Tip trailer back. Drive forward with a jerk.
larry
Yes, the "cling & jerk" approach helps, thanks. I find it also helps to rock the body up and down several times when I tip it back to get things started. Using the vac without a mower probably doesn't help as the leaves are not as finely ground (depending on how dry they are), and they don't get jiggled down as you drive around, so they aren't as well packed. As a result they spread out over two or three trailer lengths as I dump them, but I can fix that with my FEL.
Just got the added length of 6" hose and replaced the 8" section. Huge improvement! The 8" hose is much stiffer, not only because it's bigger but because it's of a stiffer construction. Worse, the steel 8" to 6" reducer likes to think of itself as a plow as you try to drag the hose around, catching on rocks or just digging into the gravel road. I moved it to mount directly on the fan housing, so the hose is now much easier to drag around. Having the quick-connect there makes it easy to remove the hose totally from the fan for storage.
I'd have preferred to have a single 20 to 24-ft section to avoid the possible clogging at the splice. But the manufacturer couldn't supply anything but the pre-cut lengths, so I got a second 12' section and a splice kit. I didn't have any luck finding it on the web, in part because there is no labeling on it so I don't know what it's actually called. Clearly some types of this hose are stiffer than others, and I wasn't anxious to end up with something too hard to use at the fairly substantial prices they want for this stuff.
I suppose using 6" all the way cuts down on air flow some, but I can't really tell the difference. This thing has a lot of suction. I've been trying to keep the twigs out of it, but I find that any that don't hang on the outside of the pickup tube seem to make it all the way for the most part.
One learning that's helping the on-and-off the tractor issue... I find that the wind fails to blow all the leaves into the ditch, so I need to go down the driveway with the backpack leaf blower to blow them in before I vac the ditch. If the leaves aren't too deep, I find it's easy to bunch them up with the backpack so there are fewer stops with the tractor and vac.
All in all, I rate the project a success - I find it takes much less time and gas, and it's much less frustrating, to use the vac then to try to blow the leaves up the 8 to 10-ft bank, which is thick with small trees and brush. Also, I don't need perfect wind conditions to be successful. And that big pile of leaves looks like good compost potential for next year.
