3-point lawn sweeper build

[ishiboo]

I'm considering building a 3-point lawn sweeper. I have a 42" tow-behind that works well, but it's too light-duty to last, it gets too heavy to be towed by my POS lawn mower, and when it fills with moist grass it's a pain to dump. The sweeping action/brushes/etc. is EXTREMELY simple, but works really well and picks up a TON of stuff.

I'm thinking it'd be fairly easy to buy the brushes, mount two sets on a shaft for an 84" sweeper, geared off ground-driven wheels (it has to spin much faster than the ground speed), and then build a catch basin for it.

Anyone try something similar? I think it could be fairly reasonable to build, and I don't even see anything competitive out there to consider buying.

 

[ishiboo]

I could also combine it with a front-mount dethatcher rake which would be cool!

 

[ENC]

I think it would work and would like to see a larger one in action.

 

[senecak19]

I've been thinking about this all winter long. Nobody carries large ones. If put behind a tractor why not put it behind the mower? Train of implements.

 

[ishiboo]

I've been thinking about this all winter long. Nobody carries large ones. If put behind a tractor why not put it behind the mower? Train of implements.

My mower transmission is almost shot just pulling the little 42". When it gets full it gets tired. It'll do much better behind the L3650

 

[mark02tj]

I bought a used 42" or 48" sweeper last summer. I was pulling it behind my little 8hp rear engine Ariens rider. Worked pretty well. After I bought my 3520 last October I pulled it with that a time or two. Worked great! I just needed a longer rope for dumping though.

How do you envision your sweeper working while you're turning the tractor? I would think that the sweeper would "swing" or "slide" through a turn as the rear axle of the tractor will be a pivot point. That will put a lot of side load on the sweeper wheels and I would think that you would lose the sweeping action as the sweeper axle won't be turning throughout the turn. I'm am by no means an engineer so I could be very wrong about this.

 

[ishiboo]

That's a definite question Mark. My assumption would be I would pick it up for any reasonably sharp turn, as you would definitely loose the sweeping action and could put a TON of strain on it.

This may be a much better implement to make a tow-behind though. The leverage of the bin full of crap on the back puts a lot of weight on the drive wheels that transfers to uplift at the hitch, which would work pretty well. You could then also turn normally. This weight would be a disadvantage on the 3-point, as 84" wide of wet grass would weigh a lot and be far out from the hitch.

My reason for having it on the 3-point was picking it up for transport, but since sweepers are usually adjustable, I would have to make mine adjustable as well. With a hydraulic cylinder on the adjustment, it would be easy to make it so it didn't sweep at all at the top range of the adjustment.

 

[mark02tj]

One of the biggest complaints that I have about the sweeper I bought (for $50 :thumbsup is that it's hard to back up. Once it's full I like to drive it over to the dump area. Then you have to back it into the pile to dump it. With the short "wheel base" of the sweeper combined with the crappy steering on my lawn mower it's a little difficult to back up in a controlled manner. Then you have to contend with the basket backing into the grass that's already there so you can't really pile the new grass onto what's already there. That would be one great thing about the 3PH setup is that you could lift the entire assembly, back into wherever you want to dump it and just pile it up a bit more. As it is right now, I end up with a bunch of piles laying around that I then have to manually combine and clean up. I'm not sure there's a great solution to any of that but I'd be interested to see what you come up with.

 

[jimmysisson]

If its 84" wide I think you'd want to have the brushes wheel-driven separately. Otherwise too much drive wheel skidding around sharp turns. On a sharp turn the inside drive wheel is barely moving (less sweeping too ) , and the outside one much faster. Still I think it would get the majority of cleanup you're after.
I'd be concerned about picking up the weight of a full bin. My 48" unit gets awful heavy with green cuttings. You will have to make the machine rugged to handle it being lifted off the ground.
Maybe a better investment is in a fresh lawn tractor!
Jim

 

[ishiboo]

If its 84" wide I think you'd want to have the brushes wheel-driven separately. Otherwise too much drive wheel skidding around sharp turns. On a sharp turn the inside drive wheel is barely moving (less sweeping too ) , and the outside one much faster. Still I think it would get the majority of cleanup you're after.
I'd be concerned about picking up the weight of a full bin. My 48" unit gets awful heavy with green cuttings. You will have to make the machine rugged to handle it being lifted off the ground.
Maybe a better investment is in a fresh lawn tractor!
Jim

If a pull-behind definitely, with a 3-point you wouldn't be able to really go around turns with it down anyway so that'd probably not necessary.

I'm buying a new mower this summer, but even so I don't want to mow with a 72" deck and then clean up afterwards with a 42" sweeper... would be much nicer to have the BIG sweeper behind it That's another win for a pull-behind, since the new mower will probably be a JD 1-series or BX, it won't have the lift for a full-size sweeper full of grass due to how far behind the lift pins the grass will be.

I think it's going to be a pull-behind.

 

[mark02tj]

When my grass gets long enough that I need to sweep afterwards, I generally try to go over it with the mower and leave the loose grass in "rows". Start on the outside of the lawn and work your way to the middle with the discharge chute pointing to the middle. That way I don't have to go over the entire lawn with the sweeper.

But... how about this? - Build an offsetting hitch to pull your sweeper off to the side of your mower discharge chute. That way the sweeper is picking it up as you're doing the lawn. :thumbsup: And be sure to post pics when you're done!!

 

[ishiboo]

I do the same with rows. Normally I like to mulch, but in the 3 years I've lived here there have been a TON of times when it is too wet too long to mulch when I cut, and then I'm left discharging grass which is too tall and perhaps still wet. But I also use my sweeper for leaves and other things. The smaller sweepers just aren't large enough or heavy duty enough for real sweeping work, they're really made for little lawn tractors and the occasional garden tractor.

I'd also like to combine with a dethatching rake. I've also considered adding a magnet to the front, just to see if I pick anything up, as I am almost always doing construction on something