smartguyz
Gold Member
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2003
- Messages
- 488
- Location
- Beaverton, Oregon
- Tractor
- JD318, Power-Trac PT425 with scuffed-up green paint.
Hi gang,
As many of you know, I purchased the 48" Power Sweeper for my 425. It does an outstanding job clearing the courtyard, the access road, and the long drive. It cleans the roadway in a fraction of the time it used to take with brooms and pressure washers. It has made my cleanup time (especially after moving a load of bark mulch) a breeze. I believe it will even work well in light snowfalls. We'll see.
The problem is, PT doesn't see fit to offer or ship any kind of stand for the Power Sweeper. This is problematic, as the Power Sweeper is much too heavy to simply let sit on it's nylon bristles (or wafflers). I would guess the weight to be several hundred pounds. I'd been meaning to rig something up for it to rest on, but never got around to it. I spun the brush up the other day to do some cleaning of the road, and one part of the brush was really matted down - right where it has been sitting. It was kind of weird, with the brush only being 80% effective. Anyway, I called Terry and PT and asked him about it, and after a quick chat with the engineers, he agreed that I should never leave the sweeper on its bristles (although they have no instructions for the brush, and no recommendations - like written maintenance instructions... I just discovered a zerk fitting on the outer bearing(!)). He recommended I rig up a stand for it, and he mentioned they would consider making a change to the sweeper so that it would have some kind of self-storing stand.
Anyway, I went to the basement, and spent about 2 hours with the hair dryer and some gloves, separating the matted portions, and using the hair dryer to heat up the bristles and push them back to their correct positions. It was a lot of work, but I pretty much have it back to normal. I have ended up using a couple of sturdy jack stands from my car tools to hold up the axle of the brush - so now it is resting on the caster wheels and the jack stands - this keeps the bristles off the ground, and the weight off the bristles. I believe another solution would be to keep it on the PT, and just angle it up and back, and then allow the arms to stay in the float position for storage. It appears that there is enough pressure in the angle cylinder to keep the bristles from touching the ground during storage, although I have not tested this long-term.
Just thought I'd pass it along to anyone who might need to know. Frankly, I'd be pretty happy if PT could engineer a couple of braces that could flip down to help the Power Sweeper be 'self-storing' when not in use. It would really help things out a bunch. Or, perhaps I'll teach myself to weld and make something up myself.
Merry Christmas, Guys!
Sincerely,
Rob /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
As many of you know, I purchased the 48" Power Sweeper for my 425. It does an outstanding job clearing the courtyard, the access road, and the long drive. It cleans the roadway in a fraction of the time it used to take with brooms and pressure washers. It has made my cleanup time (especially after moving a load of bark mulch) a breeze. I believe it will even work well in light snowfalls. We'll see.
The problem is, PT doesn't see fit to offer or ship any kind of stand for the Power Sweeper. This is problematic, as the Power Sweeper is much too heavy to simply let sit on it's nylon bristles (or wafflers). I would guess the weight to be several hundred pounds. I'd been meaning to rig something up for it to rest on, but never got around to it. I spun the brush up the other day to do some cleaning of the road, and one part of the brush was really matted down - right where it has been sitting. It was kind of weird, with the brush only being 80% effective. Anyway, I called Terry and PT and asked him about it, and after a quick chat with the engineers, he agreed that I should never leave the sweeper on its bristles (although they have no instructions for the brush, and no recommendations - like written maintenance instructions... I just discovered a zerk fitting on the outer bearing(!)). He recommended I rig up a stand for it, and he mentioned they would consider making a change to the sweeper so that it would have some kind of self-storing stand.
Anyway, I went to the basement, and spent about 2 hours with the hair dryer and some gloves, separating the matted portions, and using the hair dryer to heat up the bristles and push them back to their correct positions. It was a lot of work, but I pretty much have it back to normal. I have ended up using a couple of sturdy jack stands from my car tools to hold up the axle of the brush - so now it is resting on the caster wheels and the jack stands - this keeps the bristles off the ground, and the weight off the bristles. I believe another solution would be to keep it on the PT, and just angle it up and back, and then allow the arms to stay in the float position for storage. It appears that there is enough pressure in the angle cylinder to keep the bristles from touching the ground during storage, although I have not tested this long-term.
Just thought I'd pass it along to anyone who might need to know. Frankly, I'd be pretty happy if PT could engineer a couple of braces that could flip down to help the Power Sweeper be 'self-storing' when not in use. It would really help things out a bunch. Or, perhaps I'll teach myself to weld and make something up myself.
Merry Christmas, Guys!
Sincerely,
Rob /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
