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Re: (ET) Thoughts on fixing a lawn sweeper



On 11/19/2013 7:57 AM, Steve Welch wrote:
Raking is wonderful exercise. That said, when time is short a sweeper is 
nothing short of miraculous.  I have a pull behind john Deere unit (more 
heresy) that has been a godsend.

To me, raking is a nightmare: I usually bag about 200 or so 50 gallon bags of leaves in a season, this is why I use the Craftsman+bagger assembly. I'm also 6 foot eight, so rakes are usually too short for my back.

The Elec-trak sweeper is nice for grass, but I usually leave the clippings on the lawn. However it's ability to keep the brushes spinning in a turn makes it far better than a normal sweeper.

C






Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 19, 2013, at 7:48 AM, Jeff Antonucci <jlantonucci comcast net> 
wrote:

Heretic - ban him from the list!

My lawn sweeper works absolutely fine at picking up leaves.  It works so 
well in fact it fills up in only a minute or two of sweeping.  I bought it 
from the guy who prefers to rake by hand....


On 11/19/2013 6:42 AM, Steve Shore wrote:
If you are physically able, a good rake can't be beat to rustle up those 
fall leaves.  And if you really go for it, it's great exercise.  Ditto for 
snow and a shovel.  Now plowing/'tilling a garden is another story.

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 18, 2013, at 10:34 PM, CZ Unit <cz alembic crystel com> wrote:

Finally got the parts for my Elec-trak powered sweeper on Friday, and 
spent a good chunk of Saturday putting them in.

I'm glad I ordered new bolts for the wheel spindles, because they are an 
odd size and thread. Well worth the money.

I'm glad I bought a new spindle as well; one of them was badly rusted, so 
I just replaced it.

The new bearings are nice; the rod now spins without vibrating much, and 
the brushes are a lot more smooth. Bought some new brush clips as well; 
it's nice to get all of them on there.

Overall though I can see why the bearings failed: They are under a lot of 
stress, it's a lot of mass to spin, and they are not sealed bearings so 
they will get leaves, dirt, and crud in there eventually.

It's a lot quieter (got a new master link for the chain) especially when 
you put oil in the oil port for the pulley/gear shift. Makes some noise, 
but not nearly as bad. And yet.

It stinks at picking up leaves. The big problem is if you hit a lot of 
leaves; if you have the metal guard on the motor/chain part, then leaves 
and debris get picked up by the spinning chain and become deposited in the 
gear teeth on the top pulley. They stretch the chain till it falls off, 
then you have to take the whole thing apart. Running it without the guard 
keeps this from happening a lot, but man that is a lot of stuff that could 
catch fingers and such.

I think it's designed for grass catchings; I have used it on that and it 
works well. But for serious leaf work I'll stick with my old Craftsman gas 
tractor+dual bagger option with 55 gallon drum liner bags. I can fill two 
of them in a few minutes with chewed up leaves, then I dump them in the 
back pile and keep going...

Just thought I would report in. Worth it, but not for leaf work.

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