Agri-Fab Leaf Vac

[Syncro]

After deciding on which lawn Vacumm I was going to get, see thread Leaf Vacuum
I purchased the Agri-Fab 5.5 hp.

Pic #1 shows the unit being picked up at Tractor Supply co in Yuba City, Calif. It was neatly packed on a pallet and easily slid into the back of my Dodge Ram pickup. Price was $995. +tax

 

[Syncro]

Pic #2 shows what the unit looked like after unloading it in my garage. To my great surprise, it came practically fully assembeled from the factory. The motor and wheels were packed inside the trailer and just required simple installation.

 

[Syncro]

Pic #3 shows what was packed inside the trailer, everything was pre-assembled and all that was required was slipping on the wheels and bolting on the trailer tongue and motor, 30 mins maximum.

 

[Syncro]

Pic #4 shows the mower deck adapter. Now this did take some time as none of the included templates matched my older tractor. This took me the rest of the day to get it right, after all you get just one shot at the cutout and its gotta be right the first time. I wound up making several cardboard templates, each succeding one getting closer to a perfect fit. I wound up getting a nice tight fitting adapter that minimizes air/vacuum leaks and results in maximum deck suction.

 

[Syncro]

Pic #5 is the finished adapter mounted to the deck. I used the same holes that the original spring loaded blade guard uses, so its a quick easy job to re-install the original guard. I'm glad I took the extra time in getting this right, its a snap to either install or remove the vacuum adapter.

 

[Syncro]

Pic #6 shows the flex hose. I discarded the supplied bungie cord in favor for a longer one, by doing that I eliminated one bend so as to make a cleaner air flow.

The unit is designed so that when riding on the mower you can easily reach around back and swing the hose out of the way if needed. Also, I've found that the hoses stay put without using the supplied hose clamps.

 

[Syncro]

Pic #7 Completely assembled and in use.

The price was right and it works as advertised. I had heard some disturbing things about this Agri-Fab vacuum on another board, one of which was the lengthly assembly required, well I guess the factory responded to that as they now come virtually completely pre-assembled. Another concern was that the motor would vibrate due to its rather high mounting position, here again I am pleased to say that vibration is all but non existant. Its a smooth running setup that picks up leaves, twigs, and grass clippings to my complete satisfaction.

On the negative side, when the unit is in full operation along with the riding mower, the combined noise level is kinda high. I guess this can't be helped as there is a lot or rotating parts in motion. Another minor gripe is that the trailer does not hinge far enough for an easy dump, gotta pull out most of the load. The tailgate however is easy to remove or put on.

Overall I'm happy with it, I like the solid box type trailer which can be loaded up with lots of stuff and act as a big storage compartment when not in use or in the off season. This offsets the fact that it doesn't fold down like some others.

The motor controls can be reached from the drivers seat, another good thing. Maneuvering around my lawn was better than I'd expected, although it takes a little getting used to, you are pulling a trailer and gotta be careful around turns. The overall height is about even with my head when I'm in the mower seat, so its easy to guage if I have enough headroom clearance under tree limbs.

Would I recommend it? Yup, so far so good, but the real test will come when Autumn leaves fall, and we have a LOT of leaves. I'll let you all know how that goes as that will be the ultimate test.

 

[FaC]

Syncro,

You should be happy with it. I have one that I used for about 5 years specifically for leaves. I have only had one thing go wrong with mine and you may want to look at it before yours does the same.

If you look at your last picture, the plastic chute that goes from the vaccum housing to the top of the cart is attached by 4 bolts to the metal housing. On mine, the plastic broke out around two of those four bolts. I think it broke because of the vibration when the motor is running wide open.

I fixed it by getting some of the metal straping that has holes every inch or so. I cut it so one hole was in the factory hole and then went up about 8 inches of straping and drilled out two of the holes in each strap about 3 inches apart. I then came in from the inside of the chute with bolts and big fender washers to reinforce/fix the chute attachment.

One other thing I learned about this setup was that you always want to try to turn to the left in most cases. If you turn sharply to the right while you are trying to suck up a bunch of leaves the hose may clog on you because it gets a little kink.

As far as the noise, you are right and it does get loud. I also used a set of noise earmuffs to solve that and BTW - a set of the earbud headphones will fit inside the earmuff (I would do leaves on Sunday afternoon and listen to the race ;-).

Good luck - it should do great on leaves.

FaC

 

[Syncro]

At last we've got to use the leaf vac in heavy leaves, and as the attached pic shows the results are great. I sure wish I'd have know about leaf vacs years ago as the labor savings is enormus. I think any of the major brands would work equally as well, the concept of using an aux powered vacuum that multches and reduces leaf volume is a good one and like I said I sure wish I'd have got one sooner.

As for the Agri-Fab brand, so far I've been pleased. Capacity is very good, it sure packs 'em in. Best way to unload though is to not use the hinged dump, a pitch fork is faster. My use so far has been limited to only dry leaves, but it sure does a job on sucking em up! We have a lot of driveway area surfaced with 3/8" crushed rock, and it gets a lot of leaves that are very hard to rake without also raking up gravel. The leaf vac just rides over the gravel as if it were lawn and vacuums up leaves leaving the gravel. What a big labor saver just being able to do that alone is.

While there are some advantages of a hinge point at the hitch (conventional trailer hitch), the ridged mount type such as used on Cyclone rake probably is a bit easier to maneuver and back up.

We found a trick to picking up the volumes of leaves in our ditches, I disconnect the hose from the mower and walk along the ditch vacumming up leaves & twigs as my wife drives the mower slowly along the bank. The mower deck is of course disengaged. By running the vaccum motor at idle I still have enough power to pick up piles of dry leaves while not sucking up too many rocks. A few are unavoidable, but at low RPM's the small ones that do get picked up don't hurt the vacuum blades too much. Speaking of power, the 5.5hp engine is plenty, in fact I run it just under full throttle for the lawn and as said at idle for use with the hose detached from the deck.

Anyway, if you have a yard with a lot of leaves do yourself a favor and get yourself a leaf vacuum. Agri-Fab, Cyclone Rake, etc, any of 'em will turn this annual chore into a fun thing to do. (more seat time) /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[PhilNH5]

Thanks for the pics and a very informative post.

Phil