Agri-Fab Tow-Behind 44 in., 28 cu. ft. Lawn Sweeper

There are only two reasons I don’t give this unit 5 stars: First, this is the first lawn sweeper I have ever owned and I have no personal experience to compare it with.  Second is durability.  Since I have used the unit only ten hours, I can’t speak to how well the unit will hold up over time. Assembly was a snap.  There are several short videos from the manufacturer that illustrate assembly and operation.  Between those and the instructions, I had the unit assembled in less than an hour.  Only made one small mistake that I had to go back and redo.  The instructions suggest assembly is a two person job.  An extra pair of hands would have been helpful, but I assembled it alone with minimal difficulty. Operation was very easy.  I used this unit to clear grass clippings from a 4 acre plot.  It was several days between when I mowed the land and when I used the lawn sweeper.  Between those two times, it rained several times.  I was skeptical this would work well on wet grass, but it surprised me.  It picked up virtually everything.  The land is hilly and pretty bumpy in some areas.  The unit took a beating going over some of the rough ground.  Twice – when I stopped for a break – I noticed the metal housing was bent out of shape (I guess from striking the ground when going over bumps).  I used a hammer to beat the housing back into shape.  It worked fine.  I never noticed any degradation in performance before or after beating it with a hammer (I normally only beat my equipment with a hammer when it doesn’t work).  It took me about 10 hours of operation to clear 4 acres.  I picked-up enough grass clippings to fill the bed of my full-size pickup seven times.  I only had one area where there were leaves.  As with the grass, the leaves were wet (but not matted to the ground).  It took a few passes to pick-up the wet leaves, but it did pick them up.   I towed this unit behind a Kubota BX2350 subcompact tractor.  I had no problem getting the unit attached with the adjustable tow bar.  It is important to take time to get the unit level and the height adjusted correctly.  I found using the “transport” setting on the height adjustment allowed me to tow this unit across paved surfaces with no problems.  The small measure on the side of the unit made determining the correct height quick and easy.   If I had to make any suggestions on improvement, I would have preferred the dump handle be a little taller.  It works fine and dumps the load very easy, but sitting on top of the Kubota, the handle was a bit low and required me to stretch some to reach it. All things considered, I am very happy with this unit.  I expect it will get a good workout on my land about three times per year.

Less than 5 months old and the gears on the wheels are completely smooth. Aluminum shaft with plastic gears never mix well. Will call warranty tomorrow but completely let down by this lawn sweeper.