Looking for a lawn sweeper

[MossRoad]

I have a rear discharge finish mower out front and tow a sweeper behind me. Works really well, as long as the leaves are dry. The chopped leaves go under the machine and the sweeper picks them right up.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I really like my place after 25 years of improvements but I would be gone tomorrow if I came outside to that nightmare.

Better than in the basement! I got 7 of these out ...

The 1st couple I saw in the attached crawl space, I didn't mind they were little ... But after this one I realized I really didn't want them anywhere inside my house, and no matter what people say about how good they are for catching mice, I was catching 4-10 mice a month ... They were not keeping up!

The cats have kept the mice and snakes out, no more barn swallows nesting in my porch or deck, on top of my security cameras either ... They are still around but stay away from the house and barn ... Here they are dive bombing me brush hogging. ..

Barn swallows while brush hogging

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Got home yesterday and kitties left me a chipmunk!

And FedEx left my new sweeper for me, not quite sure when I'll have time to assemble, but will soon, leaves haven't fallen here yet in any great numbers ... I got a bunch of stuff to do on my pickup this time home ...

I mowed yesterday and remembered that I have another oak tree on the other side of my barn, where I like to mow ... In addition to the two maples on the lawn, one actually is in the middle of the circle of the driveway ...

Not sure if this flowering thing is a tree or a bush ... But it drops leaves too! And the big tree in the background behind and just to the right is at the fence line, depending on how the wind blows, drops leaves on the lawn too ...

 

[TIMMYDUCK]

Second year owning the Cyclone Rake XL .

Made in beautiful West Haven , CT .

Paid 3000 with all the extras picked up directly from the factory.

Love Love Love it .

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I have the same Cyclone except mine doesn't have the Grateful Dead bears!

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I got up what most people would consider "early" today ... Just before my normal time of around 03:00ish am . . .but today it was really 02:00 am!

I got the sweeper put together, a few steps would have been easier, and faster If I had a helper, but none of my three cats couldn't be bothered!

Yup, there really are three there, they sleep in a pile together!

But I prevailed and got it put together!

Even though we've had a few cool nights, and this morning it dropped to 27°, the leaves haven't started to drop here, so maybe next time I'm home I can actually use it!

 

[gstrom99]

Not to hijack this thread but, do any of these pick up black walnuts? I have 12 trees, that are real fertile.

 

[square1]

Not to hijack this thread but, do any of these pick up black walnuts? I have 12 trees, that are real fertile.

IDK about black walnuts, but they can make an acorn into an almost lethal projectile from time to time

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Not to hijack this thread but, do any of these pick up black walnuts? I have 12 trees, that are real fertile.

I don't think so

 

[Shawn T. W.]

The manual says to adjust the brush to the height of the top of the grass, that too low will cause more pressure and wear on the bearings and brush ...

So it's not like one of those parking lot sweepers ...

 

[oldnslo]

Not to hijack this thread but, do any of these pick up black walnuts? I have 12 trees, that are real fertile.

Mine will not pick up Walnuts.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Didn't have a lot of leaves fallen, but I wanted to try it, I mowed the lawn on Tuesday ... But 1st I remembered the manual said to grease the bearings every year, they did not say it had to be done prior to use ... But, I decided to open it up and have a look ... No bearings, just the white "bushing" they recommended white lithium grease, but didn't put any on! They did kinda slop some of the blue grease on the gears ... I spread the blue grease out better, and applied the white lithium grease to the axles and bushings ... There are drive gears on both sides.

Then took it out on the lawn, I took a few slow adjustments to get it low enough to do a pretty good job, and had to remember that the instructions said not to make "sharp turns"!

Most of my trees still have quite a lot of leaves, calling for 20° Monday morning, so that should get them off!

It dumped just fine, I should have thought to raise the roller before "transporting" it over to the garden area ...

It wasn't "full" but left a nice pile, I'll rototiller them in when I have more ...

Overall I'm happy with it.

-----------------------------------

On a different note ... I went back today and checked to see if Brinly ever answered my questions ... They did, a week later ...

Here they are.

Why would you mix plastic and metal gears?

Kind of a wishy washy answer in my opinion, why not just list the actual country?

Glad I went with the Ohio Steel, even though it's not made in the USA ... But they clearly say it's made in Vietnam.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

The maple still has a lot of leaves on it, even though Monday it was only 18°!

But the oak on the other side of the barn had dropped a lot, and the neighbors oaks had also, I had forgotten to mow this area when I did the lawn.

So I mowed this first, thinking it would chop up the leaves some and they would mulch in the garden faster ... But, it seems to make them harder to pick up!

I still got a lot picked up, but went over it several times, in different directions ...

This is VERY FULL, and hard to empty ... And even harder to try to spread with a Z-turn ...

I ended dumping 4 loads in the future garden area ...

Then took my tractors bucket and spread them around some .

Then mixed them in with the rototiller!

Still satisfied with this sweeper, learning how to use it best ... Don't fill it all the way, and if going to dump area is rough, I raise the roller/brush so there is less chance of it getting roughed up or broken ...