The "What followed me home" thread

Hey Al, Nice find. Those Gravely tractors are a solid machine. I grew up walking many miles behind an identical machine. Yours has high and low ground speed which is very useful. You can also put a charcoal gasifier on it and ditch the gasoline.
Gary

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I would try cleaning the heat exchanger extra clean and see if that helps, that is part of the cooling before the rails, If it works dont fix it. happy wood driveing miles.

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Hi all, Had a little time to mess with the Gravely, It now has spark, and compression, changed oil, and filter. Now to pull carb. and clean, and see what it may need. This 8hp engine is neat, has an oil pump, and automotive spin on filter, and a belt driven cooling fan.

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Yup those are very nice machines. I don’t know about parts though. A friend of mine is into them bigtime he has 4 or 5 of them now. About 10 years ago the line was sold again as part of a merger and he had a hard time getting something he needed. It was a big cast part if I remember correctly. But in the used market there are alot of them around commercial lawn mowing companies used then everywhere before the zero turn mowers became the big deal.

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Did a little research, Ben Franklin Gravely built the first machine right here in West by god Virginia 1916. https://www.gravely.com/100years/timeline/

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What a great pictorial history show, Al, thanks for posting.
Pepe

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The Koreans and other asian countries use a lot of the smaller 2 wheeled machines, at least from what I have seen on youtube. like hillers, soybean harvesting and stuff.

The western rootworm is making it’s way into europe. It lays eggs on corn, then the larvae feed on roots the following year. If the larvae can’t find corn they die. I would definitely rotate where you plant corn.

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Actually for accessories for small 2 wheel tractors just contact @Chris he is right in the business IIRC.

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Picked these 10 solar panels up for 27 cents per watt, shipped

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Looks like the ranger is earning its wood meal. Keep us posted on your solor project, price sounds good.And thanks for the ride in the ranger at argos, the little 4 cyl had good enough power, like all 4 cyl they use the lower gears a little longer.

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I don’t get it. I go out trolling a lot but nothing ever follows me home.:sob: TomC

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Tom, when you go trolling you gotta use the right bait! I find some of that green paper works well around here. I think it mustbe the smell of the dead presidents that draw the junque in.

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0.27/watt is a great great deal. Any more left for the taking?

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Try santansolar.com They have new and used panels.

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Yes, those Santasolar “snail track” panels have been working out really good for me and my neighbor. We have several hundred of the 245 watt panels working with the Enphase M215 microinverters. (Picked up 90 more just two weeks ago.) Now, we can’t find the interconnecting cables to go with them. Used to be the single phase cables could be found in large quantities for about $15/drop. The three phase cables will work if you don’t mind cutting out the ones that don’t have the right connections. My neighbor is cranking out over 300 kWh per day which the power company buys for approximately six cents/kWh. Ground mount is the way to go. The problem now is that the telephone pole mounted transformers are not able to handle the power. The neighbor is in the process of having the power company swap out his standard transformers for bigger units.


To get around the overload problem, the photo above shows panels in an East/West configuration to make power early in the morning and later in the afternoon, while a large array on the barn roof pointing South puts out large amounts of power around solar noon. This flattens out the solar generation curve because with two much power the line voltage climbs to around 260 volts, and when that happens the inverters shut down. The power is lost.

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Look what followed me home!

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OMG!! What is it??? More info, pictures andPLANS. TomC

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What year is this truck, a little more information on it please.
Bob

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YEEES, FINALLY :smile: :smile: :smile:
A pickup in Slovenia?
It’s not a Scoda, is it? Similar, but it looks a little different.
Details please! And a photo of the motor compartment.

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Yep. Its a Škoda pickup. 93, 1.3l, pushrod, carb, distributor, metalic inttake… 57hp but only 860kg (1800pounds?) of weight so it feels good while driveing.

It has a tiny bed but l allmost felt dizzy looking at all the space :smile: same on motor compartment. Such a simple system.

I was looking for a small pickup like this for at least 4 years now. Usualy they sell preety much the hour they are on the adds or are crazy expensive. This morning l stumbled upon this one, cheap, reasonably healthy, and near by. We were early enough to get all the paperwork done in buisness hours, drive home and do some work with it, delivering firewood and moveing some livestock.

Plans. Woodgas ofcorse :smile: when time alows. I have 2 gasifiers at hand for it, one lmbert one wk. Or l will make a entirely new one. Will see. I do want the gasifier to be useable as well to power the sawmill. Have one system power 2 things.

I do not plan to break any speed records with this small engine on woos, but right now a penny saved means a world to us. This thing was cheap but still sealed us till “the end of the month” (we get payed on 15th of the month). I hope l will find a buyer for some firewood at least, now that l have a delivery vehicle :wink:

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