picking up leafs in fall with X-Series tractor

[Neandertaler]

Hi,

i have some general questions how you guys manage lawn care in the fall. I have a X495 (2WD) with a 62C deck. I have about 1.5 Acre of lawn which is located in a forest glade, so i have hundreds of huge trees around my lawn. There are some slopes on the property. In the summer mowing works perfect, but when fall Begins, we have lots of rain. As i have dark clay like soil, it gets real soggy. This time of the year the tractor will leave tracks on the lawn because it sinks in. Now regarding leaf pickup i have the following options:

engine driven vaccum like cyclone rake:

will work, but i have one more engine to maintain. weight of the picked up stuff will be distributed on another set of wheels.

PTO driven vaccuum on quick hitch or 3-point:

will work and no additional engine. But then I will have even more weight on my rear wheels and sinking in will be even more problematic.

What do you guys do in the fall when living in an area with lots of rain and soggy soil? Has anybody tried double rear tires? The X-series has 26X12-12 tires. How about mounting 2 tires 26X9-12, which would give me 18 inches of width on either side. Or Keep the 26X12-12 and add another 26X8-12 which would give me 20 inches of width on each side? Could this work? Will this be added load/stress to the K92 axles? Will this extreme width tear up the lawn when turning?

I have to find a solution as blowing the leafes is a pain in the *****. Sample:

 

[Gittyup]

I don't know about the dually idea. Perhaps someone whose has tried it will weigh in.

As for how I do it and the problems I have: I about the same amount to maintain, but leaves are mostly concentrated to one area. So, I don't need a big collection system. Years ago I bought an old craftsman leaf collection system that consists of a cart with fixed hitch (no pivot) onto which is mounted a motor, mulching impeller assembly and two 30 gallon trash cans with a drop down cover. The cart has two 8" pneumatic tires that swivel 360 degrees. The fixed hitch fits up real tight to the tractor. This has worked well for me with one exception: The swivel tires don't always want to cooperate with the tractor and can drag and tear the grass or cause the tractor to slip and tear the grass. I plan to convert it to a 3PH mount to get the pivoting wheels off the ground. I guess what I'm saying is I think the 3PH mount would do less damage. You will most likely need some front counter weight to use it safely.

you could also use the click n go collection systems that deere sells. That's what I'd do if I didn't already have the craftsman.

 

[RalphVa]

I have NEVER EVER raked leaves from grass. I always just used a mulching lawn mower or ran around with a discharge mower with it discharging inward. When the leaves got too much and caused the engine to chug, I'd reverse direction for one round. Had gobs of big oak trees on the 4 or 5 acres of church property that I mowed using a non mulching ZTR. On my own property, I just run a mulching mower over the leaves. You'll never have to fertilize if you don't keep collecting and throwing away the nutrients that nature provides.

If it's too slucky for your tractor, just run a walkbehind mulching mower over it. Wouldn't really take that long. 1.5 acres isn't very much. Walkbehind is all I've ever had at home. Had 2 acres in Baton Rouge parish.

Ralph

 

[JDTank]

I just go the old fashioned way.

I hook up my #18 steel cart to my X740 and park it in a small raked out area in the middle of the area I am working on. I then use my Stihl leaf blower that doubles as a vaccuum/shredder. Each time the bag fills I empty into the trailer. Since the leaves are shredded, I can get quite a haul into the #18 trailer. This solution only works if you can park the tractor very close to you because the bag fills up in about 2 minutes. If I don't use that, I use a bagging mower and just empty it into the trailer then haul it away.

I considered buying a walk behind leaf vacuum this year, but for the very short amount of time that leaves are a problem for me, I can't justify spending $1,500. They fill up extremely fast and do not shred leaves like they say they do. Basically it's a glorified lawn mower without the blade, and it costs 4 times as much.

 

[milkman]

I have a lot of leaves too and just mulch them about three times during the fall. As far as duals, here's how I did mine with 26x12x12 and 18x8.5x8, works good on the hillside also.

BX2200 Discing with duals - YouTube

 

[DeereMann]

I just got rid of my Deere PowerFlow Fan & Bagging Cart & went with a mulching kit on my new tractor. I like it so much, & it shreds grass & leaves so finely, I will never go back to bagging again.

 

[Neandertaler]

I looked again at my X495: I think the dually idea will not work as there is not much space between the wheels and caster wheels of the 62C deck. There is no room for dual wheels. If they exist, 26X15-12 would probably be a good compromise, but I have no idea if wider tires as 26X12-12 do exist. Any suggestions appreciated....

there are 3-point pto driven lawn vaccum with caster wheels, so the weight of the wet leafes do not add to the rear tires, which would help prevent sinking intto the wet soil/lawn. But they seem to be expensive.



With a cyclone rake, i fear that the fixed hitch prevents the cart from sviveling around the horizontal length axis to follow the countour of the lawn. So even with bigger or wider tires, the cart could dig into the wet lawn.

I guess it all boils down to customize the tractor with wider wheels and then just mulch, or get a cyclone rake. Perhaps I will look into makeing a pto driven blower which is light weight as an alternative......I will stay away from the Deere powerflow system as i see the capacity to small and i think the belt driven plastiv fan is a Little to whimpey for huge amounts of wet leafes.

 

[jenkinsph]

I prefer to use a mulch plug and mulching blades in most cases but have a few locations where customers insist on removal of the leaves. When removal is required I use the MC 519 cart and am able to back into my trailer to dump it. I collect the leaves and add them to my own mulch piles and later resell in the form of top dressing. My advice is to mulch the leaves back into the soil and apply a winter fertilizer to the lawn afterwards, this will speed up decomposition and help your lawn too.

Tough call what to do when the lawn is wet, if the grass is still growing it should recover somewhat but I generally stay off a wet lawn if at all possible. Don't overlook the benefits of winterizer fertilizer it really helps.

 

[Tor Arne]

Here is the easiest way to mount dual on a tractor, make a ring between the rims and use threade rod with a hook and eye bolts on the tractor rim.
It will not stress the axles noteworthy on such a light tractor

 

[npalen]

I would think that wide turf tires which run at very low pressure might be your best bet.