deathtoblackberries
Gold Member
I tried to avoid bagging on my 1 acre but its just not possible so I bit the bullet and purchased the Kubota PTO driven grass catcher, here's a quick review in pictures.
First up price vs what you get. I choked on the price, north of $2,100 dang fire. That's half as much as an entire John Deere tractor plus grass catcher. I felt better about the price when I unpacked and assembled, its thick, heavy, and super duty in all respects. Almost to the point of being ridiculously over built. It came in a gi-normous box that barely fit in my F350 long bed truck.
Is that an oil drilling derrick? No its the super structure of the grass catcher. Just the PTO/blower section was so heavy I injured my wrist/arm lifting it. That upper frame that holds the bags, Kubota shorted me 2 bolts :irked: and with a short bolt in one side you couldn't really get the nut started on the other side, bolts too short. I tapped my supply of stainless and used slightly longer stainless 5/16 bolts, nuts, and washers easy peasy.
ALSO check Kubota's bolts I found one that had not been tightened, it took about 4 full turns to snug it up.
Just the lid weighs as much as the entire John Deer frame, bags, and lid if not more. The mower deck boot and hose came in a 2nd large box. That included a steel baffle that bolts up under the mower deck. The hose is much larger diameter than the Deere and transparent. There are also clear windows on the top and front facing side of the lid so its easy to monitor when its getting full.
Here's a design flaw, this 3rd small stand fits so sloppy it bangs against the belt cover. I wrapped some rubber tape around and end and it still banged so I threw a rubber strap on it to keep it from flapping around.
Here you see it mounted to the 3pt linkage, adjusted so the 3pt drive shaft is level. I was NOT happy about removing my Landpride QH10 quick hitch to install this, but looking at this picture the only thing stopping me from using the quick hitch for the grass catcher would be buying a bit longer 3pt drive shaft. I haven't measured the included drive shaft, it might be long enough TBD. There is plenty of extra hose length between the mower deck boot and blower to extend it out a few more inches.
Also note that spring loaded pull pin that keeps the lid open. There's a fair bit of downward pressure from the thick hose coming up from the blower to the lid, the way the spring loaded pin works is just lift the lid and it engages automatically holding the lid open, I like it!
You don't mount the 3pt linkage to the 3pt lifting arms, instead you attach the lower linkage to the 3pt link stays (stationary attach points) included with the kit. They seem overkill at least 3/8 thick and attach with a large M16 bolt torqued to 150 ftlb. This is for BX##80 tractors. The BX##70 are less beefy and include a two part link stay vs what you see here.
Here it is buttoned up ready for use. Its really not much wider than the mower deck with the standard plastic deflector.
I cut my 1 acre yesterday. Grass was tall and a bit wet. Included leaves from my neighbors yard, pine cones, pine needles and grass. No issue at all sucking all that stuff up. I didn't let the bags get completely full, maybe 70% full and emptied 5 times. Everything worked great. It tends to fill the center bag first with the other two about half full. Not much additional noise can be heard above the tractor noise. A bit of cycling droning sound at 3,100 rpms which went away when I pushed it up full throttle to 3,300 rpms. It vacuums like a shop vac, I do have Gator high lift blades on the deck.
First up price vs what you get. I choked on the price, north of $2,100 dang fire. That's half as much as an entire John Deere tractor plus grass catcher. I felt better about the price when I unpacked and assembled, its thick, heavy, and super duty in all respects. Almost to the point of being ridiculously over built. It came in a gi-normous box that barely fit in my F350 long bed truck.
Is that an oil drilling derrick? No its the super structure of the grass catcher. Just the PTO/blower section was so heavy I injured my wrist/arm lifting it. That upper frame that holds the bags, Kubota shorted me 2 bolts :irked: and with a short bolt in one side you couldn't really get the nut started on the other side, bolts too short. I tapped my supply of stainless and used slightly longer stainless 5/16 bolts, nuts, and washers easy peasy.
ALSO check Kubota's bolts I found one that had not been tightened, it took about 4 full turns to snug it up.
Just the lid weighs as much as the entire John Deer frame, bags, and lid if not more. The mower deck boot and hose came in a 2nd large box. That included a steel baffle that bolts up under the mower deck. The hose is much larger diameter than the Deere and transparent. There are also clear windows on the top and front facing side of the lid so its easy to monitor when its getting full.
Here's a design flaw, this 3rd small stand fits so sloppy it bangs against the belt cover. I wrapped some rubber tape around and end and it still banged so I threw a rubber strap on it to keep it from flapping around.
Here you see it mounted to the 3pt linkage, adjusted so the 3pt drive shaft is level. I was NOT happy about removing my Landpride QH10 quick hitch to install this, but looking at this picture the only thing stopping me from using the quick hitch for the grass catcher would be buying a bit longer 3pt drive shaft. I haven't measured the included drive shaft, it might be long enough TBD. There is plenty of extra hose length between the mower deck boot and blower to extend it out a few more inches.
Also note that spring loaded pull pin that keeps the lid open. There's a fair bit of downward pressure from the thick hose coming up from the blower to the lid, the way the spring loaded pin works is just lift the lid and it engages automatically holding the lid open, I like it!
You don't mount the 3pt linkage to the 3pt lifting arms, instead you attach the lower linkage to the 3pt link stays (stationary attach points) included with the kit. They seem overkill at least 3/8 thick and attach with a large M16 bolt torqued to 150 ftlb. This is for BX##80 tractors. The BX##70 are less beefy and include a two part link stay vs what you see here.
Here it is buttoned up ready for use. Its really not much wider than the mower deck with the standard plastic deflector.
I cut my 1 acre yesterday. Grass was tall and a bit wet. Included leaves from my neighbors yard, pine cones, pine needles and grass. No issue at all sucking all that stuff up. I didn't let the bags get completely full, maybe 70% full and emptied 5 times. Everything worked great. It tends to fill the center bag first with the other two about half full. Not much additional noise can be heard above the tractor noise. A bit of cycling droning sound at 3,100 rpms which went away when I pushed it up full throttle to 3,300 rpms. It vacuums like a shop vac, I do have Gator high lift blades on the deck.
