Cheap way to make a PTO leaf blower

Maxwell · Oct 28, 2003

It is that time of year here in New England, when we have to figure out how to stay seated on our tractors while still getting rid of the leaves. Heaven forbid that we should join the ranks of mere mortals and actually use rakes.

I used to use my John Deere's MMM as a leaf blower. It had enough power to blow the leaves (as well as making about as much noise as a leaf blower). When I upgraded to a Kubota, one of the nice things was that the MMM was designed so that it was extremely quiet but it did not generate much wind.

Now that I must do battle with the leaves, I am wondering about an idea that I have. I have priced PTO leaf blowers, about $3000, which seems like an awful lot for some fan blades. I was wondering about just using my Kubota's MMM and installing some old blades that I have bent out of alignment so that they create enough wind speed. Do you guys think that I would do any damage to my MMM?

Max

have_blue · Oct 28, 2003

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Do you guys think that I would do any damage to my MMM? Max )</font>

If the blades have clearence and are balanced, it shouldn't hurt anything.

Junkman · Oct 28, 2003

It might work if they were balanced, but for the cost of spindles, I don't think that I would want to learn the hard way that a good idea just cost me a lot of $$$$ and didn't work that well. Buy a back pack blower for about $500 and you will be way ahead..... if not, then get the lawn vac system for the deck and you can pick them up and dump them at the edge of the woods to blow back again tomorrow. I live in CT also, and realize that you can move the same leaf at least 3 times before it finally stays off the lawn. I use a mulching blade with a vac system on a Bolens tractor. It is old, but it works well for some things like leaf removal.....