Perhaps you need to clear a parking lot of a dusting of snow after a storm. Or, maybe you need to clear a trail system on your property of leaves. EIther way, there are a couple of directions you can go. Some people will struggle for years with a handheld leaf blower. They spend countless hours per week on a task which could be completed in a fraction of the time. Once you get used to using a ride on leaf blower for clearing large areas or long pathways, you’ll have a hard time going back. Many facility managers and maintenance services have made the switch to a ride on leaf blower.
Ride On Leaf Blower Pros And Cons
Why would you choose a ride on model instead of the walk behind leaf blower? There are quite a few reasons we’ll outline below.
Of course there are other options than a ride on leaf blower. Undoubtedly you’ve considered the walk behind leaf blower. Maybe you have a walk behind and though you appreciate the maneuverability, you don’t necessarily need to maneuver much to clear the soccer field of leaves. Or maybe you’ve been that guy with a gas powered handheld or backpack blower and finding yourself clearing huge areas. You may wish there was a way you could get this job done in a fraction of the time. This is where the ride on leaf blower makes sense.
CFM Comparison
While the walk behind leaf blowers are usually in the 1000 CFM and above range, the ride on leaf blower is often more in the neighborhood of 3000 CFM and above. Both are massively powerful when compared to a 500 CFM backpack unit. However, you can see the ride on leaf blowers are in a class unto themselves.
You really can’t get higher power until you start looking at attachment leaf blowers for a tractor. Sometimes these attachments make sense, but as any maintenance professional will tell you, the time it takes to change attachments, regardless of how simple the task, can make all the difference in frequency of use.
Think about it for a second, if you have one guy on the crew who knows how to change out all the attachments on your tractor, and that guy is out sick, the leaves don’t get blown. Or worse, someone tries to change out the attachment and winds up damaging the hitch or hurting themselves. In our opinion, when you have the space for it, a sole purpose walk behind leaf blower is one of the best tools for blowing huge open spaces.
Is A Ride On Leaf Blower Good For Homeowners?
Though rarely these make sense for homeowners, there are applications where these are excellent for you or your maintenance staff. For example, a large gentleman’s farm. This is where you need to clear a large meadow of leaves, or clear leaves from your private trail system. Without a walk behind leaf blower, clearing the leaves from a trail system will seem like an incredible waste of time. However, with one you can keep trails clear and the walking surface clear.
When working on a paving crew, you often need to clear large areas. These include driveways and roadways of dust and rainwater to keep work moving along. The ride on leaf blower can help keep work moving along without the need to worry about hand held leaf blowers not hitting every inch of the surface. When you’re working in the 3000 CFM range, you can move so much more dust and leaf litter, along with water with every pass, it’s far more difficult to miss a spot.
Likewise when you have a parking lot covered in a dusting of snow, instead of going out there and wasting hundreds of dollars in snow melt, a powerful leaf blower can get the job done for you. Whether a walk behind or ride on leaf blower, the task will be much easier to do. Furthermore, you don’t need to use excess salt.
Ride On Leaf Blower Summary
In conclusion, a ride on leaf blower is not for everyone. In fact, it rarely makes sense for a homeowner. Although, these leaf blowers still have their place. If you have a long driveway with tree cover, you may want one. However, these leaf blowers really shine when you have a large field or construction site to clear. They save you from wasting time doing it with a handheld.
