Lawn Vacuum?

[ultrarunner]

There are times it sure would come in handy to have a vacuum like the Cyclone Rake and the DR Leaf Vac shown on TV attached or towed by mowers...

Anyone using a yard mower... either tractor based or backpack style care to comment?

Lots of landscape rock area with protected Oaks that like to drop leaves is reason number 1...

If the tow behinds work maybe the backpack style being smaller are limited?

 

[Code54]

I have a cyclone rake and I have it set up that I can tow it with the tractor, Side by side, pretty much anything. With the tractor I can bag with it off the deck or using a hose to do flower beds. Works great and with the attachment hose you can use it about anywhere.
to sure what you mean by backpack style but the cyclone rake does work as advertised!

 

[ultrarunner]

Thanks... Backpack is similar to a blower but the fan is reversed to suck up leaves and fill a canvass bag.

ECHO ES-255 Shred 'N' Vac Blower Mulching Vacuum 25.4cc Engine

 

[jaxs]

With many leaves at all,a vacuum would wear you out with dumping. A catcher/bagger on a mower reduce's bulk and make's leaves composter ready at the same time.

 

[ultrarunner]

Just not sure if the rock area would work for a mower...

It is not flat and is planted.

Neighbor told me the previous owners had someone half a day each week mowing, raking, weeding... etc... spring, summer and fall.

 

[aczlan]

Just not sure if the rock area would work for a mower...

It is not flat and is planted.

Neighbor told me the previous owners had someone half a day each week mowing, raking, weeding... etc... spring, summer and fall.

Blow them out with a backpack leaf blower and mulch them with the lawnmower?
We have a trac vac that goes on our tractor that works pretty well. The only downside is that you have to go fairly slow in heavy mowing or else it plugs up.
If blowing them out with a leaf blower doesn't work, Trac vac does make a longer hose that you could use to suck them directly out of the rock bed.

Aaron Z

 

[Diggin It]

It's a lawn, not a carpet. Mom dropped the stuff there off her plants and trees, I let her dispose of it when she's ready. She'll either blow it away or make it rot into the ground.

 

[TractorGuy]

I would say blow them out of the rocky area and drive over with a sweeper if you want to use them for mulch. I use a pull behind sweeper a couple of times per year to collect the oak leaves and spread them around our azaleas. I can only make a couple of laps without having to dump a hopper full.

 

[Carl_NH]

I have had a trac vac 580 30 bushel tow behind unit with a 6" intake, and used with my Cub Cadet 1811 - worked very well with the 48" deck on the cub picking up off grass or pavement. I got the Ferris IS2000 in 2010 52" and use that now for leaves - but with the increased airflow/debris volume on the Ferris it does a great job on grass but not so good on paved surfaces - leaves debris behind on the driveway.

I usually do a few passes and windrow the leaves and chop them up, then vac them up. It also works on wet leaves but does clog from time to time.

If you are going to use your BX and want to clean leaves off pavement or rock get a vac with at least an 8" intake and about 8HP size. All of them do a good job Cyclone Rake etc. - downside to the trac vac it does not fold for storage but is easy to dump and use.

 

[zzvyb6]

My vac is a tow behind. It is more tha a sweeper. The impeller chops everything up into small bits. You can cover a lot of ground with a unit like this. You get a cube of stuff when you dump it. The stuff will only smolder and not burn because of the high density.