Redneck leaf blower

[daveshoe]

I inherited a Billy Goat leaf vac/blower and towed it behind the lawn mower to help move leaves toward the edge of thew lawn[a field].First,the mower chopped up the leaves to a powder,and the whole ones that escaped were blown farther away from the mower's next pass.The mower only had to deal with the embedded leaves in the lawn,and I was able to move a 75 foot wide stretch of lawn all the way into the field from the tractor seat. I did 1/2 acre of lawn in one hour.It looked very clean when finished.
The reason I am posting here is that I believe anyone could build such a device with a used squirrel cage [belt driven] furnace blower and a gas engine. Such a blower is much more effecient than the setup I used,because the Billy Goat's fan is built heavy to grind the leaves,not needed in this application.You would need to add screens to the fan intakes to prevent clogging,but that is about it.
I do have a hand-held blower,but I only use it to move leaves away from the corners,and off gravel driveways,and to ''sweep'' barn floors. Have fun!