CCW 1,373 #1 Posted Tuesday at 06:19 PM Two years ago I had to stop using my walk behind lawn mower due to hip surgery. I turned to my 312-8 to cut the grass resulting in lots of mown grass on the lawn. My solution was an Ohio Steel lawn sweeper purchased at my local TSC. After two years of success and failure I feel I can give an honest account of this piece of equipment. The sweeper was fairly easy to assemble and put to work. Learning which height setting to use was not difficult (I use #3 for grass). The first annoying problem I experience is the drawbar is somewhat short. This was corrected with a 24" maple board and an old hitch coupler which made backing up the sweeper much easier. Second problem and a design flaw which is not really a design flaw but makes it easy to damage the height adjustment lever. The lever is the most outside item on the left side of the sweeper as you pull it. If you're not careful it can get caught on a T-Post of a wire fence. Ask me how I know. When it snagged the post it bent outward and the locator pin would not stay in the indexing holes. To repair this I need to disassemble the sweeper to access this lever. Since I did not have a snap ring plier I had to a rig up some clamps to spring the lever back enough for the pin to stay in an index hole. I now have the pliers to completely disassemble the wheel and fully access the lever to finish the job (this job is on the list). Latest repair. The bagger is kept expanded with a vertical tube at the back of the bag. The base of the tube had a pressed in pin and the top had a pressed in nut which a thumb screw bolted through the top cross tube. This worked, for a while. Eventually the pressed in nut worked its way out and would no longer stay in place. The lower pin finally came out as well. These I repaired by pressing a dowel into both ends, drilling appropriately sized holes to accepts bolts, or screws if you wish. After bolting this together this supporting tube has not come out again. Overall the bagger has been doing its job of grass pickup as designed. It has also made leaf pick up a much easier job. On a scale of one to ten I have to give it a seven due to the repairs and modifications I have made. 2 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
andrewLL 19 #2 Posted Tuesday at 10:14 PM How about some pictures? Picture paints a thousand words, thanks. Andrew. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites