Agri-Fab 45-0492 44" Tow-Behind Lawn Sweeper, 25 cu. ft Hopper Bag Capacity; Leaf & Grass Catcher, with Adjustable Brush Height and Dump From Seat Handle

Don't make the same mistake I did, The unit that looks like this but for much less money was broken in less that 2 hours of use. I had purchased this one in the past and have just purchased a second unit. This thing does a great job for spring and Fall cleanups. You get what you pay for, a lesson I should have remembered.

A well made unit made in the USA, but the bag is flimsy and made in China. My suggestion to all interested in buying this unit to read all the reviews. Especially the Negatives ones to be aware of problems that come with almost any product. That way you possibly will be able to avoid the pitfalls in knowing up front. The bag material is lightweight, it's frame is lightweight and the support rods that hold the bag open pop out and get lost. I added tough nylon reinforce. tape around the small rods at their top to the upper tubing frame of the bag in case they popped out. (they did pop out at the bottom, but never got lost.) I never over loaded the bag to put too much stress on the frame, but I'm thinking on adding maybe extra bracing to strengthen the frame later on (I was in a hurry at the time to get this unit together and picking up) I did make a cover to give extra protection to the outside bottom of the bag using cheap tarp from HF. I check when done picking up that day. I couldn't find any wear on the tarp to justify if it was needed but I was just picking up fairly light thatch and the bag never touched the ground. Still the tarp was cheap and easy to cover the bottom and I will leave it on. Probably the most important negative of the product is the plastic gear teeth in the wheels that can break. I don't know what can be done to prevent this from happening except I feel that lowering the brushes to low into the grass and them not turning has to be the most likely the cause of this. Setting the brushes just to touching the grass by looking down into the unit as you set their height is a good way to get the setting right. I think people may try to get the unit to pick up more by lowering the brushes too deep to get more of a pickup and would be better making an extra passes if needed than pushing their luck. Checking the wheels as you start pulling the unit to make sure they are turning and not scooting is a good thought to prevent this. The hitch on the unit comes with two large spacers that depending on the height of your mower hitch is awkward in making the connection, but adding a strip of duct tape around the two spacers putting them together is less of a hassle when hooking up. I found that storage of this unit to be easier and take up less space if you remove the bag from the unit. Release the two support rods that hold the bag upright allows the bag to be flattened. (putting like a little duct tape over the end of the rods will keep them from punching a hole in the bag is wise too). The two arms on the unit which allows you to attach or remove the bag can be folded inward if you remove the upper pin on each side and pivot the arms inward next to the brushes. Putting those pins back into the holes of the body with their clips for storage will keep them from getting lost. I'm giving this a 5 star because of how great it preformed, and the solid construction of the body. If after finding out later on that this turns into a problem with breakage from the plastic tooth wheels (no matter how careful I am of setting the height right) I will downgrade my review.Update: Still doing great. I am still convinced that setting the brushes too deep into your grass is the reason for the broken teeth in the gear that runs the wheels/ brushes. My setting that seems safe is 7 holes from the top. I found that the two rods that suppose to hold the bag spread in the rear are just too easy to come out and then get dumped with the leaves. Checking each time you dump to see if they are missing will help in finding them if they do fall out. I will look later in the spring to see what can be done about them. I mentioned earlier about folding the arms that allows the bag to be attached to the unit. Swapping out the pins that go into the holes of the arms when in place with a pin that just has a button in place of using clips makes easier to put them in and pull them out. Adding a spring clamp to the two arms in the middle after folding them inward keeps them in place without them falling back in your way during storage. Adding pics to show you what I did to help explain all this.UPDATE: I just got thru sweeping up the lawn of leaves and now after six years I have no complaints. Trust me you will never regret buying it.

Brushes (broom like) are a little sparse and should probably be thicker.I bought this for picking up pine cones; unfortunately, it picks up more pine straw than pine cones.

I just used this for the first time today. This thing is AMAZING!! I have a little over 4 acres and pine trees that drive me crazy, and create issues for my lawnmower. I wanted something that would pick up the pine cones and gumballs from my maple trees. It got all of that plus the leaves and pine straw. I am extremely happy with this purchase!! Thank you Agri-Fab!!

The instructions leave much to be desired but I used the book along with the youtube video and got it together. I have a lot of gum balls and pine cones and the sweeper worked great on that plus a few small sticks. I wouldn’t fill the basket unless it’s just dry leaves because it holds a lot and the weight can add up fast. So far, it’s a great product.

This product has far too many design flaws to be usable. I tried to use mine on two days and now I am returning it. I don't understand how anyone could give this product a passing review.So the good points: Most of the parts are rugged and appear to be durable. When it works, it does a reasonable job, if I pass over the same spots multiple times - I'm OK with that. Also, the height adjustment mechanism moves smoothly, without requiring force. The sweeper worked equally well with my lawn tractor and my zero turn mower. The unit is quite wide and the basket does hold a lot of material, when it works.Now, the bad points: OVERALL THIS IS JUST VERY POORLY DESIGNED. The biggest flaw is that only the right wheel drives the brushes. If my lawn were as flat as a plate, this would work. But my lawn has ridges and dips, maybe 2" or 3". Sometimes, the drive wheel ends up in the air, so nothing is swept. Much worse, sometimes the brush gets stuck on the slight ridges; this locks up the brush, which locks up the drive wheel, which then skids across the lawn. I now have a bunch of 10'-30' gouges in my lawn. (Yes, I could raise the brush, but then nothing gets swept up - this isn't operator error, it's very bad design.) Also, because there is only one drive wheel, the brush doesn't spin very fast when you turn right.The basket is made in a foreign country from plastic mesh and a flexible, hard bottom. I don't think it would last long, but worse, the design is very, very bad. Two critical fastening points, in the front corners, are attached with metal snaps. These snaps are a pain to attach and they disconnect frequently during usage. This allows the bottom of the basket to drag on the ground. This lead to the sweeper dumping its whole load, one time, in the middle of my lawn, which I didn't discover until I'd made a full circuit and came back to that location. (That was my last straw, by the way.)This thing is held together with a bunch of clips (the instructions call them "hair clips") and there are 16 that hold this machine together. Again, bad design. One each of these must be manipulated when you adjust the brush height or remove the hitch from your tractor.It is extremely difficult to move this unit by hand. The draw bar must be held close to the ground or the basket drags and binds on the ground. You really have to remove the basket to move this device manually.You can dump the load by pulling that handle. But where will you dump it? Backing up is very difficult with this trailering machine, so you really have to drive forward all the time. This means you will dump into a bunch of small piles, rather than one big pile. (Remember that it is very difficult to move this baby manually. It's a perfect storm of bad design problems.)To attach the sweeper to the tractor, you must juggle two loose, small metal cylinders around the hitch pin. Plus, you have to attach one of those hairpins to the hitch pin. This is really just a very dumb setup - what were they thinking??Look, I really wanted to like this thing. Most of the parts are well made and rugged. I hate raking, yet the lawn really needs it. I could modify some of the parts of the sweeper to make it work somewhat better, but there are too many flaws in the design of this product. It's just designed very badly and I'm totally disappointed in this sweeper.