3 Bagger Grass Catcher

Anonymous Poster · Apr 30, 2003

Hello,

Probably buying a 2210 today but still can't get happy with the 3 bag system that uses a 5 hp motor.

Do you guys like this system? Also, how long does it take you to remove/reinstall?

I wish that it was possible to pull a small trailer/aerator etc with the 3 bag system in place but I understand that is not possible. To pull any implement the bagger must be removed. Is this true?

Any major limitations?

Thanks in advance

Anonymous Poster · Apr 30, 2003

I have asked this question before. Unless you get one with a pull cart (trac vac), you are just out of luck......unless you might consider modifying the Kubota bagger to fit the JD. There is a bagger for the 62C deck, so you could use the kubota bagger/blower but use the Deere part to connect to the deck. The only question I have at this point is this: Is the PTO shaft long enough to connect PTO (since the 2210's 3PH is longer than the Bota).

Caretaker · May 1, 2003

Hoss,

I got one of the 3-bag catchers when I got my tractor (JD4100), and I last year I upgraded to the hydraulic dump bagger. The hydraulic dumper uses the same Power Pak (that is, the honda engine) to drive the blower.

The bagger works very well as far as picking up grass. The 5hp Honda engine is strong enough to drive the vacumn. The main problem with the the 3-bag collector is that removing the bags to dump them takes quite a bit of effort. That's the reason I upgraded to the hydraulic dumper - I just back up to where I want to dump, drop the 3-point to set the dumper on the ground, and pull the Joystick to dump it.

It's too bad that the vacumn isn't driven by the tractor PTO. I suspect the reason Deere went with a seperate engine to power the vacumn was cost - those little Honda engines are pretty inexpensive in OEM quantities. Probably cheaper than building a PTO drive.... But the downside is having another engine to do maintenance on - and it's gas, whereas the tractor is diesel, etc...

After getting the hydraulic dumper, I made a vacumn head to fit on the power pak so that I could pick up leaves without using the mower deck. Like I said, the little engine works well - it even picked up piles of wet leaves. I suspect that it would work just as well (maybe even better) if it were PTO driven - and I wouldn't have the little 5HP engine to service. (Although that's not that big of a deal - change the oil and air filter is about it...)

So to answer your question, the vacumn action of the 3-bag unit works pretty well - but dumping it is a major effort. In fact, the 3-bag bagger and a 54-inch midmount mower makes a heck of a grass cutter - about the best I've seen - except for the effort of dumping the bagger. I have about 1-1/2 acres (currently) of nice fast-growing grass, and I find I need to dump it several times. If your mowing area is small enough so that you don't have to dump several times, you'd probably be happy with the unit. Otherwise, I think I'd suggest looking at either the Hydraulic dumper from Deere or one of the tow-behind units.

Btw, I have thought about fabricating a PTO drive for the vacumn head. It could be done, but it will take a little engineering. It's a project that's low down on the list of things to do.

Caretaker

JackIL · May 1, 2003

I suspect that one reason for using a separate 5 HP engine is that it takes a lot of power to run a vacuum system, and if that power has to be supplied by the tractor, there is less power for cutting and propulsion. In tough conditions a PTO powered unit might mean slower travel speeds. My experience with Honda engines has been that they are easy to start and very reliable. So I wouldn't worry about having another engine to maintain given that it is a Honda.

JackIL

dummy · May 2, 2003

Did you buy a whole new unit or were you able to just get the dumper parts you wanted? I have a 3 bag unit and agree that it is a real chore to empty.

Caretaker · May 2, 2003

Dummy,

What I got was just the Dumper Unit and the hose that goes from the mower deck boot to the vacumn.

The 'Material Collection System' consists of 3 parts - the bagger (or dumper), the power pack (the Honda engine and vacumn 'fan'), and the hose and boot for the mower deck. The hose is a 7" diameter hose at the vacumn end, and is sized appropriately for the mower deck boot. (I have a 54" mmm, and I'm pretty sure the boot has a 7" diameter connection also. Other mmm's might use a different size boot.) Since I already had the mower deck boot & hose and the power pak, all I needed was the dumper unit itself (the extra hose I got was just sorta included).

So what ends up changing is just the dumper - The power pak mounts on the dumper unit (like it would on the bagger), and then the hose and boot connects to the mmm the same way.

A good point was made earlier about using the Honda engine - it does provide extra power, and it's not that difficult to maintain. It starts very easily, and runs well. In addition, JD did put an extra large gas tank on it, so one filling of the tank lasts for quite a while. As a practical matter, I'm not sure if it's NECESSARY from a power standpoint - I've never lugged the engine while mowing, even in tall wet grass, whereas I HAVE lugged the engine down while snowblowing. (Snowblowing is one of the hardest things you can do with this tractor - there's a pic of me on here cutting through 4' deep snow.) Be that as it may, the setup works VERY well - and if this design resulted in a lower cost, I'm all for that! As I said, designing a PTO driven vacumn is pretty far down on my list of things to do.

Caretaker