Emptying vacumn leaf cart

[raykos]

Hi all,

Don't know if this is the correct forum to post this, if not, I apologize; however, in a thread I submitted about a vacumn boot attachment to the JD mower deck, a couple of responses mentioned something about an easier way to unload the cart containing the vacumned leaves.

Attached are some pictures of a method I use. Don't know where I got the idea from, and some of you probably are already doing the same thing; but, for those who are new to having to vacumn up leaves into a tow behind cart, this suggestion may be of some help.

I took a tarp of appropriate size(depends on the cart and the hood), folded it in half and duct taped the open side. Then I anchored the bottom of the tarp to the cart, and tied a 3/4" dowel to the top of tarp. The dowel then sits on two 'J' hooks bolted to the hood of the cart, and in the middle of the dowel is tied another rope which goes out the back of the cart. When the cart is full, I back up to my dump site, take the input hose off, reach inside through the inlet to raise the 3/4" dowel up off the 'J' hooks, take the back door off, and the pull on the long rope tied to the middle of the 3/4" dowel. As you pull on the rope the tarp comes forward, and it "rolls" all the leaves out. I imagine you could probaly anchor the pull rope somehow, drive forward and wouldn't have to manually pull the leaves out?

Also, in the one picture at the back of the hood I have a piece of light weight cardboard duct taped in place, this is my full or clogged indicator; as long as the vacumn motor is blowing chopped up leaves into the card, the cardboard is in a "upright" position, if there is a clog or the cart is full the cardboard is "down", and even if I can't tell by the sound of the vacumn motor whats going on, a quick glance at the "indicator" tells me.

Hope this can be of help to somebody?

Ray

 

[sandman2234]

I have a Giant Vac brand of lawn vac. The door hinges to the top, allowing the door to be opened dispite any load pressing against it. The floor is tapered, or slanted, to allow the leaves to simply fall out when you open the door. It appears yours could be easily modified to work that way. You would loose a little of your cargo space, but ease of dumping goes a long way when it comes to running one of these.
Another thing mine has is a net or screen type of cloth hung on 4 j-hooks like your tarp bar is resting on, two on each side. This reduces the amount of airborne dust, at least to a point. (can't hurt!!).That is the green cloth laying on top in the pictures. I have considered adding a pipe with big bottom only holes to extend the inlet, and allow the particles to drop out of suspension without being in the direct air path of the air exiting the chamber. Simply a way to reduce dust, as our sand is easily picked up with the leaves.
Here is a side view of my vac

Here is a view of the inside.



David from jax

 

[Maxfli]

Raykos,

Looks Like that will work better than what I am currently doing. I will try to rig something Up.

Thanks
Bruce

 

[Travelover]

Raykos, very clever. Thanks for sharing. I have been struggling with this for years.