reason for the zebra,
OK, I think I should clarify my reason for my zebra, the 5$ truckloader. Typically, my neighbor lets me take every single leaf from his yard. Normally I would simply rake the leaves into great big windrows, piles, or piles in a line. The raking I find kinda fun and good exercise. The problem with this method has always been getting leaves into the trailer. While the raking is relatively fast and leaves immediate results, hauling those leaves into the trailer is a pain in the back (literally and figuratively). I have used rakes, big rakes, and even grain scoops. While I will eventually get the job done, hauling into the trailer has always been the slow part of the entire operation. further, the leaves tend to not pack well unless I use a grain scoop to push the load down hard into the trailer. Even then, I feel a bit silly as the trailer can carry far more weight than the packed in leaves would suggest.
This is where the truckloader comes in. As I have no belly mower or mower of any type with any sort of adjustable airflow, I mounted the vac and tubing backwards so that it could be driven forward with ease. I still plan to rake by hand, but I might have to switch to using the leaf blower in its conventional fashion in order to collect the leaves. Then I plan to mount it back to the trailer and convert it back to the truckloader configuration and suck up the piles instead of picking the leaves up manually/awkwardly with a large rake and Grain scoop combination. Hopefully then, the actual loading of leaves will be considerably eased and the leaves will come out shredded so I can load much, much more into the trailer (8'x4'x2'). Last but not least, I will then take these back to my gardens and give them a nice dose of chopped up leaves with which to add more organic matter into the soil.
I hope this clarifies the reason and justification for the general design of the vac truckloader.
SI2305
