Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

    Will a riding mower with a big rear bagger work as a leaf collector?

    My riding mower came with a rear grass bag.  It's actually a big plastic tub with a big line that connects to the outlet of the mower deck.  If that's connected will it pickup leaves?  If it does how good are they at doing that?   Is the collection worth it?  I would imagine it would fill up pretty fast if it does not compress the leaves or chop them so they can fit a bunch in. 

Depends on how big the catcher is and how deep the leaves are. For 20+ years I had a Snapper Hi-Vac 28" 8HP riding mower and it was excellent as long as there weren't too many leaves. My lawn at that time was about 10,000 sq ft and the back was heavily treed plus it also had woods on two sides. I could ignore the leaves in the front yard (only 4 trees) and just mow normally once a week. In the back where the leaves got deep I had to mow twice a week through most of the fall, or get out the blower. That said, you have a different yard and a different mower, so it really comes down to "try it and see". It was easier and faster for me to blow deep leaves than to try and mow them (slowly or it would clog up) and emptying the bag so often. If the lawn doesn't need mowing, blowing is faster; but both are better than raking.

Sometimes those little plastic carts behind the rider are nice... Just keep dumping the leaves into that ,  make bigger loads to the multch pile.

The twin blades are better at cutting up the leaves (more cutting surface spinning) ,  but aren't as nice on bagging ( one blade ejects cuttings to the other blade to bag the leaves)

Friiy--my 2 cents