# Which Bagger To Buy - Hard or Soft?



## Stingingfork (Sep 23, 2013)

I just purchased my first lawn tractor and I want to purchase a rear bagger for it and need some advice from owners of both types - hard plastic bins or soft bags. My mower is a Craftsman CTX9000 with a 42" deck and it appears that all of the baggers that Sears sells for a 42" deck will fit my mower and they have two sizes for both, the plastic bins or the soft bags, one is a 2 bagger and one is a 3 bagger. Is there any problem with getting even distribution of the clippings using one size or the other? Could someone please comment on the advantages with owning either the hard or the soft? Also I will be using the bagger system at my primary residence but would be wanting to use the side discharge on one to two acres at my mini farm where I have a cabin. Is this a big problem to disconnect the chute and be able to use the side discharge? Do I just leave the mounting frame on the rear of the mower and remove the top, bags & chute? Thanks for any help you can offer.


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## Country Boy (Mar 18, 2010)

Personally, I prefer the hard bins. I find them easier to empty (its like dumping out a garbage can). Ariens has gone to all soft bags, and when they fill up with grass, they can be a bit awkward to handle to get dumped out. The bags might be more durable being soft and not as easy to crack/shatter than the hard bins. If that bagger is anything like the ones on the Ariens tractors (built by Husqvarna, same as the Craftsman ones) then changing it over to side discharge is a piece of cake. Just disconnect the two rubber straps that hold the boot on, and pull the boot/tube assy off. You can leave the bagger frame attached, or pop a tab and lift the entire assembly off the tractor. Shouldn't take you more than 2 minutes to get it all off.


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## Stingingfork (Sep 23, 2013)

Thanks Rich for the heads up on soft vs hard bins. I found out that although I have a 42" deck Sears only has one bagger with two soft bins that will work with my tractor and I guess since the tractor was from their Pro series last year they decided it was worth about $100 more than their other bagger units for their other 42" decks! Go Figure!

I'm rethinking maybe going with a lawn sweeper with a dethatcher as an alternative - what do you think about those? Do they work as well as using a bagger setup for cleaning the lawn?


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## wjjones (May 28, 2010)

Stingingfork said:


> Thanks Rich for the heads up on soft vs hard bins. I found out that although I have a 42" deck Sears only has one bagger with two soft bins that will work with my tractor and I guess since the tractor was from their Pro series last year they decided it was worth about $100 more than their other bagger units for their other 42" decks! Go Figure!
> 
> I'm rethinking maybe going with a lawn sweeper with a dethatcher as an alternative - what do you think about those? Do they work as well as using a bagger setup for cleaning the lawn?




The sweeper, and dethatcher are alot easier to work with.


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## OldBuzzard (Jun 23, 2011)

I have the soft bags on my CC LTX1045. I think that based on the way I use them that they are better than the hard ones.

I line them with plastic garbage bags, and when full just tie up the bag, and turn the baggers upside down. When I'm finished, I just hook up the trailer and collect all the bags. With the soft mesh sides, the bags just slide out easily. With hard sides there would most likely have an 'air seal' which would make getting the bags out a lot harder.

When it's "Leaf Season", I use a Bolens 1256 with an EZ-Vac, and when I decide to dethatch, I just add the front mounted, PTO powered dethatcher:


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## Stingingfork (Sep 23, 2013)

OldBuzzard, nice setup to take care of business during the fall leaf season. Thankfully I don't have a lot of trees to worry with on my property but during a typical windy fall day I seem to get a lot of my neighbor's leaves!


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