Strawblowers

[1145JohnDeere]

My Agrimetal strawblower caught fire and burned a few weeks ago. I am in the hunt for a new blower. I liked the Agrimetal but have heard of other inexpensive units that will blow more bales per hour. Anyone here have suggestions as to other brands and your experiences with them?

[Stonehenge]

I used to rent a Goosen (or Gossen, I'm not sure which) and that seemed to work well. I haven't had experience with Finn, but have heard good things.

Have you considered getting into hyrdomulching instead? We switched to it this year with quality results so far, and no complaints of hay blowing away, and no mess to rake out weeks later. Plus, it doesn't take 3 guys to run it.

[paul]

We use Gossen and Agrimetal, Gossen is faster but Agrimetal is stronger and easier to take care of.

Stonehedge, what type of Hydro-seeder did you buy?
We got a Finn this year, T60TT works well for Parks and Ball fields, doesn't rut up the place and we can get it into tight areas.

[Guido]

I've rented and operated this machine from Turbo Turf. The 18hp goes for about $5300 I think.

Check it out. But like what Stonehenge said, for the high cost of this machine just to blow straw you might want to llok into investing in a hydroseeding system.

Good Luck, let us know what you decide to do.

[1145JohnDeere]

Thanks fellas, I have wondered about hydroseeding but a local company bought a 300 gal sprayer and it seems as if it takes them such a long time to do a yard because of the numerous trips to reload water and the bales of mulch took up a lot of storage space. These guys also said they have to scrape off the hydromulch off houses, signs etc.

[Guido]

You can pick up a 300 Gallon seeder with the money you'll spend on the strawblower.

There are a lot more benefits to using a hydroseeder, but I think that can wait for its own thread (which I wouldn't mind seeing because I need to learn more about them also!)

I would probobly getting at least a 500 gallon seeder....OR

What I've seen thats pretty slick is if you can carry the seeder on your trailer and put a regular old holding tank, like form Northern Tools, just to use as a water source. But again, this all depends on your truck/ trailer sizes, etc.

Theres a lot of ways to get around the few downfalls of the small hydroseeders, you just have to look into it more.

Spend the time researching it, it might be worth it in the long run.

Have you ever rented or used one before? If not, maybe you should try to see how you like it?

Good Luck on your decesion, I know we steered you down a different path some!
:)

[Stonehenge]

Paul, I knew going into the purchase that I wasn't buying the best type of hydroseeder. The brand is Easylawn, it uses a 13hp Robyn on a 600 gallon tank, jet agitation. I know the mechanical is supposed to be better, but the problem I had was with spending 12-20K on a machine to help me do something I don't like doing. I do lawn seeding because, for new houses, it gets my foot in the door, so when they have the $$ for the full scape and patio, they call me back. Otherwise, they'll likely just call whoever else seeded their lawn to do the other stuff.

I had wanted a 300 gallon tank, too, because they were a lot cheaper. The place I bought it from didn't even sell 300's because they couldn't get the job done in one tank. A 600 gal tank usually can finish a lawn for us, but it's always close, and you have to push the limit of mulch/water mix to make it happen. But it works out great - once the yard is graded, we hook up a hose to the tank and start filling. We spread our seed and fert by spreaders to ensure exact coverage, then lightly rake to get the seed in contact with the soil. By the time we've done that, the tank is full, someone has put in the hydromulch, and it's been churning for about 10 mins. Ready to go!!

As for scraping hydro mulch off houses and signs - who do they have running the hose? Ray Charles? My supplier gave me a video and some instructions he came up with when he used to hydroseed, and we have almost no mess. Any overshooting is easily cleaned up with a quick shot from a garden hose.

And though I did the rare thing and went for the inexpensive tool this time, I haven't regretted it. I've only ever had one clog, and it was cleared in about 2 minutes.

It's so much cleaner than blowing hay - you don't have to empty your shirt, pants and underwear when you're done mulching the yard, nothing gets binded up (or catches on fire) like the hay blower, you can cover a larger area (more accurate shooting, and shooting a greater distance from a given point, and you can use a longer hose, so one guy can hydromulch a whole yard, moving the truck only once, depending on yard size).

Can you tell I like the thing? Mine cost almost $8K with tax.

[paul]

Stonehenge, We paid 12.5K for our Finn, I found a guy in Wis. selling a 2001 model T60TT with the tower and 120' of hard hose on an electric hose reel, it had all or 30 hrs on it:)

Here's a hint if you can't tap a fire hydrant get yourself a 500 gallon water tank, fill your seeder first and when its full start filling the other tank, by the time your first tank is shot your second tank will be full or petty close to full, then transfer it to your hydro seeder with a 2" pump. makes things go much faster.

[trimmasters]

We used to have a Tailgate Mulcher (made by TGMI I think) that we were vary happy with untill it and the trailer it was on burned to the ground. funny thing was we were on collage campus and there must have been 50 people around but none of them paid a bit of attention. and this thing was shooting flames twenty feet in the air! have any pictures we could trade? :)

[Cheese burger]

I have a goosen. I think that they sell the same machine with two different hp engines. I have the bigger engine and it really seems to be under a strain. Before I bought it I rented a tailgate mulcher, I like the goosen better because I can actually operate it by myself. It ain't easy or prefered, but it can be done. One other thing both gooosen and tailgate machine you have to be vigilant about not letting strings get tangled in mechanism. I have seen another brand advertised that said it mulches strings, that would be a nice feature.

[Randy Scott]

How do you guys feel about filling up the tanks at a customers house when refilling? Or don't you? I am taking my business towards more landscaping than maintenance and would like to purchase a hydro-seeder in the next year or so and wonder about things like this. It's one thing to fill up a backpack sprayer a couple times, but now were talking hundreds of gallons of water and most areas around here have to pay for water. Is it unethical or is it really the only practical solution?

[John Allin]

Ray Charles.... I like that.

A couple years ago we had a guy operating our 1100 gallon Bowie and he felt that he should be able to seed everything from the tower.... and he tried too.....

The front yard, the side yard, the rear yard.... all of it.... never moved the truck and trailer combo either.... thought he was being 'efficient'. Even after he spent two weeks with the other operator too !!!

Telephone poles, trees, gutters, chimneys.... geezzz, what a mess. Good thing is that we got him off the unit right away.... bad thing was that came after two days..... what a mess.

Live and learn.

PS: It wasn't quite as bad as I make out above... but it sure felt that way.

[Sean Gassman]

For more hydroseeding information you may want to join the Hydro Turf Planters Association

http://www.htpa.org