Leaf raking tools

[Billbo]

Does anyone have any advice on using 3pt attachment for raking leaves?

 

[Billbo]

Maybe a lawn sweeper would be best option ???

 

[Vince1230]

Maybe a 3pt blower.

 

[bird dogger]

Here's a previous leaf management thread on different ideas for you.

 

[NCL4701]

I have a pine needle rake. Use it once or twice a year as part of the process to remove hardwood leaves, mostly oak, from three yards. The overall process is use a leaf blower to get the leaves a few feet away from the houses, blow/mulch with lawnmower. When the piles of leaves overwhelm the mower, the leaf rake on the L aggregates them into larger piles. When the piles are too big for the leaf rake to continue piling them up, the grapple on the L takes them away in large chunks. All three houses are surrounded by woods so the goal is simply to get the leaves off the grass and into the woods.

Also use the leaf rake on the L as a stand alone method of removing leaves from graveled paths/roads and the dirt area in front of the shed. Perfection isn’t the goal in those areas. Goal is to remove about 98% of the leaves to prevent a build of humus over years which can result in a slick black muddy mess. This actually happened in numerous areas before I took over maintenance of the property a few years ago, and it’s not something I care to repeat.

Anyway, the above pic was taken in the dirt area in front of the shed. Obviously it shows the rake and tractor. Perhaps less obviously, if you zoom in on the ground, it also shows pretty much what the rake will do with oak leaves. They were about 3” to 5” deep before raking. Definitely not Better Homes and Gardens perfect. Also not rotting to muddy humus. If that was in a grassy yard, I’d run over those leaves to mulch them to a better finish. If I wanted that area “perfect”, 5 minutes with the leaf blower after 10 minutes with the leaf rake would do the same as about an hour with the blower.

Being it’s a light weight implement that I use maybe 4 hours a year at most, I bought the cheapest one I could find. I believe it was from Titan Attachments (who I suspicion are purveyors of fine Chineseum). Paid about $250 for it a couple years ago. Just looked up a 6’ rake on their website and it appears to be more like $450 now.

Works well for my situation. I do not believe it is a good solution for all scenarios.

 

[Billbo]

Thank you all for replies.

 

[Billbo]

View attachment 96808
I have a pine needle rake. Use it once or twice a year as part of the process to remove hardwood leaves, mostly oak, from three yards. The overall process is use a leaf blower to get the leaves a few feet away from the houses, blow/mulch with lawnmower. When the piles of leaves overwhelm the mower, the leaf rake on the L aggregates them into larger piles. When the piles are too big for the leaf rake to continue piling them up, the grapple on the L takes them away in large chunks. All three houses are surrounded by woods so the goal is simply to get the leaves off the grass and into the woods.

Also use the leaf rake on the L as a stand alone method of removing leaves from graveled paths/roads and the dirt area in front of the shed. Perfection isn’t the goal in those areas. Goal is to remove about 98% of the leaves to prevent a build of humus over years which can result in a slick black muddy mess. This actually happened in numerous areas before I took over maintenance of the property a few years ago, and it’s not something I care to repeat.

Anyway, the above pic was taken in the dirt area in front of the shed. Obviously it shows the rake and tractor. Perhaps less obviously, if you zoom in on the ground, it also shows pretty much what the rake will do with oak leaves. They were about 3” to 5” deep before raking. Definitely not Better Homes and Gardens perfect. Also not rotting to muddy humus. If that was in a grassy yard, I’d run over those leaves to mulch them to a better finish. If I wanted that area “perfect”, 5 minutes with the leaf blower after 10 minutes with the leaf rake would do the same as about an hour with the blower.

Being it’s a light weight implement that I use maybe 4 hours a year at most, I bought the cheapest one I could find. I believe it was from Titan Attachments (who I suspicion are purveyors of fine Chineseum). Paid about $250 for it a couple years ago. Just looked up a 6’ rake on their website and it appears to be more like $450 now.

Works well for my situation. I do not believe it is a good solution for all scenarios.

Is that something attached to the bottom of your pine straw rake??? I have the same pine straw rake and was thinking perhaps something could be attached to allow leaf raking. The rake alone does NOT rake small oak leaves for me.

 

[NCL4701]

Is that something attached to the bottom of your pine straw rake??? I have the same pine straw rake and was thinking perhaps something could be attached to allow leaf raking. The rake alone does NOT rake small oak leaves for me.

Nope. Just the rake.

 

[mikester]

Finishing mower with high lift blades and dry leaves

 

[Daferris]

I use a Cyclone Rake vacuum with my zero turn. Found a good used one for $800 works very well. And yes I have a LOT of trees.....

 

[GreensvilleJay]

type of land (hilly, treey, ?? ) and size is important !
an acre or two lots of options starting with a tarp on a stick on the mower deck.......
..for ACRES of leaves a 'shreader/vac' or 'blower' could be better.

 

[Smokeydog]

Lawn Genie estate flail mower was about perfect to cut, vacuum and haul off yard debris. Excellent cut, vacuum or discharge and easy to dump. Surprisingly quiet. Good for collecting materials for mulch and compost.

Bad, 5’ model a little too heavy for the B26 on my hillside farm. I don’t have big yards, just a lot of rough grade small patches and trees. Couldn’t trim as well as 6’ rear finish mower. Wife preferred finish mower.

 

[Fordtech86]

I use a lawn sweeper to get leaves and grass clipping for compost. With leaves they need to be mowed over to mulch them up or it fills up very fast. Also use the landscape rake for collecting pine needles for use in gardens and now in the chicken coop. It works ok for that (especially if you don’t care about damaging the yard/grass) but it’s not great for leaves in my experience. I would like to get something like a cyclone rake in the future.

 

[NCL4701]

Lawn Genie estate flail mower was about perfect to cut, vacuum and haul off yard debris. Excellent cut, vacuum or discharge and easy to dump. Surprisingly quiet. Good for collecting materials for mulch and compost.

Bad, 5’ model a little too heavy for the B26 on my hillside farm. I don’t have big yards, just a lot of rough grade small patches and trees. Couldn’t trim as well as 6’ rear finish mower. Wife preferred finish mower.

Do they still make those (or anyone make something similar)?

Looked briefly and it appeared they stopped making them several years ago.

 

[Smokeydog]

Do they still make those (or anyone make something similar)?

Looked briefly and it appeared they stopped making them several years ago.

No they don’t make those anymore but do support parts. They are rare but have seen several used ones. They are commercial quality machines.

Peruzzo makes several models.

Gounds keeping places like golf courses, municipalities, parks are good places to look for used. Happened to luckily find one from a private estate sale like new for $1,200. Sold it after trying a season for $3,000 to a Kentucky gentleman who wanted to cut fresh grass for his cows.

 

[NCL4701]

No they don’t make those anymore but do support parts. They are rare but have seen several used ones. They are commercial quality machines.

Peruzzo makes several models.

Gounds keeping places like golf courses, municipalities, parks are good places to look for used. Happened to luckily find one from a private estate sale like new for $1,200. Sold it after trying a season for $3,000 to a Kentucky gentleman who wanted to cut fresh grass for his cows.

Thanks. Never seen a “collection flail” before. Kind of looking at an additional mower for the property and even at $8K a 60” sure is tempting. My L is a bit large for routine lawn work but if it’s dry…. Sure would be a sweet upgrade at leaf time and I already have three rear remotes on the tractor so no upgrades to the tractor needed.

Do you know how you know the collection chamber is full while operating it?

 

[Smokeydog]

Thanks. Never seen a “collection flail” before. Kind of looking at an additional mower for the property and even at $8K a 60” sure is tempting. My L is a bit large for routine lawn work but if it’s dry…. Sure would be a sweet upgrade at leaf time and I already have three rear remotes on the tractor so no upgrades to the tractor needed.

Do you know how you know the collection chamber is full while operating it?

Easy, you can see under the screen at the top when getting full. Well designed cutter that takes lawn care and maintenance to another level.
We mow with the B26. Simply the best for our lawn, creek area, berry patches and orchard. All hillside ground. 5’ collection flail just a little heavy to pickup full. Grass gets heavy quick.
Easy collection to make mulch or compost.
The rear discharge finish mower does a good job of mulching in grass clippings and leaves. Shreds and blows leaves off the 1/2 mile green tunnel driveway and around the house.

 

[Springer]

I'm looking for the same answers as the OP. I have a bx-2680 with a 55" grapple, bucket, stump bucket, sod buster plow, 60" center mower. I still have loads of leaves (a couple of acres worth) left over from last fall.
We had raked them into a series of piles. Many of the piles are on a fairly steep grade.

I got some success using the grapple. One advantage of racking them in the fall and letting them sit through the winter is that they have become "lift-able" with the grapple. I can pick up a clump that is about 5 feet high, wet and packed. I pick the pile up and take them over to the compost heap. But I still have a lot of leaves to rake.

I am still looking for a solution for the remainder of the leaves.

 

[someguy9000]

I ha

I'm looking for the same answers as the OP. I have a bx-2680 with a 55" grapple, bucket, stump bucket, sod buster plow, 60" center mower. I still have loads of leaves (a couple of acres worth) left over from last fall.
We had raked them into a series of piles. Many of the piles are on a fairly steep grade.

I got some success using the grapple. One advantage of racking them in the fall and letting them sit through the winter is that they have become "lift-able" with the grapple. I can pick up a clump that is about 5 feet high, wet and packed. I pick the pile up and take them over to the compost heap. But I still have a lot of leaves to rake.

I am still looking for a solution for the remainder of the leaves.

I have an L3901 now. I am planning on buying a BX series to use my cyclone rake for leaves/as a "lawnmower". I can't say enough good things about the cyclone rake as a leaf vaccum tool, but it has ruined the riding mower I used to tow it, the mower is too small. I bought the ZR10 (the biggest) as I wanted to avoid clogging. I think you would be happy with the cyclone rake and bx-26. It does throw TONS of dust when using it though. I don't have a lawn...just 1.5ish ac oak canopy.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I gave away my cyclone rake when I saw the price to replace the 'rubber' impeller ! and the steel band was destroyed ! The band is NOT available BTW.... Seems driving over a gravel driveway several times isn't a good idea......
The dealer wanted cash up front and NO delivery date.......