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Does anyone know if you can or has anyone used a lawn Sweeper with the residential Raptor? For leaves not grass. Thanks in advance!

Unless the operator is really a big person and there a lot of hills involved I can't imagine it would be a problem at all. If you are worried I would buy a $10 laser thermometer and get a reading on what your hydros normally reach operating temperature and then check them while you're using the sweeper. I'm betting they won't run any warmer in the cool weather in fall than they do in hot weather when you're mowing during summer.

kraky said:

Unless the operator is really a big person and there a lot of hills involved I can't imagine it would be a problem at all. If you are worried I would buy a $10 laser thermometer and get a reading on what your hydros normally reach operating temperature and then check them while you're using the sweeper. I'm betting they won't run any warmer in the cool weather in fall than they do in hot weather when you're mowing during summer.

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I am a newbie to this mower, I am familiar with my fathers Xmark which I know has hydraulics, but I thought my Raptor was all electronic? And I was reading that the EZ trany's in these aren't good for hauling anything

You have a hydro pump on ea rearaxle. Theyre not rated to do a lot of work but they can pull lightweight things on wheels. Actually a pretty tough little Hydro there are people on these forums they claim they've got 3000 hours on units with these.

I just checked the hydro gear website and it says the ezt transmission is good for a 900 pound vehicle weight. Raptor weighs about 500 pounds if you weigh about 200 that still leaves you a 200 pound implement you can pull behind.

kraky said:

I just checked the hydro gear website and it says the ezt transmission is good for a 900 pound vehicle weight. Raptor weighs about 500 pounds if you weigh about 200 that still leaves you a 200 pound implement you can pull behind.

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Thanks so much for all the info I appreciate it. As far as the hydro on the axle is there fluid that needs checked for that? I tried looking in the manual and didn't see anything. And yes I'm about 200lbs but the lawn Sweeper itself weighs I bet 150lbs without anything in it. I might not take the chance of using that. I guess my next route is tarp the heavy blanket of leaves if it gets out of control and buy some gator blades or high lift blades?

The Hydros are sealed for life. Leaves don't weigh much. I'm sure they have some margin of error built into their specs too... keep your ground speeds down to 3 or 4 miles an hour while pulling the sweeper and you shouldn't have any trouble... but like I said if you want to kind of watch and make sure you could just check the temperatures of your hydros when you're working a little harder and see if they're showing any heat. I had a raptor SD and pulled a roller full of water behind it and it barely knew it was there.... the hydros Ran only 5 degrees warmer when pulling the roller.

Btw..hydro gear has a website with email contact link... I contacted them once with a question and they got back pretty quickly why don't you send them all your information and see what they say?

kraky said:

Btw..hydro gear has a website with email contact link... I contacted them once with a question and they got back pretty quickly why don't you send them all your information and see what they say?

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I pull a sprayer with boom twice a year attached to a Craftsman yardwork dump trailer and a 15 gallon spray rig - the whole thing weighs about 265 pounds all in and when full. Been doing this for 4 years. I own a resi model Raptor w/ 52" deck and the FR series Kawasaki.

I wish I had a picture, but I welded a hitch assembly with 1/4" steel stock onto the rear guard and beefed it up...so add another 20-25 pounds for that, but it has worked flawlessly with no issues. I also haul a broadcast spreader on occasion and tinker with some crap using the trailer...but light duty. I know its not made for that, but.....