I prefer the lawnsweeper myself. But there are advantages and disadvantages to each.

A lawnsweeper does a better job than a rear bagger if you are cleaning up leaves and other debris. I have the Brinly from Home Depot but the Agrifab is good too. They are all very similar, the grass bin pivots and has a rope tied to the top of it, and you pull the rope to dump the bin. Quicker than emptying a bagger and easier on your back. The disadvantage is if you roll over some vines it gets caught in the brushes and you have to cut it away.

The sweeper gives a neater appearance to the lawn in my opinion because it is brushing the grass. I think it is better for the lawn because you are mulching too. The grass clippings that are visible on the surface are picked up by the sweeper but the rest stay one the lawn and are mulched.

Disadvantage to the sweeper is it is a trailer so you have to be careful because it is sticking out the back of your tractor making it hard to back up or make tight turns. I have managed to bend the tow tubes on mine a couple of times. A bagger is better in this situation, because wherever the tractor goes the bagger goes along with it. I also snagged one of the wheels on the granite mailbox post and bent it a bit but a few well placed kicks and the wheel was on.

Sweeper is height adjustable so you can use it on the grass or on the driveway. You want to set it so the brushes pick up whatever is on the surface of the grass but do not dig in too deep or else it will drag. This is if you have a smaller tractor.

Sweeper does a better job of leaves in the fall and it will sweep clean your driveway too.

A sweeper at the start of the job you have to hitch it to the back of the tractor and at the end of the day you need to unhitch it and roll it into the garage separate from the tractor. A minor nuisance that an attached bagger doesn't have.

The sweeper is attached to the tractor by a pull pin, and that has a hair pin in it to keep the pull pin from coming loose. I have learned to mount the pin so the hair pin is on top. That way if you roll over a clump of grass it will not dislodge the hair pin. If that happens the lawnsweeper will detach while you are towing it and you will probably lose the pin.

A real vacuum style rear bagger that is powered by a separate engine or by a PTO shaft from your tractor, is noisy as heck. Much louder than just towing a sweeper behind.

Thanks ever so muchly. I havent used either so I wanted the scoop from someone who had. So far Im leaning towards the lawn sweeper. Sounds like it will work better in my situation. Ive got some trees but I have room to manuver.

Dont feel bad. Ive abused my mowers few times too. I do tend to speed a little at times. LOL