Alternatives to raking.....Any use vacs?
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treemandan
Tree Freak
i was blowin apples today.
I think the fastest and easiest is to have the blower work behind the rakers, working like this will move the volume and leave the place clean. If anyone mentions how you could get something in your eye doing this go get a desk job.
I guess if I was Treeslayer I would have a big ole street cleaner and just drive that over the lawn a few times.
Also, I always thought it would be cool to have a trash truck as a chip truck. Easy to load and keep loading.
I think the fastest and easiest is to have the blower work behind the rakers, working like this will move the volume and leave the place clean. If anyone mentions how you could get something in your eye doing this go get a desk job.
I guess if I was Treeslayer I would have a big ole street cleaner and just drive that over the lawn a few times.
Also, I always thought it would be cool to have a trash truck as a chip truck. Easy to load and keep loading.
Yes! A rear loading trash truck is spectacular for leaf cleanups. Pitch a tarp-load in the rear hopper, pull the lever. yank out your empty tarp. You need to have a lot of leaf cleanups lined up, 'cause a trash compactor will hold a LOT of leaves.
"Roll on the ground" vacuums like a Billygoat suck: they plug up and don't carry enough volume. A commercial walk behind mower with a bagging attachment works much better.
Vacuum truck loaders are effective, but they cost a bunch and keep you from doing other things with your truck. They work good if you have enough work to keep that truck busy.
To really speed up leaf cleanups: put one man in a backpack blower, and then hand him a handheld blower too. There is no sense in wasting one hand, and the two blowers work great together.
As mentioned above, have the blowers chase the guys with rakes across the yard.
Real big waste of money: two blowers in the hands of two guys; two rakes sitting on the truck not being used. Two extra hands on two men going unused also.
"Roll on the ground" vacuums like a Billygoat suck: they plug up and don't carry enough volume. A commercial walk behind mower with a bagging attachment works much better.
Vacuum truck loaders are effective, but they cost a bunch and keep you from doing other things with your truck. They work good if you have enough work to keep that truck busy.
To really speed up leaf cleanups: put one man in a backpack blower, and then hand him a handheld blower too. There is no sense in wasting one hand, and the two blowers work great together.
As mentioned above, have the blowers chase the guys with rakes across the yard.
Real big waste of money: two blowers in the hands of two guys; two rakes sitting on the truck not being used. Two extra hands on two men going unused also.
Last edited:
ozzy42
Addicted to ArboristSite
There was a very successful tree servise in town here [now retired] that added a garbage truck to his arsenal.
He used it to compact palm fronds.They don't chip well,or lay down to good in an open dump.
As for the final clean up.Hard to beat the old proven performers.
Pitch fork,flexible metal rake,soft plastic rake,and finally, a leaf blower.
outofmytree
Addicted to ArboristSite
Groundies are for clean ups. I don't even know which end of a rake is the pointy bit. 
Lawnmowerboy48
ArboristSite Operative
Leaf vacs are great, we have 4 35 hp ones for fall clean ups. No pun intended but suck it up and rake. Backpack blowers are great, treemandan could not have said it better of having a backpack behind a rake. The rake gets the larger stuff and the blower gets/disperses the smaller stuff.
35 ... HORSEPOWER ? !!!
I presume that those are really big truck loaders?
I presume that those are really big truck loaders?
treemandan
Tree Freak
Groundies are for clean ups. I don't even know which end of a rake is the pointy bit.
Don't you even know how to change the batteries?
rngrchad
Addicted to ArboristSite
The company I work for has a MADVAC.
It is a diesel powered 3 wheeler-suction machine for cleaning up trash or leaves if you so choose. Check'm out:
madvac.com
I went all the way down to florida from ohio to get ours. They are expensive but they will suck up full waterbottles and 3/4 full liters of cola!
It is a diesel powered 3 wheeler-suction machine for cleaning up trash or leaves if you so choose. Check'm out:
madvac.com
I went all the way down to florida from ohio to get ours. They are expensive but they will suck up full waterbottles and 3/4 full liters of cola!
fishercat
Addicted to ArboristSite
sounds like you havean old blower.
mine moves more than a rake ever could.gets more crap out of the grass than a rake too.even thatch.
only problem with my blower is moss.comes off like a tuepee in a San Fransicko bay breeze.
mine moves more than a rake ever could.gets more crap out of the grass than a rake too.even thatch.
only problem with my blower is moss.comes off like a tuepee in a San Fransicko bay breeze.
Groundies are for clean ups. I don't even know which end of a rake is the pointy bit.
If it weren't for your "groundies" you'd be out of business ay? I never forgot where I came from and you shouldn't either. Why would you not get out of your "bucket" (I assume that's how you operate) and help your groundmen to speed up production.
Anyway, It seems "outofmytree" is speaking of tree pruning and removal. In his case raking up the sawdust and leaves first, shoveling it into the back of your truck and then go over the left over sawdust to spread it around a bit or get it into a pile to pick up is a good way. I've seen way to many sites with piles of sawdust left right next to the stump. I've never had one complaint with the little sawdust spread around by the blower.
If it's windy and you're only picking up leaves, a rake isn't going to do much for you and neither is a blower. It's like pissing in the wind. Lick your finger see which way the winds blowing and go with the flow. Remember expenses. I guess a rake would take longer which is more man hours but blowers/suckers need fuel and maintenance. I like a lot of the ideas others have especially the trash truck that's a good idea but I don't see with such a costly machine how you could keep afloat.
outofmytree
Addicted to ArboristSite
Matt, I take it you havent read many of my posts. Did you notice Dan made a wisecrack about batteries? Chill out dude. I got in my truck at 6.15am today, its now 7.39pm and I finished my working day about 15 minutes ago so I know a little about hard yakka. The raking thing was a joke. It's what we do here...........
