Spreader Cheapest spreader that works well?

[JCA]

I need a way to spread a salt/sand mixture on my private road, that doesn't cost too much. I've seen cheap tailgate versions ($150), but heard complaints because of the lack of an agitator. I want something that works reliably.

Freezing rain last night left the driveway a solid sheet of ice. The guy driving the sand truck lost it coming down the hill (they usually back down but this was a new guy), turned 3/4 way around and ended up with one wheel dangling over the edge of a 25 foot decline. Wasn't wearing his seatbelt. We got him out of there, but it was scary, even for me, and I wasn't driving. $45 / shot, btw.

So what do you use, how well does it work, and how much did it cost?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[hwp]

Jim:
There are a couple of questions we need answers to. How long is your driveway (i.e. how much salt/sand do you need the hopper to hold)? and what are you going to mount the spreader on?

BigDave had an interesting post a few days ago on a Vicon he just bought. This is a 3ph PTO driven unit that looks like it will hold quite a lot of sand/salt in the hopper - maybe a quarter of a yard? Maybe he can fill us in on how much driveway he can do with a hopper full of sand. It has an wigwag speading arm and an agitator in the hopper.

At the other end of the spectrum I have a Byers tailgate type spreader mounted on my tractor - electric motor drives a spin plate. The hopper on my unit is fairly small - may 20 shovells full - and I have to refill it to do all of my 500 foot driveway. These are not cheap units - I think I paid about $US500 for mine a couple of years ago, but I think they have come down in price. There is no agitator in the tub which is a pain because sand stored outside holds a lot of moisture and doesn't flow down the tub very well. Thanks to some suggestions from others on TBN, I have started storing a few tote boxes of sand/salt in my basement to let it dry a bit. I have only tried using this "dried" method once but it worked quite well. Overall I am quite pleased with the Byers unit.

You can also get pull-behind unit, both as drop spreaders and as cyclone spreaders, and maybe even wigwag but I haven't seen one.

Hope this helps.

 

[JCA]

My driveway/private road is about 700' long. I intend to mount it in the 3PH of my Kubota B7510.

Cheers,
Jim

 

[Benson]

I use a cone shaped 3PH broadcast spreader that is designed for fertilizer. It has an agitator that runs off the PTO. It holds about 400 or so pounds of sand. We had a lot of ice last winter, and it did a good job on my driveway.

It took a while to get used to sanding just the drive. The first few times I had the RPMs too high and sanded a 50 ft wide path. It worked best when I kept the RPMs low and kept the opening to the spreader about 25% open.

TSC has these for about $400 or so if I remember right. You can also find some high end spreaders that deal with frozen sand or gravel for upwards of $1,000. I do the same as HWP-Keep 50 pound bags of sand in my garage so it isn't frozen when I start. Hope this helps.
John