I know folks with CR and also the typical Agri Fab units. I think the Agri Fabs with the shredder built inside do a much better job of shredding the debri thats picked up. The agriFabs have three sets of flail knives with 3 knifes per set, and it does a super job of mincing up twigs, pine cones etc into confetti sized pieces.
The CR is somewhat easier to back up since it uses caster type wheels on it instead of a typical trailer, but it also adds to problems if manuvering in close confined areas as that cart swings pretty widea s compared to most trailer types that follow in the pulling machines path for the most part. So there are pros and cons to that, good concept, but backing up a agri fab is not a problem at all. The biggest gripes my friend has that has the CR is its velcroe and fabric. Tough as it may be it still is prone to tearing and requires a heavy duty sewing machine to fix.......the steel trailer or hardtop types take a pretty good beating.
I am not really sold on the CR claim to fame on their high tech fan impeller. What these machines (agri Fab, Trac Vac, Giant Vac, CR and Blue Bird are actually capable of sucking up it should certainly not hurt a steel fan impeller. They certaily are not gonna suck uip a brick or even a half a brick. Just the use I have used my Agri Fab on since I got it, its impeller is not hurt or damaged and its a great machine. I suck up gravel and nuts and bolts that find their way out into the yard etc . I drive over limbs up to 1" diam anbd shred it with the mower deck and the rest goes into the vac cart. Lots of noise but no damage. I think their claim to other steel fan blades needing replacement every year or two is hogwash.
Most of the others all have 6 or more fan blades while the CR has 4. The less blades the more suction but it also produces more noise. My homebrew has four blades and I'll put it against any factory made vac cart out there in the 10hp and under class anyday. I can suck up junk, pinecones, pine straw etc with my homebuilt vac cart without the mower deck assist. You need the mower deck running with all the other units mentioned above for them to work right and pickup anything other than paper scraps. If there are pieces of limbs etc I need to run the mower deck to bust em up so they do not clog the hose or intake boot.
You can always pull the hard top enclosure off the other types and havbe a utility trailer. The CR is only going to give you what amounts to a set of bedspring frames for a trailer with their construction. Yes its nice to be able to knock something down for storage space, but yuou can also utilize the insdes of a hard trailer type to store odds and ends in that are only used off season along with the cart. I leave mine outside with a cover made of naugahyde to cover the motor and fan assembly, and it has yet to leak any appreciable amount of water inside the traielr part.
BUT...now this is only my opinion..........the biggest drawback that CR has going for it is it uses Tecumseh engines.........at one time they offered Briggs engines, but now its all Tec line of engines.
