Spreading just a tiny amount of road salt?

[deezler]

To stir the pot here.... why don't you guys just... let some ice stay on your driveway? Unless you have a real steep hill in the shady woods (I'm sure some of you do, like Lou), I can't wrap my head around spending up to an hour of your time to spread corrosive, environmentally damaging chemicals around your property.

My 1000' driveway has a decent hill on it (ok, only 30' tall and not that steep) but its no problem unless someone comes over with bald all season tires and doesn't know how to drive. The delivery trucks have no problem, and my cars have snow tires for winter. But it's basically been an ice sheet for 3 weeks now. There's still plenty of gravel that pokes up through the ice to provide some traction, I guess.

Salting your private driveway strikes me as similar to fertilizing and mowing your monocrop lawn twice a week. Is it OCD, vanity, or truly for safety? (flame suit on).

 

[jyoutz]

We have local environmentalists taking samples of stream waters near roads to test for salt contamination (maybe this happens in your area, too). They are finding salt levels above that of ocean salt water after road salt has washed off. They are also reporting the killing of wildlife and harm to stream ecosystems from it.

In my region, de-icing salts are killing ponderosa pines in strips along the highways.

 

[Hay Dude]

To stir the pot here.... why don't you guys just... let some ice stay on your driveway? Unless you have a real steep hill in the shady woods (I'm sure some of you do, like Lou), I can't wrap my head around spending up to an hour of your time to spread corrosive, environmentally damaging chemicals around your property.

My 1000' driveway has a decent hill on it (ok, only 30' tall and not that steep) but its no problem unless someone comes over with bald all season tires and doesn't know how to drive. The delivery trucks have no problem, and my cars have snow tires for winter. But it's basically been an ice sheet for 3 weeks now. There's still plenty of gravel that pokes up through the ice to provide some traction, I guess.

Salting your private driveway strikes me as similar to fertilizing and mowing your monocrop lawn twice a week. Is it OCD, vanity, or truly for safety? (flame suit on).

Your areas people are accustomed to driving on ice.
Go to say Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, it’s a whole ‘nother story. Many People there want an inch of crunchy salt to drive on.

 

[deezler]

Your areas people are accustomed to driving on ice.
Go to say Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, it’s a whole ‘nother story. Many People there want an inch of crunchy salt to drive on.

For sure. I was glad my driveway iced up - now it'll be super easy to plow our next snow without losing any gravel.

 

[oosik]

For about twenty years we had a wood stove - then a pellet stove. The ash worked OK on the valley portion of my driveway. On the walkway into the house - not good at all. Ash would get tracked into the house.

Plowable snow depths prior to the gravel driveway freeze up - reverse your rear blade.

 

[IndyJay]

For about twenty years we had a wood stove - then a pellet stove. The ash worked OK on the valley portion of my driveway. On the walkway into the house - not good at all. Ash would get tracked into the house.

Plowable snow depths prior to the gravel driveway freeze up - reverse your rear blade.

We used ash from our wood stove for ice control, worked great. We kicked our shoes off in the mud room so that was not a problem.

 

[dlctcg]

As many have said, for your needs, the walk behind spreader will probably more than fit your needs.... however back to your original question. I would stay away from a standard 3pt spreader it will be very hard to control the spread... but if you want more of an automated system I would keep my eye out for a used tailgate sander, they will usually come with a controller to run two or 3 small motors to control feed rate & the spinner (spread) rate & some have a vibratory motor as well. We have a small one that is setup with a standard 2" hitch & Cat 1 attachment.

But for the right price (used) you could modify for your own mount....

Not a cheap solution... But again if you really want to automate the process this is a good solution... We have a SnowEx model... if you go to the link on the right side you can click Tractor to narrow down the search.

 

[SmallChange]

Unless you have a real steep hill in the shady woods

I do. And at the bottom it tees at a crisp 90 degree angle onto a narrow country road with 50+ mph traffic.

One time I slid all the way out to the center of the road. Fortunately nobody was coming at that moment.

I should mention, I was on foot.

 

[deezler]

One time I slid all the way out to the center of the road. Fortunately nobody was coming at that moment.
I should mention, I was on foot.

 

[dodge man]

I do. And at the bottom it tees at a crisp 90 degree angle onto a narrow country road with 50+ mph traffic.

One time I slid all the way out to the center of the road. Fortunately nobody was coming at that moment.

I should mention, I was on foot.

Similar thing here. I never slid out on foot though, but now that you brought it up I probably will.