Congrats on your new toy Steve. Let us know how it works out for you. My John Deere is great at picking up leaves, as long as they're dry, but the bagger is a bit small and does require frequent emptying. Leaves are always a big issue for me as well. We are at the bottom of a slight hill and in the middle of a cul-de-sac, so our yard catches every leaf that falls on our entire street, and we have a ton of oak trees around here. I'm thinking of putting a silt fence up around our yard this Fall just to see if it'll stop a significant amount of the leaves from blowing into our yard. You said you hated to get a bulky tow behind unit just for the month or so that you'd need it. Down here leaves fall all winter long and some don't drop off until Spring when the new leaves finally push them off. I envy you only having to deal with it for a month or so. I could literally pick up leaves with my rider 2 or 3 times a week during the Fall, Winter and into the early Spring. I pick up the leaves and sure enough, within an hour the wind will begin blowing hard and blow straight down our street picking up leaves as it goes and then dumps so many in our yard that you can't tell I just picked them up.
