Machine Builders Network+ Forums Machine Builders Network General Discussion Back With Cyclone Rake Questions

I used to use a Dixon 4422(I think), that had a small blower mounted right on the 44 inch deck and drove with a short belt from outer blade pully. double bags hung on the back and worked good for its size.--it was a mechanical Z-turn mower and everything mounted on the back, drove good til you got both bags full of wet grass and started up hill! lol! --- now in leaves it steered great. In heavy leaves you spent more time stopping and emptying bags than driving!

Guess my favorite unit was the old cub cadet 147 that the blower and motor unit mounted high behind the seat and the trailer was hooked up short to the mower. A boot mounted on the outlet of the deck and plastic tube went to the inlet side of the blower, from there a outlet hose came out the top and was hooked to the front of the trailer that had a plastic cover with the back half vented so air could go out, screened area caught the course material and it stayed in the wagon.

Now on to the one here in the junkpile! Agri-Fab 1000. This is actually a chipper-vac combo. It has the branch intake that you are sposed to chip/shred your small limbs that wind always dropes in your yard.
The problem with this one is that it dont produce enough suction to work very good.
On this one you still mount the boot and hose to the mower deck and hook to the inlet side of vac unit which is mounted back on the extended trailer hitch and the outlet from blower is up thru the black square lookin piece on the front of the trailer.
The beds dump on these 2 that I had.
Its not hard to back them, but this one is strung out behind a ways. You have to allow rom to turn around as you cant do a 360 with them! lol!

In the pix, the motor is a Tec 8-hp and muffler is on the front side of the motor with a baffle directing the exhaust away from the blower.
The blower flywheel has a chipper knife on the back side and the blowing vanes have small swinging hammers within them so that cuts down on the suction volume on it.
I tried it in grass and ended up with grass juice running out the back door! Chops too fine for grass. Anyway I put a quarter acre in it and only had a wheelbarrow full when I dumped it.
Pics will give you a general idea of what it looks like,---suction hose and connector plate is in the shed.