Hauling leaves, firewood, etc.

[neverbilly]

I saw a drag of plastic fabric, like a super-tough (supposedly) tarp, and this thing is big. You can put a large amount of leaves, brush, even firewood, and drag it around your yard. It would not be practical dragging firewood out of the woods, as it's too big. It is also expensive! I am sure it would work great for leaves but it was, like, $180. Oh yeah, what made me start searching on THAT problem is we have a heckuva time with leaf picker uppers -- lawn sweepers... they just do not hold up well for us and we buy the best we can find. The $180 super duper tarp looks pretty good when you think about a $350 lawn sweeper that is going to break down. I wish we could find a good picker upper (to pull with a lawnmower or my Gator or my ATV), I really don't care for raking leaves, lol. But I also do occasionally move firewood from one stack to another spot on my 1.2 acre lawn.

EDIT: Yes, my lawn is rough in places. A few holes here and there and some roots. I have tried to fill in some holes, need to do more. I have also cut some of the roots. This place is 60 years old and I guess the top soil has eroded, as the tree roots are being exposed. Lots of trees, several dozen, pines and a few oaks and sweet gum.

 

[mcdougy]

Sounds as if your lawns too rough for a sweeper and possibly going to fast....nobody likes raking leaves try giving your yard a good rolling with a heavy roller and take your speed down a bit. Lawn sweepers are metal parts with a bunch of bolts, making them repairable in most cases for cheap. Should be able to get 10years or more out of a sweeper. The tarp thing would work but like you said you got to rake the stuff up and then throw it on the tarp. Doesn't sound like fun to me. Although some of these leaf blowers are fairly impressive, but a good one is probably going to run you 300$ and I'm doubting the batteries will last 10years

 

[xman23]

At there end of life, I use the heavy duty poly tarps from the wood pile to haul leaves out to the woods. I blow the yard to multiply piles. I use the ATV to tow the 10' x 20' tarps. At times there is easily 100 LBS of wet leaves on them. No issue, the ATV does this effortlessly.

 

[NickW]

Have you tried a Yard Machine sweeper yet? I got one at Menards a couple of years back and it does a much better job than the Agrifab ones, seems to be better built too and it was a comparable price. We sweep an acre and a half after every mowing plus leaves in fall... I drag tarpfuls of leaves every fall for some volunteer work for elderly folks and it gets old fast.

 

[mrd1995]

We do about the same as @xman23, we have a 10 x 20 standard blue and silver tarp that was used to keep things dry until it got a few snags. Now we have used it to do yard work and act as a paint tarp. Have been using it for 6 months to remove leaves, hedge clippings, and the tops of about 15 trees we removed. It is getting pretty ragged now but who cares better then going to the landfill. I use our pickup and a 15' length of rigging rope throw a bowline on the ball of the truck and a running bowline to grip the tarp and shazam instant drag.