Lawn Vac ??

[MPH 12]

My brother in Colo has a problem with twiggs from fast growth cottonwood trees. His older walker doesn't do well picking them up. Any of you guys with these old vac systems have any luck chewing and sucking twiggs up off your lawn. Guess his wife picked up 2/3 of a trailer load last week. He's a grumbling'.

[MarksA-C 93]

My friend just bought a brand new one and it does ok with small sticks and twigs. This is the one he bought... [IMG]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m290/mccarronm04/VacuumeCart.jpg[/IMG]

[ehertzfeld 1]

Marty, I just got in from trying mine with the new Gator blades on in. It works quite well with small twigs and such.

[Scott Salmons 7]

The only problem I have had with small sticks is that occasionaly they get crossways in the discharge hose and clog it up. They also make a heck of a racket in the blower.

[Guest]

I've used some of the newer hose on my vacuum to find out little twigs punctured holes in the hose. Otherwise, the vacuum works too good! I also tend to find the gravel which has gotten mixed in the lawn.... ouch. I've been using an original Allis Chalmers sweeper all summer to avoid the rocks. Plan to use a leaf blower this year and drive all the leaves to the back of the yard... skip the sweeper. Until I fix the rock problem.

[Simpleton7016 3]

I second that on the Gator Bades. I was not initially sold on their worth....until I hooked up the lawn vac full time. I have not had a single clog in it since that time. Early on, I was clogging all the time. I ironed out a few other problems since then, but the gator blades seem to have had the biggest impact. I know what you're saying though....when a twig gets lodged in the hose, it usually takes 2 or 3 or 4 clogs in a row before I actually look for the twig. By that time, I am usually ticked off!

[ZippoVarga 75]

[img]/club2/attach/zippovarga/ranchvac.JPG[/img] this easy vac has a 5hp briggs and the impellar is a cast iron 4 vein that easily eats 2 inch limbs. I've had some issues only with trying to load the deck with too many leaves thus clogging the intake chute. With mulching blades or Gator blades I'm sure this issue would go away. But be ware.....the collector tube (robust tube) is 18 bucks a foot. And i learned from experience that skimping here is not an option.

[acken 208]

I have both Gator blades, and OEM, but feel the OEM have more suction. When I used the Gators it seemed they left streaks of ground up leaves. They did pass the sticks much better, I assume because they ground them up better. I have an AC918, w/AC rear vac, pulling EZvac trailer.

[Simpleton7016 3]

Ken is right....on occasion, I have seen small strips of ground up leaf particles after I make a pass. I had no idea this was due to the gators....but it seems to make sense. For me, this phenomenon has been hit or miss and does not happen every time. I will try to snap a picture this week. They are two very thin (1 inch or so) strips in line with the spaces between the center blade and the two outer blades. Weird, I though I was doing something wrong. Slowing down my ground speed seems to help.