Hi all,
I own a 60 acre farm in central Virginia and cut about 15 acres of grass with an 8 foot Woods RFM (rear finish mower) on my farm tractor and use a Kubota ZD331 for around the house and smaller areas the farm tractor won't fit. We have had such a wet year that I'm having to cut the grass every week just to keep up (could go at least 2 weeks in the past) and even then I'm left with huge piles of cut grass that rot and kill the grass underneath it. So, I purchased an Ohio Steel, 50" lawn sweeper ( Model 50SWP26). I'm pulling it with a four wheeler. So far it has been ok except for having to replace a wheel because the plastic gears stripped and now the pinion gears that drive the brushes are slipping and the brushes are only rotating half the time I'm pulling the unit. This makes for double the time, double the gas and double my frustrations.
I went with the Ohio Steel because the price was reasonable (about $450) and it had one of the largest baskets at 26 cubic feet, as well as a 50" wide sweep. When I was a youngster I had a landscaping business and we used Parker brand sweepers. They were great! I looked at those and they now run over $900! I just can't justify that much money for a lawn sweeper.
Ok, here's my question......is there a better sweeper out there I don't know about that will hold up to my 15 acres of weekly sweeping and doesn't cost almost $1000? Or, is Parker really the best and it's worth all that money? Or, should I just stick with the Ohio Steel and keep buying parts?
BTW, I found out during my research that Gravely has purchased Parker Sweepers.
Any and all advice and experience is welcome. THANKS! :thumbsup:
I can't put a bag on a Woods, 8 foot wide rear finish mower, or a Kubota ZD331 rear discharge. Sweeping is my only option.
#6
metz12
this is why i'm saying nobody knows about lawn sweepers because not alot of people mow with such a big mower and want to pick up clippings. the reason why people dont use lawn sweepers is because they bag all of their grass if they dont want clippings.
I've been using a sweeper a little this year for the first time. It's a little challenging to get the brushes set right so that they'll pickup grass without bogging in and locking up. Raise them a little and they miss a lot of grass. Then you also have to worry with emptying, emptying again, and emptying yet again. Pretty soon you have a pretty big pile of grass to do something with or just watch build and build....
Have you considered a lawn rake? I think it would be effective, possibly more efficient to rake to a windrow and then load and haul from the windrow....
!