Hi guys, I saved all summer and went all in for a leaf loader and a walk-behind blower. I see instant production with the walk-behind blower over backpack's (money well spent). Now the leaf loader (18hp Little Wonder) I have mixed feelings over tarps. I guess time will tell with the loader as I get to some of my customers I have done before. I really thought I could do the you rake em' I take em' and be gone in 20 minutes but as I get to using the loader it is taking more time then I intended....Any tips or tricks on making leaf rows so I can just drive along instead of piling it all in one spot and trying to break though monter piles. Seen some people put up snow fencing but I see that putting another 30 mins dinking around. Thanks for any advice. :usflag:
Oh ya I got a nice old tiller this year to. It's from the 40's. It's a Milwaukee, with a 8hp Wisconsin motor. It's a beast and has allowed me to do lawn repair's, food plots, and flower beds.
On average about $150. Just depends on property size, how many years has it been since last cleanup, how many trees on property, pines, can I dump on property, can I blow into the woods...etc...I got $600 to do this 1 acre job in the pic, but It hadn't been touched in like 4 years. Took me 2 days and 4 loads....so about $100 bucks in gas & oil....Not bad, I am sure someone else would have charged more. I believe I am charging very fair prices for the area I am in.
That lazer is a beauty....almost and I mean almost to the fullest, makes me wanna go to the credit union and use my suburban as a secured loan. If I had $1000 to put down and only had to finance $2500 we might be talking. Payments would be about $75/mo could have it paid off in a year, my production would increase and I would be on the path to rebuilding my credit.....hmm the more I type the better it sounds....lol
Just a couple of pointers for you from what I've found works over the years.
If you are working solo then rows are not going to work for you since in order to pick them up you need a driver and hose guy. We used to do the rows but really found it didn't save much time (almost wasted more time).
I used to plow piles with our zero turn but found it was just way too compacted to suck up properly. Now if the pile is too big/far from the truck we just tarp it out using 10X12 tarps if hand pulling or a 15X20 tarp if the tractor can pull it.
A couple of years ago I was trying to move a pile of wet leaves down a customers front hill/yard when I saw they had a 30 inch plastic snow plow shovel and used that. Now all of our trucks have at least one with them for fall. Its amazing that such a cheap tool can be almost more useful than a rake. We use it to load the bulk of the pile onto tarps to avoid weakening the rakes, to push piles once they are too big for the blowers and especially when feeding the leaf loader. You get so much more power out of the shovel versus rakes.
Another thing that ties into the shovel is we try to use the pavement (driveway/curb) as much as possible to avoid friction. If possible we will either blow to the driveway and push the piles with the shovel or make a row along the curb and push it into a pile.
Thanks for the advice euro, much appreciated. I have used a snow shovel to load tarps before, kinda slipped my mind with all this fancy new equipment...lol..I gave up on the leaf rows for the simple fact of the time you are talking about. I will have to grab my snow shovel next time out. Thanks again for the tips.
ok guys so i bent another pushrod and now there is gas in the oil and the plug shows it is running lean........put new pushrod in and set the valves, why is there gas in the oil?
Like I mentioned earlier, when I was in a similar situation to you I decided to just change the head out to the updated one. Mine hasn't screwed up yet. I haven't used it a lot or pushed it very hard but it's been trouble free since March 2011. Putting a Honda on it was expensive, to the point where it might make more sense to just buy a new unit, and I just didn't want to have to do that.
richened it up and put a little mix gas in there, popped a rod in 2 hrs.....called on the replacement head and they act like i am stupid, said 90 bucks but it's not updated, asked about the intek pro and he said it's the same motor as what i have for 460 with a fancy sticker on it.....i found replacement head on briggs website for 150 and it says updated replacement.......
You seen the magnitude of cleanups I do. I need something to get me through the next month. If I go drop $600 on a 580 am I going to be disappointed? I have a 150 that does wonders, am I still going to be productive, I know I am going to be losing time but it is better then down time.
All I can say is f*#k that thing till I get a gx390 for it. I had no choice but to go get the 580......and all I can say is WOW!.....wish I would've bought that 2 weeks ago instead of the billy goat, now I am 2 weeks behind due to weather and mechanical issues. $1200 in the hole basically. Fortunately though the work is there and more keeps coming in.
It does descent, definitely not the 12:1 they advertise. It does break them down nice though and really packs em in there. I have been getting 2-3 avg.sized yards worth in there before I have to dump. I will try to snap a pic tommorow to give you an idea.
I just go balls out using it to....got a backpack on and rake and snow shovel handy. I wasn't impressed at first but it has really started saving me time, labor, and fatigue.
I'm thinking the $90 head might be a remanufactured part, which probably isn't a good way to go.
The 580 has pretty awesome power. It shines better in some areas than others. I mostly use my 580 and reserve the Billy Goat for when I'm pushing large winrows or trying to get leaves through a slot. My 580 seemed a bit tight at first...throttle response was so-so and it didn't have that extra "holy crap" full throttle blast that it does now. Mine has been 100% reliable since I got it last October. Give it 5 tanks of gas or so to really come to it's fully strength and try to avoid extended periods of full throttle use at first...you really don't need full throttle most of the time anyway.
That thing is so powerful, my arm hurts from trying to keep it down. Then my loader is total opposite....wore out from keeping it off the ground. Granted it is not my billy goat but I think it will really be beneficial on my lake houses. On another note I found a gx390 for 250. I can't pass it up, hoping to go get it first thing in the am.
"Fingers crossed" I am up to 22 houses this week, found descent help for a week, would be nice to have both goat and 580 going. I got my grueling cemetery done, so now on to residentials. Hopefully I can knock everything out this week and pursue some more work.
Have you tried the flat high velocity nozzle yet? I find it almost unuseable because it torques the tube so hard.
I have to drop my normal cleanups for a day or two to remove a mountain of storm debris that washed up on a lawn. Mostly marsh grasses but all sorts of junk mixed in as well as some big lawns and pilings...love running my saws in waterlogged filthy logs...not!!!
Yea that flat thing will wear you out before a tank of gas!....works great with acorns though. If this thing gains more power as it is broke in, I will be amazed. So for ****s n giggles I had on the 580 and put the 150 on my chest..didn't have them running, but suprisingly it was comfortable.
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