My yard is full of oak trees and all Fall I rake, and rake, and rake… I saw a lawn sweeper at Lowe’s, it has brushes and a hopper you pull it with a lawnmower or 4-wheeler, etc. and it sweeps up the leaves in your yard. Anyone have any experience with or suggestions for using one of these things? Do they even work? Thanks!
I don’t have much experience with lawn sweepers but I do use one of these:
Some of the best money I’ve ever spent! I have many, many mature oak, beech, popular, etc. trees surrounding my yard and must clean leaves from Oct - March (beeches are slow droppers). This piece of equipment has been a real lifesaver and timesaver. Combine the resultant leaf mulch with manure and kitchen waste…wow! Talk about having some awesome garden soil!
The actual square footage of my yard is on the smallish side, so using a walk-behind tool works well for me. If your yard is large, it might not be as practical for you. A yard sweeper might be a better choice for your situation.
It can mulch up small limbs rather well, although I rarely use it for that purpose since I have made several brush piles around/in the woods for the express purpose of wildlife habitat.
I use the 13hp version of this:
http://www.billygoat.com/site/intro.aspx?pid=49#
It’s clears about an 8’ swath at the time, including rocks and small limbs. It doesn’t pick them up of course, but it does clear the ground. We just blow them over into a gulley in the nearby woods.
I had a lawn sweeper similar to what you’re describing and wasn’t real happy with it. It swept up the leaves just fine, but the hopper doesn’t hold enough leaves to be effective. There are much better solutions out there than the sweeper – something that would chop them up and bag them at the same time would be great.
I have one of those lawn sweepers with brushes you pull behind the tractor and, while it doesn’t hold that much, you can keep making trips to where you dump it.
It is easy to dump from the mower seat with that pull cord.
I don’t know how it would work on uneven ground, I used it just for raking after mowing on a very smooth lawn and works fine for that.
Next time I will get a mower that picks up and you dump the cuttings, not a mulching mower you still have to rake behind it.
I tried a lawn sweeper and was seriously unimpressed. It might have been ok for grass clippings, but it didn’t even dent the leaves in my yard. I still had to rake a lot and I was constantly emptying it. I could go 20-30ft before it filled up on one pass.
I broke down and bought the tow behind DR Power Equipment Lawn Vacuum. It was cheaper than other lawn vacs, better built, and it does the job. For the first time in 5 yrs I actually got all the leaves on our 10 acre, hilly, heavily treed property up in 2 weekends. It was worth the investment. Plus it has a built in wood chipper. No need to worry about sticks, or you can use it to make mulch.
I have a lawn sweeper that I pull behind a gator. Pretty happy with it.
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Badger, what kind of lawn sweeper do you use? I have been thinking of getting one I can pull.
Ohio Steel 50”
It picks up leaves, pine cones, and pine needles. I’m guesstimating that I sweep an acre or more in an hour including multiple stops to empty the load.
Thank you!
Agri-fab sell a nice variety of lawn sweepers for a low price, however if you’re looking at a top of the range option that will last years, I’d go for the SCH TS98. There are videos online showing it picking up absolutely everything.
