45-0299 48" Tow Behind Lawn Plug Aerator with Universal Hitch; Designed to Pull Behind Lawn & Garden Tractors

After shopping around at the local big box retailers, I decided to check this out on Amazon. Honestly, I didnt see how Amazon would be able to offer this aerator at a competitive price considering its weight and shipping costs. Boy, was I wrong. Not only was the price less than the big box stores, but using Amazon Prime, this was delivered in 2 days! As to the aerator, I have no complaints. The assesmbly did take a good hour, but if you have the right tools, its easy. The aerator is of high quality and solid construction. I have aeratored 4 lots (each over 1/2 acres) and have been very pleased with the results as well as the durability of the unit. I have hit a few trees, backed into things, turned too sharp, etc....and have had no issues with the aerator, have not broken anything or bent anything so far. I am 6'1 and can reach the control arm on the aerator without getting off the tractor. I would imagine if you are shorter, or if the tractor you are using is larger, you may have to get off the tractor to raise and lower the aerator. Even if you would have to do this, I still don't see it as an issue or a reason to decrease a star from the rating. Pros: Heavy Duty - High Quality Sharp, Core Plug Aerator Heavy Duty Wheels Easy to Assemble (1 Hour with recommended tools) No more renting and hauling back and fourth Con: May have to dismount tractor to raise and lower aerator Takes ups a decent amount of space in garage :)

Im giving this 4 stars, probably should be 4,5 but here is why I am knocking stars off. This was not an easy assembly. In fact it was a very tedious, dangerous and frankly unnecessary assembly. That box is big enough that those spines should already come pre assembled in my book. That would alleviate about half of the torture and danger of putting this thing together. With that said. I was missing 4 lock nuts in total. Want to guess where they were in the assembly of the device? The very last steps of putting the tray together. Where you have to push the tray over and tghten everything down so that when you pull the lever forward, it stays in one spot. Mine doesnt do that. At least not without a bungee cord helping to hold it in place. So, with those shortcomings, lets get on to actual use. I put 4 cinder blocks in the tray, Each was packed with dirt in them. Probably putting a total of 100-130 lbs of weight on it. Weight evenly distributed over the entire tray. We had almost 3 inches of rain and this was done about 3 days afterwards. I found one flaw to this aerator and that is it wont work evenly if your yard isnt even. Mine has a lot of bumps and dips in it so often the center was fully penetrated while the outter edges only went in half an inch or so. I think the only way to avoid that would have been with a super heavy drum that I probably shouldnt be trying to tow with my lawn tractor to begin with lol. After going over the yard in both directions, it was a sight to see all those little dirt plugs sitting on the ground. To think that if I had actually gotten to do this the day after it rained, it would have probably been even better. So for it doing its actual job, I give it a 4 out of 5 as well. Still taking points off because for me, I have to get off my tractor to be able to use the wheel lever. Another sore spot I found is not fun is storage. There is no easy way to store this thing. With that lever, it makes it impossible to lean up against a wall out of the way. For something that may only get used once or twice a year, being more storage friendly would have been a nice thing.

I rarely write reviews but can't say enough about this product. Arrival - Package was delivered on time but when it arrived the box was ripped, taped and still had some holes. This thing is heavy and the boxing/packaging does not appear adequate for the size and weight of this item. My initial fear was how many parts were missing but in the end they were all there. This is primarily due to the nuts, bolts and most small parts are packed in plastic bags in smaller boxes. Assembly - WEAR GLOVES. Of course I did not at first because "I know what I am doing".......I made it through almost the entire assembly before I aerated my right hand....so wear gloves. As with anything you have to assemble its depressing when you see the shear number of parts but I have to say it went together fairly quickly....wrench set, pliers, and socket set made things easier. About the only problem I had was I accidently used the 5/16th bolts/nuts/washers where I was supposed to use the 3/8th inch bolts/nuts/washers so I had to go back figure out where I used them and swap them out for the 3/8ths. I would suggest just identify everything up front and put them in separate piles and you won't make the mistake that I did. Use/Performance - after all was assembled I took a quick trip to Home Depot and bought four 24" Bungee Cords and four 8" X 8" X 16" concrete blocks which are standard size concrete blocks. Hooked the Agri-Fab up to my riding mower, Put the blocks horizontally in order for the bungee cords to hold down the two right blocks and repeated the set up for the two left blocks Then I did my entire one acre lot in about 30 minutes. The soil in my area is clay-based but was moist from a recent rain. I consistently got 1" to 3" plugs and it did a wonderful job. Summary - this thing is very well built, all heavy metal (with exception of wheels). I did save some of the cardboard box and cut it to fit in the aerator tray to minimize scratching the tray with the concrete blocks. Next time I take it out I will probably just line it with some carpet or 1/4 plywood cut-to-fit. The only other thing I would mention is be aware that this is 48" WIDE and try to plan your turns when near the curb or patio/driveway. I made one turn a bit too wide and "plugged" the edge of my asphalt driveway but other than that I made no further mistakes. This thing should last for years, probably will have to sharpen the pluggers at some point but after doing two acres (lent it to my neighbor for his yard) the pluggers remained very sharp. If you hit a root or large subsurface stone it just bounced up a bit. Three times and this thing will have paid for itself as a rental was $75/Day. I highly recommend this as a solid yard implement and a good value purchase. Tom 6/3/2017

My husband recently purchased the Agri-Fab Aerator. He used it in early June 2023 to aerate a fairly new lawn that we initially seeded last autumn 2022. He is pleased with the way the aerator worked and thinks it did a good job aerating the lawn for over-seeding.

Very happy with this. Arrived in a couple of days, straight forward assembly took about an hour, works well and is easily handled by my old 12hp Toro even with twice the recommended weight on it. Impossible to reach the lifting handle from the tractor seat but a piece of rope solves that.

Wir haben das Gerät bestellt. Leider fehlte ein sehr wichtiges Teil, was wir auch erst bemerkten, als der Rasenlüfter fast fertig zusammengebaut war. Sofort haben wir reklamiert und bekamen die Antwort, dass das fehlende Teil nachgeliefert würde. Nach 3 Wochen haben wir aber immer noch nichts erhalten, weshalb wir nochmals geschrieben haben (der Rasenlüfter kann ohne dieses fehlende Teil nicht betrieben werden). Die Antwort war, dass das Teil in den USA bestellt werden müsste, weshalb eine Nachlieferung lange dauern kann. Für uns nicht verständlich: weshalb kann man nicht aus einem vorhandenen Bausatz das Teil nehmen und uns zustellen. Es kann doch nicht sein, dass wir das Gerät, welches bezahlt ist, nicht gebrauchen können, nur weil das fehlende Teil angeblich aus den USA bezogen werden muss.

evrythig satisfactory with 1st class service

Although there was a lengthy wait, I am thoroughly impressed by the function of this aerator.