Have you built a leaf vacum?

[Ductape]

Its getting close to leaf pickup time here. I've been browsing at leaf collection systems and have thoughts of building my own. Has anyone here built one that they can post pictures of? I've been looking at vacs on Ebay, such as the 10 - 13 hp "Billygoat" style leaf suckers the lawn care guys use. I have a Woods L59 belly mower on my tractor, and i'm thinking i need a fair amount of vacum to suck up everything in its path. Would one of these larger units be overkill? Or... would 6 -7 hp be more appropriate? I've been browsing at the DR, Cyclone rake, etc. for ideas..... but still thinking i'd like to make my own. I will need a self powered unit, my mower is powered off of my rear PTO. I also THINK i like the type that use a couple large , plastic, industrial sized trash cans to collect the debris...... instead of a tow behind type of hopper. I'm looking to clear about an acre and a half.... not a huge area.

Any thoughts?

 

[MrJimi]

The gadget we all need is a vacuum with a mulching capabilities, mulch and vac at same time.
Jim

 

[CharlieTR]

Have not built one myself, but my last house had many trees and I wanted to buy a Billy Goat. Then found one to rent for a weekend. The land was average sized suburban lot but so many leaves I had to stop and dump that darn thing every 30 seconds. It was exhausting. After that I just did it the old fashioned way. Definately find a way to mulch and carry as many leaves as possible, maybe in a dump trailer.

 

[knute_m]

I've not built one, but I'm the neighborhood keeper of an old Trac Vac that three of us use ( Trac Vac Quality Commercial and Residential Lawn / Leaf Vacuum 's ). It has a 10.5 hp B&S engine that runs a really nasty cast iron chopper/blower. The intake is a 10-inch hose. The output goes into a covered dump trailer. I fix it enough to feel like I've built it -- the quality is very good, it is just old and abused.

It has attachements that can be used with most any riding mower/tractor to suck up anything coming out of a side discharge mower deck. I mostly use my loader and rear blade to push my leaves into really big piles. Then I suck them up with this machine, which also chops them. If a branch will fit up the hose, the chopper will mince it. Rocks and things don't bother it. A big pile of leaves is well less than 1/4 its original size after I run it through this thing.

When this thing is fired up, you better make sure your dogs and cats are a long ways away. It doesn't hurt to wear suspenders and a tight belt either. It really sucks.

I've seen these things sell on ebay for a couple hundred dollars. They are well worth it if you've got as many leaves as I've got. I actually have to plow my 1/3-mile driveway because it gets covered with several inches of leaves that are slippery, and if I don't remove them, they really make a mess when I plow snow.

I've also got a leaf picker-upper with the two bins on my Cub Cadet lawn tractor. The bins can be lined with bags, or they can be dumped. As far as I'm concerned, it is not worth the effort. The bins fill up way too quick and they just don't hold enough. It jams a lot too if there is damp grass growing under the leaves.

My father-in-law has a walk-behind Billy Goat that I've used at his house. It is good for a 1/4 to 1/2 acre city lot. It does a much better job than my Cub Cadet system. But, I have to wear a respirator when I use it. It stirs up a lot of dust, plus it has to be emptied fairly regularly. When emptying it, the bag is really full of dust.

Happy Leafing,
Knute

 

[TractorDale]

I've built one that I'm still perfecting: JD rider mower- fabricated collector from 1/4" angle and 22g sheet that attatches to deck outlet. Then 6" reinforced dust collector tubing from Grizzly to dust collector fan mounted to 5hp Honda engine orphaned from POS powerwasher-fan assembly same size as engine shaft-creates incredible suction. Then more hose to trailer built with 1/4" wire mesh.

Will post some pics if you would like.

Good luck.

Dale

 

[Ron25]

Dale I'd like to see some pics.

 

[Trahere]

Do you really get that many leaves in your house? I heard Dryson makes a good vacuum. Cost about as much as a tractor!


I would feel a lot more comfortable on this site if I owned a tractor!

 

[Ductape]

I have a couple really BIG old maples that drop tens of thousands of leaves. Not to mention the smaller trees. I may need something bigger than two or three industrial sized cans to collect them all. Though.... i plan on going over it several times in the next month or two, so perhaps a smaller capacity might suffice? I have a fair amount of shrubs and whatnot to work around, and this is why i was thinking "away" from something that tows behind like a trailer. Though i like the DR unit.... i've never seen one in action, so i can't say for sure that would be ideal for me. Plus.... i had dreams of making something with more suction for less money than the DR or CR. BUT..... that is why i was hoping others had done something similar. Perhaps five or six horse would be more than i need ???

 

[srjones]

Do you really get that many leaves in your house? I heard Dryson makes a good vacuum. Cost about as much as a tractor!

Dyson makes a great vaccum (the best we've ever had IMHO), but I'd wouldn't use it for leaves BTW, the Dyson vacs are a little more, but you'll save money in bags and it will outlast the cheap ones. And you'll actually use it too!

I would feel a lot more comfortable on this site if I owned a tractor!

Ummm...eerrrr...not actually owning a tractor?.....is that allowed here? :0

 

[joelaudi]

I built one out of an old giant vac. What I did was cut the housing off the engine frame and reweld it so the out put was pointing straight up. I than made high sides for my lawn cart and made a vented top for the box. The connection to the hopper box was 6 inch plastic pipe. All this was bolted to the cart and used a factory discharge boot for the mower deck and a lenght of 6 inch flex tube. It worked very good for a few years but was in constant repair [the plastic pipe wouldn't hold up]. I since bough a clyclone rake and never been happier, as it works great. I know they are costly but worth every penny in my book. I like the fact that they fold up and has the caster wheels for the trailer. It worked good with my old craftsman tractor but super on my CC 5252 w/60mmm. Leaf pick-up is now an easy task.

 

[sandman2234]

Ductape,
I understand you problem. Last house I owned, had Scyamore trees in the yard, which are large leaves, and they dump only once a year, but what a mess!
I went out to see what the blower model # was on the blower (mentioned in another post) but was unable to read the model #. The serial number is readable, so I may call Giant Vac and see what they have on it.
I see nothing on their website that even comes close to resembling what I bought. Guess they got away from that type of pull behind leave gathering.
If you decide to build yours from scratch, I have a couple of different impellers that you can consider. Beats trying to build one and get it balanced.
I may have to shoot some pictures of mine, to give you some ideas on how they work, so you can consider them in your quest for a leaf free lawn.
The blower unit uses a larger sized blower, but still the same type as the vac, and could be easily converted to do vacumning. Just build a pick up chute for it, and blow them into a small trailer, or the back of your truck.
The vac pretty much mulches the leaves into small pieces, so you get a lot of leaves in a small space. Due to the nature of our soil (very sandy), it also picks up a lot of that, from the bare spaces, and the sand tends to make the combination very heavy. A 30 gallon bag would not be able to be picked up by a normal person, they would be that heavy. Lucky for me, I have an area that is just right for disposal of the collected materials, so I just back up to it, and raise the door, close it and back to work. I have never filled it up, but suspect it to be a major load on the tires.
Several of my neighbors are getting their yards raked by my vac, and they really like it. Beats a rake anyday.
David from jax

 

[Toolguy]

I used to have a vacuum with a 3HP engine that I used with my JD318. It had a cloth bag that had a big zippered opening in the back so you could clean it out. It worked well but did not hold many leaves and it was a dusty mess to empty it. I found a pull type EZ-RAKE with a 1 cu/yd capacity hopper that opens up and emptys itself. It works a lot better and is easier and faster to use since I didn't have to empty it as often. When I bought my B3030 last year I decided to put the 3PTH to use so I modified the EZ-RAKE to do that. It is supposed to work on mowers up to 48" but it does well enough on my 60" MMM to satisfy me. I only have to slow down if the leaves are really heavy. The EZ-RAKE is now sold by Bluebird. I highly recommend it.

The second picture has the foot pedal circled that you step on to open the clamshell hopper. Gas struts help lift the rear part and hold it open.

 

[Ductape]

David, I wasn't going to make it COMPLETELY from scratch. I was thinking a Billy Goat leaf vac like i see on Ebay for the motor/impeller..... though i appreciate the the offer to copy your impeller. I was figuring that even some of the walk behind vacs i see out there could be modified to take a hose to suck from my mower deck. Mount the motor/impeller to my tph and run another hose to my whatever-i-come-up-with-to-catch-the-leaves. My old Woods L59 mower deck doesn't really hug the ground like alot of the newer mowers.... so i'm wondering if i may need more than the 5-6 horse i see on the cheesy collectors i see at the big-box stores.

 

[Ductape]

Toolguy..... that is a nice setup ! I'm going to look around a bit more before i decide to build or buy a leaf collector. Yours looks like a good sized bin for me. I've read up a bit on the Cyclone Rake here..... and though owners say they work well, it sounds like they make ALOT of dust due to the hopper being made of fabric. We have a new DR Power store i need to go check out about an hour from me. I had thoughts i could come up with something with plenty of suction that wouldn't look too butchered together for reasonable money. Wish me luck !

 

[sandman2234]

If Toolguy's is a one yard capacity, then mine must be... maybe 8 or 10??

If your looking for something to pick up the leaves and put them in bags, one of the best things I can think of is a snapper mower. Get one of the 28 or 30 inch high lift units, with the bagger that has the twin garbage bag holes, and go to it. You can pick up one of them reasonably and they will pick up leaves. That is what I used at the other house. However, out here where I live now, I could fill the Snapper bag by just going to where I dump them, and back, never making a pass around the yard. I finally started parking the truck in the middle of the yard, and dumping the leaves into it, so I could get the yard done.
Anyone who thinks they can pick up leaves and not stir up dust, is using a piece of machinery I want to see. My Giant Vac creates quite a dust storm, but there is a reason for it. The cover that keeps the dust down has several holes in it, and really needs replacing. I think it will slow the dust a little when that is replaced. Picking up leaves on a good solid grass bass will keep the dust down, but sparse grass with open areas of dirt (or sand) allow for quite a dust storm. One good thing about my Giant Vac is the dust is quite a distance behind me while pulling it with my Steiner. The tongue length in addition to the blower are ahead of the leaf catching hopper, and where the dust escapes. Probably at least 4 to 6 feet to it from the trailer hitch pin.

Ductape,
I wasn't offering to let you copy my impeller, I was going to send you one. I have a couple I purchased when I decided I needed a vac, and the impeller getting balanced was the part I was having trouble with. So I bid on a couple on ebay and won them. If you decide to build it from scratch, let me know and I will let you pay the shipping.
However, unless you are a good metal worker, I would shy away from building a complete unit, even with the impeller furnished. The housing alone is a job.
David from jax

 

[mjarrels]

I don't know if you could turn it into a vac but an old used silo blower could move then into the next county. Golf courses use them and I would not want to stand in the way of the discharge chute.

mark

 

[BobQ]

I have one of these and have been real happy with it!

Cyclone Rake PRO lawn and leaf vacuum has the power and capacity for big tough outdoor jobs

Bob

 

[sandman2234]

eBay: GIANT VAC TRAILER LEAF TRUCK LOADER 16 HP ENGINE (item 280031424357 end time Oct-02-06 18:52:23 PDT)

This is like one of the ones I purchased, for the electric start motor. I paid about half of what it is selling for, since I was also buying the Lawn Vac. Mine has the guard over the impeller, and a stout hose on the exhaust side.
David from jax

 

[pmarq]

I've built one that I'm still perfecting: JD rider mower- fabricated collector from 1/4" angle and 22g sheet that attatches to deck outlet. Then 6" reinforced dust collector tubing from Grizzly to dust collector fan mounted to 5hp Honda engine orphaned from POS powerwasher-fan assembly same size as engine shaft-creates incredible suction. Then more hose to trailer built with 1/4" wire mesh.

Will post some pics if you would like.

Good luck.

Dale

Hello looking to build one myself do you have any plans or picturs

 

[Densleigh]

Hi,

Have agoogle search for dust extractors, I found link a couple of years ago to a US site that explained how to build the impeller chamber and Canadian source of impellers. for those that want to self build.

I too would be interested in pics of what evryone has built etc.