My leaf collection equipment

[kubotabilly]

Since it’s that time of the year again, I thought I would show everyone what I use to collect and move all the leaves that we have on our property. My trac-vac 880 is 18 years old and has been trouble free in all those years, except for the time I rolled it over and broke the neck on the carburetor . Just to let you guys know, the vac holds 50 bushels and it takes me 18 loads to collect all our leaves from around the house and in our picnic grove that we rent out during the summer months. That’s a lot of leaves The two Stihl helpers are a BR600 backpack blower and a SH85D shredder, blower vac. Over the years I used many box store blowers and finally got tired of their inability to move the leaves like I wanted to, hence the BR600. This blower is by far the best blower on the market. It’ll blow the tree over Also, this year I added a set of gator magnum mulching blades to the 54” deck so I’m curious to find out if they may decrease the number of loads that I collect this year. Oh, I almost forgot. Did you see the hand rake on the side of the trac-vac??? I don’t use it much anymore, but it likes to ride along to remind me of the way I took care of the leaves years ago .

Bill

 

[have_blue]

Looks like you really have it in for leaves, and attack them with overwhelming force.

 

[Ifixcars]

you must be a short guy or something. That's the shortest rops I ever saw!

 

[kubotabilly]

Looks like you really have it in for leaves, and attack them with overwhelming force.

Bob,
There was a time when the leaves had the upper hand, but not any more. It sure is a pleasure to gather the leaves when you have the right equipment .

Bill

 

[RalphVa]

I just chopped them up with our Scag ZTR on the approximately 5 acres with lots of trees that our church had in NJ.

Our extension agent recently came out with an article on smashing up leaves with lawn mowers. He said that there's no downside to doing this. Been my opinion for years. Mulching mowers do a marvelous job on them. The Scag wasn't a mulcher. I just ran it discharging to the inside and kept going over the same leaves until the machine was about to choke. Then I'd reverse direction for one round before going back to slinging inside again.

If you collect them to use on your garden or mulch piles or shrub beds, fine. Collecting is better than raking and will chop them up some in the process, if they come off the mowing deck before being blown into the collection bins. Collecting your own with the right rig is also maybe a little less work than my having to go around "stealing" them from silly town people that put them in bags by the curb. I make maybe up to 10 trips/year in my pickup to collect the leaves (about 15 bags/trip) and spend time grinding them in my chipper/shredder.

Your photos were WAY too large for me to even attempt to view. You can normally resize any photo and get it down to way less than 100kB and still be nice clarity.

Ralph

 

[Badger_Bandman]

This looks like it really grinds up the leaves great, but what happens when your mower gets into branches that you would normally just mow over? Do they get stuck in the tube or the blower?
Frank

 

[SteveInMD]

WAIT!!!!! I see a leaf if photo #3. You better fire that thing up and go get it!!!!!

 

[kubotabilly]

I just chopped them up with our Scag ZTR on the approximately 5 acres with lots of trees that our church had in NJ.

Our extension agent recently came out with an article on smashing up leaves with lawn mowers. He said that there's no downside to doing this. Been my opinion for years. Mulching mowers do a marvelous job on them. The Scag wasn't a mulcher. I just ran it discharging to the inside and kept going over the same leaves until the machine was about to choke. Then I'd reverse direction for one round before going back to slinging inside again.

If you collect them to use on your garden or mulch piles or shrub beds, fine. Collecting is better than raking and will chop them up some in the process, if they come off the mowing deck before being blown into the collection bins. Collecting your own with the right rig is also maybe a little less work than my having to go around "stealing" them from silly town people that put them in bags by the curb. I make maybe up to 10 trips/year in my pickup to collect the leaves (about 15 bags/trip) and spend time grinding them in my chipper/shredder.

Your photos were WAY too large for me to even attempt to view. You can normally resize any photo and get it down to way less than 100kB and still be nice clarity.

Ralph

Ralph,
The only reason that I collect the leaves in the picnic grove is because of the fire issue. The grove is 50% covered with 1b stones and mulching is out of the question. Plus, it looks much cleaner with the leaves picked up . Sorry about the pics. When I open them they only take up about half the screen . I think it makes for nice picture viewing . I'll try and take some smaller photos of the picnic grove to show a before and after leaf collecting view.

Bill

 

[kubotabilly]

This looks like it really grinds up the leaves great, but what happens when your mower gets into branches that you would normally just mow over? Do they get stuck in the tube or the blower?
Frank

Frank,
Unless they are unusually large sticks, I mow over them and pick them up later. Occasionally one will get stuck in the tube, but not too often.

Bill

 

[kubotabilly]

WAIT!!!!! I see a leaf if photo #3. You better fire that thing up and go get it!!!!!

Steve,
I can see your a newbie to leaf collection . That leaf was left there intentionally to lure the rest of the leaves that are still on the tree down to it.
Then, wham-o , the vac collects them next weekend .

Bill