anyone ever use one of those fixed non-spinning brooms?

[barndoor]

I live on a private road, 1 mile long with asphalt. My 17 neighbors and I have a road association and do all the maintenance, even paving. Of course it's not the smoothest and is sometimes loose, but we save a ton of money and it holds up fine in our mild california weather. One of our major tasks is raking out all the oak leaves from the ditches, and it make a TON of leaves. Now that I have the LX I'm hoping to put it to use so we are not raking these piles off the road for hours, but I'm worried that the tractor bucket or box scraper will pull up chunks of pavement. What we really need is a massive V-shaped broom on the bucket that I could capture all the leaves and push them over the edge at various locations. It would only get used once a year so I'm not interested in a big investment, but I am tempted to go buy 6 or 8 push brooms and fab something up. Or is just too complicated and 6 people with rakes are going to pull off the same task?

 

[85Hokie]

I would think ONCE the "brush" builds up - it will stop being effective and possibly break the broom(s).

Would some sort of vacuum work? OR even a blower? May be costly - more so than a couple of brooms.

Could you design a "apparatus" that would "bolt" to the bucket ..... hang over 2 feet or more and then something points down into the ditch? Think of a sub soiler but hanging out over the side of the FEL....
the leaves still need to be "picked" up however.

The pull behind vacuum would kill both birds with one stone despite the $$$$

 

[Matt Ellerbee]

Rear mounted blower? Expensive, yes. But not really when split 17 ways.

 

[barndoor]

Picture a 2x2 foot pile of leaves in a line 200 feet long. In the past 3 guys with rakes working together can push a pretty large pile down the road, was just hoping to try with the tractor. It can't be blown, since it will just go back in the ditches, so it has to be transported down the road a bit before we find a place to push it off. Might just try the bucket carefully, just can't scrape the road as it may pull something up...

 

[MINICUP28]

What about a pine straw rake?

6 FT Pine Straw Needle Rake for Cat 1, 3 Point

The Titan 6 ft Pine Straw Needle Rake is perfect for use with a compact tractor for rounding up all of those pesky pine needles!

www.palletforks.com

 

[barndoor]

What about a pine straw rake?

Now THAT is a good idea! Didn't even know that existed.

 

[BigG]

This might be better then making your own.

Vestil Vestil Polypropylene Brush Sweeper/Brush Kit 60 In. Black VSWP-60-RB | Zoro

Order Vestil Vestil Polypropylene Brush Sweeper/Brush Kit 60 In. Black, VSWP-60-RB at Zoro.com. Great prices & free shipping on orders over $50 when you sign in or sign up for an account.

www.zoro.com

This might be advantageous.

stihl power broom sweeper - Google Shopping

www.google.com

 

[bird dogger]

How steep and wide are your ditches? A PTO powered blower could clear the road and blow the leaves through the ditch and back into the woods pretty easily. No manual labor involved. The leaves would be evenly distributed back in the woods along the sides of the ditch....no piles.

 

[JimmyJazz]

How about a snow pusher with some rubber or plastic on the contact edge. I use a plastic tubed children's soccer/hockey net to move large piles of leaves around my yard much to my neighbors amusement.

 

[RBA50]

Look At the EA Pine Straw rake if you decide to go that route. Made in USA and is built nicer than the imports. Mine shipped Fedex in two or three boxes, so no delivery hassle. Only drawback is it was not Quick Hitch compatible. I knew that, but fixed it before I even assembled it.

 

[D2Cat]

You need to find something like this.

AGRI METAL 3 POINT HITCH PTO TRACTOR LEAF / DEBRI BLOWER | eBay

WORKS GREAT FOR LARGE AREA'S. SEND'S LEAVES, STICKS, TRASH FLYING. BELT DRIVEN RUN'S SMOOTH. I CAN DROP AT THE OWINGS MILLS MD. SOLD AS IS.

www.ebay.com

 

[torch]

I have a similar situation with maple leaves along our drive and private road. I have used the pine needle rake to clear it. However, once the pile is about 2' high, the rake is full, the tine springs flex rearwards and it starts skipping, leaving little piles. I get maybe 50' or 75' in one direction, then rake the next section in the opposite direction so I end up with a 100' or 150' clear stretch with a big pile in the middle. Then bucket the pile into the bush.

But if your leaves are already 2' deep to begin with, I don't think the rake will be very efficient. It will compact them somewhat, but I think the distance cleared before the rake starts skipping will be rather short, especially if the leaves are wet. Also, the pine needle rake works best on relatively flat surfaces. I don't know how dished your ditches are, but there is a good chance the rake would not reach down into the centre of a deep ditch.

If blowing the leaves beyond the ditch is a viable alternative, that might be the better option. 3ph mounted blowers look like a great idea, but pricey. However, even a good commercial-grade backpack blower could be faster and less frustrating. I have a Stihl BR600 that would make short work of a 200' long stretch of leaf-filled ditch. You could rent one to try.

 

[mikester]

Our township had one mounted to a pickup truck snow plow to clear loose gravel at intersection aprons. They now use a rotary broom on a wheel loader - seems to do a better job in less time.

 

[orange crusher]

What about a pine straw rake?

6 FT Pine Straw Needle Rake for Cat 1, 3 Point

The Titan 6 ft Pine Straw Needle Rake is perfect for use with a compact tractor for rounding up all of those pesky pine needles!

www.palletforks.com

Been using mine for 2 years now. Even fabricated a rear center mount adjustable gauge wheel on it. Just the ticket for moving a large amount of debris while sparing the surface it rakes.

 

[NCL4701]

I use a cheap Chinesium pine straw rake a couple of times a year to gather the leaves in the three yards and variety of other places on the property where leaf cover is undesirable. Not exactly recommending it as it’s lighter than light duty but it does the job and it just sits in the shed 363 days a year. When the leaf piles get too much for the rake, they’re big enough to pick up with the grapple. Between the grapple and rake 95% of the leaves go away. For the other 5% the zero turn finishes off the grass and blower finishes off non-grass areas very quickly.

Looked at leaf collection systems and PTO blowers. I’m sure they would be wonderful. The Chinese rake was about $350 a couple years ago. The other options, I just couldn’t bring myself to part with the $.

If you have to rake leaves, a 72” rake on a 3 point hitch is better than an 18” rake on a stick.