Do you mean cyclone rake? do a search at the top right in the green. This has come up a couple of times and still should be there.

Hi Johntommybob,
I just purchased a cyclone rake commander about two weeks ago. Drove to CT (1.5 hour ride one way) to pick it up to save on shipping. It was about at week and a half wait after ordering so plan ahead. I spent about $1500 total with tax....1295+ upgrade deck hose (25), mower deck adapter (80), diamond liner. First off, I was very impressed with quality of construction, build materials etc. Very heavy duty, no thin wall tubing here, design well laid out. Put it together in about two hours, having opened up all boxes and checking the manual the day before. Hardest part for me was mower deck adapter (snapper with 46" "murray" deck). I found a small amount of work with a die grinder to the plastic adapter made it fit better to my deck. Obviously, they use a template on a standard boot and then cut it out to fit your deck. It just needed some finesse work, could have also been handled with a rough round file/flat file in about twenty minutes of trial and error.

I was skeptical. It only took one full pass of my lawn, with fairly heavy oak leave coverage, to dispel that feeling. This thing worked flawlessly! As recommended I kept the mower deck somewhat high and did not go "full throttle", but even this way I saved hours of leaf blowing and raking! My lawn area is about 1 acre, and I also used it to clean up "dirty" areas with old deep leaf coverage. Over dirt/low grass, works better with deck lower. This thing sucked up leaves with the mower blades off too!

I am very glad I upgrade the hose, it seems heavy duty. Likewise to the diamond liner as I have sucked up numerous rocks...the loud noises are scary but a look at the impeller confirmed what they said, no cracks/breaks etc. I had no problems turning, small learning curve there but no issue. B&S starts easy, runs smooth, I have already changed the oil once (I'm a bit OCD) and again the design is great. Easy to take engine off, roll it out of the way etc. I have found no problems opening/emptying the collector bag, very easy to use buckles and velcro. Once you get a system down it goes quickly. As others reported, best to pull out some of the packed in material, then I pull forward with bin up, go back and shake it up and down a few times, all set. Total down time is about two minutes not counting your commute to the pile. Even the buckles are heavy duty on this thing and work well.

I did not spend the appx. $200 on the pickup hose...funds were limited. But, I have been cleaning up hilly/rocky areas and blowing leaves into a pile where I can drive up with my tractor, positioning the deck hose to the pile. Then I unclip the hose from the deck adapter, and rake right into it. This works well and saves me pickup from tough areas. In other spots I blow out flower beds etc and blow leaves onto the lawn (don't make big piles, spread em' out) and then drive over them with the machine. I can't wait to use this machine while mowing the grass too, and it certainly has a lot of suction/power. I don't always run the engine up to "full" speed, I bring it down just a few revs and it works great.

The only thing I would say "bad" (not really bad, just not great) is that it does not mulch as much as expected. After all, the impeller creates a vacuum to pull the stuff through and it does not go through and other blade/shredder mechanism. But it works just the same and I love using the machine. I am currently trying to clean out my woodlines of the last few years of leaves I was leaf blowing in there and having fun doing it! Don't forget some earplugs and go get one!

Bru

Thanks heavyhauler, that was a good review. I had known for some time that I ought to get one of those for if anybody really needs one I certainly do. Storage would be a bit of a problem for me, but maybe I could work something out. I have about 1 2/3 acre with heavy leaf oak coverage in the fall; mostly because I wanted to leave a lot of trees around my house for privacy, but I have paid for that decision every fall for thirty years. Now I am getting old and getting tired, and I need some help, and I hope that would do it.

Hope it was helpful. I forgot to mention, I did check out the competition too. DR machines are much more expensive, and taller which makes it harder to see when backing. The Agrifab (homedepot/lowes/tractor supply) type machines all seemed cheap to me. Flimsy, silly metal dump carts, lower grade engines etc. Some can also chip brush, but a limited diameter and it seems to me the design is a bit of a compromise between chipping and impeller vacuum design. So there is my three cents worth now. I think for the money I invested, I will be saving a lot more time and making the job easier.

heavyhauler , Thanks for the great report on the Cyclone Rake. On your mower what exactly did you mean by Snapper with "Murray" deck? Is that how you describe the side discharge outlet or do you have a hybrid mower you built with a Murray deck?

My snapper is an LT100, 46" deck. I have found that Snapper was bought up and apparently they use parts from various mfgs, including Murray. I had heard the deck was made in a murray factory, and sure enough when I got my mower deck adapter from Cyclone the label on the box read "murray 46". Either way the unit and adapter work well. I picked up another 5 or 6 full bins of leaves a few days ago and had fun doing it! Good luck!