PTO Grass Vacuum

[jenkinsph]

Over the weekend we had high winds feeding the fires, reports of it jumping up to a mile at a time. It has been very dry here and there is lots of fuel on the ground too. I am not in the path of the fire but some of my customers are and have lost their homes. I think the firefighters are getting it under some level of control this evening. Still a long way to go.


Good to hear that you are confident with the blower setup. Do you think this will pick up older pine needles? I can see the freshly fallen needles being a lot easier than older packed down ones to pick up.

In our area the municipalities have 25 yard trucks equipped with a boom and claw just to pick up pine needles and branches. In alot of cases I can bunch the needles at the curb for their pickup. These trucks are out there all year long collecting the yard debris.

The high end neighborhoods I work in primarily don't have the pickup serivice so I haul them to the drop off stations. This is after I collect about 50 yards of clean needles for my mulch piles each year. I use my PJ dump trailer to haul them but would like to have a simple way to load the trailer without having to use the backhoe. I may need to put a fel on the x749 for this purpose with a special bucket.

After you fill up your cart what do you have to do with them at this point?

 

[Agent Blue]

WOW.... I don't envy your neighborhood. With the hot weather, breeze, and the dry fuel on the ground just waiting to be ignited it sounds like a disaster.
We have owned this location for 16 years, about three miles from town, very quiet with beautiful surroundings. I mow about six acres with the 4110 and bush hog another 9 which is planted in balsam, oak, and maple trees. There is a great wind break surrounding the house and garage filled with large long needle pine trees. I have been hand raking this lawn area which in places was three inches deep with old packed needles which never seem to degrade. After tiring of the fall raking I have decided to let some mechanical equipment take my place. I hope this works well or its off to solution # 2, more hand rakes. I have just completed a 12' 14k dump trailer to pull with a 3/4 ton Chevrolet truck. I am planning on two large plastic garbage cans riding on the rear platform for ease of dumping. The town garage is a short distance where they recycle brush, leaves and grass clippings. I should be able to dump the loads vs the old hand unloading with a fork. It doesn't sound like a huge task but it consumes better than a week of my time repeating the process two times. I even have an area I don't touch which is farther down the hill, still in the pine tree zone. If all works out I will taclke this also.
I can usually fill a 11' x 7' trailer 3' high with needles two times the first raking and one load on the cleanup. The fan should grind the needles and pack them tighter resulting in less stops to unload. It is totally an experiment in low cost technology with high hopes of victory. I can always revamp the storage container if it is lacking in volume if the other part of the equasion works out.
By the way Steve... I bought a 71 GTO that was located 15 miles into New Mexico. ( from Colorado ) I have a friend that buys cars from this area. The metal sure is in good condition. I bet alot of old cars are removed from this area to all points of the US.

 

[jenkinsph]

Not sure there is an "average lawn area" but most of the 1/2 to 3/4 acre lots can be raked up in about two hours and will produce about 10 to 15 yards of needles per year. That is packed down since the disposal fees are based on volume. On a typical day I can rake about 30 to 50 yards of needles and alot depends on the lay of the land and obstacles to deal with. This is why I bought the x749, it is perfect for this task, so easy to back between the trees with.

Depending on how all of this cleanup goes I may buy a new 2520 or 2720 with fel to help us out. I should point out I am more intereested in cleaning the areas that haven't burned, preventive maintenance along with a revamp of the landscaping. The burned areas can be a real mess to deal with for a long time.

From the reports I have heard this fire has burned about 50 square miles so far and is about 30% contained.

 

[SPYDERLK]

I was thinking about building a PTO driven vacumn to clean drainage ditches when I was informed about this thread. I was thinking about something a little larger and heavier, 24" to 30" diameter 6" to 8" deep with at least a 10 gauge housing and 1/4" impeller blades. Maybe even a fly wheel. The Idea was to break up any small sticks or whatever that might clog up system.
After seeing some of the concerns in this thread with a smaller version , maybe I'm over reaching a bit? The concern that really caught me was the mention of damageing PTO gears. I am sure I could overcome that with a shear pin , but if the PTO is really that weak I wouldn't want to chance the strain on it. I was thinking if the PTO would run my 5' bust hog it would surely run an impeller? Even a big one?
Okay now let me know how flawed my idea is . PLEASE!

What type of safety mechanism do you have in the external pto shaft to the bushog? The tractor tends to protect itself by design strength and its PTO clutch. If its done right it will, but its comforting to have an external weak link to spare the tractor system. A shear pin "clutch" is the easiest. Its quite unlikely you would need one for a blower.
... Trac Vac supplies their item with direct drive. Mines blower is run by an 8HP engine driving a metal impeller similar to your description, but only about 16" dia. ... 8 years --It has ingested some chunks that bent blades and bulged housing as they went thru, but never stalled.
larry

 

[bronko69er]

Subscribed! I've been brainstorming solutions to a similar need myself. I have a rear mount 3 blade finish mower that i'd like to modify to collect clippings/leaves. I was thinking about welding a sprocket to the PTO shaft coupler the at the mower differential to drive a blower of some kind, and builing a giant hopper to sit on top of the mower deck. This thread is as far as my reasearch/planning has gotten.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I have been thinking about making one with the blower off of a one row forage harvester. not hooking it ti the deck but just vacuum the leaves into a container. still in the thinking process but I think it might work.

 

[Agent Blue]

Ed;
Here is your machine. Make sure you put about 40hp on the blower to get the full effect.

 

[jobguy]

Agent Blue: Please post more pics from all around your machine. Looks like the ideal vacuum blower.