Ohio Steel 50SWP26 Pro Sweeper, 50"/26 cu. ft ,Black

I bought this sweeper for picking up leaves and pine needles in the fall, and after using it four times now I am completely satisfied. It has cut down on the time I spend cleaning up my yard in the fall significantly.Before I got the sweeper I was using a double bagger and mulching all the leaves for about the last decade or so. While this works, if the leaves and pine straw are thick on the ground, the chute between the mower deck and the bags had a tendency to get clogged. I would have to stop, disassemble the chute, reach into both halves and empty the debris, otherwise mulched leaves would be flying out from underneath the mower deck. Beats raking by hand, but still time consuming and aggravating when you're trying to get done in a reasonable amount of time. For perspective, my yard is .54 of an acre and I have pine, maple, pecan and dogwood trees on my property. I also get a lot of leaves from my neighbor's giant oak tree if the wind blows right.Here's a summary of this tool if anyone's looking to get one.Packaging:The unit arrived in one heavy duty cardboard box. In my case the box was not damaged upon delivery, but it was opened because the staples had come loose. I think more staples should have been used around the perimeter of the box, not just the two ends. Luckily nothing was missing as all the hardware and tubing is in its own taped box that had a plastic strap around it. The main body which houses the brush was mostly undamaged except for a slight gouge. The paint was gone from this gouge but it was easily fixed with some primer and closely matched spray paint.Assembly:Pretty straightforward in my opinion. I did this by myself outside on a nice day in about 50 minutes without any trouble. I got thrown for a loop momentarily when some of the numbered hardware in one step does not correspond with the numbered hardware in the provided hardware package. In other words, around step 5 the hardware in the package does not match with the hardware that is supposed to be used in that step. I think it's actually used in step 6. I can't remember at this point as I did this in September. But it's easy to figure out in a minute or two.My included pictures show the labeling of the hardware and that the instructions are large, clear and easy to follow. Anyone that has assembled flat pack furniture or a grill or similar lawn equipment should have no trouble getting this sweeper up and operational.Use:I had never used a sweeper before, but reading the few pointers in the instruction manual were helpful to getting me on my way. Slight learning curve maybe that can be overcome in about 10 minutes of use. It does a good job of picking up debris. In my other pics one can see the contrast between the swept and unswept areas in my backyard. Does it throw leaves around? Yes, but very little and only when it becomes full. I just come back and get the stragglers when the main parts are swept up. Also, I do have some small dips here and there and tree roots. Those will affect the performance of the sweeper....it won't pick anything up since the brushes have no contact with the leaves. I just use my blower to clear those areas out first and get them to a much flatter and more wide open area. Then the sweeper can do its job. If you have a particularly bumpy yard this thing may not work that well for you as it would for someone with a relatively flat area. But honestly, unless your yard looks like a plowed field, you should be ok.Driving in reverse is almost impossible as it's such a short "trailer". Very easy to jack knife yourself. Just pull up to your pile or dump site and with a bit of practice you can back up about 5 or 6 feet with no issues.Summary:I hope this thing lasts because it's a big help and I enjoy using it. It seems like it's made pretty solid and of decent materials, so fingers crossed. I paid 383.00 with tax for mine and I think it's worth it. My bagger cost 300.00 and as mentioned above, it can't hold a candle to this thing. I'm pretty sure I can hold as much if not more debris in the sweeper's hopper, so that's a plus.Where I live, the town picks up yard debris once a week. With the bagger, I was mulching and this compacts the debris. So I was left with a heavy pile of almost compost like material laying on the lawn for up to a week. If it rained this pile got water logged and would kill my grass by smothering it. With the leaves being loose coming out of the sweeper, this makes my piles lighter and more airy. So my "footprint" increased but my grass isn't getting smothered....something else to think about maybe.Also, for reference, I am pulling this behind a Husqvarna with a 46" deck (YTH22V46).I hope this review helps someone else make a decision that is helpful to keeping up appearances in their yard

Went back and forth forever on getting one of these and glad I finally got it. I have some pine trees that drop a good bit of pine needles and I tried for a couple years to rake them up to expand/refresh the islands around the trees but it took days to do at 1-2 hours at a time, with this I can run up and down a few times with my riding mower and sweep them up easily in under 30 minutes! The second big reason I got it was I also rake my grass after cutting to put in my garden. Again, took 2-3 hours sometimes to get it all raked up and moved, now can get it done in under 30 minutes. Lastly, it will be for cleaning up the leaves (15 mature pecan trees!) in the fall which I have not had the unit long enough to try it for that but I expect it will be much, much easier than blowing/raking/picking up and moving.Assembly took some time but was not at all difficult. They provided assembly instructions and numbered each assembly process. The hardware was sealed individually and numbered to coincide with the assembly number so no guessing on which nut, bolt, washer etc to use-Excellent feature!Using it takes just a little attention to get the right height and angle and if you only use one machine to pull it it should be a set it and forget it detail. You do have to pay attention to not only where the brushes are but also the bag so it's not dragging the ground-hence the height and angle adjustments necessary. I tried it with my mower 1st then tried it with my subcompact tractor and the height had to be adjusted a couple times to get it right so now I just use it with the mower to be able to leave it set. My yard is flat but bumpy and it picks up the majority of grass or pine needles within a pass or 2. Sometimes in certain areas (dips/bumps) I might go over a 3rd time just to try to get as much as I can but with the terrain of my yard I don't expect it to pick up everything perfectly so there are spots that have some debris left-it's not bad and I'm ok with it. The only "problem" I have is storage space! lol Since I will probably be using this 7 or 8 months out of the year at least, I won't be taking it down and minimizing it's footprint most if not all year and it's big! Nothing that can be done about it and I do have a place to keep it but it is a storage hog! At 52" working width plus the frame and wheels it's closer to 5' wide and at least 6' long from the back of the bag to the front of the tow bar so keep that in mind. The price to pay for making fewer passes and having more storage before needing to empty compared to a smaller sweeper :). Overall I'm very happy with this piece of equipment as it saves me Hours and Days and I have plenty of other things to do so it frees up time to do them. And, at least for me and my property, it does the job to my satisfaction. If I had one thing I could change, I wish you could disengage the gears for when you don't want to sweep up debris or moving from where its stored to where you want to sweep but I'm sure that would up the price and make it a little more complicated and add a potential breakage point.

This is my first lawn sweeper so I have nothing to compare it to. However, quality seems good and it does work well on dry leaves which is the only thing I intend to use this for. Assembly took about an hour, instructions are off a step or two, and parts are numbered differently than the labels, but it's not too hard to figure out. The hopper fills quickly and leaves start to fall out when it's half full or so, so frequent dumping is necessary. I maintain about a 1.5 acre yard full of leaves and this beats raking for sure! Happy so far.

I have an acre of land with pecan, pine, and magnolia trees. They drop a ton of leaves and needles and it’s rough raking the entire acre. This lawn sweeper picks up so much in a single pass, I did half the property in about 10 minutes, that would normally take an hour or longer. And the dump feature is so easy to use. Assembly was simple, had all the parts needed. Instructions were easy to follow. Everything fits together well, and the locking parts lock tight. Took about 30 minutes to assemble by myself and then 10 minutes to sweep half the acre in my cub cadet. Money well spent. I usually pay someone $40-60 to rake the acre once a month. In 7-8 months this machine will pay for itself. Highly recommend.

We have a larger Simplicity tractor with a 52" deck. This large size sweeper is great to pull behind it when I need to pull up thick grass clippings or leaves in the fall. The hopper holds a cubic yard so it doesn't fill too quickly. Plenty of adjustability to match tractor heights, grass lengths and type of material you are sweeping up. Also back up and dumps easily from the tractor seat