[Will Pacala]

Just a question. How do most of your guys collect the leaves in the fall. Do you chip use a vacuum, truck mounted leaf loader, etc.
how do you dispose of them as well. Reply with what equipment you use for collecting leaves.

[Nebraska]

Will we do leaf collection using bag / mower combination. I call it the volume reducer method whereby the mowers mow over the entire property with bags on 1-2 times mulching up the leaves and not removing the bag at all. Once all the leaves are chopped up the bags are then emptied from the intial fill and collection begins. Trucks have side rails built on them and inside each truck we have a tire and chain so when the time comes to dump the leaves we attatch the chain to a skid steer and 90% of the leaves are out of the truck.

This method has proven very effective us and to date I have not seen the need for a truck mounted leaf collection vac system.

Each trailer / crew has 1 Hustler Z Riding mower, 1 Great Dane Surfer, and 1 walk behind. All mowers have gator blades. All mowers have either the Accelerator bags or Grass Goblers.
Leaf removal is time consuming and as such we charge hourly for it.

Hope this helps.

[Dale Wiley]

This is a slick way to do it as well. We are going to a setup like this next year. We will use a Toro Workman utility vehcile to tow the vacuum unit at our sites. We will dump the leaves on site until collection is complete and then come back with a loader and dump trailer and haul them out to our nursery to put in the field stock growing areas. We use Exmark mulching mowers and can really reduce the amount of leaves we have to pick up. This is all bid in contract, so the time reduction is money in our pocket.

We will use back pack blowers or a push blower to windrow the leaves. The vacuum is a vacuum, not a finger sweeper. Reduction is about 8 to 1 ratio.

We will be able to add close to 5 tons of organic matter per acre this way for soil building. We also will compost some for use in landscape projects. $$$$$$

[Will Pacala]

Wow. do any of you use the giant leaf vacuums?

[Nebraska]

Dale,

All of our contracts have an hourly leaf removal rates and I have still yet to figure a way for flat pricing of leaves. Same property one year can take 15 man hours, the following year it can take 20 man hours, and then the following year it can take 8 man hours.....

There just seems to be so many variables. What are you doing to come up with your flat rates?

[Dale Wiley]

Leaves are one of the few subjective areas in maintenance. Most everything else is quantifiable, but leaves can be tricky.

26 years has had me doing some heavy duty leaf removals. I basically look at a worst case scenario, determine how many hours using our particular way it is going to take and go with that. Put it in contract and we do OK.

Those hours are usually in 4 hour multiples so I always sell blocks of time in the process rather than breaking it down smaller than that. 4-8-12-16 etc... We can usually always beat the estimate, because I am CONSTANTLY looking for better ways or process's. That improves our hourly rate and net profit, because it allows us to sell more hours with out hiring more help or adding capital equipment.

The giant leaf vaccums are used a lot around here and I have used them in the past. They basically take a 3 man crew to run it, and my projected method will take 2 men, more equipment intensive, but a hell of a lot faster as well. We can coordinate it so that the blowers are out in front of the vaccum unit by the suitable time interval and keep every one moving...

[HRLand]

Will, where in NJ are you from. I think just about every landscape co. here uses some kind of vac system. Lately I've been seeing alot of the municipal type tow behind systems in use. We've been using a truck mounted vac for thepast ten years.

[Will Pacala]

I'm from the Sparta section of Sussex County. Where are you from????. Besides I've seen tons of those large vacuums being used around here.

[Pelican]

Here's my setup. I can get a day's worth of leaves in it before needing to dump.

I've got a farmer who accepts the leaves. He spreads them with the honey wagon and then plows them under in the spring for fertilizer.

[Will Pacala]

Nice setup. Whats the GVWR of that truck. Wet leaves can be heavy. Also when it's not leaf collection season what body is on that truck and what is it used for?

[Lawngodfather]

Originally posted by Will Pacala
Wow. do any of you use the giant leaf vacuums?

[Lawngodfather]

Or this

[Lawngodfather]

Get em out there with this

[Will Pacala]

Nice equipment. What make are the vacuums. Also once you collect the leaves do you compost them or sell them off? Nice pics thanks.

[Lawngodfather]

Giant vac for the big ones.

It gets tilling into farmland