Spreader Sand & Salt Spreader - Need Advice

[greggh]

Has anyone used ashes from a fireplace? Would those work?

 

[Ford850]

To all the guys using sand...
How do you store it so it isn't one large block of ice when you need it? Do you hand shovel it into the spreaders? Is the sand wet or dry? How much do you apply at a time, lets say per 100' of drive?
Thanks.

 

[hwp]

I have about a 400 ft paved driveway that it is quite level. I originally tried a friction drive tow-behind drop spreader but found that when there was snow and ice on the driveway the spreader tires slid rather than turning the rotor. My tractor doesn't have a rear PTO so I fitted a tailgate style spreader with an electric motor to the back of the tractor as seen in the attached thumbnail. I have a two compartment "salt" bin with each compartment holding about of cubic yard of material. I keep straight salt in one compartment and a 50/50 sand/salt mixture in the other compartment. I buy both products by the cubic yard from a local supplier. The salt will cake from moisture over time but it is not difficult to break up. Sand on the other hand absorbs moisture and because my spreader doesn't have an agitator, the wet sand hangs up in the hopper and it can be quite difficult to get it to flow to the spinner. As a result I keep an few tubs of sand/salt in my basement next to the furnace so it is dry whenever I need it and it flows freely. I fitted a piece of 1/2" square hardware cloth to the inside of the hopper near the top to catch clumps of product and miscellaneous leaves, etc. I tend to use a lot more salt than sand for three reasons. First, our winter temperatures tend to around the freezing point so the salt will usually melt whatever snow and ice remains onthe driveway after I have plowed it. Second, it is a lot more convenient - it is in a bin at driveway level. Third, salt isn't as messy as sand, especially in terms of tracking into the house. This appraoch isn't for everyoone but it works for me.

 

[Bedlam]

The ashes work excellent and in my use they seem to bind well to the ice. The problem for me is that I have lots of nails from the ashes, and the tires seem to find them.Ive been desperate a couple times and used the ashes on the tire footprint portion, and then walked along and picked the nails out and also a magnet but its easy to miss them and always seem that it only takes one.
But if no nails it works great ,at least on a gravel drive not sure on paved if in the spring it would be another clean up chore or not.
As for the sand I use, I get a load of sandy fill each year and , wait for a day when its been hot and dry, and then shovel it into a 50 gallon drum and place in the basement , then its dry to use in the winter, (I just use it with a shovel)
Id think the key would be for it to be as dry as possible to drop down the sides of the then spreader.
Hope this helps.and nice set up Hammy.

 

[LBrown59]

To all the guys using sand...
How do you store it so it isn't one large block of ice when you need it? Thanks.

I keep several loader buckets of dirt and about a wash tub of sand in this metal building shown to the right in the picture.
There is about 7 bags of salt in there too.

Click on photo to enlarge.

 

[Hammy]

I have a 12 yard load of sand delivered each year. Ideally, it would probably be better to have it brought up during the summer so it could be dried out and kept dry but I seem to wait till the last minute.

Last year, I covered my sand pile with a tarp and with the snow over the top, it never really froze too much. The dryer portions were a lot easier to work with by far. Until I can come up with something better, I shovel it in the spreader by hand but filter it through the expanded metal.

I have found that it really doesn't take a lot of sand to do the job on the ice. It just needs to cover it. If you start spreading it, you'll quickly figure out how much you will need to gain traction.

I'll tell you, this set up I have now sure beats the way I used to do it, which was sanding my 1/3 mile driveway with a shovel and a truck bed of sand. It was a huge job and was only done when absolutely necessary. Now it's not all that bad. If I could just figure out a way to load the spreader without having to shovel it in by hand, I would be set.

I would like to build some kind of covered structure that I could keep that sand under so it wouldn't get rained or snowed on but easily accessible and cheap to build.

 

[Ford850]

I wonder if you could fabricate some short vanes to reduce the tip speed of the PTO spreaders. After looking at the King Kutter pdf manual from their site, the vanes look like they could easily be duplicated as a shorted version using some tin. That should reduce the tip speed and reduce the throw distance. Might be worth a try if you need to cover a narrow width.

 

[pane056]

Hello;

I just left the Herd Site. Was not able to find a model 5.5 I have found quite a few spreaders but they are not approved for sand and or salt. We have I think a Bultimatic, thats not right, spreaderr but it will work only with seed.

thank you, nicholas

 

[MHarryE]

Not sure how this idea will work but won't dropping the spreader down really low get the job done? My KK spreader has a decal with all kinds of different vane positions and the spreading width obtained., but at a high spreader height. I got the metal body because I had no intention of ever spreading salt - stupid thinking because fertilizer is just as corrosive. Around here the spinners on the salt/sand trucks are just barely spinning - way faster than mine would be at low idle.