KRAIG - I'm not sure "Sucked" is the right word. They ran, made noise, blew a lot of dust around....but the cart never got full of clippings or leaves.
The cart is pretty self-explanitory. The back door hinges from the top, but it would be safer hinged from the side. The top & sides just bolt onto My Agri-fab cart. It fills completely up too.
The top pic shows the semi-mounted vac unit attaches to the sleeve hitch mounts on My axle carriers but the lower mounts for IH's 3-point hitch would be fine also. The caster wheel pivots and swings the cart out when I turn so the cart runs exactly where the rear of the tractor runs, makes trimming around trees easy. The tubing to connect the mower deck to the blower and the blower to the cart is non-perforated 6" drainage tube. The engine there is a K161 from a 1961/'63 Cub Cadet Dad had, It's since been replaced with a K181, but either engine is WAY more than enough power. The engine normally runs just above an idle except when I get into real heavy conditions then I speed it up a bit. The battery ignition runs direct to the battery in the tractor, I pull-start the engine to start it. I put a manual PTO clutch from another CC on the engine to start/stop the blower. In the configuration shown there I almost lost My thumb five years ago trying to flip the belt off the drive pulleys to shut it down one night. Ouch!
The inside of the blower housing is 16" in dia. and 6" wide. The impeller is 15-1/2" dia, mounted on a 1" dia shaft, has four vanes or paddles, there's a 3/16" thk round disc on the side of the impeller away from the inlet to support the paddles. I was really concerned with the balance of the impeller but I paid a LOT of attention when I clamped things together before welding and it actually runs really smooth. Total fabrication time the first time around was about 2-3 months working most of Saturday and half of Sunday. I even made the pivoting wheel mount because I had to keep it so low.
There's ideas in that thing from both the $1000 Agri-Fab vac. and some ideas from a company called Trac-Vac that their units start around $1400. I've got around $350 in the steel for the cart&vac, bearings, tire & wheel, throttle cable, and a couple cans of spray paint, and the metal tubing (heat duct or chimney tubes) and plastic hose.
The vac makes a nice tight "Cube" in the cart, measures 32"W x 36"T x 42"L and can weigh 500-600# depending on moisture. I think it works every bit as good as the vac's I see on TV, only thing it won't pick up are wet leaves, and stuff that blows around outside the mower. I can normally fill the cart in 10-15 minutes with My 38" deck running the tractor in low gear. If I go much faster the pipe from the mower to the blower plugs up. I can cover My approx. 2 acres with 70-80 trees in about 10-12 hours which is Saturday & Sunday from about Noon till just after dark, mowing & dumping in the far corner of the yard for burning. I pulled a Parker lawn sweeper for many years before building this thing and actually it did a better job of picking things up but the small basket would fill up WAY too frequently and to get anything done required two tractors and a cart, the sweeper, and two people.
A former co-worker made a similar unit for His Bolens tractor from a salvaged 2-stage snow-blower. And plywood would work fine for the top & sides of the cart, but You do need some way for air to escape without taking all the clippings.
ANY questions Jim fire away or send Me an e-mail. There's several here that have the Trac-Vac's, or PECO vac's, even Ohio Steel Fabricators made a vac unit.
