It was a good idea then; it is a good idea now. Who needs all of those small engines to maintain.

This Gravely style is a big improvement over the original Troy modular concept of the 50s. With the original Troy, the engine and hand control bars were a separate unit and each attachment had its own drive system. It was a real ****-buster to move the engine unit between attachments.

Yeah, there's that outfit out of Oregon (starts with a B) that's been doing this for a long time now. I think they sell mostly to rental outfits.

Only problem is that Troy-Bilt is now made by MTD, so don't know that the quality will be there. You'll likely end up with a jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none, meaning it won't do any job particularly well. For example, MTD's two-stage snow throwers are pretty crappy (I know, because I own one), they have loose factory tolerances - can't imagine this unit would be any better. The engine is mounted kinda high up for the lawn mower, might upset handling a little, and who knows what the deck is like. Time will tell....

Like all "do everything" tools, will do everything, but not as well as a "purpose built" tool.

There's also the whole "if the engine dies" issue. There are power heads that have attachments for string trimmers, cultivators, etc. etc. Looked at a Stighl once, was shocked at the cost of the attachments.

I have a Gravely LI from the 60's with a couple of attachments, what a beast! No comparison between those and what is in the original post.

My late father had the Briggs 8 hp Troy-bilt tiller, the big one. He was considering getting the 4000 watt generator attachment for it.
But the generator attachment cost as much as a complete Homelite generator with essentially the same Briggs 8 hp engine. No labor to install the generator on the tiller and no extra wear on the tiller engine-- and the same money expended.