where the Creek fire is now the 17th largest in history. the humber of homes destroyed are unreal. Family who live in the Fresno area have posted pictures of local horse and cattle people who have volunteered their equipment and places to evacuate animals, equipment and even classic cars and store them until this is over.

One of the local large feed and supply companies hauled a set of doubles loaded with bales of hay up to a rural fairgrounds being used as an evacuation center. We hear all the negative trash on news broadcasts, but this is the real story of the spirit of America, people stepping up in times of crisis to help without question or expectation of payments. Okay, I'll put the soapbox away.:rocker:
 
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sakurama

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Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
1,458
Location
Portland - the cool one.
It's hard to believe that in just a week our state has been transformed. Friends of ours in Ashland where only two weeks ago I was shooting for a winery outside of town have seen their communities ravaged. The two small towns north of Ashland; Talent and Pheonix have essentially been wiped off the map and several people I've worked with there have lost their homes.

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Friday I left the studio I'm renting in SE Portland to pick up some powder coated parts and the air was so thick with smoke you can't see but a few hundred meters down the road. It's hard to convey what this is like as photos aren't really doing it justice.

It looks like fog but it's smoke.

The best way I can describe it is if you've ever started a fire in your fireplace but left the flu closed and then walked out of the room. By the time the smoke detectors have gone off your house is filled with smoke and then you run around waving towels at them to get the noise to stop.

That's the entire west coast right now.

i-TFr3nBk-X2.jpg


At the moment Portland has the worst air quality of any city in the entire world. Air Quality Index, a number used to measure, obviously, air quality is generally considered good under 50 and unhealthy over 100. Over 300 is hazardous. Our air in Portland was over 400 yesterday and outside of town, closer to the fires, has been spiking over 700.

If you would like to donate to help out the best place, as usual, is to American Red Cross. This morning Judiaann is going to go and help prepare meals for those displaced and staying at the convention center.



__________________________________________________​




While I should be staying inside right now that is where I am every day with my current job working from 4am until 9pm in front of a screen. It's a very hard project as we've had to limit all extra help due to Covid but I am not complaining because I'm very happy for the work.

My antidote for too much time spent shooting and retouching is to get into the shop. Each time I go in the shop I get this immediate wave of fear as the smell of smoke hits me and then I'm reminded that smell is just our new normal. Nonetheless I want, rather I need, to spend some time in the shop and physically do something with my hands.

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In the last post I tried to route the new controls for the Gravely and discovered that the exhaust had been mounted upsidedown preventing a straight run. I ordered a new aftermarket exhaust manifold anticipating the rust on the old one would make it a lost cause. I was right.

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Despite soaking the bolts in PB Blaster for a week the bolts, of course, sheered off when I tried to remove the manifold. My normal goto for a sheered bolt, if there is any threads left, is to thread a nut onto the end and weld it on. This will normally heat shock the bolt and get it release.

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It did not work and the bolt simply sheered off again. Plan C is to drill it out. The process to drill out a frozen bolt for me is this group of tools from right to left. First I will either grind or file the bolt flat.

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The flat surface lets you make a solid center punch in the middle of the bolt. This is important to get right as you will be drilling through the bolt and you don't want to be removing anything but the bolt if possible.

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Next I use a countersink/hole starting bit to enlarge the punch mark and help the drill bit stay on center.

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Then, with lots of cutting fluid, steady pressure and a slow speed I drill through the bolt with a small drill bit. Certain drill bits get used a lot so I always look for the odd sizes that aren't used much as I know they'll be sharp.

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I then drill with progressively larger bits until I get to the size recommended for tapping the size of the bolt that I'm attempting to remove. In this case 1/4-20 so the drill I chose was two sizes below the recommenced tap drill size - I think it was .189" You can see I'm not quite perfectly centered. The "right" way to have done this would be to remove the head and jig it on the Bridgeport so as to have the perfect rigidity and alignment.

I like to keep my repairs "period correct" or maybe "application appropriate" and this is a tractor so I've already done too much.

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I used a tapered tap so as to have a better shot of keeping straight and slowly taking out the left over bits of metal. Hopefully I did not remove any (or much) of the material in the head and the tap simply took out the remaining bits of metal left from the bolt.

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The new bolts went in perfect and straight so it seems like I did a good job. I used plenty of anti-seize on the bolts and then on the NPT threads to help mitigate this in the future.

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I had to get a slightly longer stub tube to replace the one that came with the kit but it's just a simple 1.5" plumbing pipe so it was easy to find.

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The fan shroud and the tank both seem like they've been abused, mangled and bent over the years and I've decided (just don't, just don't say anything) to replace them as I've found a pretty good source for used parts. It's obviously a mission creep thing but the tank boss on the bottom looks like it's been mangled beyond repair and I don't want to bother trying to fix what I can replace. I think I can tolerate a broken part better than I can tolerate a poor repair job. What you're seeing above is horrible stick or mig welds that were ground down but the backside is just globs of metal. Sure, I could repair it but why bother if a replacement is $20-40 and it's clean.

i-hrSD7zd-X2.jpg


I replaced the cotter pins on the controls with P-clips since I have had to remove them about 3-4 times now and unbending a cotter pin is getting old.

Next up is tires and wheels.

Gregor
 
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sakurama

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Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
1,458
Location
Portland - the cool one.
R-clips seems more accurate but I think the official name is "Hairpin Cotter Pins" according to McMaster who I will consider the last word. If you search for "R-clips" you get a McMaster link to "Hairpin Cotter Pins" and that page also clearly says R-clips.

https://www.mcmaster.com/r-clips/

So I was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong...

Gregor
 

TwoBytes

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
790
Location
Canberra, 'Stralia
Great "period correct"/"application appropriate" repairs on the Gravely, it's looking really nice!

Friday I left the studio I'm renting in SE Portland to pick up some powder coated parts and the air was so thick with smoke you can't see but a few hundred meters down the road. It's hard to convey what this is like as photos aren't really doing it justice.

It looks like fog but it's smoke.

The best way I can describe it is if you've ever started a fire in your fireplace but left the flu closed and then walked out of the room. By the time the smoke detectors have gone off your house is filled with smoke and then you run around waving towels at them to get the noise to stop.

That's the entire west coast right now.

At the moment Portland has the worst air quality of any city in the entire world. Air Quality Index, a number used to measure, obviously, air quality is generally considered good under 50 and unhealthy over 100. Over 300 is hazardous. Our air in Portland was over 400 yesterday and outside of town, closer to the fires, has been spiking over 700.

I really hate to say "I know how you feel", but, well, I think I know how you feel.

We lived through a scarily similar situation here in January, with Canberra regularly hitting #1 for the worst air quality in the world...
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/st...s-of-canberra-20-times-above-hazardous-level/

"the Monash air quality station had an index rating of 4998. Anything above 200 is considered hazardous."

Stay safe mate!
 
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sakurama

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Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
1,458
Location
Portland - the cool one.
One of the things I remember about the old Gravely we had was the white grips and the small button on the handlebar that would kill the motor. I'd ordered both.

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I drilled a small hole in the bottom of the right handlebar above the solid slug that was at the mount and ran very thin bit of welding wire through and then made a loop to hold the copper wire.

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That's dust. Remember, this tractor is older and dustier than I am.

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Because I'd replaced this bar end with some new tubing to get rid of the pitted rusty mess the diameter of the bar was just a bit thinner than stock. I made a quick spacer with some very light knurling so that it would tap in lightly.

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It really feels like I'm restoring an antique car the way that everything is so primitive. I guess it's like that but without the reward of ending up with an antique car...

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The tractor came with a bunch of good parts and one of them was spare rims and dual tire adapters. I didn't want to mess with the rims as they're split and the idea of stripping the paint and rust off of 8 rim halves plus the spacers was not appealing. I caved and sent them off to powdercoat. And also ordered actual tractor tread tires so it would have some good grip.

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Aside from the grip offered by the extra tires the big advantage is that the tractor can traverse a 60 degree side slope with the duals on it.

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That's pretty dang steep but a low CG and wide stance evidently give a lot of stability.

Wow, I'm talking about lawn tractor stance. What the hell has happened to this thread? It's like I'm taunting you to unsubscribe.

i-jKWKrtj-X2.jpg


From left to right, my how we've fallen. Tomorrow I'll be knitting cover for it.

Gregor
 

SW50th

Active member
Joined
Oct 30, 2007
Messages
30
Location
Portland, OR
Does the Gravely have a snow plow attachment? With all that we've gone through this year, maybe you'll need one!
Great stuff as always Gregor-
 

gasgas17

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
443
Location
Nova Scotia, Canada
Back in the early 90's there were bad forest fires in the province of Quebec. We were working outside on a commercial building not far from here where I live in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It was 12 noon and the skies went dark! The smoke had drifted over all the way from Quebec and it was dark outside in the middle of the day. Businesses where all turning on their lit signs. It was pretty eerie. I can only imagine how frightening it must be for folks on the west coast right now. I hope things turn around for you soon. Hugs from the east.
 

lilscorpion

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 15, 2010
Messages
3,600
Location
Colorado
Daym that turned out nice. During summers in high school I walked behind a 48” wide triple blade mower all day. They were beasts as far as mowers go but they were babies compared to that thing. The 48’s we had couldn’t side hill for **** but with the duals in that I bet it would stay on a hill better than the operator could. Hell, I kinda wish I could stop by and give that hotrod a go...

Thing is super sweet. Nice job.
 
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