How to make leaf removals quicker and more profitable?

[Chris Feenan]

Kelly - I wouldn't want to cut a lot of the pachysandra, if any. But by adjusting the 21 inch mower to the height of the pachy, it would suck the leaves up, i think. Some taller pachy might get clipped. but that would just make for a more even cover down the road.

You use the curved end on a high CFM blower I guess ? So do I, and that's fine for small beds of ground cover. But it is too time consuming on these huge beds. The leaves near the middle have to get teased out of the pachy too many times before they get to the edge. I want to suck them up once, and be done with it.

I think the climate around here is perfect for these pachysandra beds to just take over huge areas. Too hot down south, it would not do the same thing, i don't think.

[Kelly's Landscaping]

Originally Posted by Chris Feenan

You use the curved end on a high CFM blower I guess ? So do I, and that's fine for small beds of ground cover. But it is too time consuming on these huge beds. The leaves near the middle have to get teased out of the pachy too many times before they get to the edge. I want to suck them up once, and be done with it.

The br600s don't come with curved tips on the tube but it is an option. Trouble is the tips are about 10 inches to long. So I cut the new tips when I get them and drill out new holes to mount them. Iv done that now for the 16 br600s iv owned. I like a curved tip but I like a short arm so you can maneuver inside some very dense beds.

[Chris Feenan]

Thanks Kelly, that sounds like something I need to try.

So you buy the curved tip but mount it on a shortened tube ?

[Kelly's Landscaping]

Won't let me post them twice but I will let me link them here's what they look like with the new tips. http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=362100&page=2

[Chris Feenan]

That looks great, and easy. I hate trying to maneuver around in some of the overgrown beds that I work.

But let me ask you one more thing, wouldn't you want at least one full length curved tip for the pachysandra so you can set the tip right at the top of the pachysandra foliage ?

Or do you use a more powerful walk behind for ground cover mostly ?

[Kelly's Landscaping]

Personal preference I suppose but no I like them short. However the new style arms have a sliding tube with 3 settings on them so if you wanted them longer you need only twist and pull the tube out. Anyways I got I think 21 more clean ups to go and its getting late and I wouldn't want to miss another day of this great fun we call fall clean ups. Somehow my idiots managed to break the drivers side window on my old gmc leaf truck today so I got that to look forward too. Never a dull moment is there.

[recycledsole]

backpack blowers are more thourough for getting all the leaves from ground cover. the wb blower is faster, but can leave tracks in the ground cover, mainly pacysandra

[Darryl G]

Originally Posted by Kelly's Landscaping

Personal preference I suppose but no I like them short. However the new style arms have a sliding tube with 3 settings on them so if you wanted them longer you need only twist and pull the tube out. Anyways I got I think 21 more clean ups to go and its getting late and I wouldn't want to miss another day of this great fun we call fall clean ups. Somehow my idiots managed to break the drivers side window on my old gmc leaf truck today so I got that to look forward too. Never a dull moment is there.

That is sweet, but there goes my hopes of striking it rich with a new invention. I've long thought that something like that would be nice. I regularly add/substract tubes to my blowers. It can make a real difference in their performance to adjust them to the task at hand like that.

[Kelly's Landscaping]

Think we started fall clean ups on Nov 16th its now Dec 16th. We have managed to work 19.5 days but if you counted all half days it may be closer to 25 days. Still got like 13 or so to go and a week of rain ahead. But I have been tracking income every day as we progress through the fall clean up season. Thus far I am less than a hundred from 20k with about 4k worth still on the table. But its hardly worth effort just something we do to keep clients happy and help pay winter bills. And for the added insult I managed to break a rib earlier tonight wrestling that damm flex metal tube onto the leaf vac. I squeezed to hard with my arm because I had my head phones on and actually heard the snap. So I got that to keep me company all winter long since this typically takes 2 months to heal. Broke a few on the left side like 20 years ago so I know the feeling but that came from a very hard hit to the side as a co worker lost his balance and fell into me elbow first. But this I did all by my self and then comes all the what ifs. What if the guys didn't break the window on the gmc then I wouldn't have been using my truck. What if my mechanic had been ready to install the window the night before then I wouldn't have even been on that side of the list. What if one of my guys hadn't been crying about his back then I wouldn't have changed my mind last second and went to that account. Sadly that works both ways perhaps that got me out of a fatal auto accident you never know. But on the bright side at-least the seasons nearly over so Ill have some time to rest.

[Wayne's Lawn Service]

Your flat rate $80 an hour will put you out of business either way.. Too high for some and not enough for many. The only way to do enough volume in leaf removal to make money for real is charge per labor hour, vacuum leaves and haul away.

Most any other way is inefficient and not profitable. That's what my 33 years of experience tells me.

Check out www.profitsareus.com if you want help on bidding jobs.