I'm through raking & blowing leaves for the most part, too dang old! Gotta enjoy some life. I've read many posts on the lawn sweepers and thereby convinced myself to go out and buy one. I ended up getting the Precise Fit 42" model (made in china) at Lowe's for $249. So far it does a great job sweeping the leaves up. Assembly was typical, alot of nuts & bolts, and extensive use of elastic stop nuts (pita). Instructions were okay. Most difficult part was assembly of hopper bag and hopper frame. All in all, assembly was okay. I'd give it a 6 pack rating. Like I said, it does a wonderful job at sweeping leaves and I am well satisfied with this purchase. It makes short work out of what otherwise would be a few days of raking & blowing.
Thanks a lot, Mark! After searching and reading much online about sweepers, your review has convinced me. Still have a lot of leaves around here to get up, and, I have a HUGE ditch to dump them in for mulching my garden. I use my rear blade to drag them out after a while (some have been there rotting a few years now) on my garden spot that is next to the ditch. Now, with a sweeper, the hardest part will become easier! Waiting on Sears to put them on sale...
I still have my dads lawn sweeper that was old 50 years ago. I push it when I use it. It is not a pull. 10 years ago a huge storm with 80 mph winds took out my big trees and now I get the neighbors leaves. I use my YS400 to pick up the leaves. I can not part with dads sweeper. It hangs on the wall in the shed. We used it in Detroit with all the Elm trees. We had 11 huge trees in the front yard alone. We burned the leaves. EPA would come and haul us off today.
Mark would you say that it's strong enough to sweep up walnuts. Alot of people in the area here have them on the ground so I have alot of customers asking me if that sweeper will pick them up. Not having used one myself I've never really been comfortable saying yay or nay on it.
Well, I've only used this one for leaf pick up. I should think that it would sweep up walnuts, but couldn't make that guarantee without ever attempting to do so. Sorry, I only have limited experience with my lawn sweeper.
I don't know about walnuts but mine will pick up small rocks and acorns if the bristles are down low enough. Mine is a Craftsman so I assume it is made by Agrifab and is the high speed sweeper. the brush is an 8:1 ratio with the standard model being 5:1 I think.
I like the height adjustment system on yours Markwb. The model I have uses a knob that you tighten and loosen to adjust the height. Either you have to tighten it a lot or it will slip and is not really a good design IMO.
I bought mine at Lowe's last year (2008) in September. It has been a piece of junk. After assembling correctly and securely, a couple of bolts came loose and got lost in the yard. The fabric across the top didn't fit correctly has torn. The brush bar has snapped in half in the middle and now will not pickup anything. I called the Lowe's Precise Fit service center and they indicated that it is out of warranty and the part not replacable. NICE! $250 for one year's use. What a piece of JUNK!!isgus:
gt8gtrman, Sorry to hear of the problems you've had. I know the quality of the PreciseFit is a notch lower than the Agri-Fab's & Brinely's. But by how much?
I use mine a few times during leaf pickup season. It probably sees light duty (1/2 acre) and I've used it a few times this week. I've had no problems with it so far.
It looks a bit like a Brinly but might not be close enough of a clone to use Brinly parts. I just got new parts in today for my Brinly, so I know you can get parts for Brinly.
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