Thoughts on acquiring a mechanical shredder for biomass collection

Hello everyone and thanks in advance for any input here.

Here is my situation: as many of you already know, I like to garden in my wood chip beds that are decomposed with fungi (Wine Caps).  While the Wine Caps are great, the beds could be improved further with additional biomass and  bacteria.  I would love to be able to utilize the substantial amount of leaves that fall not only on my my property but also my neighbors property.  In order to continue to be a good neighbor, I need to do the collection quickly.  With that in mind, I am considering some type of mechanical device for leaf collection.

I have a tentative list that looks like the following:

1). Buy a leave vacuum cart that I could pull behind my zero turn mower.  This would make for the fastest, most efficient leaf collection.  I found one for about $1600.

2). I found a combination leave Vac (not attached to a trailer but with a hose), 3” chipper and debris shredder.  I like all the combinations on this device as I would love to be able to shred up green garden waste/surplus for quick decomposition.  Further, the 3” chipper could be useful for the abundance of small, twiggy debris on my property.  It costs $1800 and can be found here:

https://www.tmgindustrial.com/products/tmg-gwc3-3-in-1-chipper-shredder?currency=USD&variant=42186890477737&stkn=4a64bc23ca4d&gclid=Cj0KCQiA3uGqBhDdARIsAFeJ5r2Z0UgBVkGgZ7a4vSM6-HPI2Ux068mwxeBpF-o0697vnMFSa67uggwaApfIEALw_wcB


I do like the fact that the combo unit exhausts debris upwards and out for better collection in a trailer.

I am in no immediate hurry.  Thoughts?


Eric

I would ask myself which I value more,  convenient fast leaf pickup or leaf pickup ability with shredder capabilities.

I think if I was in your shoes, the extra $200 for a piece of equipment that had additional functionality (Good reviews as well!) that I would benefit from is a no brainer.

What kind of leaves do you have on the property? Oak leaves tend to take a while to break down and can benefit from the shredding aspect even though you will have fungal action to help break them down. If it was all maple or similar fast breakdown leaves then I could see not needing the shredding function.

Let us know what route you go, I am hoping for your success either way.

Timothy,

Thanks for the feedback.  To answer your questions, I am most concerned about the abundant oak leaves, so extra shredding is definitely helpful.  I have a few maple leaves, but they are of little consequence.

I just got back from mowing through the oak leaves in my backyard.  I was surprised by how thick they were—from the house they did not look like much of a layer.  Even with the mower deck raised all the way up, I still plowed a pile of leaves so my thoughts that I could just drive over, mulch, collect in a trailer and then dump may not be so practical after all.  That all-in-one machine is starting to look better.

I might be changing my mind a couple of times here and I am not buying any time soon but I appreciate the input nonetheless.

Eric

Leaf vacuums are SLOW. Try and find one to try or watch several YouTube’s.

If you can drive the mower where you need to, it would be faster for that task but maybe not as versatile for other needs.

I am fascinated by this subject.
I do not mow at all, and hate the very idea, but I am greedy for leaves, and often dream about getting paid to collect them.
With that context, I'm I understanding correctly that a mower with a bag won't shred and bag leaves?
Or is it maybe a capacity issue?

William,

I don’t have a push mower at all.  Therefore any collection would have to be done with my zero turn mower which does not lend itself easily to simply attaching a bag.  Pretty much any collection would have to be done in a rolling cart pulled behind.

I have two divergent views at this point—firstly just buying a leaf vacuum that would attach to my mower which could be quick and convenient.  Weighing against that option is the fact that one source of leaves is a few minutes drive by mower and would require a LOT of back-and-forth trips.

At the other end of the spectrum is the more expensive device that would be more of a general-purpose tool.  It would chip, shred green material and vacuum leaves all in one machine.  Ideally, if I were collecting leaves from my neighbor, I would use my tractor to haul a 4’x8’ trailer over and then go get my zero-turn mower to windrow the leaves so they can be sucked up and shredded with the vacuum which would exhaust directly into the trailer.

William, like you I love the idea of using leaves and there are a lot around me—it comes down to finding the most efficient means to get them.

Eric

In the spring, we're very wet, the grass in the field grows like crazy, but it's often too wet to mow until the grass is so tall that we can't just leave it on top to decompose and feed the soil.

When that happens, Hubby hooks this up to our ride-on mower:


1. Yes, it's slow.
2. Yes, it gets jammed if you try to go faster.
3. Yes, it's heavy to open to dump - Hubby can do it, but I wouldn't have the strength.
4. Yes, it's noisy - the vacuum part does a humming noise that can be annoying for neighbors if you try to do it too long. Hubby had a bad habit of trying to work from 4 pm to 10 pm and got told off. (I sided with the neighbors on this one. We may be "rural" but there are noise bylaws, not to mention good neighborliness.)
5. Yes, it's a bad idea to suck up a rock...

But it does the job when nothing else will. It's even more expensive than what you were looking at. It does shred stuff quite well as the mower does a first chop, and the vacuum does a second chop.

We also have a BIG chipper/shredder for the PTO on our tractor. It does a great job on stems and branches, but it doesn't really like wet material which our leaves most often are. With us being in a high fire risk area, and having animals who are happy to inoculate the chips with poop, it is an asset despite being expensive, noisy and using fossil fuels.

Eric, thanks for detailing your dilemma.

Now I understand more, I think if you don't already have a shredder already,that vacuum/shredder  is the better choice.
It seem like that route will get a double shred on each load  and an entirely different use as well.
A 4x8 trailer of double shredded leaves would be worth a trip all on its own, I'm excited just imagining such a thing!

William,

My greatest source of leaves comes from my next-door neighbor.  He has several large oaks that shade a grassy yard.  That yard makes for easy access to abundant leaves.

In the past I took my tractor, 8’ trailer, an electrical 120v ac leaf blower/vacuum and a rake to make large windows of leaves that then sucked up with my plug-in leaf vac with attached leaf bag.  Needless to say that this approach took a LONG time!

I am hoping to drastically speed up operations.

In the end I have brought back about 2 of those trailers per season.  And, yes, that was actually quite a lot of leave, especially considering that they got chipped during the vacuum operation.

Eric

Jay,

Yes, I have definitely thought about that very leaf Vac.  I also get the problem with a yard that is burdened with too many clippings so I can appreciate that option.

Eric

Eric, I like what you are proposing.

I'm a DIY guy by instinct, but here's an alternate suggestion to ponder:

Why own stuff you will only use in a short time frame and have to store / maintain for the rest of the year?

Is it possible to connect with a local landscape outfit -- maybe a new one that's looking for a few new/niche angles in the market -- and have them mulch up and collect all that good leaf debris? Your neighbours won't mind, and perhaps you'll be money ahead.

I mention this because my father's giant Grasshopper mower, which mulches and has a collection/dump bin fits your situation perfectly. It's truly an awesome beast -- and yet I would rather hire someone for a few hours in the fall than be responsible for it all year.

Just a thought.

Douglas,

I truly understand your thoughts about renting/hiring.  I will give you an example for leaf collection that I did not/cannot pursue.

I gues my ultimate leaf collection equipment would have been centered on my tractor, a 37 hp compact utility tractor.  I could have, and actually thought about purchasing that tractor with a mid mount mower.  If I did, I could have also purchased a PTO leaf vac and use it in conjunction with my 8’ trailer.  This would be effortless leaf collection.  I would simply drive over the leaves, mow/mulch and suck them up and then exhaust them into the trailer.  If I were to get really obsessive, I would add shredder blades to the mower deck so the leaves get thoroughly shredded as they are mowed, and again as they go through the leaf vac.

But this is just a pipe dream as it is far too expensive.  When I bought my tractor I saved $6000 (!) by buying one without a mid PTO.  I had no idea the mid-PTO was so expensive.  Actually, when I got the quote I thought that the dealer had made a mistake, but he was actually doing me a favor.  As if that were not enough, the actual mower deck would be another $4000!  In the end, going with a mower deck was going to cost me a whopping $10,000 extra!  I passed and bought a good zero turn mower that cost $5000.  In the end, buying two machines saved me $5000 and the zero turn mower is a really good mower while the MMM on the tractor would have been difficult to use on a lawn.

So I will stick with smaller, less capable machines that are vastly cheaper for my annual leaf cleanup.

Eric