TSC Spreader Advice and Mods

[iamhistory]

Hey Fellas......

A little background to fill you in and then two questions on a spreader: I have a mile long "driveway" that is more like a mountain road to a hunting camp. It is a real pain to maintain but for our property it's a pain we are willing to tolerate and adapt to dealing with more effectively each year.

I recently picked up one of the red 500lb hopper 3pt. spreaders at TSC. It's advertised as and has a King Kutter label but says Cosmo on the serial number plate and is made in Italy. I plan on spreading on my road in the winter and managing my garden crops and deer plots in the summer.

My question is two fold: For spreading on a road to manage icy conditions, how do you guys keep the material moving through the hopper without having to stick a shovel in the thing every two minutes? I've used sand which wasn't bad and only needed minor tending to in the hopper but didn't really do much for my road. I had to switch to "screenings" to improve the road at all. They were a little wet, ridiculously heavy and very thick in the hopper. I had to creep along while my brother kept sticking a shovel in the hopper to keep the material moving. Needless to say it was not ideal but it did work and we got the road cindered. It was better but only mildly better than standing in the bed of a pickup shoveling material out onto the road as we drive. The agitator in the hopper cannot move around in that heavy stuff so how can we keep the material breaking up and going down out of the chute to be thrown?

The second part to my question is for modification purposes......as I have seen others post here, the spreader spreads the material out really far and more to the sides of the road instead of on the tire tracks. I want to make a shroud for the sides of the spreader to contain the fan pattern of the spread to more behind the tractor and less of out to the sides. Do any of you guys have a picture of things you've done for this type of mod? I also am thinking of doing a mod to the agitator to make it more aggressive and stable instead of the loose rod on the wheel type agitator this spreader has. If I replaced the rod & wheel with something more like the bottom of a kitchen blender, would that keep my material coming down into the chute?

I'm thinking these things can be remedied but I wanted to post here before I wasted a lot of time on trial and error. Thanks guys.....I hope my post is clear. If you need clarifications to help answer questions, I'll try and be more detailed.

Thanks!
iamhistory
Kubota B7800 and loving every second of seat time!!

 

[Cooldmax]

I think the best solution is try to keep your material dry. Wet material is always going to pack and not want to drop down. Beefing up the agitator will help but only if the material is touching it. If it bridges up you will just have a hollow spot above the agitator. You might be able to look for a hydraulic vibrator unit. Then you would be able to shake the material with the vibrator and eliminate the shovel. I'm not sure of the cost but you might be able to look on ebay or CL for one. For the spreading width, slowing down your pto will narrow your spreading pattern but also require you to slow your ground speed down. Kind of a trade off.

 

[MarkV]

I hate to say it but the spreader you bought isn't intended for the type of material you are spreading. The ones for salt and powdered materials, like ag lime, have a different type agitating system to keep things moving. On the plus side I have the same spreader and it does a good job for fertilizer, pelletized lime and grass seed. Check out Herd Seeder Co. Inc. and look at their specialty spreaders.

MarkV

 

[PILOON]

I think the best solution is try to keep your material dry. Wet material is always going to pack and not want to drop down. Beefing up the agitator will help but only if the material is touching it. If it bridges up you will just have a hollow spot above the agitator. You might be able to look for a hydraulic vibrator unit. Then you would be able to shake the material with the vibrator and eliminate the shovel. I'm not sure of the cost but you might be able to look on ebay or CL for one. For the spreading width, slowing down your pto will narrow your spreading pattern but also require you to slow your ground speed down. Kind of a trade off.

vibrator unit!

Any small motor (12 volts) with an unbalanced load will vibrate
That said, a small strong 12 volt (something that has about a 3/8 or 1/2 shaft) with an unbalanced weight should do the trick. Well attached to the hopper, naturally.

Also altering the agitator arm can help.

 

[Cooldmax]

Good call PILOON, I never thought about electric. That would be a lot less complicated.