Already thinking about leaf cleanup

[Carscw]

Come fall. A $500 Blower will make me twice the money in one day over a $300 Blower.

 

[Mad Mackie]

Some of you may not have a lot of leaf blowing experience and it is easy to accumulate a difficult to deal with pile of leaves.
I move leaves in manageable groups, making room for each group to have a place to go.
Usually I finish up with my Scag Tiger Cub with collection and depending on the season, I sometimes end up cleaning up 1,000 to 2,000 bushels and this is after they have gone thru my ZTR and collection blower.
For the most part, I blow leaves away from buildings, bushes and tree lines, driveways and then finish up with my ZTR.
Disposing of the chopped up leaves is another problem and I no longer bag and haul them away as it is a time consuming, labor intensive and money loosing situation.
Some of you may have no choice but to bag and haul the leaves, make sure that you charge enough for this type of service. If you are able to chop up the leaves, then you can reduce the volume that you have to bag and haul away.
I only do leaf cleanup where I can either dispose of them on the property or very close by.
At just one of my customers place, I cleanup more pine needles than leaves. Pine needles decompose more slowly than leaves and grass clippings.
just a few thoughts from Mad Mackie in CT:laughing::biggrin::smile:

 

[lawn mower fanatic]

Some of you may not have a lot of leaf blowing experience and it is easy to accumulate a difficult to deal with pile of leaves.
I move leaves in manageable groups, making room for each group to have a place to go.
Usually I finish up with my Scag Tiger Cub with collection and depending on the season, I sometimes end up cleaning up 1,000 to 2,000 bushels and this is after they have gone thru my ZTR and collection blower.
For the most part, I blow leaves away from buildings, bushes and tree lines, driveways and then finish up with my ZTR.
Disposing of the chopped up leaves is another problem and I no longer bag and haul them away as it is a time consuming, labor intensive and money loosing situation.
Some of you may have no choice but to bag and haul the leaves, make sure that you charge enough for this type of service. If you are able to chop up the leaves, then you can reduce the volume that you have to bag and haul away.
I only do leaf cleanup where I can either dispose of them on the property or very close by.
At just one of my customers place, I cleanup more pine needles than leaves. Pine needles decompose more slowly than leaves and grass clippings.
just a few thoughts from Mad Mackie in CT:laughing::biggrin::smile:

Good info. In my area the municipality takes away the leaves if you put it at the road, and that makes it easy. I blow all the leaves from the front yard right to the road and put the leaves from the backyard into a pile and use a tarp to bring them to the street. Easiest way for me.

 

[zmister11]

Good info. In my area the municipality takes away the leaves if you put it at the road, and that makes it easy. I blow all the leaves from the front yard right to the road and put the leaves from the backyard into a pile and use a tarp to bring them to the street. Easiest way for me.

Lucky lol. If they did that in Florida then I would do alot more leaf cleanups haha

 

[TaskForceLawnCare]

We only use echo backpack blowers, start them on the rack lift it off sling over your shoulder blow clippings away quickly. I guess I own one husq it was given to me by the dealer for penny's on the dollar it was a demo model. I promise you it isn't nearly as powerful as the echo's.
We also do quiet a bit of leaf removal, I like running a combination of billy goats, clam shell baggers and backpack blowers, to blow the leafs out where they can be vacuumed up.
I can also tell you that the at the end of the day a backpack blower will save you time. It will also use more fuel, so without some really tight math it might make you a few extra bucks daily. I prefer using a backpack blower and the guys using them. You'd be splitting hairs on cost savings or losses I think. If they where losing companies money I think companies much much larger wouldn't be using them.

 

[Ric]

I've had the pleasure of using a couple of Brand New Echo Backpack Blowers the Last few days, the 770 and 755 and I was not impressed to say the least. With all the talk about the blowers I sure expected more but was real disappointed and I sure wouldn't trade my BR 600 for either. They both do a reasonable job but I can't say they were as good or any better than the 600. I found the same thing about the SRM 225, they just didn't have the power that the Stihls I run have. The one thing I wasn't disappointed in about the Echo equipment and they sure beat the stihls in was the noise they make, they sure are loud.

 

[Lawnboy18]

I couldn't speak for the PB770 or any other Echo blower, but I do have to say that I love my BR600. Great blower. Compared to the BR430, it does have more power, but I really see the difference in the volume that it moves. I can be lazier with it; I don't need to get as close to certain areas to clear off debris.

Ric, you have to be reasonable about the SRM225. You cannot compare it to a STIHL FS90, FS100, etc. It can be compared to a FS55 I think. Right now, we enjoy using the SRM225 as opposed to the FS90 because it isn't as heavy. Alltho, we still like the FS90, especially in tall wet grass.

 

[Ric]

I couldn't speak for the PB770 or any other Echo blower, but I do have to say that I love my BR600. Great blower. Compared to the BR430, it does have more power, but I really see the difference in the volume that it moves. I can be lazier with it; I don't need to get as close to certain areas to clear off debris.

Ric, you have to be reasonable about the SRM225. You cannot compare it to a STIHL FS90, FS100, etc. It can be compared to a FS55 I think. Right now, we enjoy using the SRM225 as opposed to the FS90 because it isn't as heavy. Alltho, we still like the FS90, especially in tall wet grass.

You can't really compare the SRM 225 to the FS 55 even though there both residential trimmers and the FS 90 and FS 100 both weigh less than the SRM225. The dry weight on the 225 is 12lbs and the FS 90 is 11.7 and the FS 100 is 10.8 lbs. That was one of the things I did notice was my FS 100 was a lot lighter than the 225 and easier to use and there's no comparison when it comes to engine and power.

 

[TaskForceLawnCare]

I can tell you about both, I was a Stihl guy for a long time. I switched all our hand tools to echo 4 years ago. My guys run them everyday and actually prefer the 225 heads. They have as much power as the regular round .95 line can handle and there's really nothing easier to load then the echo head. I'm not doubting anyone's Google search on weight maybe the echo is balanced better who knows. Stihl makes a great product so does echo. Fortunately for me my guys like the 225 if one wears out get the good parts off and buy another one $200. If they are used hard everyday they will all wear out. This spring we are looking at adding another crew, I can outfit a trailer with edgers, blowers and trimmers for under $2k. Depending on how you slice it graph it or make a chart they'll pay for themselves in a couple days.

 

[Ric]

I can tell you about both, I was a Stihl guy for a long time. I switched all our hand tools to echo 4 years ago. My guys run them everyday and actually prefer the 225 heads. They have as much power as the regular round .95 line can handle and there's really nothing easier to load then the echo head. I'm not doubting anyone's Google search on weight maybe the echo is balanced better who knows. Stihl makes a great product so does echo. Fortunately for me my guys like the 225 if one wears out get the good parts off and buy another one $200. If they are used hard everyday they will all wear out. This spring we are looking at adding another crew, I can outfit a trailer with edgers, blowers and trimmers for under $2k. Depending on how you slice it graph it or make a chart they'll pay for themselves in a couple days.

If one wears out get the good parts off and buy another one $200. :confused2: Lets see over 10 years the Echo trimmer will cost $1000 to run if they last 2 years each and you don't have any problems with them. I can buy the Stihl RX 100 for $369 msrp $350 OTD and it will last 10 years being used everyday at least my 90 and 110 have, so $350 vs $1000 over 10years...where is the savings....Problem is the Echo never pays for itself and I've used both.
I started my business with an SRM 210 and PE 200 they lasted one season and were trash. For 2K I can outfit a trailer with 2 BR 600 blowers 2 FS 90 Trimmers and 1 FC 90 Edger. The biggest problem I see with the Echo stuff is the fact they haven't moved forward with the technology, there still running the same engines they've been running forever and the only advancements they have made is changing there colors and covers.