Fall clean up

[Wyenot]

Hi all. We are on the verge of having all of the trees shed their leaves and was wondering if anyone has come up with a way to use their power trac with a vacuum system? Granted it is probably like driving a 18 wheeler but I am sure it has to beat raking, blowing, or a tow behind sweeper. Has anyone tried to make some kind of chute to fit the rear discharge of the mower? I have done the pull behind sweeper with a small lawn tractor but with all the repeated passes I think that the 425 will flatten the grass quite a bit. If it has been successfully done it would be nice to vacuum up the sweet gum balls and black walnuts instead of pushing them down into the lawn. Looking forward to hearing your experience if you have tried it already.

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[/pine]

Not really on topic but...
Actually the raking part can be a kind of therapy (similar to pulling weeds)...it's the moving and disposing of part that sucks IMO...

An alternative to omni-raking I've gone to is what I call leaf sculpting...(my terrain is too steep for anything but a tracked machine)...
We rake areas that generally accentuate the naturally landscaped areas (flower beds etc.)...and over-seed with winter rye...
...unless it gets really dry the left as leaves get matted down, stay put when it's windy and help prevent erosion...it sure beats the additional raking...and the green (rye grass) makes a great contrast...

BTW...welcome to the forum...I'm sure you will get some interesting and insightful comments...

 

[4570Man]

It wouldn't be my first choice of machines, but if you can get a boot to fit the deck it should work. Good luck on sucking up the walnuts and porky pine eggs ( sweet gum balls ).

 

[MossRoad]

Many years back someone made a collector tube onto the rear of the finish mower deck and hooked it to a tow behind vacuum. I can't recall who did it, its been so long.

If I were going to build my own, I'd get a cart with a box on it, put a round, single blade deck from a Snapper riding mower like this under it,

Then power the blade with a hydraulic motor like what drives my current Power Trac deck. That one motor for the 60" deck will have plenty of power for one 33" blade under the Snapper deck and should have enough lift to push it up a 4' tube into a dump cart. I'd then just run some long hydraulic hoses from the front of the PT to the back to the cart and tow the thing around the yard to pick up leaves.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Buy a Lawn Genie. I bought mine for $200. One of the best leaf vacuums I've ever run. I don't have a picture of the actual machine but if you google it you'll get an idea of what I have. This picture is of one pass at walking speed over about 4 inches of dry leaves.

 

[Wyenot]

Thanks guys, I have been looking for the lawn genie and found that it is not a current model so only with luck will that be an option. I am not sure how to search the huge amount of threads efficiently enough to find the thread with the pull behind vacuum mod. There seem to be limited options for the PT in the pick up of leaves area so maybe I will look into some other options. Is this the one thing that PTs can't do at all well? If I come up with a good mod for this I will let you know. Have a great fall season.

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[MossRoad]

As I've mentioned before, I tow a sweeper currently. Takes lots of trips to the dump pile.

 

[coolconnection]

This is something a made some years back and it turned out to be one of my favorite attachments. It's from a steiner.

 

[murphy1244]

This is something a made some years back and it turned out to be one of my favorite attachments. It's from a steiner.

View attachment 444079



View attachment 444080



View attachment 444081

How does that work? any action shots?

 

[RalphVa]

Why do you vacuum or even rake leaves? I've always just chopped them up with the lawn mower. Best if you plug off the discharge or have a designed mulching mower, but when I mowed the 5 acres of church property with GOBS of oak trees on it, I just discharge everything to the inside as I made rounds. When the mower started to chug a bit, I turned it around the other way, discharging outwards.

ModernLeviticus 42:3 says: "Thou shalt not rake or vacuum leaves."

Ralph

 

[MossRoad]

Why do you vacuum or even rake leaves? I've always just chopped them up with the lawn mower. Best if you plug off the discharge or have a designed mulching mower, but when I mowed the 5 acres of church property with GOBS of oak trees on it, I just discharge everything to the inside as I made rounds. When the mower started to chug a bit, I turned it around the other way, discharging outwards.

ModernLeviticus 42:3 says: "Thou shalt not rake or vacuum leaves."

Ralph

There are so many leaves that the chopped leaves smother the lawn.

 

[MossRoad]

This is something a made some years back and it turned out to be one of my favorite attachments. It's from a steiner.

Is that the same hydraulic motor that's on the PT finish mower?

 

[coolconnection]

MossRoad that is the same motor. I used to have some videos on here under 'converting a leaf blower' but they don't seem to work anymore. That blower is a great tool for fall leaves. Getting ready to hook it up soon to blow the cherry and maples leaves back. I got the blower really cheap on an online auction and it was in really good condition. With that hydraulic motor on there it is faster than it was on the steiner and sounds like a jet engine.

 

[KennyG]

There are so many leaves that the chopped leaves smother the lawn.

Got that right. And if I don't keep after them, they get so deep I have to use the pickup hose since trying to run the mower (with cyclone rake) through 8 inches of leaves doesn't work.

 

[MossRoad]

MossRoad that is the same motor. I used to have some videos on here under 'converting a leaf blower' but they don't seem to work anymore. That blower is a great tool for fall leaves. Getting ready to hook it up soon to blow the cherry and maples leaves back. I got the blower really cheap on an online auction and it was in really good condition. With that hydraulic motor on there it is faster than it was on the steiner and sounds like a jet engine.

I'll bet it does! :laughing:

I still can't justify the cost of a leaf blower (or snow blower, for that matter) for our needs. I used to have a hand-held leaf blower that was good for flower beds and blowing off the Power Trac. The plastic impeller wore out and there are no replacement parts. I might get one next year. Probably a back-pack model.

As I've mentioned, the tow-behind sweeper three-four times a fall does good enough for our needs. Lots of trips to dump it, though. Sometimes the leaves are so thick I get maybe 20' before it fills up! But that's only in the heavy spot in the back near the woods. I can deal with that.

 

[woodlandfarms]

We have Big Leaf Maples.. And they mean big leaf. 12 to 20" each leaf. Lawn is a gonner in the fall.

 

[coolconnection]

We have Big Leaf Maples.. And they mean big leaf. 12 to 20" each leaf. Lawn is a gonner in the fall.

I would love to see a picture of those. The biggest I have are 5 to 6 inches across. I could imagine the leaf storm my blower to could to with those.

 

[woodlandfarms]

What is messed up is when one dries up in the tree in the fall (does not fall) and then through the winter comes down wet and flat on your windsield.

The maple trees tend to not have much grass around them (or it is late coming up) as we do not broom the "lawn"