turbofiat124
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- Joined
- Mar 23, 2011
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Anybody got any creative ideas used to aid in mulching leaves? I've got 2 large poplar trees and one sweet gum that create a tremendous amount of leaves in the fall.
Every fall I'm faced with the same problem. Mulch them at least once a week or they pile up 1 foot thick. You might ask, "Well what else do you have to do?" Well I work 12 hour shift work, 14 days a month. It get's dark by 5:30 so by the time I get home from work at 7 pm, it's already dark. It may rain on my off days. So I have to find the right opportunity. So I might have to go more than one week between mulchings. By that time, the leaves are 6" to 1 foot thick.
I have to raise my deck all the way up and "pre-mulch" them then set the deck back to #3 (halfway) then go back over them. Then basically mow in circles over and over again. Otherwise they pack between the steering and the deck.
The worst leaves by far as sycamore leaves followed by hickory leaves by the way the curl up.
I have thought about doing something to a deck like Pumper54 did to his push mower.
http://www.lawnmowerforum.com/showthread.php/28928-Home-made-heavy-weed-brush-cutter
And add two horizontal guides ahead of the front wheels and a shield aimed upward a bit on top of the guides so that would channel the leaves into the deck. If that makes any sense.
This would pretty much be a dedicated mower specifically built to mulch leaves. I don't know if I want to swap decks between seasons. It would be easier and cheaper to buy an old MTD for a couple hundred bucks and modify the deck on it.
Another thought was to build some sort of pre-mulcher and attach it to the front end that would chop the leaves up from 6" to where they would be about 2" thick. I actually have one of those reel push mowers I could attach to the front end but it only has a 16" cut or so.
Anybody had this problem and found a creative solution?
Every fall I'm faced with the same problem. Mulch them at least once a week or they pile up 1 foot thick. You might ask, "Well what else do you have to do?" Well I work 12 hour shift work, 14 days a month. It get's dark by 5:30 so by the time I get home from work at 7 pm, it's already dark. It may rain on my off days. So I have to find the right opportunity. So I might have to go more than one week between mulchings. By that time, the leaves are 6" to 1 foot thick.
I have to raise my deck all the way up and "pre-mulch" them then set the deck back to #3 (halfway) then go back over them. Then basically mow in circles over and over again. Otherwise they pack between the steering and the deck.
The worst leaves by far as sycamore leaves followed by hickory leaves by the way the curl up.
I have thought about doing something to a deck like Pumper54 did to his push mower.
http://www.lawnmowerforum.com/showthread.php/28928-Home-made-heavy-weed-brush-cutter
And add two horizontal guides ahead of the front wheels and a shield aimed upward a bit on top of the guides so that would channel the leaves into the deck. If that makes any sense.
This would pretty much be a dedicated mower specifically built to mulch leaves. I don't know if I want to swap decks between seasons. It would be easier and cheaper to buy an old MTD for a couple hundred bucks and modify the deck on it.
Another thought was to build some sort of pre-mulcher and attach it to the front end that would chop the leaves up from 6" to where they would be about 2" thick. I actually have one of those reel push mowers I could attach to the front end but it only has a 16" cut or so.
Anybody had this problem and found a creative solution?