Works as Advertised ;Wife Even Accepts Purchase
Written: Oct 10 '06 (Updated Oct 18 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Huge timesaver, solid construction
Cons: Hard to Turn; Heavy
The Bottom Line: If you have a relatively open lawn area with a number of trees I'd definitely buy it.
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| cwjenkins's Full Review: Cyclone Rake |
I was a little nervous about buying this due to the infomercial like advertising for it but it does do what it claims. It is much more solidly put together than it looks which is a good thing since I still haven't mastered turning with it. The back swings out pretty far so have given it some really hard whacks against trees. I have 3 acres of lawn with a lot of trees and it has made a huge difference the first two weeks of leave season. Last year I never did get all the leaves cleaned up; my wife and kids both commented how "vacuumed" the lawns looked. it takes a little longer than mowing due to the need to plan turns. I also found that the Commercial Pro model is a little too much for my 17HP John Deere F525 when it is grass loaded (too heavy) but seems ok with a leaf load. I also found that although it works on wet grass the pipe rapidly gets too heavy and weighs down the mower deck. Although it is relatively easy to dump I'm already having a dumping location issue since I have built up a massive pile of leaves.
Update
After 4 weeks of use I am getting better at driving this around. As you can see from the picture the Cyclone Rake tows behind your tractor. The hitch Cyclone Rake uses essentially means the Rake is a continuous extension of your tractor and doesn't bend in the middle. While this helps a lot when you back up since I have a zero turn radius tractor with the turning wheel in the rear when I attach the rake the turning wheel is in the center. This creates a lot of turning challenges although I am getting better. Specifically on even slightly soft ground if I turn to hard the turning wheel tends to just dig a ditch. This product would be MUCH easier to use with a traditional garden tractor. All that said everyone is commenting about the lawn and the lack of leaves asking how I am doing it. On Sunday alone 3 walkers all commented how nice my lawn was looking. From a time perspective it took me about 4 hours and 6 loads to get all the leaves up from 3.5 acres verses probably 30 hours last year.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
cwjenkins
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Reviews written: 1
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