Cleaning lawn of branches

[GeneV]

Hadn't heard of a Bradley so i had to look them up - couldn't stop laughing. They are a walk behind or stand on and are talking about "Greatly reduce operator fatigue..." I'm thinking ues you could if you would put a seat on them. Sorry - not being critical of a mower just an interesting comment for a walk-behind/standon mower company.

All the landscapers around here are mainly on standers now.

 

[kenmbz]

Mostly still on Z-turns around here. 3-20 acre lots. Lots of Toro if you can believe that.

I will need to use the forks, Backhoe with thumb and chainsaws to do the branch pickup in the back area. Dead ash and lots of tulip poplars make big branch drops interspersed with tree trunks.

Would be nice to have a grapple, but no $ for 3rd function and grapple right now.

 

[ruffdog]

I just picked up the dead branches that fell during the winter months. We filled 4 trailer loads (small 4x8 trailer) and pull it with the cub cadet. It sure is a lot of walking around and bending over but it cleans it the best. I sure would like to try a pine needle rake modified to be forward facing and mounted on the loader. That way I would be raking the twigs/branches without running them over first.

 

[WinterDeere]

All the landscapers around here are mainly on standers now.

I wonder if this varies with region / part of the country, or more just with neighborhood, and what size lawns they're mowing. A stander seems like it'd be great for mowing smaller lawns, but much less fun when every house in the neighborhood has 6 acre lawns in hilly terrain.

So, what's "around here" mean to you?

Most of my neighbors are mowing 4 - 6 acres, and every last one of these are mowed with 60" zero turns, either homeowner or hired. There are two neighbors with smaller lots (2-3 ac.?), and they both have 52" lawn tractors. Up the road a bit further, I see several houses mowed with standers or 48" walk-behinds, but they're on a flat plateau and mostly wooded lots with less lawn and more trees.

The only advantage I can imagine for a stander on a larger open property is less likelihood of getting drowsy when mowing all day. As fast and bumpy as a 60" commercial zero turn can be, you can get drowsy after several straight hours of making stripes... almost like counting sheep.

 

[2manyrocks]

Middle Tennessee--mostly I see zero turns and residential riding lawn mowers.

I think the advantages of standers are that commercial mowers can squeeze more of them onto a trailer to run larger crews and supposedly standers have lower centers of gravity when it comes to hills. And they don't have to contend with sulkies like the older walk behinds used.

 

[GeneV]

I wonder if this varies with region / part of the country, or more just with neighborhood, and what size lawns they're mowing. A stander seems like it'd be great for mowing smaller lawns, but much less fun when every house in the neighborhood has 6 acre lawns in hilly terrain.

So, what's "around here" mean to you?

Most of my neighbors are mowing 4 - 6 acres, and every last one of these are mowed with 60" zero turns, either homeowner or hired. There are two neighbors with smaller lots (2-3 ac.?), and they both have 52" lawn tractors. Up the road a bit further, I see several houses mowed with standers or 48" walk-behinds, but they're on a flat plateau and mostly wooded lots with less lawn and more trees.

The only advantage I can imagine for a stander on a larger open property is less likelihood of getting drowsy when mowing all day. As fast and bumpy as a 60" commercial zero turn can be, you can get drowsy after several straight hours of making stripes... almost like counting sheep.

Ha, I love how these threads morph! But yeh anyways, I'm in the Chicago area. My lot and the guy next to me have the 2 smaller lots on our road, around 2.6 acres. The rest of the lots around here are around 5 acres. We're all on hilly terrain, with yards that slope down into floodplains.

The landscaping crew is out there now, they're doing the house on either side of me, one across the road, and the property 2 houses down from here. They got 3 standers and a sitdown z-turn. Another crew that works the properties down the road from here has the same setup, 3 standers and sitdown z-turn. They're all on 52-60" decks.

Also, we just got back from walking our dog down a neighboring road...crews working there were all standers, no sit-down mower at all.

It's certainly true that standers save room on a trailer, so that's part of it. But, ask a landscaper who does this for a living what they prefer to use, what's more convenient, more comfortable, and less tiring...and it's a stander. I only mow my own property, but I could for sure attest.

 

[GeneV]

Go youtube "stand on vs sit down mowers", lots of vids out there.

 

[ruffdog]

A landscape rake on the loader.......

 

[GeneV]

A landscape rake on the loader.......

I like it

 

[ruffdog]

Wow...this is simple.