Cleaning lawn of branches

[nyone]

I just did my maple sticks. Anything smaller than 1in my br600 backpack blower will blow into a pile. Less bending and I can use it for other jobs too.

 

[Bobrown14]

OP In Philly - I dont remember how soft the ground is in the spring when we lived there (Mt Airy), but up here in NYS Fingerlakes region the ground is VERY soft too soft to drive our 52hp tractor around without making pretty big tire tracks in the soft soil. We have 10 acres at least of grass.

I attach a trailer to my Zero Turn - drive around in the spring once the soil is somewhat dry-ish and usually get a friend/buddy/wife to either drive or walk behind and throw sticks into the trailer.

Thats usually good enough we have 30 acres with 3 fields of grass with wooded area in between and along the edges of the fields with a large woodlot (full of many ash trees that are dying/dead). So plenty of debris after the winter. We use those small branches as kindling for our burn piles.

Scoop up ashes with the FEL and spread them on our garden plots (pot-ash).

Cant run around the grassy areas with a heavy compact tractor. We stay off the grass this time of year.

There's no reason to run a tractor in early spring in grass.... its the end of logging and time to cut the logs up and get out the log splitter and make and stack fire wood which is a lot of work. Its the rainy season anyway so WAY too much mud. We try to steer clear of mud this time of year. That can get expensive really quick breaking stuff or getting stuck which is always a thing specially with a zero turn.

 

[Eagle1]

Ahhh come it is some much fun hitting those tractor ruts with the Zturn at full tilt once the grass is thick...

 

[Sgt Slag]

The least expensive option would be Edge Tamers on your bucket. I've used my knock-off's to scoop up limbs. They work better on tree limbs than they do on leaves, but they will get the majority of leaves, if they are thick. They will not gouge up your grass/soil, as the skis keep the cutting edge off of the grass/soil, unless you tilt your bucket too far down.

The trees on my 2.5 acres are 150-200+ years old, with multiple large trunks out of the same base, and several trunks have broken entirely off (a few trees need to be taken down, before they fall down...). I use my Edge Tamer knock-off's to skim the larger branches into a pile, on the edge of my property. The bigger ones, I cut up with a saw, load into my truck bed, and haul to the fire pit.

The bigger pile of brush and branches, makes for critter habitat, on the edge of the woods, at the base of a hill. The Edge Tamer's work best for snow, second best for tree limbs, and dead last for leaves, but better for thick layers of leaves (we rake, by hand, after the tractor, if necessary). Cheers!

 

[WinterDeere]

The least expensive option would be Edge Tamers on your bucket. I've used my knock-off's to scoop up limbs.

Love it! Never seen anything like those, and now I'm ashamed I hadn't thought of that myself. Would be even better if the long edges were also beveled, so they don't tear-in when you turn and the bucket swings side to side.

 

[Sgt Slag]

I turn, side to side, with them on, with the bucket in float mode. It is rare that I gouge the sod. They keep the cutting edge around one inch above the soil surface (small stuff does sneak under the bucket, which my belly mower will easily chew up). The angled front skis glide along the surface, over bumps, rises, and dips. I use two of them, on my 48" bucket, one at each end. For longer bucket widths, you may need more than two skis.

They work very well on snow, but they do leave around a one-inch layer on the blacktop of my long, shared driveway. My neighbor runs his industrial snow blower over it, after I am done, clearing the majority of what I leave behind. The bucket is superb at clearing the bulk of the snow, especially the 2-3 foot tall wall of compacted snow and ice which the county plow driver blocks us in with, after he plows our street.

They are the least expensive implement available, and they are also one of the most useful, in my very limited experience. LOL! Cheers!

 

[WinterDeere]

That's very cool, Sgt Slag. I think I'll give them a try.

One mistake I made when buying my tractor was to equip it with Deere's "heavy duty" bucket, as a primary use of the machine is moving firewood, both in log form (15 foot logs, mostly oak) and in rounds. When moving logs, I use a pair of chain choker slings hung from hooks welded to the top edge of the bucket, and I'd seen way too many Deere buckets with their upper edge all bent to hell from people using them for this very purpose. So... heavy-duty bucket, and the thick bolt-on hardened steel edge... because, why not protect that expensive bucket?

The trouble is that the 320R loader arms and JDQA hardware are already very heavy. Then I put this ~400 lb. bucket on the thing, and I can't even make it up hills with an empty bucket, without the rear end getting light. So now I ballast the hell out of the machine, and everything is copacetic... except my lawn, which gets heavily compacted. I also suspect that those skis might not work nearly so well under the relatively high weight of this bucket and loader, in fact I'm pretty sure they won't even fit over the 2"+ thick cutting edge.

I really need to get around to another bucket solution, either making space for storing a second larger-capacity lightweight bucket for moving mulch and sticks, or maybe get a lighter standard capacity bucket and more-lightly re-enforce it for firewood duty. I need a strong top edge for lifting hooks, but I don't need all of the additional side bracing and cutting edge detail that comes with Deere's "Heavy Duty" buckets.

 

[Creamer]

I hear ya, there's some serious pucker factor in using a zero turn on a steep hill.

Why is that? My front deck zero turn will not flip or tip sideways. My biggest problem is staying in the seat. The thing is like a billy goat going up or down any hill but I do have the AT101 chevron tires not a turf tire. I would not hesitate to take it on any slope I would take a tractor on and some that I would not take a tractor on it. The wide wheel base and low CG makes it ideal for this.

 

[WinterDeere]

Why is that? My front deck zero turn will not flip or tip sideways. My biggest problem is staying in the seat. The thing is like a billy goat going up or down any hill but I do have the AT101 chevron tires not a turf tire. I would not hesitate to take it on any slope I would take a tractor on and some that I would not take a tractor on it. The wide wheel base and low CG makes it ideal for this.

Well, Indiana isn't exactly known for its mountainous terrain, but your mower must be unique among zero turns, if it is impossible to flip it over backwards. Most zero turn mowers are stable side to side, and facing down hill, but can tip over backwards relatively easy when facing up a hill. If you haven't seen this, or aren't even aware of it, then you would do well to read up on it before ever bringing it east. Many add suitcase weights to a weight bar bolted between the front caster arms, for this very purpose, but it limits the mower's float performance on soft or wet areas.

I live adjacent to a ski resort, and while the foothills of the Appalachians are not exactly the Rockies, it is very hilly here. Likely much more so than any place in Indiana.

 

[finn1]

I bought a landscape rake for the tractor. We’re on sand, so it rips the vegitation out somewhat, but it grows back.