Agri-Fab 45-0492 44" Tow-Behind Lawn Sweeper, 28 cu. ft Hopper Bag Capacity; Leaf & Grass Catcher, with Adjustable Brush Height and Dump From Seat Handle

This product worked great! I read a lot of other reviews and experienced none of the issues that others have mentioned. Shipping: Some reviewers gave low marks for damage on arrival, but in my opinion that is not a product review. That really depends on who is handling your shipment. Mine arrived in great shape and I had it built within 45 mins. I have never had issues with Amazon and with a 3 year warranty (which by the way is plenty considering it would cost more than $300 over three years to have someone else do the work of this attachment), any damage should without question be covered by the manufacturer. Headache to return and resolve yes, but nothing is perfect, even for $300. Assembly: This is the second Agri-Fab product I have built. I am not a fan of the picture only instructions as it is a bit difficult to clearly see the orientation of the parts, but this in no way was a big headache. In fact, I love that this product assembled entirely with clevis pins as it makes it easy to correct a mistake and easy to disassemble for compact storage. If your somewhat mechanically inclined and have built things around your house like furniture, kids toys, etc., this should be no problem. I had it together in less than 45 mins. Use: The adjustable tow pin is great and made it very easy to hook up to my mower without worry about my zero turn not having the correct tow height. It tows easily until it gets full, at which point my zero turn had some difficulty with traction. In hind site, I probably should have purchased the smaller version, because I didn't realize just how much grass this unit would hold (used it to cleanup the thatch on 3/4 acre after using the Agri-Fab 45-0295 48-Inch Tine Tow Dethatcher ). It was very heavy and full and seemed to have no issue holding itself up under the weight. Probably better to use this with a garden tractor, but I use what I have. I think this will do quite well to help me sweep up large piles of mulched leaves in the fall that tend to clog and kill my grass. Some reviewers noted that the bag it self started to wear out very quickly. It seems like Agri-Fab listened to the customers and upgraded the product. The bag now includes a flexible plastic bottom that wraps up about 3-4 inches on the frame, so I don't see any worry about the bag chaffing and ripping. Also, as long as the tow pin is set to the right height, there should be no issue with the unit bag dragging on the ground. Looks like the orange colored units are the new models, so I would stick with those to make sure you have all the latest features and engineering upgrades. Overall: I am not very good at remembering to take pictures, but when my job was all said and done, I had 7 HUGE piles of grass and a nicely scraped and swept lawn for overseeding. Very please with this product (and the dethatcher), amazed at how well it worked and how well it was built.

I used the Agri-Fab 45-0492 Lawn Sweeper behind my John Deere tractor mower. This product is very easy to set up and very easy to use. For me backing things up has always been an issue and this is no different. I try to make all my passes where I don't have to turn around or cut real sharp. My lawn is very large & takes quite a bit of time to cover everything. In my front yard I have 18 Cottonwood trees and the leaves they drop can be very overwhelming. I use this and it was like just mowing the lawn. Everything was picked up pretty much on the first pass. With these trees, I get a lot of dropped branches and twigs. This picks up about 95% of all the twigs. It seems to be a quality product and have had absolutely no problem with it at this point. It is so effective that the bag fills up very quickly as it picks up everything in its path. Of course picking up everything in my situation requires a lot of dumping of the basket. The basket dumps extremely easily by a handheld rod which you simply pull and drive forward. When the cotton is coming off the trees and settles into the grass it is very simple matter to get that taken care of as well with his sweeper.I bought it for the leaf problem in my yard but have been pleasantly surprised by the fact that it picks up everything in its path. Cleaning is a breeze and all you have to do is take your hose to it and put it away. In it's stored position,it is a bit bulky. All in all this is a fine product and is very sturdy. It can be adjusted side to side by simply sliding the bar left or right and re-tightening the clamp. The sweeper cut my work time by 85% when the leaves are on the ground. When the twigs build up, I get the sweeper out and make short work of a tough situation. You can buy with confidence knowing that you just saved a lot of back breaking work. Agri-Fab 45-0492 Lawn Sweeper, 44-Inch

4,5 stars. instructions are not great. youtube helped me put together and took about an hour. after adjusting brush height to correct and lowest useable. it picks up more than you would think. too low and brushes dont turn and you just drag it. 2 negatives-first is there is no neutral, so after dumping, you have to raise to highest level to pick up the least amount or you will just start to fill it back up when going to park it. second is the overuse of carter pins. some places should have bolts instead, i lost one pin on my very first test ride. i replaced 1/3 with bolts and nuts to prevent from happening again. lastly, on a z-turn, you just cant reach the dump handle, have to get off, then keep it raised and hold it until you can drive away. then let down. even with its shortcomings, it is worth it vs buying a bagger attachment for a significant amount more. also dont fill completely or you will get angry trying to dump it.

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.

This sweeper is great. Pretty easy to put together. It swept up thick, wet grass no problem at all. You DO have to adjust the brushes for how thick or tall your grass is to get the best results but that is easy to do. I had the basket filled pretty full so it took both hands to pull up the basket to dump it. But it did just fine. This will save my back from the pain of raking this year.

10.24.24: SO FAR IT SEEMS TO WORK. TIGHT TURNS CAUSE THE INSIDE WHEEL TO LOCK UP. THINKING OF PUTTING STUDS IN TIRES. WILL UPDATE AS LEAVES PILE UP. 10.28.24; FAIR AMOUNT OF LEAVES ARE DOWN. CUSSING AND SWEARING. RIGHT SIDE WHEEL KEPT LOCKING UP. THOUGHT IT WAS DUE TO EXCESS LONG PINE NEEDLES. HAD BRUSHES SET AT BOTTOM OF WHEELS SO THAT WASN'T THE PROBLEM. I DECIDED TO TAKE THE WHEEL OFF THAT WAS LOCKING UP. REF. FIG 20 IN YOUR 10 LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION BOOK. INBOARD SIDE OF WHEEL APPEARED TO BE HITTING THE END OF THE PINION SHAFT SO I RELIEVED A LITTLE OF THE WHEEL PLASTIC WITH A DIE GRINDER SO THE SHAFT END WOULDN'T HAVE A SQUARE EDGE OF PLASTIC TO HANG UP ON. PUT BACK TOGETHER. TOOK LEFT SIDE WHEEL OFF AND AS I DID PARTS 5 & 6 FELL OUT, PART 7 WAS MISSING. MADE A PART 7, RELIEVE PLASTIC AT WHEEL AND REASSEMBLED. FINISHED THE LAST 8,000 SF WITH NO LOCKING UP OR PERFORMANCE ISSUES. BE ADVISED NEW OWNERS; TAKE BOTH WHEELS OFF AND CHECK. I'M SATISFIED WITH WHAT IT PICKS UP BUT DISSATISFIED WITH AGRI-FAB, MADE IN USA; HENCE ONE STAR. 11.4.24: POORLY ENGINEERED. PINE NEEDLES BUILD UP AROUND BRUSH SHAFT AT BOTH ENDS CAUSING EXCESSIVE FORCE AGAINST PINION GEAR EXTERNAL SNAP RINGS AND BREAKING THE SNAP RINGS. SNAP RING GROOVES IN SHAFT ARE NOT MACHINED DEEP ENOUGH. ONCE AGAIN I AM HAVING TO FIX A POJ. DO NOT BUY IF YOU HAVE 6 TO 8 INCH LONG PINE NEEDLES MIXED IN WITH YOUR LEAVES. 11.6.24, 1600: AGRIFAB JUST REPLIED TO MY REVIEW ON THEIR SITE AND STATED; "I AM CORRECT, IT WILL NOT PICK UP PINE NEEDLES BECAUSE.......... SAD THAT SIMPLE PINE NEEDLES CAN BREAK A SO CALLED ENGINEERED DEVICE. 11.28.24: I HAVE SOLVED THE NEEDLES ISSUE. COST ME 50 BUCKS BUT IT NOW WORKS LIKE SOMETHING ENGINEERED.

It's awesome when you get it working, and while it lasts. Best thing I've found, for picking up sticks coming out of winter. It would take me several weeks to get all the sticks up before I could start cutting grass after winter, cuz of my bad back I could only pick up a little at a time. Now, I only pick up anything over 3 ft long, and thicker than my pinky (maybe 3/8 to 1/2 inch). I can do that over 2 days, and not kill my back. Then, all the tons of other sticks smaller than that get swept up. I also run a dethatcher in the spring before I start cutting, to pull up any of the dead grass cuttings that haven't decomposed over the winter, and then run the sweeper to pick all that up, and any leaves still left in the yard. Caveats: I have to clamp on probably 100lbs of metal/lead weight across the front, and you gotta go slow, as the sweeper brush only works when you can get the wheels spinning. If you get on uneven ground, they'll probably stop spinning. All that's fine, and I've figured how to work around that. Bad: the metal tubing that makes the top U shape, slots into the base frame with some bolts, and this is where the catcher pivots on to dump the catcher. That tubing is super thin, and where that bolt goes through and pivots is a weak spot on that upper frame. After the first time using, I could see the frame starting to bend at that pivot point. I'm now at the maybe 4th time total using it this spring, and the frame has now broken in half at the pivot point. I'm thinking of going to get some electrical conduit of the same size, and make a new frame, to try and keep it semi-lightweight. If that doesn't work, I'm gonna weld up something bulletproof, and way overboard. It's so sad, because it's a really good thing, while it works, but I saw from the beginning that, the catcher frame was a bad/cheap design.

This purchase is my best so far. My only complaints: I’m not a fan of the Clevis pin assembly, but I understand for a collapsed storage it is necessary. I think the kit should be modified to accommodate a cover over the dump hinge point to keep from the pivot point in place. Also, a couple warnings about this unit. It’s good. Really good. There’s no way to turn off the brush. If you’re pulling it, it’s picking up. You drive it across your gravel driveway, you have a basket of rock. I have an acre of property, with lots of pine trees. It’ll pull the pine straw and pine cones up in one pass. Picks up sticks, dog poop, trash, right down to the dirt. It’s adjustable to fit your needs. My 2nd review. I still love it. But, it broke. Upper hopper tube, left side, snapped at the pivot point. It was full, but it wasn’t heavy. When I lifted to empty it just snapped. Right thru the middle of the pivot hole. I already ordered another one, $11, but dang guys. I’ve only had it two months. I’ll be rebuilding this tube, but I think I’ll be using square stock.

Looks good, huge collection bin, easy height adjustment

Wish I bought one a long time ago. Great customer service from manufacturer. Mine came with a few minor scratches and one brush had real crooked bristles that had been squashed in packing and wouldn’t return to their original form. A quick call to the manufacturer and they quickly sent out touch up paint and a replacement brush. If you have a tractor, lots of leaves and an average to large size property, this is a must have. Easily dissembles for storage, goes back together quickly too. It is large and still takes up a bit of space to store though.

Great product

Picking leaves up from garden and cleaning drive

Good overall sweep. Well made, large capacity. Met expectations. Took one star off for shipping damage.