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Hillbilly redneck backwoods leaf processing


littlemarv

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I have a lot of leaves to contend with. Most of the trees drop them and make a sizeable mess. After I get those cleaned up, then the silver maples drop theirs and I have to start all over again. Last year I waited through both drop sessions, and actually plowed leaves with the 416 and dozer blade....shoulda got some pictures of that, but oh well.

Finally got a mower deck that works, so when I was over at ron7's house this summer I picked up a vac collector. We mounted it up and made a belt work, I had to hook the tensioner different but it will do.

Now to get a boot and some hoses!

I don't even know where to get a boot, and hoses are pretty spendy. Time for a trip to the mans mall!

Picked up a 12" by 6" end duct, two elbows, a 24" pipe, and a 7" to 6" reducer, just to hook the vac to the deck. No reason to custom build a cart if the vac don't collect, right?

The end duct fits over the opening on the deck pretty good, but I popped the cheap spot welds and bent it a little here and there. Bolted it to the deck in a few spots. Two elbows, a pipe, and some junk 6" drainage hose, a brace made out of flat iron, and a strategic bungee cord, and she is ready for a test run. Usually, I am not allowed to operate my machinery until someone else gets bored, but in this case it allowed me to observe and make adjustments on the fly.

I didn't think it would work that good, but it all goes out the pipe, so I guess we start on the cart next. All this duct work is pretty flimsy, so I am going to reinforce all critical areas with Red Greens favorite medium, once its all built to spec.

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Should be getting the trailer done next week, more to come.....

Thanks for looking!

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Nice,pipe probably won't with stand a major blow but if carefull should do the job. 6in. hose cost me $150 for 10ft. You'll need a short section between blower and cart. Again just my $.02

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Great job, at first looked like a super incinerator with the rear light shinning on the pipe, asking where can I get one? I like it, where there is a will there is a way.

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I grabbed some 1/4" OSB the other day, finally got a little free time today.

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They had a blast spending the day outside today, learning how to measure and cut and saw.... and it turned out great. The leaves are a little wet, but it was handy to have them drive while I worked out all the bugs, and cleared the clogs. Took about 45 minutes and a half a roll of duct tape, but we got it working pretty smooth. I mow the neighbors ditch for her so she said I could borrow her trailer whenever.

The icing on the cake?

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I think that's kind of ironic....

At any rate, she filled up pretty good!

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I could tell it was getting pretty heavy, the steer wheels would slide, we started spinning in the corners, and the 16 was really barking when I had the deck and blower going and opened it up across the lawn..... used a bit of gas as well. The nice thing is, I unhook from the tractor, hook it to the truck, and haul it to the heap.

This was more or less a test run, now that I know it all works good next year I can make something a little sturdier, always making improvements....

Thanks for looking!

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Way to go ,made a believer out of me. I didn't think stove pipe would hold up but seems to really have done the jobdOddOd

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