Lawn Vac

Steve@Advance · Dec 13, 2018

Been thinking about getting a lawn vac for picking up leaves.

Haven't looked in person, just online, reading reviews, looking at features.

Started out looking at the $500 Cub/Craftsman/Troy Built models. About ruled them out from bad reviews, poor bag design, fragile plastic parts.

Also looked at the Billy Goat KV601, $1010 without the hose attachment, which is another $250.

Any opinions on either of these, or other recommendations?

Anyone have one they want to sell, running or not, north Texas area?

I don't have a large yard, but tons of leaves. One consideration, I have to either dump the bag in the back of the truck or paper bag the leaves, they have to be hauled to the compost yard.

I have tried mulching them with the mower. I can somewhat get by with that, but after a couple years it is just too much. It is now at the stage I'm going to have to get rid of them.

Thanks!

Geo-TH,In · Dec 13, 2018

I got lucky and found a 9 hp agri-vac on craigslist. The man was going through a divorce. He had just put a new 9 hp Briggs on it. Got it for $200.

If I have a lot of large sycamore leafs on the ground, I'll mulch them into a windrow with my ft woods on Farmall C, then use 4 ft JD275 to chop leafs again suck them up. Leafs are in tiny pieces. Get more in Agri-vac,

The leafs go down to gravel pit and mixed in with other compost.

I connect a rope to tree and my plywood sled to pull most of the leafs out.

Spook · Dec 13, 2018

I had that same machine. Then I put mulching blades on the zero turn, and put a plate over the deck discharge. I can now grind up the leaves pretty quickly. Much quicker than picking them up. I sold mine for $600.

MSS3020 · Dec 13, 2018

Steve, my folks have a cyclone rake.. there isnt a person alive that has more leaves then they do..They have had it for 4 years or so.. folds up to hang on wall out of way except for the motor..and the motor has built in dolly wheels (when not mounted to cyclone frame for use) can be lifted off and set on ground..rolls around out of way Or if you have the space unhitch it and done... I ran it first time this year.. very impressed.. I dont have trees big enough to put out what their trees do but will look at one in future.. alittle pricy..

WGM · Dec 13, 2018

Anyone who doesn't buy a Trac-Vac is buying junk. Especially those cyclone racks. What a joke!

DR. EVIL · Dec 13, 2018

Never heard of a brand named Billy Goat lawn vac. I built my own patterned after a Trac-Vac, but with some improvements. I semi-mounted my blower and engine on my Cub Cadet. Added a swiveling wheel to support the back of the blower & engine platform, cart hooks to the back of the engine/blower platform. I had well over 100 trees & bushes on my 2+ acres, had to do lots of close trimming and maneuvering and wanted the cart to exactly follow in the same tracks as the rear tractor tires. Worked like a charm, but the maple trees kept getting bigger and bigger. Last year I used it I had over 40 loads of leaves. I mulch them now, block off the discharge chute and chew them up. The cart I added sides & top to ended up with 32 inch wide by 42 inch long by 36 inch tall capacity, 28 cubic feet, just over a cubic yard. Two things I would change, use 8 inch diameter hoses instead of 6 inch, and make the cart bigger, like maybe put sides and top on my Pronovost P503 tandem axle dump cart, would be 50"x70" x42", 85 cubic feet, over 3 cubic yards.

I made the rear door of the cart hinged at the top. I tried several ways to get the packed in leaves out easier, leaving it in the shed and mulching the leaves solved that problem.

Bob · Dec 13, 2018

I have a Craftsman walk-behind lawn vac, and the bag fills quickly, and when over half-full suction begins to drop off, and it's a MAJOR dusty/dirty PAIN to unzip the bag and dump it.

Several years ago, I bought a DEERE "MCS" for on of my 318 garden tractors.

It was missing the mounts, and part of the drive, all of which I chased down on ebay.

Didn't quite finish it in time for this year's "leaf season", though, darn it!

Here's a link to a youtube video someone else posted of how they dump, should be the cat's chin whiskers when I get it done!
318 with MCS

circus · Dec 13, 2018

Waste of money, time, storage and maintenance.

Geo-TH,In · Dec 13, 2018

I have so many leafs, the JD mower deck will start pushing leaves so chopping them with 6 ft woods mower makes thing faster.

Something else to consider, If you don't have a place to put leaves, you may not want a lawn vac.

scottsdad · Dec 13, 2018

Steve I hava a cyclone lo0ve it the engneering is very good it iis on swivel wheels wiith hook up to my jd tractor picks up and mulches i have 2 achers witl lots of maple oak ash trees they hava a reverse un load if you need it i dont have it i dont need it qalso hastubes that hook to it to get in places flower beds etc you need to look at there web sight I have the estate they hasve severial models klovbe it it backs up easy as it has duel hook ups

jeffcat · Dec 13, 2018

Trac-Vac it the cream of the crop. I also have an AgriFab unit. The agrifab I picked up used with maybe a couple of hours of use on it. I have that really long wand hose deal on it for going under bushes and stuff. If the leafs are dry and you don't try to shove a bunch of twigs through it the machine is great. To get the leafs out of the trailer if they are wet I use one of these little hooked silage wagon kind of tools. Found both of these at the flea market and I refinished the handles. This fall I picked up a FULL size trac-vac unit with the 14hp engine. Absolute monster. Needs a tiny bit of work to get it ready. Will need to pull this monster with my big Husqvarna 2254 tractor. Here is a photo of it. Yes it is That big! The trailer is 8ft. long and there is a 3ft. tounge that is removed from the machine.

jeffcat · Dec 13, 2018

Yours is a couple of years older than mine. Would you like a couple of pictures to show you how to make that rear door work better and not sag alll over the place? Maybe ten bucks worth of hardware and drill 4 little holes. Keeps everything nice and straight. Looks beauty when done. Let me know.

jeffcat · Dec 13, 2018

Here are the little silage hooks I bought at the flea market. Pulls the leafs right out. I have since painted the tines on them.

Drew · Dec 13, 2018

I have the 2nd to largest vacuum that DR makes. I am very happy with how it works. It dumps to unload, and it has gas springs to help it dump. If you have to take it apart to store it, it would be a pain. It is not nearly as easy to break down as DR claims, and there are plenty of reviews to back that up. I have room to keep mine together and put it inside so that isn't a problem for me. In my opinion it is almost obnoxious loud when running, but I have not heard any other vacuums in operation to compare. Ear muffs are a must!

Something to keep in mind before buying a vacuum is what you are going to pull it with. I started out pulling mine with a Craftsman mower that I got as part of the deal when I bought my house. Even though the mower was rated at 26hp, it wouldn't pull the vacuum if the trailer was over 1/3 to 1/2 full (probably has something to do with why the final drive is now torn up on that mower

). I put a GX345 Deere in front of it and I can cram it full and the mower not even know its back there.

SDE · Dec 13, 2018

I mulch the leaves. Usual do it three times in the fall and once in the spring.
My B-I=L used his bagger chute with an attached blower behind the mower to fill a trailer.

jeffcat · Dec 13, 2018

Pretty cool unit. Only thing I would be a little concerned about is over loading it. Would be fun to try one out just to impress the daylites out of the neighbors.

Bob · Dec 13, 2018

Yep, if the *&^% thing works as it's supposed to it'll be **&^% COOL!

W_B · Dec 13, 2018

I have an Agri Fab we use to suck up llama beans (manure pellets). It is the bigger model with the 8 h.p. motor and a branch chipper. Also got the extension hose. It had been very reliable. The llamas eat the leaves so don't have to pick those up.

JayinNY · Dec 14, 2018

That's funny! Trac vac is JUNK, come on up here and get the 5 pieces of crap out of my bone yard! 3 were on my toro 52" walk behinds, 2 on z mowers, absolute junk, got smart and got the ultra vac for my zees! No engine to maintain, no broken welds, ect, trac vac may be good for you to use 3 times a year, but use them a couple days a week for 8 months?? You will learn.

jeffcat · Dec 14, 2018

Found with mine. Check the bolts under the engine. They vibrate loose.
I replaced all of the nuts with those plastc lock nuts. Fixed it. I
will post tomorrow a couple of modifications I have made so life is a
little simpler.

Part Time Pete · Dec 14, 2018

That's a cool looking building Jeffcat

DR. EVIL · Dec 14, 2018

My Buddy came out one day after I started mowing/vacuuming leaves, I'd done 14-15 loads the day before. He put his 50 inch deck on his Cub Cadet 169, deck had Gator Blades on it, blocked the discharge chute. I had the area of the yard with the most trees & leaves left to do. He would slowly run a full swath under his deck and there was just a huge cloud of dust from the pulverized leaves behind his tractor. I'd vacuum up the discharge side of his pass and there was no leaves left behind me. I figured I had 25-30 more loads of leaves to vacuum, ended up with only 15 more, Those Gator Blades really shredded & pulverized those dry leaves.

I do think my old Parker lawn sweeper cleaned the yard better, but was MANY TIMES MORE WORK and took several times longer to get over my yard. Son and I worked one day and several weekends both days sweeping leaves for six weekends one fall. Mow and mulch leaves an hour or two with two Cub Cadets, then use the 129 hydro on the sweeper, and 72 on the cart to empty sweeper and haul to burn pile.

Best time I made vacuuming my whole yard one year I took Friday off work. Had hooked to vacuum the weekend before. Made a gas run in morning, started mowing/vacuuming about 1 PM, ran ALL afternoon, evening, and night till 2 AM non-stop. Took Saturday off from yard work. Hooked home-made semi-mounted lawn aerator to same tractor I pulled vacuum with, 10 hp gear drive Cub Cadet, aerated the entire yard TWICE, once north & south, once east and west. Put 25 hours on the hour meter of that tractor just that weekend.

Texasmark1 · Dec 14, 2018

I started with DR brand back in 2005. Several years ago noticed that they now offer a very fast dumping model which was my problem with their initial design so I added one of those to my operation and the old one I use as a transfer pump. Both have never given me any problems other than wear and tear on the hoses as I run 30' sometimes to get at leaves under trees and in places you can't get the lawn mower with the vac. attached. A wrap or two of a premium duct tape solves those problems.

Current operation is I use the new smaller one connected to my ZT mower dedicated to the purpose (Hustler Fastrak 44) to get in and around things and pick up the leaves that are accessible with that. Take the full buggy over to a dump spot and unload. For inaccessible areas, I disconnect from the mower and connect the extension hoses and drag them around with the manual attachment and add them to the pile.

Prior to tearing up my tilled hay patch in the spring, I get out my JD Model N poop slinger and using the old motor, vacuum unit and hoses, transfer the intermediate pile to the slinger and deposit them on the field to be disced in.

Works great for me as I have a lot of trees and a lot of leaves. I have a lot of DR products and DR is pricy but well thought out and rugged.

Jegs · Dec 14, 2018

I've had an Agri-Fab for about 4 years, no complaints, does the job it should and every 7 months when I dig it out it fires right up! Pull it with a 22HP Simplicity lawn tractor, the ONLY thing I don't like about it is it fills up too fast! (maybe I've got too many trees)

jeffcat · Dec 14, 2018

That is the shop on the folks farm.

jeffcat · Dec 14, 2018

Here are the modifications that work nicely on my machine. The parts are mostly from home depot. The big rubber bumper is from a surplus store. These modifications make it very easy to hook the rear door back on and keep it from warping. The two standoffs are stainless and 1/2 tall by 1/2 wide with a 5/16 hole. The rubber bumper is 1 1/4 by 3/4 tall. Finally is the handle on the tounge. Biggest barn door handle they had. Need to drill one hole in the tounge and bend the ears a little. It is a little hard to get the nut on but it makes picking the machine up SOOO much easier.

wolfman · Dec 17, 2018

I have a Craftsman for sale. Does a good job, mulches leaves rather fine, bag removes with ease to dump into truck or wherever. Starts with one pull. Only $250. Only problem it is in southwest PA.

Texasmark1 · Dec 18, 2018

I initially bought the biggest they had and found myself banging into this and that. Changed techniques using a smaller one and dumping in a pile between pickup and point of use which works fine for the maneuverability and since the new one is a fast, one handed dumper, cycles are quick. Then in the spring I transfer the pile to the hay patch and incorporate.

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