Questions about older wayne chuck'n'duck chippers w/leaf vac option?

[Diy mechanic mike]

Hello, I have been tossing the idea around about getting a leaf vac for leaf removal for extra funds and the composting material it provides. Anyway I have kind of gave up on the smaller engine leaf vacs cuz they are so over priced I feel. Anyway I saw someone selling an old Wayne chuck and duck chipper that had the blower assist to make the wood chippings fly into truck, it was also set-up as a leaf vac, just needed to hook a big diameter hose to the air intake on blower and it presumably sends the leaves into the truck just like the chips. Does anyone have any experience with this set-up and how well it works?



I have an older asplundh chuck and duck chipper with the assist blower on it as well, basically the same set-up as the Wayne chipper but my blower fan blade is more like a squirrel cage fan blade instead of the thicker leaf vac blades. If I were to fabricate a leaf vac hose for my blower and make the screen removable, would my squirrel cage fan blade be heavy enough for sucking up leaves or would it get beat up by the twigs mixed with the leaves?



Also was thinking maybe if I fabricated a "new" heavy duty leaf vac fan blade to replace my squirrel cage fan blade I could make this conversion work well for chipping wood and sucking leaves during this month of leaf removal.



If anyone has any input on this subject please lay out your opinions!!!





Thanks,



Mike

 

[Sidecarflip]

Brings back memories for me. Long time ago I had a CMC Chipmore drum chipper but no leaf vac. Had a 300 cubic inch Ford Industrial engine with a Rockford lever action clutch. Long gone. Was a good unit and the knives were easy to sharpen, just like Bandit knives are. Probably should have kept it but I got out of the tree trimming and removal business too.

 

[Diy mechanic mike]

Brings back memories for me. Long time ago I had a CMC Chipmore drum chipper but no leaf vac. Had a 300 cubic inch Ford Industrial engine with a Rockford lever action clutch. Long gone. Was a good unit and the knives were easy to sharpen, just like Bandit knives are. Probably should have kept it but I got out of the tree trimming and removal business too.

Yeah my asplundh whisper chipper has the Ford 300 L6. And it's also a 12inch drum chipper. Has the blower to push chips out faster but I don't think my fan could handle sucking leaves for a long period. Unless I made a fancy leaf blower fan blade like the pic I posted. You don't know of any graveyards for old chippers in STL,MO-Paducah,KY do you? If I could find another asplundh chipper and take the fan blower plate off and torch off the squirrel cage fan and weld up some steel plates bent to that shape in pic and bam gotta replacement for leaf sucking. But I really want to hear someone with experience with the wayne chippers with that same style of set-up for sucking leaves. Just want to be sure it's worth all the time before I go hunting,fabricating, and wrenching!! Lol