Agri-Fab 45-0492, 44" Tow-Behind Lawn Sweeper

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.

After reading numerous reviews, I was initially unsure about purchasing a tow-behind sweeper. In the end, I decided to go with an Agri-Fab, and I’m pleased with my choice. The unit arrived quickly, and assembly was a breeze—I had it fully set up in about an hour. Finding the right height took a few test runs, but once adjusted, I was ready to tackle my acre-sized lawn. I was impressed with how well it picked up wet grass, leaving my yard looking neat and well-maintained. After just one use, I’m happy with my purchase. However, I do have some concerns about the durability of the catcher bag, as others have mentioned. The corners, particularly where they meet the sweeper body, lack reinforcement, which could lead to wear and tear over time. I also wish there were a way to disable the sweeper while towing it to my mowing area, as I find the bag is already a quarter full by the time I start. On the plus side, it does an excellent job of sweeping wherever I go! After my first use, I’ve already noticed some fabric stress and scuffing on the bag, which makes me question its long-term durability. I may need to reinforce it with patches to extend its lifespan.

I live in central NJ, and have a 1 acre yard with lots of trees. I purchased the lawn sweeper with hopes that it would help me pick up leaves in my yard much faster than raking. If the leaves are dry they get picked up easily, if they are wet or damp then it will take a couple of passes over the leaves in order to pick them up. The sweeper also picks up sticks, soda cans, as well as the local newspaper that always seems to be thrown in my front yard. Overall, the sweeper works very well, it is well made, sturdy and stable, and it holds more grass clippings than a lawn tractor 2-3 bagger would hold on the back of a lawn tractor. The attachment bar that hooks to the back of my tractor can be adjusted so that the grass clippings are shot out to the sweeper, but I had found that this it is difficult to adjust, it may be easier to cut the lawn then go back and sweep the lawn. The only knock on this product is following the instructions, I had to take things apart and rebuild some things by doing it again and again, 3x with some steps. There is a QR code on the box that makes you think that there is a video that will show you how to assemble the sweeper, but the only video that pops up is one that says that the assembly video is under construction. That's weak! The instructions do not have any written steps only pictures that try to show you how to build the sweeper, some of the pictures are drawn so close that I did not know if I was looking at the back or the front of the part that needed to be connected to the main piece. Although, you do not need many tools to put this product together you definitely need patience and a few hours, but once its assembled you will be happy with its performance.

I have over an acre of grass in my yard and trees surrounding it. It is a pain to pickup the yard clippings and it usually takes a full weekend's work to get the leaves. We did not rake the leaves this past fall like we should of and waited to late winter to try this. it had no problem (except for the wet leaves). it was super fast and even fun pulling it with the riding mower (my little boy loved watching the leaves fly in). After getting the leaves up, we did our first cut of the season, and offset this sweeper to pick up the clippings. the yard has never been so free of debris; it looks amazing. this even gets small sticks (and some not-so-small), so I did not have to go through and pick them up before mowing. If you have a large yard, or cut multiple yards, this is worth the price tag. It was super easy to put together with olny two bolts needing tools (see note), and it folds up easy. My favorite parts are the offset hitch and solid dump arm (most use ropes). The dump arm could be a little longer (my zero turn has the motor behind me), so I will be looking for a way to extend it a bit. The amount of yard debris in the bag is impressive. We ussually get 30-50 bags (big 33 gallon bags) of leaves each year, and this was about 8 full loads (with grass clipping). SO MUCH EASIER!!! NOTE: Be careful buying anything from Amazon warehouse. I got this with "minor cosmetic damage" and after un-boxing a good number of welds were broken and the sweeper box was bent up bad. I had to grind, weld, paint and bend back into shape before I could even get it together. 20230821 Update - I have been using this now for years and I still love it. I made some modifications to it to make it a little better (bolted angle iron as "stops" so the bag would not go past the bars holding it, and fixed the bottom of the catch bag with some thick plastic sheeting), it is still a great tool.

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.

Once I got the height dialed in this thing works awesome. It’s my first lawn sweeper but I am more than impressed with it picking everything up left from the mower. Seems to brush the grass into standing up and looking more full so that’s a bonus. The arm is a little heavy to dump the hopper when it’s full. Stores nicely in the corner with the way it breaks down for storage. Totally worth the money spent.

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 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.

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.