Leaf Bucket

[FredH]

Here is the leaf bucket I built instead of the old one we had made out of a four way hardwood pallet , 2" x 4" 's and plywood .

It's made out of about 115' of 1/2" x 1/2" x .065 tubing , a little more than 1 sheet of 24 gauge , a sheet of flat expanded metal , and it sits on 2" x 2"
tubing which then sits on top of 3" x 4" tubing for the forks to slide in .

Old box , even with backhoe on , you knew it was there when you picked it up . This box , as seen it the pictures is like half the weight and with nothing on the back of tractor , does not feel like it is even there .

We have lot's of Oak tree's in yard around house , so in the fall , we usually end up picking up around 4 full pick-up loads , if not more . Wheel barrow really sucks and FEL bucket is only slightly better , but this is slightly larger than old wooden box so should do a decent job .

Fred H.

 

[groundcover]

Nice job ! That should be just the ticket this fall .:thumbsup:

 

[JB4310]

Looks great, with those swinging gates you could really load it up.

I just made a wood leaf box last year, to limit the amount of times I have to handle them. We also have alot of large oaks, we have town pick up at the curb, I use to load up a trailer then bring it down to the street and unload it.

Now I just load the box and dump it at the curb, much less work. I might do the closing door idea like yours.

I made mine to work with my forks, at first I used straps to hold it on, but now I bolt it right to the fork frame, very solid and stable.

JB.

 

[FredH]

Your wood box is similar to the one I had except I made the mistake of building mine on a 4 way hardwood pallet .

A typical pallet weighs in around 65 to 70 pounds , but the hardwood one's are ??? pounds more . So on my tc30 , even with the backhoe on , there was a lot of weight out front before any thing was added . Although I was comfortable on it , my better half always felt uneasy traveling or dumping . Now with the expanded metal in front gates and back panel , at least she will know " What " she is going to hit before she actually hits it . :thumbsup:


Fred H.

P.S. If you look close at the doors , the one on the right sags . Was not a positioning of hinge error , rather it was a error in heat setting on welder when putting hinges on . Hinges had rubber or plastic inserts around the pins . Well the top hinge has a little less insert as it kind of bubble / dripped out .:ashamed:

 

[2manyrocks]

I'm curious if you've tried to mulch leaves instead of raking them up.

I put a mulch kit on a Dixon ZTR and no more leaf raking. I just mow the yard every week and don't let the leaves get ahead of me in the Fall. Downside it is very dusty when it's dry. Other downside is I don't have leaves to compost for the garden.

 

[JB4310]

I'm curious if you've tried to mulch leaves instead of raking them up.

I put a mulch kit on a Dixon ZTR and no more leaf raking. I just mow the yard every week and don't let the leaves get ahead of me in the Fall. Downside it is very dusty when it's dry. Other downside is I don't have leaves to compost for the garden.

For me, I think I have to many leaves, I'd be worried it would kill the grass.

I have a 9 HP Billy Goat blower so I don't have to do to much raking. I am thinking of composting more of my leaves this year, I tried it a couple years ago and made some real nice top soil.

jb.

 

[FredH]

Oak leaves are to high in acid around here for mulch unless you used it on a path of some sort . Neighbor tried that in her garden , just used the mulch around her raised beds on the paths , plants like tomato's did o.k. , but it leached into the soil and her beds for spice and something else withered and croaked about half way through the summer .

The lawn would be o.k. to bag and mulch , same with the driveway , but all the rest is various types of rock gardens , so blowing and raking into piles would still be required . Thus if I have to put it into a pile anyway , might as well put into a bin and haul to the pile .

Although I did try to convince her a couple of years ago to get something like this :

DR Power Equipment - Leaf Vacuum / Lawn Vacuum: Unique Leaf Vacuum / Lawn Vacuum Features

But at that time , she was not into that idea . I don't know , maybe now , a few years older , the idea may go over better .

Fred H.

 

[rjmack]

nice job:thumbsup:

 

[sandman2234]

I am with Toomanyrocks, as I think mulching them is the way to go. Not necessarily mulched into the existing soil/yard, but still mulched for space reasons.
I had, and tried to find a buyer for it, a yard vac made by Giant Vac. I don't think they make one quite as large as the one I had anymore. I purchased it used, unrunning, but the owner's son agreed to get it running for me for an additional price. I figured he would have to get it running so his Dad could make the sale, so I went ahead with that. I used it a couple of times, but my Steiner has a blower that is easier than the vac, so I traded it to a friend for a gun after not being able to sell it for cash. My friend's health went down and he was unable to use it, so it went back up for sale, and purchased by a neighbor from what I understand.
Anyway, the vac would pick up the leaves, route them through the impeller which mulched them and then blow them into a holding hopper until they were dumped. (which was very easy!!). My usual yard leaf waste was around 3 pickup truck loads of large sized leaves, (Sycamore trees) but the vac would mulch them into less than a single dumped hopper. Take those straight to the compost pile and your done.
Might want to look into one, as they really are worth their weight in GOLD!!
David from jax

 

[Denster]

Hello, Fred H. I was wondering if you have persued a patent on your Leaf Bucket... You see, I did not know something like your Leaf Bucket was around. I invented something a lot like yours, But I have to say, for the 2 years that I have used mine, It works perfect. I wanted to go after a patent on mine, but you have clearly had yours around much longer. If, you would like, maybe I could show you mine and we could work together to develop a patent??? Thanks Denny