I was working one one for a while - ran into a dead engine which stalled the project.

I was going to use chicken wire - or some screen for the air release. (to fine a screen and it will just clog up).

I would imagine some decent lawn repair shops can get you the flex hose ... But I was looking at the black flexible plastic drain hose that is sold in lowes... use for moving water away from the house during a rain storm...

In that same area that had some neat parts which would have worked nicely for quick connect/disconnect purposes. As I wanted to disassemble mine at years end for storage purposes.

Good luck - and take pictures so I can see what you did...

When I get around to building it, I will post pictures of the parts and construction.

Perhaps I can offer a build sheet and plans?

Almost everything I used were either salvaged or left over parts from other projects.

I have seen some like I want to build called Lawn Vacuums but they had an additional motor and squirrel cage fan to suck and blow the clippings into the trailer.
They were also priced in the $1000 and up range!

If I had the K46 hydromatic transmission, I could have used a hydraulic pump mounted to a squirrel cage blower just like they show but powered it off the tractor!

DAMN!!!
Now I'm thinking of looking for a blower to mount my chain saw (modified to use bicycle style chain) or my compressor motor to!!!

As soon as you step up from the small "light duty" carts then the prices sure go up in a hurry! I was not really impressed with the way that the bigger carts were built,....not to mention the prices that they wanted for these so-called "heavy duty" units,so I decided to try and build one myself.{{gwi:329322}}
Here are a few pics of the end results: It's 54' long x 40' wide. The removable sides are 12.5 inches high. I admit it is overbuilt for a garden cart but then again.....I know it's gonna last me a long time!{{gwi:329323}}

archangel2003 : Regarding ...
-----------------------------
If I had the K46 hydromatic transmission, I could have used a hydraulic pump mounted to a squirrel cage ...

How does a K-46 tranny factor into this ? Can you tap into them to power another device? Do they provide connects to do so ?

Take a look at the blower rig here on this machine:
http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/gg160/njdpo/ing444

you can see the hydraulic blower motor... Im thinking that something like this could could be modified to dump into a large collection cart rather nicely.

Dave

rick315-8 ?

the length of the draw bar on the cart seems a bit.... uh.... long...

Any particular reason ?
Maybe this came from a boat or jet ski and never cut it down?

Any advantages / disadvantages ?

Just curious - Thanks - Dave

"the length of the draw bar on the cart seems......."

Yes!.....I did go a bit overboard on the draw bar length! The idea is that i wanted an extra long draw bar to make the cart easier to back-up. Any trailer (big or small) that has a short draw bar is much harder to back-up with: you have to over correct much faster. With a longer draw bar everything happens slowly,you have lots of time to get the trailer going in the direction you want it to go.

You may have noticed that there is a bolt that runs across the draw bar right in front of the pull pin that releases the dump body. I just have to take that bolt out to disconnect the draw bar from the cart itself...it makes the cart much easier to store in my shed.

Another advantage of having an extra long draw bar is that you can back the trailer in very soft or rough terrain while your tractor is still sitting on firm ground, that way you avoid a lot of traction issues.

***"extra long draw bar to make the cart easier to back-up, you can back the trailer in very soft or rough terrain while your tractor is still sitting on firm ground"***
And the long draw bar (tongue) makes for a very stable tow on the Interstates.

Hmmm - thats interesting ...

In my case I have to maneuver onto the back lot - and through the woods to grandmothers house we go....

So the length of that bar (in those tight conditions) would be a problem...

Thanks guys.

If you were looking for a motor for the collecting cart; you could use one of those vacuum/leaf blowers. They have the pickup nozzle and discharge at the bottom of the blower.

***"and through the woods, so the length of that bar (in those tight conditions) would be a problem"*** With a little more "effort" and materials, one could devise a "telescoping" draw bar and add flexibilty to the concept. "tubing in tubing" for the "telescope" and lynch pins and a series of "pin holes" in the square (or round) tubing segments to lock at various lengths of draw bar extension.
***"If you were looking for a motor for the collecting cart; you could use one of those vacuum/leaf blowers"***
That idea and concept is "sound", but I don't know how "big" a vacuum/leaf blower you have in mind. All the ones I've seen would have "way too little" direct capacity to handle the volume of material presented to it from the deck discharge chute. There might be some way to mount the DISCHARGE tube from the leaf blower, into the larger tube leading to the cart, at a shallow angle to the large tube and thereby create a sort of "venturi effect" to help transport the material up the tube and into the cart.

Mownie :

"And the long draw bar (tongue)makes for a very stable tow on the interstates"

After almost 3 years of wheelhorse ownership, I still can't figure out how to engage the two stick transmission into double overdrive......so until then......I think it would be best if I would not go out on too many road trips and just stick around my yard. ha-ha!

nidpo :

"the length of that bar(in those tight conditions)would be a problem.."

Agree!...if you have a property that has a lot of obstacles then a setup like mine would be just a pain to get around with.

I can't get the search function to work for me right now, but there've been excellent threads on members building their own grass and leaf collection trailer/blower systems. Everything on what size and where to buy the hose/fittings, the blower, etc. to important time consuming stuff like how to design/position the baffle inside the cover so that it actually works correctly. Maybe someone else here remembers that thread. And maybe no-one cares....haha

***"If you were looking for a motor for the collecting cart; you could use one of those vacuum/leaf blowers"***

There was more thought into the suggestion than may appear, or no measurements only guesstimates.

A leaf blower pulls in a fairly large mass of leaves and discharges it as mulched leaves. The particulate is fairly concentrated in the discharge volume. The limitation is the volume of the bag.

The Discharge volume from a mower appears to be of the same concentration of particulate (grass clippings), but of about equal mass to that delivered from the leaf blower.

Based on picking up each.

As I remember the tubes on a grass collection trailer are about the same diameter of the leaf blower intake.

This is the specification on my Makita 4 cycle
* Max. Air Velocity: 145 mph.
* Max. Air Volume: 316 cfm.

Your Makita must be a much higher volume unit than my portable Stihl 2-stroke leaf blower/vacuum unit. Its ability to pick up my cottonwood leaves is pathetic. It's almost a leaf by leaf proposition, with some needing to be crushed just to enter the tube. It's easier to just bend over with the rake. It does do a great job of blowing leaves however.

Part of my thinking was that the material coming out of the mower was that it was already chopped up, and the blower is an auxiliary to the mower itself, sort of the second stage in a dual stage system.

My Mikita is Model# BHX2500

rick315-8, There is no such thing as "over built"!

WOAH, that looks like one sturdy tractor!
Looks like it's built to plow the back 40?
If it's what it looks like, I like the horizontal crank motor!
They just seem more correct than the vertical crank engines.
How much HP?
Got it new?
If so, when and how much?

Back to the trailer.

That trailer is vary much like the 36" X 48" trailer I plan on building.
Is that the size of yours?
However, your axle and wheels seem a whole lot sturdier than the ones I have sitting around!
I also only plan on a having a 20 inch tow bar and my intent is to convert it for grass collection.

My wheels are just 12" "wheel barrel" wheels (I could swap in the 16" off the other dual wheeled barrel) on a 5/8 solid axle and I'm using a couple of salvaged bed frames for the angle (1-1/2" and 1-1/4" and about .100" thick) but there might not be enough to mount the brackets from the axle to the bed.

If I don't use angle for the vertical corner brackets for the permanently mounted sides I just might have enough.

How do you like the removable sides as far as loaded strength, like if it were loaded with gravel?

I wanted to use ¾ birch plywood (that stuff is the best!) but it goes for over $40 a sheet so I thought I might try the next step down in quality, the 23/32 pine (not the knotted face type) for about $20 or so a sheet.

OK, saw the size in the small space between the pictures.
It should be about 15.6 cu ft.

Mine should be 14.5 cu ft.

I wanted it to be no wider than the tractor without the mower deck just in case it became a garden tractor for hauling when we move to Vermont and there is a tight gate involved.

archangel2003:

My tractor is a 2006 wheelhorse classic 315-8 mfg by toro....15hp with a 8 speed trans.

Having removable sides is nice because you can convert the cart to a simple flat bed to haul over-sized stuff. I don't have any strength issue with them either: I get pooped out from shoveling a load on long before the sides start to bend!!

The one piece of advice I would give you is to just take your time! Take your time making your plan, make sure you have everything figured out BEFORE you start cutting out the first piece of steel.

Good luck with your project!
Rick

***"A leaf blower pulls in a fairly large mass of leaves and discharges it as mulched leaves. The particulate is fairly concentrated in the discharge volume. The limitation is the volume of the bag."****
While the leaf blower/vacuum volume may be adequate for transporting leaves into the collection bag, you still have to accept a few facts. Leaves are fairly lightweight objects when dry, grass is heavy by comparison because is is water laden. The collection bag is often only a few inches from the blower impeller/chopper/shredder, so the leaf mulch only needs to be moved a few inches to the bag and then they fall out of the air stream. The trailer by comprison will have a long hose that runs up hill, and this means that the clippings will have to remain "airborne" in a weakening stream of air. The great distance of the hose will cause the air to lose velocity, and so the clippings will simply "drop out" and begin collecting along the length of the hose and quickly clog the hose. In order to carry that much weight of material, it will require much more power than is availed by a typical, handheld leaf blower/vac. The last thing to accept is the very slow rate at which a leak blower/vac actually collects the material. The leaf blower/vac normally picks up the leaves directly off the ground through the large diameter vacuum attachment tube. Think about how relatively slow the blower/vac moves in picking up leaves in an area of 100 square ft (10' X 10'). It pretty much will take someone around 15 to 20 minutes or more to vacuum 100 sq ft. Now consider how long it takes a lawn tractor with 46 inch cut deck to cover 100 sq ft. A 46 " deck only has to mow about 26 linear feet of lawn to reach the 100 square feet of area. A lawn tractor traveling at 1 MPH will mow 26 linear feet in about 1.5 SECONDS. Do you think that the leaf blower vac that typically takes 15 to 20 minutes to vacuum 100 sq ft.......will handle the material output of a machine that is producing a much heavier product from the same area in 1.5 seconds? The LIMITING factor is actually the rate at which the blower/vac can process the material and it cannot process fast enough to handle the volume that a lawn tracor can produce in 1.5 seconds.

mownie, I have two riding mowers with grass collection bagger systems, a 3-blade 48" JD ZTR with the fan-assisted power-flo unit, and a 38" 2-blade MTD tractor mower with a two bag non-fan assisted unit. What is amazing to me is that the non-fan assisted bagger system works so well. I mean, that two blade deck must be a powerful blower in itself, not only discharging the grass/leaves at a fairly high velocity, but also providing enough air needed to fluidize/suspend the whole mess and keep it moving up the tube to the far side bag first. And there are non-fan assisted 3-bag units as well that are supposed to work with wider decks. Just amazing to me what a blower/material mover that deck is.

My bagger tube is right about at where the pivot point I plan on having is located.
Also, I believe that the discharge point is high enough above the trailer deck that if I add a couple feet to the length pointing downward into the trailer, the cut grass should keep going the rest of the way down.

BTW, today I scored a 2 + foot long section of rail road rail, and I think I saw another piece about the same size near by deeper in the weeds!
It was near sundown and I need better light before I go digging deeper!
I almost failed lifting it over the side of the truck bed!
They are good anvil making materials, and look to be the right size for tractor traction end weights!
One for the front, one for the back.
I was using a 10 inch cube of steel but it was so pitted from rust I need to have it machined flat and surfaced hardened, and that is an outflow of cash I was unwilling to make.

If you're interested, here's the thread on that grass vac system I was talking about.

Here is a link that might be useful: Home-made grass vac trailer

Thank you larso1.
And that link led to another link with an AMAZING home made vacuum mower trailer on another site!

Mine will be the more simple design this time!