Anyone know of a fast way to clean sticks off lawns

[sgreanbeans]

Anyone ever tried a billy goat vacuum? Do they pick up saw dust?

I had a wheeled one and a truck loader, they work awesome for leaves, but suck (pun not intended) for sticks, the sticks get caught up in the tube and plug it tight and they will not make it up thru the intake on the wheeled unit

 

[Iustinian]

I had a wheeled one and a truck loader, they work awesome for leaves, but suck (pun not intended) for sticks, the sticks get caught up in the tube and plug it tight and they will not make it up thru the intake on the wheeled unit

very true.....we don't even use those for fall cleanup of leaves anymore around here -- just backpack blow everything to the curb and curbside service comes and sucks it up into a huge commercial unit with a swing boom.

Grounds keeper has been the best rake for us so far.

Winching brush has been an improvement -- pile brush onto a large one and winch the pile out, faster and less mess because 10-15 pieces of brush were drug out but only one touched the ground, but you have to pay attention to how you tie the bottom one so it doesn't tear up the grass, skidder cone helps though too.

 

[ChockFull]

Stein Arbor Trolley

Agree with keeping different types of rakes. Also, this doesn't pertain to big removals because those are a mess no matter what. However one thing I use that helps keeping the mess at bay is the stein arbor trolley. I find myself using it a lot on large properties with a bunch of trimming. The trolley doesn't leave a trail of debris like dragging brush does. I find the only place I have to rake is in the immediate areas we were working. NOT THE ENTIRE PROPERTY! (as without the trolley).
One more thing. If I'm doing a tree with a few pieces of big deadwood (4-5 limbs) I will sometimes lower them even if I could bomb them out. Just to prevent more of a mess.
I'm with you though, always thinking of how I can get out of cleanup faster...

 

[Stayalert]

Occasionally if the grass is long I'll mow in the area(s) I'll be making a mess of......Easier to rake. As for rakes? I use metal rakes that I modify. I replace the handle with a hockey stick, stiffen up the rake head with an additional metal strip...and always...ALWAYS have a guitar pick with a hole drilled on one of the fasteners.....Musical rakes just work better....

 

[treebilly]

raking always has and always will be the worst part of the job. The one thing I got my crew to do is while I'm changing the rigging or tieing the next section off, just walk around and pick up sticks. After a few good size pieces there is a pile they carry out to the chipper. We worked on a 60" diameter silver maple removal today and only have leaves and twigs to rake up ( plus five truck loads of wood). all the wood came down on a rope so they could shove it to a clean area and it would've been raked if they didn't have 250 ' to the chipper. After 10 hours on spurs I can honestly think that they worked harder than I did.

 

[mattfr12]

Alot of times i use a 7ft landscape rake on the back of my tractor if you go slow and don't put it all the way down it wont tear the grass up and almost gets every twig.