Spreader The Stablers Rotary Manure Spreader

[PBinWA]

Anyone have or seen one of these:

The Stablers Rotary Manure Spreader

Looks like a pretty simple concept and might not be to hard to make one yourself.

 

[peppilappu]

Yes, I do.
I have had my unit for a little over 2 years and the expanded metal rotted out. I replaced the mesh with Stainless Steel.

Sad thing is the Stainless expanded metal only costs $80 more than the mild steel that rots out in a few years.

My suggestion is to buy the unit Stablers makes for the UK.

http://www.elitegroundproducts.com/

These units are made of Stainless and should last.

Not sure why the Stablers is selling a mild steel product to the unkowning US public but sells Stainless to the UK.

Im on a quest to educate the US public and make Stablers do whats right!
Sell a quality product to the US TOO!

Notice no warranty is on the site? They cant' warranty it, EVERY UNIT will be rotting out in less than three years of purchase!!!

That will put them out of business IMO !

Thanks,
Phil
Oak Acres Horse Ranch - Orlando, FL

 

[BeezFun]

Yes, I do.
I have had my unit for a little over 2 years and the expanded metal rotted out.

I'm surprised it lasted that long. I ended up buying an old New Idea spreader for $350 and it works great, and it probably holds a hundred bushels or so. But my wife found this rotary one before I bought it, so I took a look at it. I knew steel mesh wasn't going to last, and I couldn't find a warranty on their website. So I didn't feel comfortable buying one.

I agree with OP that you could probably build something similar without too much trouble. But I'd think about how you handle manure. I handle it with the tractor bucket, I think it would be hard to load a rotary without spilling manure all over the place. If you plan to load it by hand it should work fine. Also if it freezes where you're at you're going to be dumping heavy hard clumps into this thing, not sure wire mesh would survive that very well. My old spreader is built like a sherman tank

 

[rambler]

Never saw such a thing before!

I would guess it doesn't work so well with straw, but in the right situation, very interesting.

--->Paul

 

[bturner425]

I bought a used one. One of the pins that holds the door closed was missing. I have been trying to contact the Stablers to see if I could get a replacement part before I just make one myself. They have yet to return my phone calls or answer my e-mails about this. Either they don't really exist or they don't want to deal with me since I bought it used. Either way, poor customer service. It looks like a pretty good unit but I haven't been able to try it out yet.

Brian.....

 

[bturner425]

Well, they did finally call me back and are helping me get my part.

Brian.....

 

[WeDoPoo]

I feel I must post this reply to statements made on this site that are in error. The Stablers have nothing to do with the manufacturing of the rotary spreader made in the UK. This company is using some of our website pictures and idea with permission. They did however, choose to change several of our basic concepts without consulting us. One of which is a lighter guage, stainless steel.
We have been looking for heavy duty, 3# SS expanded metal for over two years and have yet been able to locate any in the US. If anyone out there knows where we can even get a quote on this, please let us know! No company would knowingly not offer what their customers want, including The Stablers!
Yes, in our six years, we have had a few replacement barrels ordered. Three of these were rusted through and the coast of Flordia is where this has occured most often. The others were just totally worn out by use of satisfied customers! We also started using, two years ago at no extra cost to our customers, a zinc primer on all our drums before powder coating. This gives the steel even better rust protection.
We offer a two year warranty on our machine, limited to repair or replacement, which is a year longer than most other spreaders!

 

[DrainPondDesign]

WeDoPoo,

Try McMaster Carr Supply McMaster-Carr

They list 304 SS up to 0.222 thk with 1.330" x 3.0" openings in raised mesh.

0.079 thk with 1.330 x 3.15" flattened mesh

They even have flattened Titanium mesh 1/4" x 1/2" opening.

If you do not see the size that you want, ask them and they will happily try to find it for you.

Hope this helps

 

[jlw498]

Bought one last year and have not been ableto get it to work correctly since purchasing it. Stablers has replied to my questions- good concept but the drum does not spin all the time as the driving wheels do not make full contact with the drum

 

[peppilappu]

An update.
Yesterday I replaced the inner guts including the piece that wipes the manure. All with stainless. Again, all rotted out. I also replaced the tires with solid airless.

Looking at the stablers site recently, I was surprised to see they are still in business.

They are now selling these as "optional" items. TRUST ME WHEN I SAY, YOU DO NOT WANT TO BUY THIS PIECE OF CRAP MACHINE WITHOUT STAINLESS AND AIRLESS TIRES.
Also the drum locking mechanism rotten out, again replaced with stainless myself.

My suggestion? Find a good welder (I do my own work) and make your own unit. It can be made for around $400.00 in materials. USING ALL STAINLESS!!!!!! AND DOING IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!!!!
Stablers should be ashamed of making something out of mild steel and think it will hold up outside and being constantly exposed to manure that is extremely corrosive to mild steel. What will they say??? OH WE POWDER COAT THE STEEL. LMAO. Seriously????? Have they ever actually used their spreader???
The first time you get a stone in the drum and it scratches the powdercoat and exposes bare metal the corrosion starts...
Any 2 year old would know that. Now if you want to sift your crap and pull every stone out by hand (shouldnt take that long) LMAO AGAIN. maybe it will last a few more months.

Oh, BTW, $300.00 for 4 airless tires!!!??? GIVE ME A break. Go to Harbor Freight and buy them for less than $100.00.

As an engineer with 4 patents, it just frustrates the **** out of me when someone makes an inferior product and over prices it to make a quick profit at someone elses expense. Usually that someone is an unexpecting consumer (like my wife) with no engineering background, trusting someone on their word that the product is good. THIS IS NOT A WELL ENGINEERED PRODUCT and I'll bet the person that designed this is NOT an engineer, just someone that thought they could make a quick buck at someone elses expense.

 

[Littleoldlady]

Hi Peppilappu
Thanks for the update on this,I have really appreciated your input in this discussion.
Being in the UK, I'm aware of a similar product being made here, but there are little things that just just don't 'feel' right about it, if you know what I mean?
For instance - no warranty-testimonials are from the US site-no real reviews on either machine on the internet - apart from here!
Anyway, I wondered if you'd be willing to give a little more information regarding the gauge etc of the metal you used, and maybe tell us all if it works well now that you've re-modeled yours?

Thanks for your time
Jean

 

[peppilappu]

Jean:
After so many issues with this product, as an Electrical, Mechanical engineer and 4 patent holder (including Red Box Video) I decided to finally just build a better product. So today I ordered all the parts to build a prototype. Unlike competitors claims, this product will truly only have 2 (TWO) moving parts. No tires, no bearings to rot, no pins to get stuck, no springs to break, no air cylinders to need replacing, no rubber to rot, no mild steel with hollow tubes to rust, no complex lifting mechanism that requires to you touch the drum to spin it to the fill position. No spinning on the tires when over filled, no centrifugal sticking to the drum when moving faster than 5MPH. This new product will allow spreading speeds of 15 MPH! Faster spreads, better spreads.

I'll have the prototype finished within a few weeks. Estimates show this new spreader called the "better spreader' will cost less, out last by a factor of ten ALL of the units out there today simply because every moving part increases the chance of maintenance by the cubed of the number. 16 moving parts has 4096 X the chance of a failure as 1 moving part.

STAY TUNED! This is going to be very exciting for the horse community!

 

[catnt]

Hi There!

I am Mrs. Peppilappu and I would like to give my review of this product.

We bought what we thought would be an amazing manure spreader. The website stated that they "GUARANTEED" this product not to rust or fall apart like the wooden spreaders.
We have a small farm, 7 acres and board horses, could be 3-7 horses, but at the time we only had 4 horses. So we bought the smallest spreader. Within 3 months the wheels fell off! When we contacted the company about their guarantee, they said they would send us new wheels. But if they are the exact same wheels, this will happen again and again. Then they said the next size up had "better made" wheels and we could up grade, but we had to bring the spreader to them and pay the difference of $1000. So we put the spreader in a trailer and hauled it from Orlando to Ocala, where they were having a show.
The bigger model, lasted a little longer, maybe 9 month. At which time the barrel rotted, now bear in mind, we do not leave the manure in the barrel, ever....It is dumped after the stalls are done!

As I am writing this Mr Peppilappu is fixing this spreader for the last time! He decided to put the new spreader design on the back burner for now.

But this is what he has had to fix this morning. The Pin fell off and he has had to re-engineer a way to put it back on. The so-called handle to open the barrel broke off. The scrapper inside the barrel broke for the umpteenth time. And the back bar finally rusted through. These are a few of the many things he has had to fix.

Please do not buy this spreader, you will be wasting your money! It is not guaranteed as they stated!!!

 

[leonz]

Their spiel sounds like the crap a mining sales engineer I used to put up
with told me promoting JH Fletcher mining equipment.


A smaller ground drive beater spreader is much less work and they have
been in use for a very long time and can be towed by a two horse team
or a small tractor.

 

[Littleoldlady]

But this spreader is 9 years old now isn't it, and looks as though it's had plenty of work?
A lick of paint would have slowed the rust too, though I thought Mr 'P' had replaced all with stainless steel- sorry, my mistake.

The ones in the UK don't seem to be available now- though that could have a lot to do with price

I often envy the selection of products you have in America- and understand the pride often shown in your ability to buy 'Made in USA' -just as we once were proud of things 'Made in England'-sadly, things here seem to be made anywhere BUT here these days !
Jean

 

[catnt]

But this spreader is 9 years old now isn't it, and looks as though it's had plenty of work?
A lick of paint would have slowed the rust too, though I thought Mr 'P' had replaced all with stainless steel- sorry, my mistake.

The ones in the UK don't seem to be available now- though that could have a lot to do with price

I often envy the selection of products you have in America- and understand the pride often shown in your ability to buy 'Made in USA' -just as we once were proud of things 'Made in England'-sadly, things here seem to be made anywhere BUT here these days !
Jean

Yes the product is 9 yrs old....but the product was purchased based on the "Guarantee" that it would "not rust" and would last years longer than their competitors spreaders. Mr P did replace the bottom portion of the barrel with stainless steel, but the rusting out portion is from the side "original portion" of the barrel. He has spent many hours, not to mention money, repairing this "crappy" spreader. I would not advise any one to purchase one....

When we first saw this spreader we actually thought it was an amazing product. I can say that the company did not think things through with this. They guaranteed the product, but every time we called them, they would not help us, then they took the guarantee off the website. We can't even find any where to post a review on it, other than here....which is years old!