Home-Built Leaf Blower-Vacuum

Home-Built Leaf Blower-Vacuum FARM HOME Miscellaneous 28-3-10 "It holds twice as much as most commercial baggers for garden tractors, so I don't have to empty it nearly as often. And it cost far less," says Pat Prom, Eden Prairie, Minn., about the leaf blower-vacuum he made to fit his Deere X485 garden tractor equipped with a 62-in. mower deck. Prom bought a new impeller and mounted it on the discharge side of the deck. The impeller is driven by a double pulley off the deck that's connected to a right angle gearbox. He made a wooden box that measures 4 ft. by 4 ft. by 18 in. deep and mounted it on back of the tractor. A length of 6-in. dia. flexible poly hose runs from the impeller to a hole cut into one side of the box. The box has two doors on back of it, with one lever used to lock both doors. A section of 1/4-in. metal screen, mounted at a 15-degree angle, is mounted inside the box to keep leaves from blowing out the other side. An old pair of pants placed over the chute directs dust downward. The front side of the box has a trailer coupler attached to it that mounts on a 2-in. ball on back of the tractor. The top part of the box is fastened to the back side of the tractor frame by a pair of quick-release pins. "I used it to pickup and grind leaves around my house. It really works good," says Prom. "Last year I filled thirteen 55-gal. bags with ground-up leaves. If I had raked them up I would've had to fill 300 to 500 bags. The tractor has more than enough power to handle the impeller. I paid $40 for the hose. My total cost was about $150. "I had been using a Deere leaf blower-vacuum equipped with three bags. An engine on the right side of the unit is used to drive the impeller. It worked good except that the air cleaner on the engine is located next to the bags and got dirty, so it always choked the engine." Prom made his own 5-ft. front-mount dethatcher to use with the blower-vacuum. The dethatcher is equipped with a series of tines designed for the pickup on a Deere baler. There are two rows of staggered tines, mounted on a pair of 3/4-in. dia. pipes. The front part of the dethatcher rides on a pair of caster wheels, which keep tine depth uniform on uneven ground. A hydraulic cylinder is used to raise and lower the dethatcher, while a pair of chains allow it to float. The dethatcher pivots from side to side on a 1-in. dia. shaft and also is free to pivot up and down. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Patrick G. Prom, 12661 Pioneer Trail, Eden Prairie, Minn. 55347 (ph 952 944-9266; email: pprom@msn.com).

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