sweeper

[bob9137]

I am wanting to buy a pull behind lawn sweeper, can anyone tell me a good brand to buy ?

Thank you
Bob

 

[Chadtoolio]

I got a used brinly from a coworker. It is a 42" and seems to work ok. I was really impressed at it's ability to gather pine straw, which is why I got it. I am curious to see how it does this summer picking up grass clippings so i can use them for compost. I guess my opinion thus far would be: it makes a difference, but not squeeky clean.

HTH,

Chad

 

[RSKY]

I am also looking for a sweeper since mine burned in a fire. I have looked at the Brinley and Agri Fab and they appear to be cheaply made but usable. The one that burned was a step above those brands. It had grease fittings on the wheels and small swiveling rollers under the back of the basket. They are made by a company named Parker and are sold at Toro Dealers. The one I am looking at cost $469 which is double the price of an Agri Fab. It has more brooms, grease fittings on the wheels, and looks to be heavier made. Good luck on your search.

 

[jayhawkRoy]

I bought a Craftsman 42" sweeper in 1998 and have never regretted it. Works great, no problems with it. It seemed to be built heavier than the Huskee one I saw at TSC.

 

[frank_f15]

how does that sweeper work on uneven ground? and is it good, for othern than grass clippings?

 

[jayhawkRoy]

Not really. It does grass extremely well. Don't have any leaves to speak of, because we have very few large trees, so don't know how well it picks up leaves. Leaves we do have blow somewhere else (Kansas winds). I use it at our house near Kansas City, not at our acreage in southeast Kansas. Our grass is pretty thick, and I can only mow once a week or so, even when the growth might require mowing more often. I chose the sweeper over a mulching deck because of dealer recommendations that if I consistently took off more than one-third of the grass height, mulching would not work out as well. Mowing once a week I usually take down one third to one half of the grass height, and then use the sweeper to pick up the clippings. We mulch our fence line with the clippings, to keep out weeds.

 

[jwstewar]

I got a heck of a deal fall of 2002. Lowes was doing a close-out on their seasonal merchandise. I saw a 38" Agri-Fab there for $75 because it had been opened but they told me it was all there. I told them to hold it until the next day when I went back with the truck. I wasn't able to make it back until about 8:30 PM the next day. They assumed I wasn't coming back. They marked it down to $50 about 8:15. It was still there when I got there. When I went to assemble it, the rods to hold the bag up were missing and the bag had a couple of little rips in it. When I called Agri-Fab and told them the story and the parts that were missing/damaged they shipped them out to me immediately at no charge. Got a heck of deal for $50. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Now how does it work? Don't laugh but I actually pull it behind my New Holland TC24. Doesn't do too bad. I usually don't pull it while I'm mowing but I might go back and "dress" an area up i.e. the front or back yard (as opposed to the 2 sides) if we are having guests. Have to be careful as the NH can go a little too fast for it and it'll start bouncing and bounce the bag off of its hooks. Other then that 2 little problems: 1.) The first time I used it it was kinda windy. All of the stuff ended up on me instead of in the bag /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif. I'm still working on a screen/cover that would keep the stuff in the bag. 2.) The last time I used it was early in the morning (I had mowed the day before) and I wanted to pick up the clippings. Wow did that bag get heavy. Was really tough to get it dumped - but at least the bag wasn't bouncing off the hooks. Don't really have too many leaves - at least yet but it did pick up corn husks that blew in the yard from the corn field across the road /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[professor]

I purchased a model 136 Estate Turf Sweeper from Wicko Industries two years ago.The sweeper is heavy duty and has the following features:
Driven by 16 inch pneumatic on 8 inch rims
36 inches wide
Clutch to disengage brush while transporting
14 cu. ft basket
Brush speed approx. 1500rpm
Weighs 155 lbs.
I have pulled it behind a Yanmar 1401 tractor and a 13 hp John Deere lawn tractor and get good results with either tractor. I sweep up to four acres. I like the workmanship and the gear system. I pick up grass and leaves.
I replaced a JD sweeper with this unit. The JD was a good machine but they quit handling that model.
The 136 is a bit pricy at $795 delivered but will last a life time.
You can visit them at www.wikco.com or call 866-464-8893. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[bontai_Joe]

I bought my Parker back in 1979 and used it commercially for a part time lawn maintenance business I had for 6 years. I still have it today, although it only gets used 4-6 times a year now. Mine is all original, the basket has 2 smallish rips in it, no major rust, original broom and definitely worth the $$. I think that they are a better quality than Brinly or Agrifab and of course are more expensive, but if you look at the Agrifab or Brinly and decide you want something better, Parker is a good unit to check out.

 

[Molerj]

I also agree on the Parker, but I thought that they were no longer in business. I may be wrong, but I needed parts a few yrs. ago & I thought the reason I had a tough time getting what I needed was because they were no longer made.

 

[RalphVa]

Makes more sense to use a mulching mower. Then you won't have anything to sweep.

Ralph

 

[Molerj]

Hi Ralph, Yeah the mulching mower will work fine but if you let the grass get a little too high the muching blades will make quite a mess & you will still need to sweep up the clippings. That said, I bought gator mulching blades for my 72" deck on my JD 955 & am anxious to see how they work. I've used mulching blades on smaller tractors but not on this one.

 

[bontai_Joe]

Here is a link to the current manufacturer of Parker lawn sweepers.

http://www.ketchum-hurricane.com/parker-lawnsweep.htm

 

[Glenn9643]

Jim,
I didn't get nearly the deal you did on your Agri-Fab, but I did buy one a few weeks ago for $199.00. My step father has a 42" Craftsman that he's been happy with, and that started my interest. I went to Sears to buy one, but couldn't find anyone working in that area to sell me one. I asked a worker in the adjoining area and he said he would be with me in a moment. After about five minutes waiting while he talked on the phone (sounded like to his girlfriend) I got mad and left. I started looking elsewhere and noticed the $100 difference in the Craftsman and the Agri-Fab and tried to see if I could find any way to justify the additional expense for the Craftsman but could not. They are very similar, and I am happy to have an extra hundred to spend on something else! I'm pulling mine behind a JD 455 and it works great on leaves. If I get too aggressive with pinestraw it'll choke so I've found that I need to take a lighter pass there.

 

[sgoldste01]

Here is a link to the current manufacturer of Parker lawn sweepers.

ketchum-hurricane.com - ketchum hurricane Resources and Information. This website is for sale!

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to update the link to the manufacturer of Parker sweepers:

Parker Lawn Care Products

I'm picking up a lightly used Parker Suburbanite SU8336 model (which seems to be a discontinued product). It's a recent model, judging from the red color and overall condition of everything. $180 for a unit that commonly sold for $900 or more. I've heard of people getting them used for less, but probably not in the condition of this one. Looking forward to giving it a spin this weekend!

Anyway, I used the above web site to download the owner's manual, which the seller couldn't provide.

 

[Carl in CT]

I have a 42" Craftsman sweeper I bought at least 10 years ago. It's far from perfect but it beats the heck out of raking and at $200 brand new it was a heck of a lot cheaper than the bagging system for my Toro/Wheelhorse tractor. It has not been that well cared for either :ashamed:, spending many winters outside under the pine trees since I ran out of room in the shed. Even still it works, not much rust, no rips in the bag, never broke down. I just make sure the bag is empty and I tip it up when I park it and it seems to protect itself from a lot of the elements that way. The pine trees definitely help keep some rain/snow off of it too.Tarps just make it a nice home for mice so I skipped the tarp cover idea.

I get heavy clippings in the spring and the sweeper does a pretty good job. Uneven ground can give it fits if you are on a crown so the wheels aren't holding as much weight as the brushes, they tend to lock and drag instead of spin and sweep. I typically will cut the whole yard once and by the time I'm done the clippings in the first part have dried a bit. That way when I go back to blow them into windrows some of them get chopped up and go away and the rest are easier to pick up and dump. I don't have a lot of leaves to deal with but it picks them up OK for the few I do have. I have a friend who uses his sweeper with a rear discharge mower deck so he can do it all at once.

I'm all for paying more for quality but for the amount of sweeping I do I could not justify spending much more than $200 and surprisingly the Craftsman sweeper has held up well. By the way, I just got a new Simplicity Conquest tractor and it left no clippings despite the grass being really, really high. So food for thought, a top notch mower with sharp blades will reduce clippings a lot in the first place.

 

[sgoldste01]

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to update the link to the manufacturer of Parker sweepers:

Parker Lawn Care Products

I'm picking up a lightly used Parker Suburbanite SU8336 model (which seems to be a discontinued product). It's a recent model, judging from the red color and overall condition of everything. $180 for a unit that commonly sold for $900 or more. I've heard of people getting them used for less, but probably not in the condition of this one. Looking forward to giving it a spin this weekend!

Anyway, I used the above web site to download the owner's manual, which the seller couldn't provide.

I stand corrected; the Parker Suburbanite SU8336 is still a current product. They have it listed under "Turf Sweepers" rather than "Lawn Sweepers", because of the extra large basket capacity.

Parker Lawn Care Products

I had to get clever in terms of how I store this monster in my garage. I store the basket separately from the main machine, and figured out a way to lean the main machine against the wall so that it doesn't take up much floor space.

I used the sweeper last weekend for the first time. This was after my first mowing of the season, because we've been getting almost constant rain here for the past 1.5 weeks. So the grass was LONG and THICK. I know you're not supposed to take off nearly as much grass as I removed in one cutting, but the forecast was for constant rain for the next week, so I cut it short while I had the chance. :confused2: Besides, I wanted to give this sweeper a workout to see what it could do.

It took me a little while to figure out what height setting was most effective, but I got there. Because the clippings were so long, I had to reduce the tractor's forward travel speed a bit or it seemed like the sweeper would get overwhelmed with the volume of clippings and would end up dragging its wheels rather than spinning the wheels and brushes (and this was with the sweeper set at its maximum height). But once I figured out the best combination of travel speed and sweeper height, everything worked very well.

A good purchase for $180, if you ask me! :thumbsup: