How to improve leaf vacuums???

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I have a Trac Vac 880, a Cyclone rake and an Agri Fab sweeper. Of the three the simple brush sweeper does best job getting up leaves.
The Cyclone is on a Deere 455 and chute adapter I worked on some today making a tighter seal, but neither that or Trac Vac do that well. Both have lots of suction, and both I've used with just a long hose getting up leaves...works great but not on different mowers. The circle I made on driveway shows it and I tried deck low as it goes.
Driveway it skips places just like yard and leaves are bone dry.
Does anyone make a simple attachment like a vacuum cleaner, wide opening...say 4ft x 1ft? The problem seems to me running mower then trying suck up leaves.
Has anyone fabricated something?
The Trac Vac I made a front dolly, the motor is so heavy.
Any ideas...thanks so much.

 

[boomer1025]

I have a Trac Vac 880, a Cyclone rake and an Agri Fab sweeper. Of the three the simple brush sweeper does best job getting up leaves.
The Cyclone is on a Deere 455 and chute adapter I worked on some today making a tighter seal, but neither that or Trac Vac do that well. Both have lots of suction, and both I've used with just a long hose getting up leaves...works great but not on different mowers. The circle I made on driveway shows it and I tried deck low as it goes.
Driveway it skips places just like yard and leaves are bone dry.
Does anyone make a simple attachment like a vacuum cleaner, wide opening...say 4ft x 1ft? The problem seems to me running mower then trying suck up leaves.
Has anyone fabricated something?
The Trac Vac I made a front dolly, the motor is so heavy.
Any ideas...thanks so much. View attachment 829371View attachment 829372View attachment 829373View attachment 829374View attachment 829376

Sounds like you got a mower deck problem. Your not using mulching blades are you. Also are the exhaust vents on the vac units open and flowing air.
I have a Cyclone rake and that thing does a super good job of sucking up leave and grass clipping plus walnuts and hickory nuts that go thru the mower.

 

[ultrarunner]

Hi Lift mower blades?

I had a mower that did a great job picking up leaves until I changed the blade.

 

[DJ54]

Your picture looks a lot like when the chute on my Cub Cadet deck, or boot attached to the chute gets partially plugged by a twig. I just shut it down and remove the hose from the boot, pull clog out and go again. Always keep a 5/16" nut driver in my pocket to remove hose.

I have 2 Agri-Fab Leaf Vacs, one set up like yours, and another with a 10' hose and a wand handle. I've found that it's a lot less time consuming to use a leaf blower to pile them up, then vac using hose w/wand. Even it clogs every now and then with a larger twig if I don't catch it before it gets sucked up.

I really don't have that many leaves to pick up but my neighbors do. I use leaves to mulch around set plants in the garden for weed suppression, which works great. One neighbor I let use it that has a huge amount of leaves. He's more than happy to use it. He used to hand load a trailer and spend more than several days hauling leaves here. Now, he can usually do it in half a day before he goes to work. Both places end up piling leaves 2-3 times as they all don't seem to fall at once.

My other neighbor is the same way, only I go to pick them up. Last year I got well over 30 loads from them. This is just one of the piles I picked up last year. It had settled some from a rain the day before but found it packs much tighter in the Vac and cuts down on trips.

 

[KennyG]

I think I understand your issue, but I'm not sure how to solve it. I have a Cyclone Rake and it will pick up every single leaf when I run it over grass. However, on concrete (any hard surface) it will pick up a lot of the leaves but blow some out the front and sides. I used to just go over and over the driveway until I got most of them. My approach now is to use my backpack blower to blow the leaves off the driveway and onto the grass, then pick them up with the CR.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Sounds like you got a mower deck problem. Your not using mulching blades are you. Also are the exhaust vents on the vac units open and flowing air.
I have a Cyclone rake and that thing does a super good job of sucking up leave and grass clipping plus walnuts and hickory nuts that go thru the mower.

I'm not sure about mulching blades. The exhaust vent is at the top I believe you're talking about held in by Velcro. That's open and exiting air.

 

[triptester]

I think I understand your issue, but I'm not sure how to solve it. I have a Cyclone Rake and it will pick up every single leaf when I run it over grass. However, on concrete (any hard surface) it will pick up a lot of the leaves but blow some out the front and sides. I used to just go over and over the driveway until I got most of them. My approach now is to use my backpack blower to blow the leaves off the driveway and onto the grass, then pick them up with the CR.

On hard surfaces after first pass to get the majority of the leaves make a second pass with the mower deck shut off. The spinning blades cause the leaves to blow out the side on hard pavement.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

The Trac Vac maybe does a little better job. To me the problem seems like is mowing leaves up then vacuum trying to pick that up.
I'll get high lift blades, try that.

 

[ruffdog]

Sometimes Deere will offer under-deck baffles when the person wants it to mulch. It should be set up to fully side chute with no mulching plates installed. Your connection to the deck looks pretty good so I don't see an issue there. My agri-fab unit will stop sucking if the exhaust vent plugs up. It plugs quicker if I suck just leaves instead of a grass/leaves mixture. When I dump the load, I hit the top screen with a rake to clear the exhaust. Mine will also leave more debris on pavement than in the lawn where it cleans quite good.

 

[kozal01]

Im with Kenny, get the debris off the driveway and on to grass to improve the seal around the deck. Even with a vacuum you will get a ton of blowout on a hard surface.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I know this may sound stupid but to me a leaf vac is simply a giant vacuum cleaner. Vacuum cleaners have attachments like this one. If they made one, say, 5ft wide for a 6" or 8" hose, put two wheels on the end...imagine how well it would suck up leaves.
To me although the mower chops up leaves it also blows them around...this wouldn't do that.

 

[DJ54]

Something else that occurred to me too, was my vac seems to do better picking up leaves running the mower deck slower, like about 1/2 throttle or less on my Cub Cadet I have dedicated to it. Like matching the amount of leaves going out, vs. the volume the vac is able to handle. Mine has a 5" hose and plenty of suction. I have to really watch as my neighbor piles part of the leaves on his stone driveway. The vac has no problem picking up #57 Limestone if I get too close to the surface.

Basically, slow your ground speed, plus mower deck speed reducing output, to match the vacs volume it can take in.

I also use mown grass for mulch in the garden. I will purposely let it go a couple weeks, or just before the Bluegrass goes to seed and it can be pretty heavy. The vac has no problem picking up dried grass at higher rpms. But even then, I only run about 3/4 throttle and faster ground speed, as it doesn't take a lot of power like mowing. Those twigs that drop off Walnut trees in the Fall cause more issues than anything as there are so many in a small area.

 

[KennyG]

DJ54, thanks for the idea. I tried letting the tractor idle to slow the mower deck, while I ran the Cyclone Rake blower at full throttle. It did a much better job of picking up the leaves from the concrete drive. Looks like it's going to save me a lot of time.

 

[3Ts]

Have you ever watched the vacuum truck cleaning a parking lot? They don't just vacuum the dirt. The exhaust is directed back under the truck so it's a combination of blowing and sucking. This isn't going to help with the mower deck, but maybe a tow behind pickup might work better?

 

[Carl_NH]

Yep - same with my trac-vac 580 and Ferris 52" zero turn - leaves blow out the front - so lower to half throttle or less and that works best for hard surfaces or bare grass areas.

I had the Travvac on my cub cadet GT with 48" deck and it was fine for that lower volume of air - but the Ferris with gator blades pushes a lot of air volume.

I also blow the leaves off the driveway first. Also mulching/mowing the leaves into windrows reduces the volume by half or more, means less dumping, and can pack in 2x the leaves.

 

[zzvyb6]

I have a unit that used to be a Woods Vac. I had to convert it to a RHS discharge for my Deere 48" & 72" decks. Couple of things I altered:

8" hose, chute, and 'blower' input.
6.5 hp Higher power Honda motor: no throttle, just 'On' or 'Off'.
More exhaust ports on the trailer. The air flow must get out as quickly as it get in. Otherwise the airstream chokes.
Deck height increased because the masses of leaves, branches, walnuts, dog poop, and dog toys has to be able to get under the deck. There's plenty of suction.

On a side note, I once accidently ran over some glowing ashes from a former burn pile. Entire load caught the sparks and it turned into a leaf combustor as well as a leaf storage box. Fortunately, its all metal. Looked like a steam locomotive climbing a hill out West ! I probably should add a rear view mirror...

 

[Carl_NH]

That would be a sight to see a flaming/smoking box of leaves - can only imagine what that looked like with all that air flow.

For mods to my trac-vac
- replaced 6" hose with 7" hose and new flange on blower increased the airflow a lot
- replaced the 1/4" mesh on top of cart with a 1/2" expanded flattened metal mesh that allows more airflow and less clogging up with leaves
- Modified an agrifab plastic boot for better airflow and mounting

When I get it out this weekend I take some pics

 

[5030]

waste of high cost diesel or gas Fuddy. I let them blow down the road and forget about them. Don't even own a vacuum and don't want one either and we have a ton of trees, mostly oaks and like I said, all the leaves make their own trip.. down the road. No intervention from me at all. Wind still blows free las time I checked. Too bad other 'blows' cost money and your other half don't count in that either.

We all know about that don't we????

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I have open sheds and leaves make a mess if I don't get them up. I dump them and the big pile makes great compost.

 

[DJ54]

DJ54, thanks for the idea. I tried letting the tractor idle to slow the mower deck, while I ran the Cyclone Rake blower at full throttle. It did a much better job of picking up the leaves from the concrete drive. Looks like it's going to save me a lot of time.

Good to hear..!! I should have said slow ground speed, plus reduce mower deck speed to give the Vac time to take in the volume of leaves being directed into it.

I also misstated about the hose size on mine. It is 6" instead of 5". Found that out when I went to replace the worn remote hose on mine. I ordered a new 5" going by one of 3 Agri-Fab online parts manuals. Should have measured but didn't. Duct tape to the rescue until the new one gets here supposedly on Monday.

I did an online search using the OEM part number. Many suppliers site said it was N/A, or on backorder. Much to my surprise Tractor Supply had one in stock and for less than other places, plus free shipping to store via UPS. Got a notice it would be here in 4 days, on Monday. It must be coming via their Mule Train Division, as it was shipped from Indianapolis, IN to Central Ohio which is 4 hours apart when driving. At least I found one, and it's on it's way.

I've got quite a pile going on here. I use them to mulch around set plants in the garden to suppress weeds. Works very well..!! Between a buddy of mine working temporarily for a lawn service picking up leaves and gathering from 2 neighbors I've got quite a stockpile for next year. The pile has grown about 1/3 more in size since this picture was taken, and more coming in today. One man's trash, is another man's treasure...