Gravely Westchester
- Thread starter Sawdust
- Start date
Now that's a cool styling. Seems like a 50s or 60s futuristic style.
Tag says Division of Studebaker. That would make it early 60s unless Studebaker kept that part of it.
edit....Found on Wikipedia
Ben Gravely sold his stock in Gravely Tractor in 1940 and died thirteen years later. His company was gradually acquired by the Studebaker Corporation by 1960 and later sold off by Studebaker-Worthington.
Studebaker purchased Gravely to strengthen the Studebaker Corporation, but decisions that were causing Studebaker to decline also affected Gravely Tractor. With a strong work force at the Dunbar, WV, plant, wages had increased. Studebaker presumed moving the plant to North Carolina would allow them to hire farm workers at a lower wage. They asked the management team to move to the new factory. Building a large facility at Winston-Salem, they made the move. However, in the same area GE built a plant for motors and other units, and a large beer producer built a brewery for their products. They started employees at almost $3.45 per hour which was $1.45 more than Gravely paid at Dunbar and $2.00 per hour more than they had hoped to pay in the new plant. The management then tried to recruit former employees, but only a few went. Most of those returned home within a year. With a lack of workers and other problems, the tractor started to decline. To head off further problems and attempt to save money, they opted to purchase outsourced engines to retrofit on the Gravely tractor. This stopped the production of the Gravely built engine which was simple and efficient. Studebaker eventually got out of Gravely. Due to a large amount of loyal owners, Gravely survived, but did lose much of their large market share to competing companies.
edit....Found on Wikipedia
Ben Gravely sold his stock in Gravely Tractor in 1940 and died thirteen years later. His company was gradually acquired by the Studebaker Corporation by 1960 and later sold off by Studebaker-Worthington.
Studebaker purchased Gravely to strengthen the Studebaker Corporation, but decisions that were causing Studebaker to decline also affected Gravely Tractor. With a strong work force at the Dunbar, WV, plant, wages had increased. Studebaker presumed moving the plant to North Carolina would allow them to hire farm workers at a lower wage. They asked the management team to move to the new factory. Building a large facility at Winston-Salem, they made the move. However, in the same area GE built a plant for motors and other units, and a large beer producer built a brewery for their products. They started employees at almost $3.45 per hour which was $1.45 more than Gravely paid at Dunbar and $2.00 per hour more than they had hoped to pay in the new plant. The management then tried to recruit former employees, but only a few went. Most of those returned home within a year. With a lack of workers and other problems, the tractor started to decline. To head off further problems and attempt to save money, they opted to purchase outsourced engines to retrofit on the Gravely tractor. This stopped the production of the Gravely built engine which was simple and efficient. Studebaker eventually got out of Gravely. Due to a large amount of loyal owners, Gravely survived, but did lose much of their large market share to competing companies.
Poncho I was reading that last night and fell asleep and planned on posting it this morning thanks for posting. Here is some more info on this, very interesting the same folks that designed the Avanti had their hands at designing this tractor.
www.gravely.com
A Machine That Didn’t Meet Gravely Standards | Gravely
www.gravely.com