I am finishing up my leaf setup tomarrow. My leaf vac is mounted on the front of my trailer. Can I have a hole the size of the chute cut into the back of the leafbox? or do I need to have more space for the chute to be able to move left and right when backing up or turning.
I assume the box is on your truck? If the discharge is a flexible hose, and it is long, you shouldn't have a problem. If it's rigid pipe, it may get pinched. I found some thin rubber, and made tabs about 4x4 inches each, then attached them around the oversize hole so they fill in around the pipe and keep the blowback inside the box. Where are you in Mass.? We just started leaves here in the western part, but plenty are still on the trees.
Thanks, I think I am going to get some flexible hose. Can I use flexible drainage pipe from home depot? or are there any suggestions of what type of hose to use? I want to start cleanups on monday, but not all the leaves are down. How do you deal with that? I am located in Lincoln, MA. @20min west of boston.
You could also use a piece stove pipe and connect it when you get ready to start the loader. Cheap and easy, its what I use. Gene
thanks for the input. I ended up ordering pvc piping from the internet, over $50 for 4 ft. of it. Do most of you do fall cleanups for weekly customers more then once? I am planning on waiting till most of the leaves are down and then performing one cleanup. I feel like I am missing out on $ by only clearing the leaves once, and the appearance of the lawn isn't as nice, but I doubt that the customers would want to pay for multiple cleanups.
Some will want multiple pickups, some won't. I rigged up my Gravely chipper as a leaf loader vac and ordered some heavy-duty hose over the 'net and am getting a fair amount of leaf work. I thought $100 for 12' was pretty steep but I guess turning my $10k chipper into a chipper and vac for $100 beats the heck out of buying a separate loader. It works awesome.
My regular lawn customers get cleaned up every 2 weeks until the leaves are down. These are 1/2 acre lawns and they take no more than an hour to clean up each time. I charge between $60-$75 per visits and I figure on 4-5 visits. I would rather keep up with the leaves than have them a foot deep at the end. This way works better for my equipment. Derek
