Gravely Owners - Feedback needed

[mtmower]

I had some stragglers with my 460 so I thought I'd check the deck pitch and long story short miss adjusted it and it didn't help things. Got it back in the shop and corrected my problem. With my fuel tanks half full, no operator on the seat, and all four tires set a 12 psi I readjusted the deck for the 3.5" setting putting the front at 3.5" and the rear at 3 1/8". Thought I was done and tried to put the deck in transport lock and it would not go. Played around another hour and came to the same conclusion I've read about with guys running Exmarks and some other brands. You can't adjust the deck correctly and still achieve transport height lock. Backed it off till it will barely lock if I pop it up fast and must mash the peddle and forcibly pull the release loose to drop it. At this point everything is off by 1/8". With final settings for 3.5", with front at 3 1/8" and rear at barley 3.5". Not very impressed but I guess if it's the worst problem I find with the unit I can live with my cut being 1/8" off from the gauge. Gravely is there anything I'm missing?

[ProStreetCamaro]

I did find something I am not crazy about today with my 460. It never dawned on me how far out the gas tanks sit compared to my 160Z. I like to use the overhang of the mower deck to get under stuff like raised decks on a house. Well I snagged a bolt sticking out of a customers deck and almost ripped a hole in the gas tank. It has a chunk sticking out now but did not penetrate all the way. There seems to be 2 layers to the tank with some kind of white grainy material between the layers. Kind of upset me because the machine is so new and looks so good and here it is damaged already. I know its not gravelys fault. I wish the tanks were a little more inboard so you could use the trim side of the deck to get under stuff. Now I have to make a conscious effort to not do that again.

Other than that I would highly recommend the entire gravely line (100,200 and 400 series) to anybody in the business. The 400 series is so smooth and comfortable it is unreal. Job well done guys and girls!

[Gravely Commercial]

Originally Posted by mtmower

I had some stragglers with my 460 so I thought I'd check the deck pitch and long story short miss adjusted it and it didn't help things. Got it back in the shop and corrected my problem. With my fuel tanks half full, no operator on the seat, and all four tires set a 12 psi I readjusted the deck for the 3.5" setting putting the front at 3.5" and the rear at 3 1/8". Thought I was done and tried to put the deck in transport lock and it would not go. Played around another hour and came to the same conclusion I've read about with guys running Exmarks and some other brands. You can't adjust the deck correctly and still achieve transport height lock. Backed it off till it will barely lock if I pop it up fast and must mash the peddle and forcibly pull the release loose to drop it. At this point everything is off by 1/8". With final settings for 3.5", with front at 3 1/8" and rear at barley 3.5". Not very impressed but I guess if it's the worst problem I find with the unit I can live with my cut being 1/8" off from the gauge. Gravely is there anything I'm missing?

Something is not set right on your deck as it should not be leaving stragglers. You should contact your Gravely dealer as there are a couple things they can check to fix this for you.

Thanks.

[watsmi57]

Originally Posted by mtmower

OCDC is very poor design. Hard to function even when loosened up, chute flap is in the way and effects clippings dispersal, and hard to operate due to clippings getting stuck in air holes and being chopped off or forced through the slot when trying to raise/open.

I hate to hear you don't like your OCDC. I love mine! Maybe I can help. I had some similiar issues when mine was first put on too.

I had already removed the rubber chute. That's the first thing to go on all my new mowers. I didn't see ANY use for it anyway since I had the OCDC installed. I find them useful for one thing only, and that's piling up grass. So to the trash it went. Well once I took it off. It caused the blocker to come out of position when I raised it all the way up. It turned out the rubber chute acts as a spacer and without it the chute blocker would get "hung up". I couldn't pull it all the way up or I would have to get off the mower and line it back up to get it to go back down. Well, if I couldn't pull it all the way up the clipping dispersal wasn't as good because the chute was partially blocked. I wound up welding two small pieces of angle iron on either side of the blocker to extend the channel that it slides up and down in. This keeps it in line and allows me to pull it all the way up. I will upload a couple of pics in this message so you can see what I did.

I have thought of a simpler solution since then. I could have just cut the rubber chute off right there where it bolts on and got the same effect. The "spacer" would still be there, just not the rest of the rubber chute.

The only time I can't pull it up is when there is something caught in one or some of the holes. Grass does not seem to prevent it from raising up but a small stick will. I have actually bent my control arm and had to bend it back in place because it was hung up and I tried to force it. Turned out a hole size piece of wood was stuck in one of the holes.

The only complaint I have about the OCDC is it kind of piles grass up on the top of the right side of the deck. That could be my fault though for taking off the rubber chute. I try to blow my deck off at the end of everyday so not a big issue.

As far as blades and stragglers. I loved the stock Gravely blades but they are too high at my dealer. My dealer carries a hi lift blade that is about $11 and they are just as thick. With our sandy conditions down here I pretty much get to run a set of blades until they are dull and it's time to throw them away. I get about 30-40 hours out of a set of blades. I thought about trying the G6 blades but mulching blades last even less time in our sand. I did find out that Agrisupply has G6 blades to fit our Gravely's for about $16 apiece. I don't know what you guys are paying for them???

My mowers do seem to like sharp blades as well. The only time I have stragglers is when I am either going too fast or I have dull blades. If they are new sharp blades I can cut at a faster speed than when they are dull. The duller the blade, the slower I need to cut to eliminate stragglers. This includes cutting bahia. When I find myself going slower than I like to cut and start seeing a bunch of stragglers then I know it's time to change blades.

[mtmower]

Originally Posted by watsmi57

I hate to hear you don't like your OCDC. I love mine! Maybe I can help. I had some similiar issues when mine was first put on too.

I had already removed the rubber chute. That's the first thing to go on all my new mowers. I didn't see ANY use for it anyway since I had the OCDC installed. I find them useful for one thing only, and that's piling up grass. So to the trash it went. Well once I took it off. It caused the blocker to come out of position when I raised it all the way up. It turned out the rubber chute acts as a spacer and without it the chute blocker would get "hung up". I couldn't pull it all the way up or I would have to get off the mower and line it back up to get it to go back down. Well, if I couldn't pull it all the way up the clipping dispersal wasn't as good because the chute was partially blocked. I wound up welding two small pieces of angle iron on either side of the blocker to extend the channel that it slides up and down in. This keeps it in line and allows me to pull it all the way up. I will upload a couple of pics in this message so you can see what I did.

I have thought of a simpler solution since then. I could have just cut the rubber chute off right there where it bolts on and got the same effect. The "spacer" would still be there, just not the rest of the rubber chute.

The only time I can't pull it up is when there is something caught in one or some of the holes. Grass does not seem to prevent it from raising up but a small stick will. I have actually bent my control arm and had to bend it back in place because it was hung up and I tried to force it. Turned out a hole size piece of wood was stuck in one of the holes.

The only complaint I have about the OCDC is it kind of piles grass up on the top of the right side of the deck. That could be my fault though for taking off the rubber chute. I try to blow my deck off at the end of everyday so not a big issue.

As far as blades and stragglers. I loved the stock Gravely blades but they are too high at my dealer. My dealer carries a hi lift blade that is about $11 and they are just as thick. With our sandy conditions down here I pretty much get to run a set of blades until they are dull and it's time to throw them away. I get about 30-40 hours out of a set of blades. I thought about trying the G6 blades but mulching blades last even less time in our sand. I did find out that Agrisupply has G6 blades to fit our Gravely's for about $16 apiece. I don't know what you guys are paying for them???

My mowers do seem to like sharp blades as well. The only time I have stragglers is when I am either going too fast or I have dull blades. If they are new sharp blades I can cut at a faster speed than when they are dull. The duller the blade, the slower I need to cut to eliminate stragglers. This includes cutting bahia. When I find myself going slower than I like to cut and start seeing a bunch of stragglers then I know it's time to change blades.

Thanks for the info. You must have really been wailing on it to bend it. I gotta say they built them heavy duty. I'm guess they're close to 30lbs. of metal there. I have the same feelings about the rubber chutes. They effect the clipping dispersal too much negatively. When installing mine I also tried installing it without the rubber chute and found the same problem. My first thought was cut the chute, but even though I wasn't going to use it, I didn't want to cut it in case I sold it to someone later or need it for some reason. I was going to take a piece of conveyor rubber and make an identical spacer and then have a metal shop make another upper piece of metal with the slot and holes, but shorter so it didn't turn down at the front and rear or stick out quite as far. I also didn't care for the long throw/travel of the leaver and how far out you had to lean/reach to work it. I called my dealer and he just said to bring it back and he would reimburse me. So now I'm looking at either a Power Chute or Grass Flap. I have run all hand operated OCDCs up till now, including homemade, and manufactured, and I'm going foot operated this time. Glad yours is doing well for you though.

[mtmower]

Originally Posted by Gravely Commercial

Something is not set right on your deck as it should not be leaving stragglers. You should contact your Gravely dealer as there are a couple things they can check to fix this for you.

Thanks.

It was my fault. I messed up the pitch. After correcting the pitch to 1/8" it was much better. Also it was like 12:30 am when I wrote the post and I gave my measurements incorrectly. I now have the deck pitch with the rear 1/8" higher than the front. Talking to my rep he recommended going to 1/4" for the best results. I'm going to try this and see if things get even better. My only beef is this will put my gauge reading off by a little over 1/4" in order to have the deck adjusted to get it into transportation mode. If I go from the humped OEM blade to a flat blade (which also may improve on lift/vacuum) this will counter act the inaccuracy of the gauge reading a little.

At just at 10 hrs. on the machine, when I engaged the deck yesterday at idle my main deck drive belt jumped off. It was easy enough to install and tensioner pulley seemed to have adequate tension so I can't for the life of me figure out why it came off. I went ahead and added a little more tension as a possible remedy.

[mtmower]

Originally Posted by ProStreetCamaro

I did find something I am not crazy about today with my 460. It never dawned on me how far out the gas tanks sit compared to my 160Z. I like to use the overhang of the mower deck to get under stuff like raised decks on a house. Well I snagged a bolt sticking out of a customers deck and almost ripped a hole in the gas tank. It has a chunk sticking out now but did not penetrate all the way. There seems to be 2 layers to the tank with some kind of white grainy material between the layers. Kind of upset me because the machine is so new and looks so good and here it is damaged already. I know its not gravelys fault. I wish the tanks were a little more inboard so you could use the trim side of the deck to get under stuff. Now I have to make a conscious effort to not do that again.

Other than that I would highly recommend the entire gravely line (100,200 and 400 series) to anybody in the business. The 400 series is so smooth and comfortable it is unreal. Job well done guys and girls!

I also notice I need to watch the tanks more on this mower more but due their height more then their width. The wheel assembly extends out past the tanks, so unless you have something higher than the wheel, the wheel should contact first. It was the same for the ROPs which magically disappeared from my 460. Height wasn't as much of a factor as width. Most of my issues are around apple trees and such with their low branches coming out at an angle.
I know Gravely states 13.4 gallon tank capacity but yesterday I ran one dry and filling it to where they recommend I only was able to get about 5.5 gallons in one. At 13.4 gallons I should be able to get 6.70 gallons in one. Are they counting the EPA dead space for fumes?????

[Gravely Commercial]

Originally Posted by mtmower

It was my fault. I messed up the pitch. After correcting the pitch to 1/8" it was much better. Also it was like 12:30 am when I wrote the post and I gave my measurements incorrectly. I now have the deck pitch with the rear 1/8" higher than the front. Talking to my rep he recommended going to 1/4" for the best results. I'm going to try this and see if things get even better. My only beef is this will put my gauge reading off by a little over 1/4" in order to have the deck adjusted to get it into transportation mode. If I go from the humped OEM blade to a flat blade (which also may improve on lift/vacuum) this will counter act the inaccuracy of the gauge reading a little.

At just at 10 hrs. on the machine, when I engaged the deck yesterday at idle my main deck drive belt jumped off. It was easy enough to install and tensioner pulley seemed to have adequate tension so I can't for the life of me figure out why it came off. I went ahead and added a little more tension as a possible remedy.

You mentioned you adjusted the tensioner pulley, but another thing you could check is the spring next to the idler as it may need adjusting. There is a nut on the end of the I-bolt on the spring that may need more tension.

If you still have an issue after adjusting the tension on the spring, it may need realignment.

Thanks.

[mtmower]

Originally Posted by Gravely Commercial

You mentioned you adjusted the tensioner pulley, but another thing you could check is the spring next to the idler as it may need adjusting. There is a nut on the end of the I-bolt on the spring that may need more tension.

If you still have an issue after adjusting the tension on the spring, it may need realignment.

Thanks.

The spring is actually what I adjusted using the eye bolt to add tension to the tensioner pulley. I've mowed a few properties since and no problem yet. Even before I added tension to the spring, the spring was stretched enough that there was very slight spacing in between the coils so I'm not sure adding tension did much. What is the process to align the pulleys if it reoccurs?

[grasshopperslawn]

We currently run 6 Gravely mowers.

3 pro turn 48" 2 with mulch kits and one with ocdc. 2009,2010, and 2011
1gravely 34"z with mulch kit 2010
1 gravely 36" walk behind with mulch kit (2011)
1 gravely 60" 260z with ocdc 2012
we are in the process of changing our whole fleet over to all gravely machine in the next year.
We cut different varieties of grass.
St Augustine , Cetepede, Bermuda, Bahai
We service Southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We serve over 1100 customers.
Grasshopper Lawns is my company.

Gravely has been good to us no major problems . Just regular maintenance.