Anybody here have any opinions on a Gravely ZT HD 52

mx842

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  • / Anybody here have any opinions on a Gravely ZT HD 52
I had been looking for a replacement for my Wheel horse 520H that got burned up in my shop fire. I had been thing about a ZTR for a long time now and the other day I was at a dealer looking for a new chain saw to replace my Stihl 044 with and once I was done with that I asked about lawn mowers. He took me out back to where all his mowers were. All he had was toro, Gravely, and Cub Cadet and I knew I didn't want any part of that one. I looked at the Toro's and as they all looked fairly good but the residential mowers just looked off and the cheapest commercial mower was over $14,000.00 and I wasn't ready to spend that much at the time. What I really wanted was a used low hour commercial mower but he didn't have anything at the time.
The I looked at the Gravelys. The first one was their basic bear bones mower and I didn't like that one at all. I looked at a couple more then I got to the ZT HD with a 52" deck. This one was explaned to me as the last step before their commercial line. It has a nice fabricated deck, good power for what I plan to do with it and the same basic spindels that the commercial mowers have.
I like to buy commercial grade stuff when I can because when I buy something I want it to be around awhile. Like my old 044 that I ran hard for almost 30 years and would be around for another 30 if it had not been in the building that burned to the ground. I had an old Gravely walk behind that was 50 years old and that thing would take just about anything I could throw at it. Anyway, I bought the ZT-HD 52 and am going to pick it up this morning. Also I normally do plenty or research before I buy something but this time I have just been to busy cleaning up the mess and dealing with the insurance co to look around. Does anyone have one that could possibly share how yours is doing. Thanks.....
 

kirboom

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  • / Anybody here have any opinions on a Gravely ZT HD 52
I have been looking at zero turns for about a month now and a ZT HD 52" with the Kawasaki engine was in my top 3 finalists. I really liked that it comes with commercial-grade serviceable transmissions and strong engine options which are more than enough for residential use. Heck, 10 years ago it would have been marketed as a commercial mower and I've seen lawn crews using them as part of their daily fleet. Another nice thing is that Gravely dealers and repair shops are everywhere, so parts, service, and accessories are readily available.

There were two main negatives I read about that you may want to be aware of:
  1. The very common Gravely deck rattle. It can be mitigated a bit and there were discussions about a silencing kit coming available soon, but if you're wearing ear protection then you probably won't hear it anyway.
  2. The blade drive belt coming loose due to the non-adjustable tensioner not being quite right. Most people do not have a problem with theirs, but others have reported that their belt is always loose and either slaps around or even slips off while mowing. This is a known issue at Gravely and a fix is reported to be under development. Again, most people never have this issue and their tensioner has worked as expected for years, but it is something to be aware of. Belt checks should be part of routine inspection anyway, so just keep an eye on it.
Ultimately I went with a commercial mower which costed a good bit more (Maverick HD w/ Honda engine), but I would have been fine with the Gravely HD instead and could have saved a few grand in the process.
 

StarTech

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  • / Anybody here have any opinions on a Gravely ZT HD 52
What do mean non adjustable deck tensioners. Both belts uses springs loaded tensioner arms so the tension is auto adjusted. Now if you don't the arm's pivots greased they do tend bind up but that is a lack of maintenance issue. OR at the two Gravely HD52 currently in the shop has this system along the Ariens version sitting out there with a blown engine. Same mower just a different cosmetic package.
 

kirboom

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  • / Anybody here have any opinions on a Gravely ZT HD 52
What do mean non adjustable deck tensioners. Both belts uses springs loaded tensioner arms so the tension is auto adjusted. Now if you don't the arm's pivots greased they do tend bind up but that is a lack of maintenance issue. OR at the two Gravely HD52 currently in the shop has this system along the Ariens version sitting out there with a blown engine. Same mower just a different cosmetic package.
I worded myself poorly. Yes, it is auto-adjusted from the spring-loaded tensioner arms, but you can't manually adjust it to add more tension in cases where the belt is loose. Ideally, and in the majority of situations, you never need to. That all said, it's not something I've personally dealt with or have experience with. It's just something that came up in a few of the discussion boards about the ZT HD during my research.
 
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