Leaf vacuums

[Ark68SS]

Two acres of deciduous trees (mostly oak and hickory) make a real mess every fall. For years I have been mowing/mulching them which makes a problem after rainfall of tracking it into the house and shop. At 73 years, with old man health problems, there's no way to rake and burn all the leaves. Darling wife has just approved the funds (not over $2K) to buy a leaf vacuum. I've looked online at the Cyclone Rake, the Agri-Fab, and the DR, and it looks like the Cyclone would fit my needs the best.
Anyone have experience with the Cyclone Rake products? Any other mfg I should look at?
Thanks for the help,
BillL

 

[Dan in Ohio]

I have had an Agri-fab since the early 90's and my home is surrounded by 20+ acres of mixed hard woods. Biggest problem with it is it's tendency to plug with small sicks and cumbersome trailer dump (manual) only. Used it for many years until 2018 when a Toro zero turn was acquired with a bagger system. I too am looking for other options being about your age something easier is a priority. Recently have thought about renting a stand-on leaf blower but my leg strength is poor. Let us know what works best for you.

 

[Jim.ME]

I have used a Cyclone and had no problems with it. The manual dump isn't the greatest thing, but I expect that is true of any manual dump unit.

 

[cjunrau]

I don't know why people worry about the leaves where I live they will blow away in time or rot where they fall I guess. Never really found them an issue and kinda like seeing 6 inches of colored leaves piled in a yard.

 

[Tgrasher]

Living under a canopy of trees is great when the hot sun shines in the summer but paying the price of clean up in the Fall is a bummer. Shade grass is fragile so leaving the lawn covered in leaves tends to kill grass, especially when the wind piles leaves in corners, under bushes and, in my case, behind my house a foot deep. At first I collected leaves with a home made set up that worked well but for the manual emptying of the cart. Bought a zero turn and couldn't get the collector to work, not enough blow. Since then, I just use the zero turn to mow/blow the leaves off the yard and down a tree coverd/too steep grassless hill.

 

[jniolon]

I'm still using a '97 model Cyclone rake... it has prevented several heart attacks... 1.5 acres of centipede with 75 hardwoods...

john

 

[flembo]

I use a Kubota BX series garden tractor with a 4 ft mower deck before that it was a Cub Cadet with a 3 ft mower deck. I blow the leaves into the woods, works for me. I do have to do it every 3 or 4 days or the leaves get to thick but I enjoy doing it, it takes about 1 1/2 hrs each time. there are a couple areas where I blow them into a long pile then rake them onto a large tarp tie the tarp to the tractor and drag them to a dump area. I wait until the leaves are all down to do that.

 

[560Dennis]

Neighbor has Dr attached to a cub cadet ,it does an excellent job.

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Helped my uncle (87) put his Cyclone together this past Spring. Went together fairly easy. You'll certainly want another hand around. The only thing I can think of, that would be remotely close to a pain in the neck, would be adapting the adapter cone to the deck & the dual pin attachment to the tractor is a bit putzy until you get used to it.

Think he got the Commander model. He really likes it.

Mike

 

[Texasmark]

I'm on my second DR and have had it for about 15 years. The first one was academic and I noticed this one advertised, solving all the shortcomings of their first design and looked like a winner.....it is.

Since I have to get around trees and their overhanging limbs and such, I didn't buy their largest one, I bought one that fits behind my Hustler 42" ZT. This one goes where my mower and I go with few if any problems being too big for the job. The top rear is canvas and the bottom is actually a plastic roll around wheel barrow.....and the top comes off if you choose to use it as a dump trailer.

Up front of the leaf storage "box", the inlet to the unit is a hole where the canvas bag from the DR's leaf chewer-upper fed from the mower's discharge, connects to the box. Just pull off the hose...held in place with an elastic band, and down on the tongue is a release lever you can operate with your foot. Once you have unlatched the rear, an easy shove on the top of the box causes it to tip back and dump the load while it raises the canvas top portion of the box out of the way.

I move the ZT forward about a foot to clear the leaf pile and go back and easily grasp the top of the rear section and bring it back down and latched. Slide the canvas tube back onto the inlet to the box, get back on the ZT and fill her up again......I'm 84 and operation is a no brainer.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

I don't know why people worry about the leaves where I live they will blow away in time or rot where they fall I guess. Never really found them an issue and kinda like seeing 6 inches of colored leaves piled in a yard.

Guess you're just lucky, because I'm where all those leaves end up when they blow away. Sure they rot but that takes several months, during which time they're a wet slippery mess that turns to straight up manure and kills all the grass underneath.

I remember the first spring after I bought my house. The previous owners raked all the leaves into a windrow along the road, but the joke was on me. The town didn't offer leaf pick-up, so the leaves had become a big swath of rotten manure which I had to shovel up and drag to the back of the property one tarp full at a time. There was a strip of slick mud along the road until July.

 

[Watthour]

I had a Trac-Vac, also known as a rodent hotel. I discovered that it was a 50-footer. Not that it only looked respectable from 50 feet away, but that was the average distance it would go before needing to be unloaded. I found that well-designed mulching blades were faster, less expensive, didn't provide off-season housing for mice, squirrels, voles, and such, and effectively did just as well at managing lawn debris.

My philosophy is that turf grasses are for baseball parks and holding the topsoil in place so that trees can thrive, nothing more.

 

[Eman85]

I have the mulching blades and blockoff on both of my lawn tractors. Does a good job of making the leaves disappear and we have a lot of trees that cover the lawn. neighbor had a leaf vacuum and it seemed like more trouble than it's worth. between the storage and another small engine to maintain I wasn't interested and then the unloading and where to unload I stuck with mulching.

 

[Duner Wi]

Make sure emptying the machine is what you expect.

 

[chico1]

I have had 2 Cyclones (gave one to daughter) that I pull with a Cub Cadet. They are amazing on our oaks and long leaf pines needles. As for the manual dump issue, there is an unloader kit available from Cyclone. It is a hose that hooks to the sucker input and a hose that hooks to the bagger outlet. Fire up the unit and suck the leaves out and blow them where you like. Hint: I found both of my Cyclones on FB marketplace in excellent condition for far less than new.

 

[showcrop]

My neighbor does mine with his DR. It hitches to two points on his tractor and has one wheel directly under the box, so it operates well in tight spaces. It grinds the leaves up good so that he doesn't have to dump it often, but it appears to dump pretty easily. He has had it for a long time.

 

[showcrop]

I don't know why people worry about the leaves where I live they will blow away in time or rot where they fall I guess. Never really found them an issue and kinda like seeing 6 inches of colored leaves piled in a yard.

When they blow away they don't evaporate, they blow to somewhere else.

 

[cjunrau]

When they blow away they don't evaporate, they blow to somewhere else.

yah I guess if you live in town might be worse I live on 160 acres and they disappear and blow in the field and pastures. I go through town and think it looks good with all the colors. in a month it will be under 2-3 ft of snow and I assume most is hard to see in spring but I am not the one there to clean up and see. I think a mulching mower should work but have no idea as we don't mow more than 4-6 times a year

 

[Texasmark]

My neighbor does mine with his DR. It hitches to two points on his tractor and has one wheel directly under the box, so it operates well in tight spaces. It grinds the leaves up good so that he doesn't have to dump it often, but it appears to dump pretty easily. He has had it for a long time.

My first DR was like that and had removable sides. I didn't like it because in tight spaces where you are turning around and such, the nnalert end would run into things. The current one, which I described herein is a "bumper pull" type and it just follows the ZT around the obstacles and when backing you have a 180* option as to where you want the vac. to move regardless of the position of the ZT. I like it much better.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Two acres of deciduous trees (mostly oak and hickory) make a real mess every fall. For years I have been mowing/mulching them which makes a problem after rainfall of tracking it into the house and shop. At 73 years, with old man health problems, there's no way to rake and burn all the leaves. Darling wife has just approved the funds (not over $2K) to buy a leaf vacuum. I've looked online at the Cyclone Rake, the Agri-Fab, and the DR, and it looks like the Cyclone would fit my needs the best.
Anyone have experience with the Cyclone Rake products? Any other mfg I should look at?
Thanks for the help,
BillL

I have an Agri-vac and haven't used it in years. Mother nature blows my leaves into my neighbor's corn field. If you vac your leaves you need to have a place to compost them