Leaf collecting, the BX23 & CR way.

Volfandt · Oct 31, 2007

Fall takes a literal connotation around my humble abode. And it doesn't take long for my still green lawn to get totally covered in Maple, Oak, Dogwood and varous other leaves. It makes for a colorful Holloween display but tain't very good for the grass so getting them picked up and deposited back in the compost pile is job 1. I've tried several different methods, continually running over them until they're reduced to tiny bits to running a lawn sweeper for a couple days to get them all up to using a double bagger. Of them all I discovered that I liked the bagger best but it was too small. Enter the BX23 w/ a 60" MMM & larger capacity Cyclone rake. What used to take days now takes about 3 hrs to clean up the 2 acres worth of debris. Course the trees are only about 2/3rds done so I'll be at it again shortly.

The method to my madness is to side discharge into several wide windrows then hookup the cyclone rake and go back and collect them up. This way I keep my manuverability and keep my trips back to the compost pile down to between 6 & 7. Seeing as how the compost pile is about an acre away the less trips the better.

Lockport · Oct 31, 2007

How are you liking that CR, Volfandt? Do you have the vacumn hose or remote discharge hookups? I am interested in one,(have been for years) but I see the Dr. Lawn (or Leaf) Vac has a mulcher port on its unit. I emailed CR last year and said I was "...considering theirs...when are you putting on a mulcher port like Dr LawnVac?..." I see although they have a new model this year is has no port.

I used to sweep continuously through out fall (now I am not home enough to get even a portion of it done.) Basically I am gatoring my leaves and if it weren't for the dormant early cold, I think the lawn would take a hit.

Looks good.

Volfandt · Oct 31, 2007

I'm likeing it pretty good when it comes to picking up leaves & grass clippings. Since I leave the CR's 3PH tow hitch mounted most of the time, hookup of the CR is a tooless couple minute job.
It picks up just about everything I run over.
Only have two complaints with it,
#1 it's too loud. That 6hp B&S's muffler is aimed directly to the front, which = directly towards the back of the seat. Ear muffs of some sort is a requirement. CR provides a set of ear plugs. I use a set of muffs w/a built in AM/FM radio.

#2 it's very dusty. It exhausts out the back and will leave large clouds of dust and minute debris behind which is fine, except when you have to back up to manuver, this can put you right into the middle of the cloud you just made, safety glasses are also a requirement and CR provides a pair of them also.

I didn't purchase the extended hose kit and sometimes wish I had. Most times I just manuver the tractor & CR close to whatever I need to hand vaccum and unhook the bootend of the hose from the tractor and use it to vaccum where I can't drive. A couple more feet and that handy hose holder would be nice.

I looked at the DR w/ chipper and almost went with it but at $500 more I settled on the CR.
I would recommend going with the middle or largest size hopper on either one as the hopper I have can get filled up in quite a hurry.

I also run gators and they do a very good job of chopping the clippings up. Since I do compost for my garden I need to collect up the clippings instead of letting them breakdown where they fall. Since they do chop up the clippings so well, it seems to pack in more debris. Much more than the std blade equipped 60" MMM did with the CR.

I tried to get alittle fancy and snap a shot of the minced up clippings blowing out of the discharge shoot. I guess my shutter speed ain't up to par as you can barely make out the clippings. But they're there