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WILL1E
Moderator
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# Posted: 18 Oct 2022 08:32am
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Upon arrival at the cabin this weekend i found that about 75% of the leaves had dumped since my last visit. So i had a solid 2-3" thick layer of leaves everywhere, and wet from the rain and sleet/snow. Since i converted my mower, blower and trimmer at home over to all Ego stuff, i bought all the gasser stuff up to the cabin. So all i have up there is my Stihl BG 56C gas unit. This works kinda ok if I was only blowing off a sidewalks width of that amount of leaves, but doing a long driveway or big open areas or paths in the woods, forget about it. Once the pile gets thicker, it takes FOREVER.
So, i pulled the trigger on a Echo PB9010T backpack blower. Go big or go home, right?! I wanted to stay with Stihl, but i figured if I'm going to spend $400-$500, why not just go overkill and not kick myself later.
I'm just curious if, A., anyone have experience with that Echo blower and B., what do you guys use/do for moving large amounts of leaves at your places?
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Brettny
Member
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# Posted: 18 Oct 2022 09:05am
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I just did my leaves at the property this weekend. About 2 months ago I bought a non running "little wonder" 10hp. This weekend I ratchet strapped it onto my little 300cc quad and prob leaf blew 5ac of woods. Did about 2,000ft of driveway alone along with 1/8th of a mile of road. I'm getting rid of my backpack blower. For the small jobs I have a m18 blower where the beast dosnt fit.
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WILL1E
Moderator
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# Posted: 18 Oct 2022 10:18am
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Dang, that's a massive blower!! Should just use that to push the quad along!!
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 18 Oct 2022 11:23am - Edited by: gcrank1
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When we had a cabin in the woods (30+ yrs) we never did anything with the leaves and pine needles.
At the 'new' place (3+ yrs) with the woods to the west 20' we dont do anything, but it is all pine needles.
Our yard at home is old burr oaks and some walnut with a row of white pines in back before the woods. I mow the yard with a lawn tractor equipped with mulching blades; mow-mulch em up several times as they fall and blow lots of the cuttings into the edges and flower beds to winter cover them over. Guess that is kinda like leaf-blowing them except mine break down a lot quicker.
For the decks at home and such my wife has used a corded blower for years. I totally forgot I bought her a cordless for her B-day in Sept! Since she just got a knee replacement a week ago, and the leaves did a big drop, I just used it for the front steps and landing. WOW. Once the wind slows down Im gonna try it on the garage roof (lowish pitch this almost 70yo guy can safely walk on) and its gutters.
Guess now you need a commercial bagger?
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BRADISH
Member
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# Posted: 18 Oct 2022 12:00pm
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I try to mow the majority of mine with the John Deere. Found it to still be quicker than blowing them down to the creek. I had a plug in Toro, and it was ok, but the constant tether was annoying. Sold it last year when I swapped to Dewalt tools. Now I have the 60v DeWalt blower. Plenty of power, right on par with the plug in I had, but I find I regularly use 2 9aH batteries and 1 or 2 6aH batteries each time I clear the property out. Its fine considering I have them already, but if I needed to do anymore or couldnt charge the batteries quickly it probably wouldn't work.
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Fanman
Member
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# Posted: 18 Oct 2022 12:31pm
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I HATE leaf blowing season. My favorite time of year to be outside, spoiled by the infernal roar of my neighbor's blowers.
News flash: There's a nifty silent one that works just as well... it's called a rake.
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Brettny
Member
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# Posted: 18 Oct 2022 02:54pm
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At home I mulch in the leafs. Unfortunately I have huge white pines over my driveway and dont want them mixing with my gravel. Same for our property, 700ft+ driveway on a hill, I dont want leaves mixing with the gravel.
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FishHog
Member
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# Posted: 18 Oct 2022 03:49pm
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Not much a fan of the noise of these things either, but I do use a small one to quickly blow off the dock, deck and from under my solar panels.
I rake a bit of the pine needles from around the cabin for fire purposes and otherwise just leave them.
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Brettny
Member
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# Posted: 18 Oct 2022 07:16pm
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One benefit of a large blower if you dont like the noise is it dosnt take as long. I have white pine large enough that I would spend hours and hours each week raking the needles up. About every 2 days I blow them up under the trees and typically after 2 days of letting them rain down you cant see the gravel on the driveway.
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toyota_mdt_tech
Member
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# Posted: 19 Oct 2022 08:06am
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I get lots of ponderosa pine needles, thick on my gravel, I use a Stihl backpack blower, makes super short work cleaning all that up.
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