Craftsman Bagger - Which One Is Best?

[Stingingfork]

I just purchased my first lawn tractor and I want to purchase a rear bagger for it and need some advice from owners of both types - hard plastic bins or soft bags. My mower is a Craftsman CTX9000 with a 42" deck and it appears that all of the baggers that Sears sells for a 42" deck will fit my mower and they have two sizes for both, the plastic bins or the soft bags, one is a 2 bagger and one is a 3 bagger. Is there any problem with getting even distribution of the clippings using one size or the other? Could someone please comment on the advantages with owning either the hard or the soft? Also I will be using the bagger system at my primary residence but would be wanting to use the side discharge on one to two acres at my mini farm where I have a cabin. Is this a big problem to disconnect the chute and be able to use the side discharge? Do I just leave the mounting frame on the rear of the mower and remove the top, bags & chute? Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[bruceatlam]

Well, I see that this is close to three months old and no one offered any help. You may or may not still need opinions so here are mine:

1. Buy the three bin system --- I've used one since 1996. All bins fill just fine.
2. I prefer the soft bags over the hard bins -- less bulk to handle. And the soft bags take up less space on those occasions when you'll want to set them aside for awhile.
3. I regularly switch between bagging and side discharge. Just remove the two tubes/chutes and leave the rest of the bagger in place. That's the easiest way.

 

[Stingingfork]

Well, I see that this is close to three months old and no one offered any help. You may or may not still need opinions so here are mine:

1. Buy the three bin system --- I've used one since 1996. All bins fill just fine.
2. I prefer the soft bags over the hard bins -- less bulk to handle. And the soft bags take up less space on those occasions when you'll want to set them aside for awhile.
3. I regularly switch between bagging and side discharge. Just remove the two tubes/chutes and leave the rest of the bagger in place. That's the easiest way.

Thanks for the helpful advice. Since posting the question on the baggers I've learned that even though my deck is 42" apparently for the CTX (Pro) series which was manufactured by Briggs & Stratton for Sears they made only one bagger that would fit my model. It is currently selling for over $500.00 which I refuse to pay when the only difference between it and there other baggers for their 42" decks is how the discharge is postioned and the others sell for almost half of what my mine is selling for. I guess that's why they discontinued the CTX series of lawn tractors only one year after their debut since they not only overpriced the mowers but the parts too. For now I've decided to go with their mulching kit and it seems to suffice for the time being and maybe if they see that their baggers aren't selling for this short lived series of tractors they may bring them down to the same price point as the other 42" decks (between $250 - $300).

 

[Bird]

I never had a bagger for my Craftsman riding mower, so didn't know of anything I could say to help. But I do have the twin bagger for my little Toro ZTR, and it cost $459 plus tax nearly 3 years ago or about $495 total. I thought that was awfully high, but the dealer installed it, and I also learned that the "bagging kit" included a new high lift blade, an engine guard, trailer hitch, several pieces of mounting hardware, heavy front counterweight and bracket to mount it in, and a ring that mounted about the bottom rim of the mower deck. Of course that's in addition to the two soft bags, the lid, and the two piece chute. It works great, but does blow the clippings all the way across and fill the left bag first.

I see where you could currently buy the same thing for $10 more at Mowers Direct.

 

[pipefitter]

I have had a 2 and 3 bin "hard" bagger on a Craftsman rider. The 3 bagger didn't seem to fill but 2 bags real full. I've since sold that mower. Now I have another Craftsman with a 2 bag setup. IT doesn't seem to fill but one bag fully, but it does pretty well. The brackets, and mounting for my 3-bagger required a bit more work to remove than the 2 bagger, if I remember correctly, but it could have been the age of the mowers.

 

[pipefitter]

I just looked up CTX 9000 because I don't think I've seen one. The Sears website had a 3 bag system listed for a CTX for 479.00, on sale. You may want to take a look.

 

[RalphVa]

Much better for the grass if you leave the cuttings there. You'll not need hardly any fertilizer then.

That's what we did on 4 or 5 acres of church property in NJ. Even with huge amount of leaves, I'd just chop them up, discharging inward until the engine started to load up; then reverse direction and threw the mess outwards a couple rounds.

Ralph

 

[pipefitter]

I was think more about bagging leaves. I bag and compost most of them, but very seldom grass clippings. After a year of composting, it almost looks like peat moss.

 

[whitejww]

I see you mention that the discharge is the difference on the bagging system for your machine. I wonder if you could use the 2, 3 soft/hard baggers and just purchase the lower discharge tube separately. I regularly buy and sell mowers and have picked up whole machines with the bagger system for $75. That said, the lower discharge tube on eBay will probably run for $50 to $75 delivered. You could put a whole bagging system in place this way for approximately $150.

Also for the leaf pick up you may want to do a double pass. I use my YS4500 in mulch mode and make confetti out of the leaves. Then I put the lower tube on and suck up the pieces. It makes the peat moss almost instantly.

Good luck and let us know what you decide.....

Regards,
John