So a while back I bought a tractor, one specifically NOT intended to mow my lawn. Too big, too heavy, the R4 tires will tear it up the lawn if used too much, and it compresses the soil.
I try to keep it off the lawn except for occasional things like distributing mulch, raking garden plots, that sort of thing. My yard is also a bit of a maze in places.
For 11 years I've had yard services cut the grass, they all use zero turn mowers. And I've reached the limit of my willingness to pay for these services, so I'm buying a ZTR. Probably either a Kubota Z400 series, or an eXmark Radius series.
So, let's talk leaf vacs. As I am progressively firing the various services I used to hire out around my house, it may be more difficult to get them to come for things like leaf cleanup, and there's nothing (yard-wise) that I hate more than leaf cleanup. (Unlike mowing, I like mowing just fine). Even on a small yard, herding leaves with a blower onto a tarp and hauling them off, ugh. I'm also getting older, lazier, and generally more decrepit, so give me a tool!
With all this new zero turn mower and tractor equipment, I'm thinking I may as well pony up the dough for a leaf vacuum of some sort, like a Trac Vac or a Cyclone Rake. Here's how I see my options, and the concerns that go with them that I'm hoping you can advise on. First, what I ruled out: bagging system that attaches to the rear of the mower. Maybe it's great for grass, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot more filling and emptying cycles than I like for my yard full of maple trees that borders hundreds of acres of forest.
1. Get a trailer type vacuum that is designed for leaves, and pull it behind the ZTR. Only ... I'm not sure the Kubota Z400 or eXmark Radius are a good idea with a bigger leaf vac. Certainly there are the warnings about overloading the hydraulics on these mowers. Opinions? The Z400 has a kind of cheesy "hitch plate" to which appropriately designed things are meant to be attached, I guess, but I can't find specific towing specs for it.
2. Use the mower or blower to blow the leaves away from the numerous contoured places I have to ride (house, gardens, stone walls), then ride in with my tractor (with some vacuum, PTO powered?) to suck up big the resulting semi-piles of leaves, away from the contoured or weight-sensitive places.
3. <other?> - preferably easy and quick as possible, not hours of pushing leaves around with blowers, raking them into containers, then using some mostly manual process to dump them into compost piles.
Ideally I'd be looking at a solution under $2k, but if it makes my life substantially easier and lasts a long time, more can be justified compared to the $600+/yr I spend on normal fall cleanup with a service (not including the $600/month they want to charge me now for mowing). Is it me, or has there been a crazy-high cost escalation in paying guys to mow grass and wield string trimmers in recent years? Maybe it's just not compatible with childhood memories of mowing the neighbor's yards for $2 a mow, times change.
