Spreader 3 point Spreader for Sand and Salt?

[westbrooklawn]

Has anyone tried to use a cone type fertilizer/seeder spreader to spread sand for ice management on drives and parking lots? I am wondering if it would feed all right or if it would freeze, clog, etc. Anyone have experience?

 

[kingoflawns]

I use my sitrex fs 150 for icemelt & rocksalt, it works great. I think it would work for sand if it was bone dry! Don't even try if the sand is wet!

 

[westbrooklawn]

King -

Thanks for the feedback... I was afraid it was wishful thinking to expect it to work with sand...

 

[drm]

Some of the salt spreaders are designed to spread sand also but they tend to be the larger/more expensive models. I would think that you would need a spreader with a heavy mixing blade in the hopper to break-up the clumps.

...Derek

 

[JoeL4330]

Just bought cheap receiver hitch sand/salt spreader, and have a clamp-on receiver on my FEL (I have snow blower on back) ...haven't used it yet, ice magically melted when I ordered it and no snow or ice since.

 

[Deerlope]

JoeL4330, I been looking for just such a sander. Could you tell us a little more about the one that you just bought?

 

[ksmmoto]

I have a Cosmo spreader I bought at TSC. I haven't even set it up yet, but will soon. I am planning on buy 80 lb bags of sandblast/pool filter sand for ice. My local lumberyard has it for about $3.00 bag. Much easier than digging sand and keeping it dry!

ksmmoto

 

[Deerlope]

In this part of the country just sand does not work well because the wind blows it away. We have to use a salt/sand mix to keep the salt/sand in place. Also it keeps the sand from freezing when store out side and under cover. Cover keeps the rain from washing the salt out.

 

[hwp]

The unit Joel4330 has is probably a big brother to the Buyers "SUV" unit I have. The only issue I have with the SUV unit is that there is no aggitator, which means that it does not work well with sand unless the sand is very dry. It works great for salt though. When I have to salt my driveway, I load it up with 30 round mouth shovelfulls of salt and away I go. That is just enough salt to do my driveway. I buy salt (and sand) by the cubic yard. I have the remote control for the spreader mounted in the cab so I can turn the it on or off when I want, such as turning around at the end of the driveway. My unit is a few years old and Buyers now has a unit with a smaller motor, but I don't know how well it works. One problem with the current generation of dc motors is that the fields are glued in place. When the fields come loose, you have to buy a new motor. I had that happen this fall and it cost me $400 for a new motor! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Deerlope]

I found a web site that you can buy an agitator for around a 100 bucks. its made for units with plastic hoppers such as yours.

 

[sandman2234]

Seems like the neighborly thing to do would be to post a link to that website.
David from jax

 

[Deerlope]

Sorry about that Sandman but it was late last night.
www.KarrierCo.com

 

[hwp]

Thanks for the interesting link. But it is vibrator, not an agitator. It would take a lot of power to turn an agitator in sand which is the reason that these units do not come with an agitator. Salt does not absorb much water so it flows freely if it isn't caked. I fitted a screen (1/2" hardware cloth) inside the hopper about three inches from the top. This catches the clumps of salt (and other debris) which can then be broken up or removed. The salt passing though the screen flows freely to the bottom and out to the spinner. The problem with sand is that it absorbs water and when moist has a high angle of repose so it doesn't flow freely. When I put bulk sand in the hopper I have to frequently stop and bang the sides of the hopper with the back of a shovel to get sand to flow down to the spinner (a real PITA). I store my bulk sand in an enclosed sand box which I fill in the spring and even though the sand is in protected storage over the summer, it still retains enough moisture to not flow freely. It would take a very strong vibrator to have the overcome the repose problem with moist sand. But these spreaders work well with dry sand which flows easily. In the fall, I buy bagged dry sand and use the spreader to spread sand on my lawns after they have been aerated and it works great. This is a trick I learned from the golf course to help break down the clay. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Deerlope]

I may have misread Karrier's page but it was my understanding that the vibrator went on the out side of the hopper and that the current(Amp) draw was very small.


I went to their site and read it again and the vibrator does mount in the outside of the hopper with SS carriage bolts. They would be happy to have a phone call from you to descuss your needs.

 

[Deerlope]

I have searched the internet for hours and can not find what I need to spread salted sand. So knowing what I need I will build it. It will spread useing a starter motor and will mount on the tailgate of the RTV.

 

[hwp]

Two points I should have made earlier. The first is that I use two materials to manage the ice and snow on my driveway, one is straight salt and the other is a premixed (by the supplier) sand/salt mixture (which I have been refering to as sand). My materials box has two compartments, one for salt and one for the sand/salt mixture. Each compartment holds a little over a cubic yard and I buy both by the cubic yard. The second is that to overcome the flow problem with the sand/salt mixture, I keep tubs of it close to the basement furnace on a heated floor. Then when I need it, the mixture is dry enough to readily flow through the spreader. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[sailnseagulls]

I recently purchased a Herd salt/sand spreader from my local Kubota Dealer. I got the 5.5 size for my BX, but they have a larger model that hold 1200lbs of material. It has an auger inside that breaks up the wet sand. They advertise that it will spread wet sand stored outside. I have used this three times so far this winter and am pleased with the result. I have a salt/sand mix stored under a tarp outside. It may be worth looking into at www.herdseeder.com.