homeowners should not be allowed to own backpack blowers

[Jameson]

or at least have to take a class before owning one. The blower is on the right side, if you are walking the edge of a building with the building on the left you are probably working too hard. Understand that blowing under the leaves blows them up in the air, over the top results in them moving forward, sometimes a combination of the two is needed. If you have a HUGE pile of leaves that needs to be moved 200 yards and you are working solo, please use a tarp. Lawnmowerman222 or anyone else, what did I miss? I've only got a few hours experience compared to many, but I at least had some experienced folks give me a little training. Listening to a single neighbor for hours on end is very maddening.

End of rant./

[pushbutton]

Lol.....Tis the season! My leaf phobic neighbor has the turbo 9,000 xlt3 and get serenaded every year hours upon hours at a time. Personaly gettin old and recently tore apart what little was left making my rotator cuff work .....doing leaves to old fashioned way; guess I will have to step into the 21'st century and study up over the off season on how to use one of those new fandangled rakes properly

[Mr.Seaguar]

I used to own a home with mature trees, half a dozen. One was 13 feet in circumference. Every fall my lawn got carpeted. My wife would rake them up against my protest and I would haul them away. One year it was rainy so she paid someone. I remember her disgust when she found she was working hard for 3 nights to save $50.

[Jameson]

My best option is to bag them and have the city haul them away. Part of my city taxes anyways. Have found that bagging them behind the push mower makes somewhat quick work that is easy on my tired shoulders. Put a big pile of leaves on top of a Hosta garden, too.

[gunner55]

2 large maples in our backyard.We use the large tarp method,2 people/a rake each,a little over an hour.We just haul them to the street as the city goes around a couple of times.Anything more is usually bagged & to the street.

[aanderud]

or at least have to take a class before owning one. The blower is on the right side, if you are walking the edge of a building with the building on the left you are probably working too hard. Understand that blowing under the leaves blows them up in the air, over the top results in them moving forward, sometimes a combination of the two is needed. If you have a HUGE pile of leaves that needs to be moved 200 yards and you are working solo, please use a tarp. Lawnmowerman222 or anyone else, what did I miss? I've only got a few hours experience compared to many, but I at least had some experienced folks give me a little training. Listening to a single neighbor for hours on end is very maddening.

End of rant./

[Jameson]

...Not sure why your neighbors can't get it figured out, but if you're really good at it, and you had some experienced users train you, maybe you could do both your neighbor and yourself a favor and show your neighbors how to do it?...

I wish. Not really that relationship there with that particular neighbor. 2 other neighbors and it would have happened a long time ago. I might just have to break down and get a backpack blower myself and just hopes he can catch a few tricks watching.

[Mid-Lake Rock]

Anyone own or use a Shred and Vac? Guy at the hardware store gave me the hard sell, but I passed. Look interesting.

Shred N Vac

[aanderud]

Anyone own or use a Shred and Vac? Guy at the hardware store gave me the hard sell, but I passed. Look interesting.

Shred N Vac

Friend of mine has one, said it works great at making a large pile of leaves smaller, but the bag is WAY too small and he's constantly emptying it. He's trying to find a bigger bag for it. I think they make one, he just has to order it or something.

I've used a similar product that's a bit of an upsized version. I have a friend who has this "cyclone rake" which you tow behind your lawn tractor. It sucks the leaves up, shreds them up a bit (your lawn mower blades also shred them some), and throws the resultant mulchy stuff in a big hopper.

[leech~~]

Screw that! The bigger the better. I have a Echo commercial grade back pack with 630 CFM (Cubic Feet Per Minute) and 200 MPH of leaf blowing rock throwing Power! Arrr, Arrr! If it pi$$es off the neighbors it's only because they have been out for hour's di(king round with rakes and I am done blowing the whole yard in about 10min's. Rant on!

[aanderud]

Screw that! The bigger the better. I have a Echo commercial grade back pack with 630 CFM (Cubic Feet Per Minute) and 200 MPH of leaf blowing rock throwing Power! Arrr, Arrr! If it pi$$es off the neighbors it's only because they have been out for hour's di(king round with rakes and I am done blowing the whole yard in about 10min's. Rant on!

Yours is similar to the husqvarna that I just bought, but yours being commercial grade probably costs more and is more durable. 232 mph/632 cfm air speed here. Enough to get the job done on my small yard.

[LightningBG]

I have a nice troybilt one my in laws gave me, but it just hangs on the wall of the garage. only used if I feel like getting the leaves out of landscaped areas. Otherwise, the lawnmower with a bagger is just too darn easy. I ride around on the lawnmower listening to tunes, occasionally dumping finely shredded leaves behind the shed for future mulch. Too much labor getting them from a pile into the goofy bags the city will come pick up.

[Duffman]

Gotta electric blower, use it for a lot of things, cleaning off deck, patio and driveway. I always thought raking is the worst yard chore. So I even use it to de-thatch in the spring. (that probably irks the neighbors)

The best part of the blower by far?

It came with this;

Chops the carp out of dry leaves into almost a leaf dust(nice dry fall). One of those garbage cans full will fill one of those dumb paper bags perfectly. It turns what would normally be about 6-7 bags worth into 2.

All I see are the little bag attachments around now, gots me worried. Told the Mrs. they might not make it anymore..........she freaked.

Love that thing.

[leech~~]

I use the back pack blower to round up all the leaves into a pile then use the hand handle blower-vac to grind them up. Yes, where to get one of those handy attachments as I'm still the blower bag into paper bag guy!

[aanderud]

duffman, i'm thinking i need a second blower now like the one you show above to suck up the leaves and chop them and throw them into the can for me. The one with the tiny bag attached to it didn't look all that appealing but one that hooks directly to a 32 or 64 gallon can would be the ticket.

[Tom7227]

I was wondering if using a blower to chop up the leaves ends up wearing the rig down awfully fast. That stuff gets pretty abrasive and I have to think that the parts in a blower aren't built that strongly. Why not just use the mower to chop them up and then suck up the chaff if it's too thick?

[aanderud]

I was wondering if using a blower to chop up the leaves ends up wearing the rig down awfully fast. That stuff gets pretty abrasive and I have to think that the parts in a blower aren't built that strongly. Why not just use the mower to chop them up and then suck up the chaff if it's too thick?

Well, after using one blower to blow the leaves all into a pile, that pile can be 1-3 feet tall and 6-10 foot diameter pretty easily. I don't think I could get my mower to chop those up effectively (rider or push mower). I just don't see how to grind them up with a mower once they're piled up. That's the step where the sucker/shredder thingy that chews them up and throws them into the garbage bin looks like it would shine.

I agree that the shredding has to put more wear on the machine, so that particular blower/sucker probably has to be either a heavier duty one -- or maybe a cheaper one that you don't mind replacing every few years? I don't know.

The wife's going to look at me with that crooked head-tilt when I bring home a second leaf blower/sucker/grinder thing next fall, for sure. But, a guy can never have too many engines and motors. Sounds like the making of some multi-stage leaf disposal fun, to me.

What would be really nice would be more cities who are equipped/staffed to take care of this stuff and make money doing it. In Hutchinson, they'll actually come by with a big machine and suck the leaves up from the curb on specific days. So you just rake/blow them out to the edge of your lot and voila, they disappear the next day. They did something similar in Cedar Rapids, but mostly used front end loaders and dump trucks.

Hutchinson has sort of pioneered the whole "yard waste" gig, selling compost and mulch and wood chips and whatnot. Not sure if that's all still working out now that there's more attention being paid to ash borers and the like, but at least in the last couple decades they were getting some attention state-wide and even nation-wide by actually "making money" off of this yard waste that most cities consider a burden. To be honest though, I'm not sure if these are just feel-good boondoggles where they throw a bunch of state/federal tax dollars at it and say look "we're coming out ahead" at the city level, or if they're actually making money that would allow them to pay back any grants (or pay them forward to another community who wants to start up the process). I'd guess if you asked the city planners who are in charge, they'll say they make money, but who really knows without doing a ton of research. If it requires a ton of huge grants and subsidies to start up or maintain, then it's certainly not a scale-able solution that should be expanded.

[LightningBG]

I wish we could burn them at the curb like the good ol days.

[bobbymalone]

I've got a handful of monstrous maples in my yard and hit the leaves with the mower once or twice a week.

Mulched them down to nothing. No raking, no bagging, and the nutrients in those leaves returned to the soil in my yard. Win win win.

[Hoey]

hit the leaves with the mower once or twice a week

This is also my solution, works great. I watch my neighbor harvest his leaves, blower for hours, riding mower with bagger, for hours, multiple trips to the recycle facility, and I am done in less than 30 min.

Adding that I start lowering my cut height mid-Sept so that by mid-Nov, I am at or near the lowest setting. This allows some of the leaves to blow off, deters voles and snow mold. And in the spring, green up is faster.

[BoxMN]

I've got a handful of monstrous maples in my yard and hit the leaves with the mower once or twice a week.

Mulched them down to nothing. No raking, no bagging, and the nutrients in those leaves returned to the soil in my yard. Win win win.

I'm late to the party, but this is also what I do. I have a "late falling" maple and when it starts, I just go and ride/mulch one a day. Keeps it all fine particles, keeps it from blowing all over and I don't fertilize a bit anymore. Haven't "raked" in my yard in the 20 years I have been here. Granted, I only have one deciduous tree (a big one) but get plenty of neighbors' oak leaves.