Lawn sweepers work?

[Ben Grunow]

I have been eyeing a lawn sweeper to collect leaves for a long time and as leaf season approaches I just need a little more convincing. I have a 42" lawn tractor that I would like to pull one behind. Any one use one of these for leaf collection? Any opinions would be appreciated.

[Justin Dreier]

Ben - Yes they work quite well. I use a craftsman 42" lawn sweep behind my riding mower in the fall to clean up the yard. The leaves fill up the hopper quite quickly. The sweeper acutally works well for times when you let the grass get a little long and the clippings are left on top of the grass.

It's a good tool to have for maintaining a yard.

[Frank Conway]

I second what Justin said. I have the craftsman as well and it works great. My only complaint is it fills up really quickly, but I have a bunch of maples that seem to dump all their leaves at once. MUCH faster than anything else I've tried.

[Ben Grunow]

Thanks for the quick replies guys. I was even thinking of getting a 48" wide unit (if there is such a thing) just to speed things up a little. Seems like a lot less work to just drive the tractor around the yard instead of blowing and raking like a demon.

I have lots of trees and it seems to me like I should plan on running this thing more often than I might do my leaves now (with blower and rake) to avoid trying to make it work too hard. Will it pick up wet leaves? It seems like a great tool, I wonder why I have never seen one around here?

[Joe Mioux]

if you chop up the leaves a couple times before sweeping it helps with the sweeper not getting filled too quickly.

joe

[Brad Olson]

Mine works great.

The only trick is getting the right velocity for what you are picking up.

I seem to recall I got mine on end of the season sale for ~$200 a couple years back and is worth it.

The only thing it doesn't pick up very well is the small (~3/4" diameter) crab apples from my ornamental crab apple tree. Those I just let the deer eat

[Ron Jones near Indy]

I have a 42" sweeper that came from Tractor Supply a few years ago. It does a great job on the clippings when other things keep me from mowing when needed. And I agree with others about chopping the leaves before sweeping.