Cleaning lawn of branches

[beenthere]

Every spring, I spend at least a full afternoon cleaning up downed branches from my ~4 acres of lawn, mostly from the more mature walnut and maple trees. I get to repeat this exercise after each major storm, all summer long, and I'm getting awful tired of the routine. Presently, I drive the FEL to an area with a bunch of downed branches, pick up each larger one and put them into the bucket. Then I rake up all of the smaller bits, and scoop them into the bucket. Very tedious.

I'm wondering what automated options might be possible. A landscape rake with float (anti-scalp) wheels would do half the job, at least gathering them together. Although driving over them in the process is just going to make them harder to pick up, in the end. Perhaps a tooth bar on my bucket, fitted with large swivel caster mounts on either side, so that I can drive around gathering branches with the bucket floating just an inch off the lawn.

Ideas? I can't be the only one hating this chore.

I mow over them with my JD 455 and 54" deck. Keeps the deck clean on the underside too.

 

[WinterDeere]

Was kidding but I use my belly mower on slopes I would not take the Z turns or brush hog and on places that got over grown due to wet conditions. Still a handy tool in the barn.

I hear ya, there's some serious pucker factor in using a zero turn on a steep hill. My property is very hilly, and now 12 years here, I don't worry about it much anymore. But the first year or two of mowing here, I was frequently concerned that I would tip the thing, given how light they are out front. Even thought initially about adding a few small suitcase weights to the front, but ultimately realized it wasn't needed.

The belly mower would be handy to have on a rare occasion, as would be the 64" snowblower I sold a year or two ago. But not very frequently, and the barn is only so big, we all have to choose our toys! My brush hog sits in a separate shed on its own, as it's easy to back up to that and drop it, and it at least gets used more than the belly mower would.

All the people who've mentioned hiring a kid to do the job must be lucky to have kids around willing to do that sort of work. I live in an affluent neighborhood where the kids spend their days being shuttled from music lessons to sports activities, and none work. Not a criticism, their primary job is doing well in school, but it does take that option off the table for me.

 

[WinterDeere]

I mow over them with my JD 455 and 54" deck. Keeps the deck clean on the underside too.

I just sandblasted and repainted the 60" deck on my zero turn over the winter. It was getting pretty scaley on bottom. I called my local Deere dealer to get pricing on a new stamped steel housing (bare), and they told me the last one they sold in 2018-19 was something like $3600, so we knew it would be north of that today. I told them to not bother getting updated pricing, the sandblasting only cost me $75 and the paint another $60. Three medium thickness coats of sprayed Deere OEM paint, which will hopefully hold up at least a few years before I have to repeat, so I'm not anxious to speed its abrasion by mowing over a bunch of sticks.

I was about to post a thread on known tools for cleaning the deck after each use, since it's forever clogged up with grass clippings, as our mowing tends to be wet and muddy in various low areas every spring and fall.

 

[tradosaurus]

I use a zero turn (Deere 757 ZTrak) on the lawn. My brush hog is only for trails and fields. I sold my last belly mower (Deere 72 inch 7-Iron) almost ten years ago, never going back to one of those!

Never understood the use of a belly mower. I would rather have a tractor and a lawn mower than to have to fiddle with removing and attaching a belly mower when I need to the clearance to use the tractor.

 

[2manyrocks]

My Dad had an International Cub Cadet 106 with a belly mower that was pretty heavy, but probably not as heavy as the belly mower on today's subcompact tractors. I never liked putting that thing back on despite it being made about as easy as it gets to install and reinstall.

After getting a zero turn, I'd hate to go back.

105 posts and not that many fun options for picking up sticks in the yard.

 

[Eagle1]

I have 35' high dam to but that is near vertical in places with a 5' landing zone on the bottom for about half of. No problem to cut with the BX and belly mower but I would not run a Zturn on it nor will I ever try to turn a bush hog on it.
I have 2 61" Zturns and a rotary mower. Also have a bigger tractor to pull the bush hog. I'd have to remove the BH to hook up the hog to the big tractor and would be scared to death to drive off the edge with that setup.

 

[Eagle1]

I'm 60+ and it takes little time and effort (5 min) to roll the deck under the BX, of course I've done it weekly (more or less) for almost 20 years now. Takes me longer to hook up the brush hog (don't use it near as often). Just me and YMMV

 

[tradosaurus]

I'm 60+ and it takes little time and effort (5 min) to roll the deck under the BX, of course I've done it weekly (more or less) for almost 20 years now. Takes me longer to hook up the brush hog (don't use it near as often). Just me and YMMV

I'm 30+ (actually 57 ) and I don't have a place to store a belly mower out of the weather.

 

[BnRidge]

105 posts and not that many fun options for picking up sticks in the yard.

I just heard that yard sticks are not being made any longer.

 

[Eagle1]

I'm 30+ (actually 57 ) and I don't have a place to store a belly mower out of the weather.

Right now that is my problem with the BH unless it is on the tractor, then the whole kit and kaboodle is parked in a pole barn bay.
Trick really is to drop everything where you can hook back up.....