New BX23, now what to do about leaves....

[creex]

Well now that I have a BX23 with all its toys the missing piece of the puzzle is what to do about leaves. I have about 17 acres to deal with and it is half wooded. Leaves are the single biggest annual time-suck to contend with. It takes days and days. And if you do not stay ahead, the problems they create are a compound time-suck. Clogging drainage ditches, which impacts a long downhill drive, choking out grass and vegetation.

On this board I have seen comments about and looked at the Cyclone Rake. I have also begun to look at truck loaders such as from Billy Goat, TracVac, etc. It would take a little creative engineering, but they could be used on the back of a truck, or tounge-mounted on a small utility tilt trailer with a home-brew containment setup, and piped to the deck like a cyclone or used free-hand with a longer hose for where you cannot mow. I am looking at a used 13-horse Billy Goat loader - for the money it would have more grunt than the top Cyclone - on the other hand, the Cyclone could be had as a complete setup, just order all the accessories, close your eyes and submit the payment for the sake of convenience.

All comments welcome - and for fun, given an unlimited budget I would say "I have GOT to have me one of THESE!!!"

Billy Goat - Product Video

 

[LBrown59]

Well now that I have a BX23 with all its toys the missing piece of the puzzle is what to do about leaves.

I've lived here for a long time and have neve did anything with them except just leave them lay.
After 42 two years i don't see any more leaves around here than there were the first year.

 

[MarkLeininger]

I mow the leaves back into the wooded areas, direct them along fence lines to keep the grass from growing into electric fence, mow some of them into the manure pile, use some for mulch around ornamentals and in the garden. Seems a shame to haul away something that can go back into the ground. Maybe you can just run over them an extra time or two at the end of the year and chop them up so fine they won't hurt anything.

 

[Zick]

Oh man that Billy Goat video was great!
Got to get me one of those. Just don't let a small child near it

 

[jambx]

I have used a Cyclone Rake for the last two years with my BX - I only use it in the fall for leaves since its just too big to tow it every time I want to cut the grass. It is very well made and I find that if I let all the leaves fall - then pick them up - its easier than to keep going back every week - my leave blower is now only used to "fine-tune" the yard.

The only negitive comment with these units is the dumping of the hopper as it gets very very heavy do to its large capacity (which IMO is a plus) so you have to get off the tractor and pull out a lot of the debris but it really is a huge back saver.

 

[escavader]

Cut all your trees,use the hoe to pull the stumps-lot of seat time



you did say any comments welcome
ALAN

 

[dodge man]

Get a mulch kit for your deck. It doesn't do a great job, but it's low effort. If you can catch them when they are dry and kind of fluffed up, it will chop them up pretty good.

 

[tony3542]

I got the biggest Cyclone Rake made.Does everything they said it would.Nothing to say bad about it.
tony

 

[CHDinCT]

Another happy Cyclone Rake owner here. Just one comment to add on connecting whatever you get to your mower deck vs sucking them directly into a trailer - if you suck them from your deck, they will get mulched up twice vs once on a direct to trailer proceedure. With dry leaves and gator blades, my leaves are almost reduced to dust. Point is, you can get more in the trailer if you mow and suck vs only suck. (OK, this post getting too graphic )

 

[MarkLeininger]

Cut all your trees,use the hoe to pull the stumps-lot of seat time

Sounds like Mr T. He moved into an upper crust Chicago suburb about 10 years ago and promptly cut down acres of mature oak trees. The neighbors went nuts and the village passed an ordinance that no one can cut down a tree without a permit.