JCM 9,130 #1 Posted October 18, 2021 I have been trying to figure a better way to clean up this mess on a regular basis without it getting ahead of me. Resorted to mulching and blowing into the woods instead of raking and loading into the dump cart and hauling off to my designated area. Give the WH tractors a bit of a break. 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHX?? 48,813 #2 Posted October 18, 2021 Is that your rig Plunge? Geez and I get hammered for taking a ride on a not even mine JD plow rig! My idea is of easy leaf removal is me handing the missus a rake when her bagger is broke and she sasses me about who her mechanic is! 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JCM 9,130 #3 Posted October 18, 2021 When you retire someday and want to travel to Maine you can try out that JD. We don't even have to put any pics on here either. @WHX?? 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pacer 3,169 #4 Posted October 19, 2021 Yeah, I do something similar --- works pretty good till they really get to falling, then I get the 'Cyclone Rake' out for some SERIOUS leaf pickup! I scrounged around in my ... 'junk' pile ands found a piece of light wt sheet metal - little bending/shaping and drill a couple holes and "Viola" a mulcher! 3 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHX?? 48,813 #5 Posted October 19, 2021 Nice lookin D ther Pacer! Not finding many these days worth saving. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
953 nut 55,163 #6 Posted October 19, 2021 I live on a heavily wooded parcel and have a lot of hardscape where the mulcher won't be the preferred method. I fabricated a leaf blower attachment to move the accumulation of leaves to the lawn area and then mulch them with a 42" rear discharge mulcher. I tow a 42" sweeper behind the mulcher to pick up the ground up leaves. With the variety of trees we have it takes four rounds of pick up so I get a lot of autumn seat time. 2 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alex175 784 #7 Posted October 19, 2021 A little while back my brother and I fabricated up a very crude mounting system to attach a walk behind blower to a WH plow frame. It's not perfect, but it did pretty well. So I just drive in circles until I have a big pile in the middle of my yard, then I grab the leaf vacuum and gather it all up. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rjg854 11,356 #8 Posted October 19, 2021 Rube Goldberg would be proud 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JCM 9,130 #9 Posted October 19, 2021 I like that self made blower set up for sure on that 417 ? The problem here in the woods is the amount of pine needles when it is windy like yesterday that come down. I have tried many different ways to shorten the time involved and this 3 blade mower seems to lift up the pine needles and leaves and blow them out nicely, or at least 90% of the needles @953 nut Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pacer 3,169 #10 Posted October 19, 2021 1 hour ago, JCM said: the amount of pine needles UGH! pine needles! what a pain...Of my 5 acres I tend to about 2-2/12 of them and I had 105 pines in that area (I counted them!) Over the years I had tried MANY methods to ease the clean up of them and was never satisfied with any of them until........ Cyclone Rake!! As you mentioned, the blades just wouldnt lift them, maybe 50% of them -- not enough surface area to get hold of like the larger tree leaves and that would leave a LOT of them to manually clean them up. So I finally bit the bullet (wallet) and ordered up the biggest Cyclone Rake they offered. WOW!! that thing would/will get 90-95% of the straw! I got the largest container they had (cant recall the cubic feet) and with the blades doing some bit of mulching, when that thing was full there was a LOT of straw in it. One winter I kept count of the loads I had gathered and filled 23 loads!! That was still quite a bit of work, so 5yrs ago a guy asked if I'd like to get the pines cut off my property, and against my wifes wishes I said - hell yes! I've still got some 20-25 hardwood trees, but that Cyclone makes quick work of them. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rmaynard 15,434 #11 Posted October 19, 2021 Most of my lawn and trees are in the front of the house with neighbors on both sides. So I would have to blow the leaves a long way before I got to the woods. For that reason I use the Cyclone Rake chop them up and pick them up. I dump them in the far back part of the woods in piles. The nice thing about leaving them in piles is that two years from now, after they have composted, I have really nice, black dirt for filling in holes and potting plants. There are times though that I wished that I could blow them over to the neighbors yard. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites