Spreader Filling sander

[apriordan]

How are folks filling their spreaders? Guy I just bought one from said he couldnt take shoveling sand into the hopper anymore. Do people have two loaders? Or is everyone shoveling?

 

[George2615]

Friend of mine has a 12V spreader that plugs into the trailer hitch on his truck. He salts parking lots after plowing. He puts about 20 - 50 lb bags of salt in the bed for weight and fills the salter with them. They do the same where I used to work, Their tractor has a 12V 3 pt. PTO spreader and they load it from 50 lb bags of salt.
If you are using sand instead of salt I'd say you are stuck shoveling it in the hopper unless you bag it first or buy sand in bags.

 

[leonz]

Something tells me he did not use a flat shovel and dump the sand out of the weather
on a concrete floor in a garage or shed.

An easy way to bag sand is to put a ladder on saw horses and use an old traffic cone by cutting off a third of it or more and then you can quickly fill bags with a helper or helpers either by shoveling the sand into the cone and letting it fall in the bag or filling 5 gallon buckets half full and tossing the sand in that way which would fill bags faster but the issue is having a uniform forty pound weight in each bag.

You could always vacuum the sand up with a shop vac or Vacs and have the sand piped to a 15 gallon barrel that has a flapper lid on the bottom the vacuumed sand would fill the small barrel and when its full it would no long take any more sand and you would shut the shop vacs off and the lid would fall down and the sand would fill the spreader.

If you do it a lot a short grain auger would work well but the sand would have to be inside out of the weather to prevent its freezing.

if you look up coal vac on youtube you see a coal vac or many coal vacs at work.

Short of bagging sand in the off season and storing it inside above the filling height of the spreader on a pallet rack to dump the bags or build a storage shelf for the filled bags.

Elevating a used grain wagon would work with a coal vac set up to fill it but you would have to have the room to do it in a barn or garage and at least 2 high horsepower shop vacs and a dust deputy to prevent the filters from clogging.

 

[apriordan]

Friend of mine has a 12V spreader that plugs into the trailer hitch on his truck. He salts parking lots after plowing. He puts about 20 - 50 lb bags of salt in the bed for weight and fills the salter with them. They do the same where I used to work, Their tractor has a 12V 3 pt. PTO spreader and they load it from 50 lb bags of salt.
If you are using sand instead of salt I'd say you are stuck shoveling it in the hopper unless you bag it first or buy sand in bags.

That's what I figured. Sand is free in town, so I think I am stuck shoveling for the near future. After coming home with a sander, I realized that a loader fills the hopper of a separate vehicle like at the dpw. If I had the money that would be the route to go I guess. Could be better, but my situation could be worse.

How are folks filling their spreaders? Guy I just bought one from said he couldnt take shoveling sand into the hopper anymore. Do people have two loaders? Or is everyone shoveling?

 

[apriordan]

Something tells me he did not use a flat shovel and dump the sand out of the weather
on a concrete floor in a garage or shed.

An easy way to bag sand is to put a ladder on saw horses and use an old traffic cone by cutting off a third of it or more and then you can quickly fill bags with a helper or helpers either by shoveling the sand into the cone and letting it fall in the bag or filling 5 gallon buckets half full and tossing the sand in that way which would fill bags faster but the issue is having a uniform forty pound weight in each bag.

You could always vacuum the sand up with a shop vac or Vacs and have the sand piped to a 15 gallon barrel that has a flapper lid on the bottom the vacuumed sand would fill the small barrel and when its full it would no long take any more sand and you would shut the shop vacs off and the lid would fall down and the sand would fill the spreader.

If you do it a lot a short grain auger would work well but the sand would have to be inside out of the weather to prevent its freezing.

if you look up coal vac on youtube you see a coal vac or many coal vacs at work.

Short of bagging sand in the off season and storing it inside above the filling height of the spreader on a pallet rack to dump the bags or build a storage shelf for the filled bags.

Elevating a used grain wagon would work with a coal vac set up to fill it but you would have to have the room to do it in a barn or garage and at least 2 high horsepower shop vacs and a dust deputy to prevent the filters from clogging.

This is legit. McGuyver sounding and I like it. If a hay conveyor could only move sand haha. I could get a silo going with sand and rig up a dispenser for the sander hopper.

Already have enough project, but I like the sound of that one.

 

[powerscol]

I had a neighbor in my subdivision that used bagged material (ice slicer) in his snow removal business, He bought it by the pallet load (full truck load each year). He would place a full pallett on a stand in his garage/barn with his pallet forks, The side of the stand had a nice ladder and it is high enough for him to partially back the hopper under. Then he just climbed up and dumped the bags in. Top is wide enough to give him a place to stand. This would probably work for bulk material if you constructed some sort of tray to lift up. Stand was made of 4x4 post with lots of cross bracing and a boxed base. I think it was 4x8 by 6' tall (high enough to clear the top of his truck mounted sander). Unfortunately he has moved so I cant get pictures. I got to see it when he gave me a bag to keep my drive ice free after the wife's broken leg. Worked well for him. He had a trash bin to the side to put the bags in after use. He was a great neighbor.

 

[shui5612]

There are Sanders that tilt down, you lower it with the 3ph and back up into a pile of sand/salt and tilt back up. Like a bucket on a loader. I'm actually looking to buy one of those.

Otherwise, for a normal sander I used buckets and set up half a dozen buckets with a tiny bit of salt and poured them in. Gives me the ability to adjust the ratio of sand/salt easily.

 

[bcp]

5 gallons buckets of sand, and a HF pickup bed crane with electric winch. Or even an engine hoist with a winch.

Bruce

 

[TO_Bud]

I built an elevated trough for mine. I put a hinge at one end and used a hand crank and cable from TSC on the other. I layed it flat to load with the bucket. Then backed the spreader under the hinged end, got off the tractor and cranked the hand winch to about 45 degrees and the sand would slide down. I would have to assist some with a hand hoe but it was quite a bit easier than shoveling 12 cu ft of sand each time.

 

[apriordan]

I built an elevated trough for mine. I put a hinge at one end and used a hand crank and cable from TSC on the other. I layed it flat to load with the bucket. Then backed the spreader under the hinged end, got off the tractor and cranked the hand winch to about 45 degrees and the sand would slide down. I would have to assist some with a hand hoe but it was quite a bit easier than shoveling 12 cu ft of sand each time.

I do have an elevated concrete platform I could turn into storage for sand. Lower the 3pt and push sand in... the whole in the machine, out of the machine is killing me....