Powermax grass catcher

[Simpleton7016]

If I were to ever make the jump into the Powermax series, I don't recall ever seeing a vacuum set up for them. Collecting grass clippings to make compost is the single biggest reason I got into tractors in the first place, so this ability would be first and foremost if I ever did make the leap. I know, I know, I could use the search function, but I just want to do my part to keep this forum lively here in the dog days of February. I just don't recall seeing any pictures of a vacuum collector on a powermax.

[richp]

Don't recall seeing one. With a 60" deck, that thing would need a wide berth. I would consider a tow behind vac unit. BTW, once you get a Power Max, you'll be hooked.

[D-17_Dave]

Trac-Vac I think offered something to addapt to it and it would need at least an 8HP unit to handle the 60" deck. I have located a PTO drive setup for a Sunstar and plan to addapt it to drive off my rear pto. I have a large Trac-Vac trailer but no deck hose or addapter. I'll have to get into it and see if it will work. That's what I'm going to do.;)

[RacerX]

I'd put an engine driven vac system on a Power Max, instead of a PTO unit. An 8 hp or larger (860, 880, 1080, etc...) Trac Vac trailer type system would be just the thing on that tractor. One thing I always found wrong with the PTO vacs on the 7000 series was the vac system power requirement. Trac Vac used a 5 hp Briggs to power the 560, similar in size to the Simplicity PTO set up. If you took a 7117 with a PTO vac and figured the vac used 5 hp that meant you only had 12 hp left to run the tractor and power the mower deck. On the smaller horsepower tractors the situation was even worse.

[UCD]

I have a 7117 with the Simplicity pto vac system with a 48" deck and have no problem with lack of power and others are runing the same system with 12 & 16hp single cylinder engines and have no problem with lack of power. The set up dave is talking about is drive shaft driven and the Power max series has plenty of power to run it.